Originalname:
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タンブリング
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Also known as:
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-
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Release Date:
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17. April - 26. June 2010
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Director:
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Ayato Matsuda, Kenjiro Kuranuki
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Writer:
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Michiru Egashira, Yukako Shimizu, Akira Watanabe
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Cast:
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Yusuke Yamamoto, Koji Seto, Shohei Miura, Shunsuke Daito, Takahiro Nishijima, Satoshi Tomiura, Tomo Yanagishita, Kento Kaku, Soran Tamoto
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Plot
Wataru, a delinquent student, has to search for a club activity because of his bad grades. He falls in love quickly with his new classmate. She is in the girls rhythmic gymnastics club. When he finds out that she adores a boy from the male rhythmic gymnastics club, he decides he wants to join them. After lots of quitting, joining and getting accepted by the club members, they finally enter a tournament together and lose. Yuuta, the captain, thinks it’s his fault and finds himself not good enough to do rhythmic gymnastics, even though it was his dream since childhood.
While Wataru was trying to convince Yuuta to be their captain again, Ryousuke, his friend from delinquent days, feels lonelier and gets involved with very bad company. After getting Nippori to lose his part time job Ryousuke finally wants to get out, but they won’t let him. Wataru appears and begs them to let him go and gets beaten up badly. Luckily, the Yakuza-boss arrives and beats the bad guy up instead. So Ryousuke and Wataru are free to go. Yuuta becomes captain again, they get their homeroom teacher to be their coach and have two new members, namely Ryousuke and Nippori.
The new formed group decides that they want to join a festival and start practising. But Nippori leaves the rhythmic gymnastics club. When Wataru asks him for the reason, he replies with being too bad at it. But the real reason is that he had to take extra work so that his sister could go on a school excursion. The group finds it out and helps him and they manage to arrive right in time for their performance. They lose. But all of them are saying that it was great fun anyway.
One of Wataru’s previous “friends”, his name is Akabane Reiji, wants to become King of the school. After the refusing of Ryousuke he wants to bring Kiyama on his side. But he doesn’t show any interest. So that guy spreads the rumor of Kiyama killing somebody. Which he didn’t. That’s the same Wataru tells everyone in their club. After that Satoshis heart disease is discovered and he can’t be in the club anymore.
In the same time Wataru gets a message, which says that they got Kiyama and he rushes of. It’s a trap for both of them to come to the same place, so they can beat the shit out of Kiyama and Wataru. They fight well until Wataru gets injured because he wanted to protect Kiyama. Fortunatly, he isn’t hurt that bad.
Kiyama makes his peace, joins the club and Satoshi is allowed to stay as manager.
Soon the team gets the chance to join a trainings camp at the university with the girls’ team and the red ones (Keep in mind they’re eeeeevil!). But at the beginning Mizusawa seems to have a problem with Kiyama’s joining to the team. Anyway, at the trainings camp the boys can’t join the real exercises, they have to replace the garbage and clean the windows. During the camp Satoshi finds out the reason why Mizusawa is acting strange. Mizusawa loves Kiyama. But this information was heard of one of the other boys’ team. The next day the boy (of course he had to tell it to everyone) he makes jokes about the homosexuality of Mizusawa and the fact that he loves Kiyama. Nobody of the team knows how to act around Mizusawa and so Mizusawa decides to quit tumbling. His last word to his team mates were formulated in a notebook. Wataru and the others read this and they get guilty conscience. At the end, after Wataru and the others tell him how much they need him and that he can’t quit he comes back and they perform at the exhibition. Because of the unnatural training they get a clean performance (You know, waxing, polishing,waxing…) and surprise everyone.
One day Yuuta gets scared to jump because of an accident. So he starts a secret training which Wataru discovers. They start training together. The reason why Wataru sees Yuuta training is that he only just figured out that his father is still alive, although very sick, and wants him to visit.
With a little bit training and the help of the other teammates Yuuta can jump again. And even Wataru resolves his problem with visiting his father. The first meeting didn’t go that well.
But Hino has problems with his dad too. Wataru rescues him one night and they end up talking. Wataru say that Hino should go talking with his dad, but Hinosays that Wataru isn’t in any position to lecture him. Wataru takes it to heart and goes back to talk with his dad. He manages to invite him for the tournament, but he dies meanwhile.
The next day Hino’s father had a talk with the teacher about taking Hino from school. Hino is angry and says that he doesn’t want to do rhythmic gymnastics anymore.
But Wataru hears him and goes and apologizes to his dad and invites him to the tournament.
At the day of the tournament Kiyama and Nippori get lost and beaten up by some delinquents. But Hino replaces them since he owes Wataru this. After this Hino wants to be finally a part of the group performance and because of the great performance with Hino they are chosen to go to the next tournament.
So, one day after practise the group decides that they need new music and new stunts. Kashiwagi, their coach, hears this and tries his best to collect any kind of data he can find.
However, the group decides that they need the help of a professional coach and get one. When they tell Kashiwagi, he hides his disappointment and tells them how happy he is about that.
Training with the professional coach goes well and Kashiwagi thinks that he’s not needed any more. So he considers an offer of one of his old soccer colleagues to teach kids how to play soccer. He tells his thoughts to the girls’ team’s coach and Wataru overhears this. He tells him to do what he wants, because he helped them so many times and he wants to help him.
But it turns out the professional is an imposter; he taught them the choreography of the last year’s winners (I don’t know how Yuuta didn’t know about this. Thought he was a fan…). Kashiwagi shows up in the same time and, boy, is he angry at the imposter for not taking his team seriously. He hits him and takes full responsibility and resigns. (I think I wrote this somewhere before… but where…?)
Kashiwagi asks the girls’ team coach to look after the boys and she gives the boys a box full of material that Kashiwagi collected for them. She helps them to get a new choreography (It’s called Kashiwagi Special), practised all night with them and on the next day they show it to him. Afterwards they say they don’t want him to leave and he takes back his resignation. (That is apparently possible in Japan.)
Some days later they get a new student which Kaneko recognizes as his childhood friend Yashiro Koichi. Because “Kou-chan” seemed to go down the wrong road, Kaneko wants him to join the club, thinking he could change back to the Kou-chan he knew.
After a couple of incidents like fire in the club room because someone smoked there, and an old man get beaten up, the team stands before a withdraw of the final tournament because Nippori and Ryosuke get accused for those incidents.
It’s obvious who did this but Kaneko doesn’t want to believe this and thinks he can still change his old friend.
After a couple of incidents like fire in the club room because someone smoked there, and an old man get beaten up, the team stands before a withdraw of the final tournament because Nippori and Ryosuke get accused for those incidents.
It’s obvious who did this but Kaneko doesn’t want to believe this and thinks he can still change his old friend.
Also Wataru’s previous friend Akabane Reiji shows up again! He apparently got expelled and let Kou-chan do all that stupid stuff. Only to cause trouble for Wataru and his team.
Anyway, Kou-chan gives in. He couldn’t stand it any longer because Kaneko was the only one who defeated him. Kou-chan wanted to help his friend and he tells everyone that he is responsible for the incidents.
After some days have passed the Washizu tumbling club (previously named the eeeevil red ones here) asks our tumbling club to train in their hall. Seeing them train, our group realises that they aren’t good enough and they have to improve the choreography. But to be sure who can handle with the new choreography, they make an entrance exam.
Well, the first time they fail miserably. But they eventually talk to each other and find their sync again, but Nippori fails at the tree times backflip and also Kiyama can’t participate because he got a fraction on his wrist.
Akabane, he wants still to destroy the club, actually had an evil plan but Kiyama gets in his way. (He had a heart-breaking goodbye speech on the phone)
Kiyama begs in front of Akabane for his team, but he gets beaten up and Akabane calls Wataru, who decides that he should help his friend even though it means to let go of his hobby.
Wataru now gets beaten up together with Kiyama, but they keep on talking about friendship and so on. Just when Akabane had enough and decided to give Wataru the finishing move, Yuuta and all the others step in and continuously beg for their teammates to be returned.
Akabane finally gets a heart (no seriously, that’s what it feels like while watching) and decides to let them go.
They enter the tournament all beaten up and of course the fine society wonders. But they manage to get the viewers on their side and have a good time on stage, which is why they celebrate even though they’ve lost and couldn’t go to nationals. But as Yuuta says, it’s all about the friends they made. The drama ends with the guys doing flips in the sand.
Conclusion
This drama was great. A real shounen- drama about friendship and chasing after their dreams. I liked it very much. Never the less the music played a big role to make the story that great. The music was epic and matched with every situation. With the music there came always the speeches along and they were also epic. I had sometimes the feeling, that Martin Luther King sits somewhere in a corner and tells the boys what to say. Because of those speeches, I had to cry a lot and not only in the last episode, no, since episode 4 or 5 (it was very early) my tears ran continually down my face.
As for the actors I have to say they did a great job (but what do you expect if there is like Yamamoto Yusuke and Seto Koji in the cast?).
One point what I thought was great, too, was the topic about homosexuality. I didn’t expect it. I never thought that they would really go with this. I mean, when I hear Japan, I still think of a nation where homosexually is still a forbidden theme and not allowed by the society. I think their openness was great. But what it’s sad, they couldn’t hold the topic longer. Homosexually was the topic of only one episode and afterwards it was never mentioned. Maybe Japan isn’t that open after all…
But sometimes the motivations of some characters were poor. I mean, you’re evil only because your friends didn’t ask you to join the club too? Hello? Those pussies! Go home and cry but don’t try to sabotage others. Or this: Every friend let me down and no one believes me, so I’m evil! I don’t really get these motivations to be evil. Here the writers could more think about that the antagonists could have had a deeper personality.
But for what it is, I honestly liked it. It was very surprising and fun to watch. And that being said: REAL MEN WEAR PINK!
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