Yokai Ningen Bem (2011)

I went into this drama expecting it to be pretty iffy.
I was surprised however by how much I actually liked it.
The story line was original. It followed the anime somewhat. and the characters were very intriguing. The actors did a great job. I felt all of their emotions especially their pain. Although the special effects were kind of dated I just associated it as a relation to the old 60's anime that this is based off of. It's a great watch. I recommended it to anyone. Except if you're expecting a love story there is none. So don't bother watching if that's what you're looking for. Other then that Happy Watching Everyone!

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I wanted to rate this a 9, but I rated it 8 after thinking about it. I hated the special effects, many things looked really fake and sometimes the acting was a little awkward. But it still deserves an 8 in my opinion.

The overall idea and the story were lovely and unique. The music reminded me so much of Halloween and I love Halloween, I especially love the intro song. It's so cute.

The characters were interesting and I felt with them. My favorite was Belo, he's incredibly adorable. I liked Bela and the supporting characters, too, but sometimes I got a little frustrated with Bem being his awkward and shy self and not having much character development.. Bela won in that one, she made a huge transformation.

Getting back to the special effects which I didn't like and I was looking away when they transformed because I found it a little embarrassing and cheesy, but those things only made up about 5 % of the drama and I loved the rest of it.

Just give it a try, though I admit it may not be everyone's taste. :)

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Its very rare that I say this - but Yokai Ningen Bem was really not good at all. I do like a bit of science fiction and coming fresh off the yokai high of Nurarihon no Mago, I thought this would be a good live action or at least a funny demon story (think vampire host). However Yokai Ningen Bem is a serious wanna be mystery drama, with poor effects, cheesy lines and some bad acting. Its only redeeming qualities are its really good premise and Kame (Kamenashi).
What I did like was Kame! Although is acting was pretty bad throughout, you cant get tired of seeing that guy shirtless with low rise pants (fan girl faint). That’s what kept me watching every episode! Maybe Kame was overthinking his character but I thought he did an awful job and felt like I was watching Kame pretending to be melancholy. Luckily enough the other cast members helped out a lot; Anne was perfect and that adorable little boy Suzuki was a total scene stealer even with his lisp. The more I watched the less I wanted to see Kame act and the more I wanted to see him shirtless.
The effects are so power rangers 1994. I mean seriously?! The cast as monsters looked liked greased up versions of those old power ranger villains. It seriously annoyed me that they always magically had the same clothes perfectly in one piece after ripping them up, and the body make up did nothing to make them look like monsters who needed to hide in the daytime. As the series progressed I thought the make up jobs started to look better, but the uber fake jumping and flying didn’t add to the dramas charm either.
Speaking of charm, I had a really tough job making myself watch this series. I had to force it down like nasty cough syrup because I like finishing things. To this point I realized that the drama is throwing too many concepts out to the watcher, causing me to become tired of watching. The drama is obviously a little sci-fi, mystery, crime solving, and human drama all in one. The drama doesn’t make you want to care about the main characters at all, it makes you want to care about the supporting characters who had no development in the series. It was so dry with little comedic breaks, no romance, and very little happiness. I don’t think Kame laughed the entire series. Not to mention the cop who seemed more like a clown.
At any rate I liked the story, I just felt the execution was bad. If you are a fan girl of Kame’s or Kat-Tun you will want to watch, he looks good in gray hair (although the jacket and the scarf have got to go). The drama triggered my upchuck reflex too many times with bad eerie music and melodramatics. I do not suggest this drama to anyone but fan girls, because it is honestly scary. (meaning bad).

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Putting aside the fact that like many Japanese action character series Yokai Ningen Bem also had the over the top B grade costumes and somewhat low special effects the show was ok. The effects themselves were not really bad but the costumes were about B grade at best however the series didn't require a lot of either and the jumping and leaping across roof tops and up walls and such was pretty cool and a few of the transformation scenes weren't too bad. However, with every change into monster form I wondered where the heck they found the exact same clothes they just ripped apart to put back on.
As for acting it was ok for the most part. It was pretty typically of that type of show. In my opinion Kame has never been the most fantastic actor but he's not bad and seems to always put his all into it and his emotions are always great in everything I have seen him in but what Kame does best is look good and you could have totally seen him fit right into a bishonen manga or anime he was so like a beautiful god with is soft features and some scenes bordered on OH MY GOD I CAN ALMOST SEE HIS... which is why I watched it to begin with.
As for the story, I thought the idea of humanities struggle to find the good in themselves was all well and good but it got very repetitive and old very fast. For me, the main reason I watched it was for Kame and on thinking about it, if he had not been in it I don't think I would have even picked it up to watch but Kame was in it and the eye candy was more than enough for me to finish the series so I don't feel like a wasted time watching it. So If you like Kame then yeah if not the Bem character was still cool and to me the best Belo and Bela where ok. I loved the Detective and his family as well as the other side family so the characters were still pretty good so maybe still worth watching.

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When I first read the summary of this drama I expected it to be a rather lame waste of time. I'm not really into superheros or comic books and that seemed to be what this drama was about, so I wasn't expecting much. But OMG!!! It was SOOO much better then I expected. True it was a bit comicbook-y and I didn't really like Bem, Bela and Belo's other forms, but then again, I wasn't supposed to. This drama is an amazing mix of mystery/adventure I loved each case and the overall question, how do they become human? The ending was a bit of a surprise but I thought it was good as well. (But I cried sooo much) Bem is definitely my favorite character. I loved the whole good against evil thing, absolutely fantastic! Overall, great and I would totally recommend this to anyone who likes more action and adventure. For romantic comedy likers, look elsewhere. There is a bit of comedy but it takes a backseat to the overall story. Personally, I think this drama is one of my all time favs, if not my number 1 drama.

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