Drama Review: From You're Beautiful to Ikemen Desu Ne

Recently I had finished watching the Japanese drama Ikemen Desu Ne, which is an adaptation of the Korean drama You’re Beautiful. There were many things going through my mind as I was watching the drama, so I decided to do a review on this drama. Because I had watched You’re Beautiful a few years ago, and that was my incentive to watch Ikemen Desu Ne, this review will mostly be a review on the drama as an adaptation and not as a stand-alone Japanese drama. Although, I will also include any comments about the drama that I feel I must make a point of.

Firstly, the plot of the drama was very true to the original source material. A girl is about to embark on a mission as a nun. But suddenly she is given a proposition by a stranger to disguise herself as her twin brother, whom she has not seen in years, and join the country’s top boy band in the hopes of gaining attention and finding their mother, whom they have always wanted to meet. Of course complications ensue due to love interests, personal resolves, secrecies, and the social media. Of course, a few subplots were shaved off, especially because this drama is a whopping 5 episodes shorter than the Korean counterpart. Due to the shorter amount of episodes, I felt that the pacing of the plot was also quite rushed, especially within the first half of the drama. Character relationships changed very quickly between hate and like/love. The secrecy of the protagonist, Miko’s, sex was also very quickly put in jeopardy. Whereas, in the Korean drama, they were able to spend more time protecting the secret and putting importance on the keeping of the secret before it was compromised. However, the final few episodes in which they spent more time resolving the main plot and subplots was a well enough salvage of the pacing.

The characters in this drama were essentially as they were in the Korean version. The casting was done very well to have actors who portrayed the images of each character accurately. Ren still had his sharp intimidation, but room for a kind and vulnerable side of him. Shu was the epitome of the modern white knight. Yuki was still the blonde comical brother figure. Although they removed the “foreign prince” aspect of his character in the adaptation process, I do agree it was not an absolute necessity for his character’s essence. Nana is still the epitome of the two-faced spoiled bitch audiences love to hate. In terms of the secondary characters, almost all were very much kept as they were. Only the President of A*N.Jell had some change in his character by showing more of his close relationship to the group he spent so much effort in raising. The President in Ikemen Desu Ne shows how much attention he pays to the group members as his boys and not just as public figures. It was very well exemplified when he was able to instinctively know that something wrong was going on with Ren and Nana’s relationship and Shu and Miko’s relationship. He also becomes especially attached to Miko and even tries to show her support without putting pressure on her in the final episode. The fans of A*N.Jell had less of an emphasis in the Japanese drama, perhaps due to difference in fandoms of each culture. I am not all too familiar with how Japanese fandom of idols work, but I do know that fandom of idols is a huge deal in Korea, to the point where fans become very protective or obsessive over their idols. (If anyone has any insight into Japanese idol fandoms, please feel free to enlighten me.) The trade reporter(s) role was also expanded in the adaptation from a single character to three look-alike characters. Again, that may be attributed to difference in cultures of how reporters operate in each country. The character of the aunt in the Japanese drama was given more depth to her as well. At first, I thought she would be stick to the role of the superficial aunt who “technically” does no wrong other than wanting to do anything she can to get herself out of poverty. But when she finally becomes of use to Miko in the final episodes, it is like a redemption for her character. One character addition that I thought was especially interesting and worthy of taking note is Nana’s stylist, Toru. He works as an extension to both Nana and Yuki by commenting on his observations of what both of them should do in order to liberate themselves of their own restraints. In his linkage to Yuki, he serves as the external voice that states that Yuki might be gay. That turns Yuki’s fears from being pure internal paranoia into a fear that might have some credibility simply because another character is able to notice. Toru’s relationship with Nana at first doesn’t seem to be anything important. But if you pay close attention to the lines he speaks to Nana, you would notice that he voices a lot of Nana’s conscience that tells Nana to make a turn for the better. In his final interaction with Nana, his importance to Nana really hit me when he became the last person to stay by Nana’s side and believe that she can become more than just a “lying fairy.” It made me realize that he is the only person who can actually tolerate her and made me even want to know more of a back story to him as to why he would put up with her.

Now, as of any drama, the fluff of it is in the love lines. Firstly, the love line between Mabuchi and Rina is completely obliterated, though understandingly because in the Korean version their love line was only given attention for about 2 episodes and did not promote the main plot in any way. The love lines between Ren and Miko, Shu and Miko, Yuki and Miko, Ren and Nana ran roughly the same course. However, in the final episode a few changes were added. Miko was given more incentive to keep her distance from Ren because of his mother’s history with her mother, which created much more depth and complication in their relationship than in the Korean drama, which I enjoyed very much. Nana and Ren’s relationship also ended much better in this drama because rather than have Nana’s character later fall in love with the real Mio, she resolves to simply let Ren go, which was a healthier conclusion that put more focus on her growth as an individual character. Many of the iconic locations that embodied the love lines also remained. Yuki still had his bus that went one round within a long period of time. Shu still had his near moment of reveal in a fashion district and the private moment with Miko at Okinawa in that enclosed glass area. Ren gets his moments on the mountain and the concert.

There are many more similarities and differences between these two renditions. But I will close off here and let you all watch it for yourself and find the similarities and differences for yourselves.