Once in a blue moon a cutie will come along that strikes my fancy, acting talent or lack thereof bedamned, and then I just want to follow along with his career. That’s totally what happened when I stumbled upon current manga adaptation It Boy Yamazaki Kento thanks to the hot mess that was the LDK movie adaptation which came out last year. I actually saw him earlier in Suikyu Yankees with another cutie I adore Nakajima Yuto, but LDK was when I sat up and said “Well, what do we have here?” Too bad that movie was bizarrely superficial and wasted a solid original manga story, plus Goriki Ayame was so miscast as the female lead I have no words.

Faring better for my cherubic-faced Kento is the just released movie adaption of popular shoujo manga Heroine Shikakku (Heroine Disqualified or No Longer Heroine). He plays the male lead opposite Kiritani Mirei, and based on the trailer she’s hitting the role perfectly without being overactingly annoying (like Ayame did in LDK). Sakaguchi Kentaro rounds out the love triangle in this story where Mirei’s character has been in love with her best guy friend played by Kento her whole life just waiting for him to love her back that way, only to have him suddenly date another girl in school while the school playboy develops an interest in her. In a huge upset, the movie just opened in Japan on 9-19 and had more ticket sales on the first day over the same day premiere of part 2 of the Attack on Titan live action. Continue reading →