#top knife

[chibimyumi]

The ending credit of the new TV Drama ‘Top Knife’!

Check Furukawa daaanceee🕺

His aaaarms are so loooong, they poke out of everything...

Sebastyun, is that you?

[furukawayuta]

Elisabeth style?

[chibimyumi]

Der Tod: Cry no more～♬　(*σvσ*)

Fersen: Cry no more～♪ (;Ó^Ò;)

Kijima: Cry. (O_O)

[chibimyumi]

Furukawa being taught how to handshake, and failing.

I don’t see the difference.

[chibimyumi]

What do you think about Yuta's new role as Kijima? After his mindblowing performances as der tod and sebastian, this role just does not seem to fit his status as TOHO prince and favourite cow(it's just my opinion though, no offence). But still our yuta-bab is working as hard as he did for any other roles.

Dear Anon,

What I think of Kijima? Oh gosh… don’t get me started… Well, HERE WE GO～! (You can thank @akumadeshitsumon​​ for this, this is their terrible idea.)

Kijima and Plot Relevance

Kijima is a new character added to the original novel ‘Top Knife’, and it is very obvious that this character was just shoe-horned in there. The characters of ‘Top Knife’ are not badly written, but because Kijima is new, every time they interact with Kijima it feels incredibly forced. ESPECIALLY Sachiko.

Sachiko is this 26 year old brain surgeon who finds herself lacking in every way. Obviously, being 26 and brain surgeon is very unlikely, but regardless, her having the least experience and getting her ego ‘tamed’ wasn’t necessarily a bad thing story-writing-wise. However, her ‘inexperience’ is entirely conflated with ‘the least professional person you can imagine ANYWHERE, to the point of being law-breaking’.

Why do I mention her? Because she is the only connection Kijima has to the main plot. Sachiko’s total lack of professionalism is played up as ‘cute’ and ‘pure’, and now 5 episodes in, her only role so far is THE girl who is in love. After meeting Kijima and having spoken to him ONCE, she finds herself head-over-heels for him, and at work she becomes this romance-drunk, worthless piece of… She is very much reduced to the ‘tell-don’t-show-device’ to tell the audience how DESIRABLE Kijima is, even though he:

Has hardly got any screentime.

Is a total sexual molester in whatever little screentime he has.

Kijima is supposed to be this ‘project’ that Sachiko will probably have to conquer, she is supposed to “cure” Kijima of his playboyitis (spoilers, it doesn’t work that way.)

My and Furukawa’s opinion on Kijima

Skirt-chasers are NEVER nice, for they are the manifestation of the hetero male entitlement, and I hate such characters because they are usually portrayed as “a fun guy who just needs to find ‘the right girl’ to cure him.” As mentioned above, 5 episodes in, and we are already sure that this is the character-trajectory.

In episode 1 Kijima was already introduced as this condescending man who sees women solely as pretty play-things. In episode 2 we see him showing a more charming and compassionate side to Sachiko who was about to cry, but immediately after that scene, he walks to another girl and sweeps his fingers across her waist as he passes by. Eeeewl. In episode 4 his female customers order alcohol, and Kijima just keeps adding booze to the women’s cups without them asking for it (which is SHADY as hell?) Unsurprisingly, Sachiko drinks too much and she falls asleep at Kijima’s bar, so he drapes a blanket over her, and sleeps next to her. It’s a public TV series, so obviously nothing explicit happens, but the subtext is clear as day.

TOHO’s Prince vs Kijima

Dear Anon, you are very right, the way Furukawa plays Kijima does indeed not quite fit his ‘Imperial Theatre’s Prince’ image, and I am sure the producers would now also agree with you.

As mentioned above, Kijima Tatsuya is an OC and his ‘official’ title is ‘The Bewitching Prince (悩殺王子・Nousatsu Ouji)’. We need no second attempt to guess how this is a blatant reference to Furukawa’s TOHO Prince status. Unfortunately (or ‘fortunately’, depending on from whose perspective you look), they cast the most passive-aggressive, pedantic and opinionated actor TOHO has.

The premise of Kijima’s character was just ‘a skirt-chaser’, and when Furukawa asked the director what their vision was, they told him: “the lovable kind you just can’t hate”, to which Furukawa replied: “I learn something new every day.”

It is obvious that Furukawa really feels uncomfortable with this character as he has frequently expressed so even in public interviews. He needs to remain diplomatic of course, but he keeps emphasising how Kijima Tatsuya is the polar opposite of the kind of person he is while shoving passive-aggressive comments in about what kind of person Furukawa himself wishes to be. While playing Kijima, Furukawa has removed any of the charms that is conventionally attractive. Kijima is obnoxious, loud, imposing, condescending, rude, obnoxious, full of swagger, and obnoxious. He plays Kijima for what he is; a disrespectful misogynist. Fans were quite in shock at the beginning, but they seem to have fallen for this person nevertheless. It seems that Furukawa is the living trope of ‘so beautiful, it’s a curse’, because many fans indeed don’t look past his handsomeness.

Furukawa seems to be trying very hard to distance himself from this character by frequently saying: “I love acting”. Even though he is normally unforgiving towards himself when he makes any mistake, for almost every single SNS video he makes a point out of inserting bloopers to help remind people Kijima is Kijima, Furukawa is Furukawa.

Cowjima

‘Top Knife’ is capitalising on Furucowa’s popularity in such an obvious way it’s painful to watch. Furukawa himself is an absolute techno-noob, but even before the series started they gave him and only him an Instagram, an official website, TikTok, and what not. Sachiko is reduced to an empty hopeless romantic self-insert, and when Kijima’s POV flirting videos were published, I got confirmation why.

The producers of ‘Top Knife’ want to market this skirt-chaser-to-be-conquered-by-the-right-girl, while also throwing Watcher x Kijima videos at us, making us all know that besides Sachiko, Kijima will also flirt with any watcher. They really are trying to eat the cake and have the cake >.>

Conclusion

I hate Kijima with a fiery passion, but I am grateful that Furukawa sees the problem of this character and is giving it his all to make it obvious how obnoxious skirt-chasers like Kijima Tatsuya are. I am laughing at the irony of ntv thinking to have cast the charming Prince of TOHO for this role, but then ending up with exactly what they didn’t know they had ordered.

[chibimyumi]

Cowjima painting the word ‘TOP’ with his nose～

I HATE this character with all my heart, but this video really is cute. And trust me when I say he is ‘COWjima’, because:

This character is an OC newly inserted into the TV series to capitalise on Furukawa’s enormous fame. (And the incongruousness of this character with the rest of the series SHOWS)

He plays a fairly small part, but is the only character with his own Instagram and TikTok.

The ending dance featuring him is recorded to be the most discussed topic among watchers XD

Original source on TikTok.

**Fun fact; Furukawa said that he might start a TikTok (which he pronounces like a grandpa would) once he figures out how to. He said this 2 years ago... and he still hasn’t figured it out by now. (He might really be a demon from 1889) So now, a TikTok video brought to you with help of the Top Knife staff!!

[chibimyumi]

Is yuta going to be overworked this year? 😢

Dear Anon,

Yes, absolutely. For 2020, Furukawa has signed the contract for 2 series (’Yell’ and ‘Top Knife’) which will be shot every week, has an overseas shooting for ‘Confidence Man JP’, on top of being selected national representative for ‘TOHO Elisabeth 20th’Anniversary’. And all this is ONLY THE FIRST HALF OF THE YEAR.

The year has barely started and Furukawa is already covered in sweat.

Please note that Furukawa usually does not sweat a lot even after intense exercise. In ‘the Lycoris that Blazes the Earth’ he and Uehara move around about equally much, and Uehara is DRIPPING (like a normal human being), while Furukawa is merely a bit shiny form the sweat.

In Tango on the Campania, Izumi (Undertaker) moves the least from everyone, but he is also shiny due to the heat of the spotlights, while Furukawa (who has been running across the entire stage) hasn’t broken a single sweat.

From Prince Pancake to Prince Crêpe

Furukawa is going to be FLAT this year. He said that 2020 will be busier than 2019, but look at 2019…!

Host: “You had to be on the set for ‘Shitamachi Rocket’ at 06:00 right after the Grand Final Performance of ‘Marie Antoinette’ in Fukuoka right?”

Furu: “Yes, the weather was very bad and I feared the plane might be delayed, so I hopped onto the night bus instead.”

Host: “A night bus!? Mr. Furukawa, you ride night buses!?”

Furu: “Yes, regularly……”

Host: “All by yourself!?”

Furu: “No, together with my manager. I think it took 4 hours by night bus? But I could not push back my chair so I did not get a wink of sleep, so I shoved some chocolate into my stomach and went for the shooting. I normally mind my sugar intake limit, but that day I was like: “screw it!” I guess… So I went into the convenience store and swept all [the chocolate] away there was…..”

Host: “Ah, that is why your eyes were…… they were really bloodshot……”

Furu: “It’s because I had nothing but chocolate in my system… It was just to make sure I could think… and due to [the chocolate] that much was possible…..”

TLN: [This is a direct translation mixed with the paraphrased report of what was being said during the talk show.]

This year Furukawa will just have to split himself into half, I guess.

[chibimyumi]

Editor K’s Expectation vs Reality

@takekumax

Episode 1 of the new drama #Top Knife.

My expectation vs reality of when I heard that the bewitchingly beautiful actor who played the demon Sebastian from #Kuroshitsuji and the King of the Underworld Der Tod in #Elisabeth would be playing the handsome owner of the favourite bar of genius brain surgeons.😲

It was perfect🌺🕺

Left

The Bewitching Bartender in Black

“My, my, what is amiss? Your are pulling such a long face? How about telling me your story and get some liberation?”

Expectation before airing

Right

Partygoer

“He-heー!! Here we goー!!”

During airing

Same Editor K...same. Big Mood.

The makers are probably thinking the same.