ikuta toma

If you were only allowed to watch movies and dramas of one actor for the rest of that actor’s acting career, who would you choose?

This is definitely not an easy question to answer, at least for me. I have more than one favorite and there are many other factors that are important to consider. I haven’t chosen mine yet so it’ll be interesting to see which one I end up with.

These are the ones that will be competing. From left to right:

• Toda Erika
• Ikuta Toma
• Mizushima Hiro
• Nagasawa Masami
• Oguri Shun
• Eikura Nana
• Kuroki Meisa
• Kawashima Umika
• Nishikido Ryo
• Eita
• Aragaki Yui
• Ninomiya Kazunari
• Ueto Aya

I could make that list longer but I think those are the ones that will be competing for the first place.

The first factor I’m gonna look into is versatility. I wouldn’t want to watch high school dramas all the time so the actor needs to be able to act in various genres and roles. I’m going to eliminate Eikura Nana and Kawashima Umika here. While I do believe in their versatility, I don’t have any proof of it. Their acting history is too short to know for sure. I’m also going to eliminate Nishikido Ryo because he’s a bit gloomy, someone should put him in a monkey costume once in a while.

Next factor is a personal one, it’s my own history with these actors. Basically meaning how much I’ve actually seen, which basically means how well I can trust them in the future. It’s pretty easy to eliminate one here, and that is Kuroki Meisa. While I’ve enjoyed her in every way so far, she can’t beat the others.

This leaves:

• Eita
• Toda Erika
• Aragaki Yui
• Ueto Aya
• Mizushima Hiro
• Nagasawa Masami
• Ikuta Toma
• Oguri Shun
• Ninomiya Kazunari

The actor needs to be able to make me laugh (out loud). I’d say this is a pretty hard thing to do for actors (in real life it’s another thing) since I tend to laugh silently in my mind when reading and watching TV and movies. I’m going to eliminate those who haven’t made me laugh well enough yet, those are Mizushima Hiro, Nagasawa Masami and Toda Erika.

Now it’s getting really hard… Only 6 actors left! All of these make me laugh, but who’s good with romance? I’m gonna have to eliminate Ninomiya Kazunari, which isn’t fun at all. He’s really good with the serious human type of dramas which I like a lot, but romance doesn’t seem to be his cup of tea. Also eliminated here is Ikuta Toma and Ueto Aya. They’re both really good but Ikuta Toma hasn’t really proven himself in that genre, and Ueto Aya tends to be in dramas which might be romantic, but lacks seriousness which makes them more like comedies.

That leaves Oguri Shun, Aragaki Yui and Eita. I need to make sacrifices to make this work out. If I eliminate Oguri Shun, I can say good bye to action and I would miss his humor a lot. But since action isn’t one of my favorite genres I have to let him go.

And choosing between Eita and Aragaki Yui is actually pretty easy for me. Although I think Eita is great, he isn’t as touching as Aragaki Yui, he hasn’t made me shed any tears like she has. Well, I don’t blame him really, not many manage to do so. And of course it’s not only because of the actors themselves, it’s also the whole story and feeling in the dramas they appear in. Aragaki Yui always has someone else beside her who can somewhat complete her. Like in Papa to Musume no Nanokakan for example, Aragaki Yui herself wasn’t really the funny one, it was the dad, but together they made a really good drama.

So, the winner seems to be Aragaki Yui! Of course I will never have to choose just one actor and the winner might have been someone else if I was solely deciding it on who I like the most. Anyways, Smile is the upcoming drama that she will star in. She’s going to play a young woman named Hana who lost her ability to speak in an accident. This sounds really interesting to me and I think she will do a great job in this role, it kind of reminds me of Kyoko Fukada in Tenshi which I also enjoyed thoroughly.

If you could only choose one, who would it be? Would you just pick your favorite or would you take other factors in consideration as well?

And lastly, a few pics of the winner.

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