Rating: 6/10
Genre: Romance/Comedy
Language: Japanese
Starring: Kiritani Mirei, Yamazaki Kento, Sakaguchi Kentaro, Fukuda Ayano, Wagatsuma Miwako, Takahashi Maryjun, Nakao Akira, Yanagisawa Shingo, Rokkaku Seiji, Hamada Mari, Takeuchi Riki
I admit it. I got bitten by the Yamazaki Kento bug, and I have absolutely no regrets about it. Ever since I discovered him, I’ve taken it upon myself to purchase just about every movie of his in sight- even though most of them are of the Romance genre, a genre I normally don’t care for. Maybe I’m just lucky or the guy has a lot of good movies, but I enjoyed most if not all of his work thus far.
Including this one (somewhat. I’ll get into that a bit more later).
This is the latest one I’ve watched, and it’s called “Heroine Disqualified”.
What is it about?
As with most teen romances, the plot of “Heroine Disqualified” is fairly simple. Matsuzaki Hatori (Kiritani Mirei) is a highschool student who is in love with her childhood friend, Terasaka Rita (Yamazaki Kento). Being as close as she is to him, she ardently believes that he will eventually choose her as his girlfriend. So much so that she refuses to conduct the almost mandatory act of “kokuhaku”, claiming that as the woman, she should be the one to be confessed to.
Alas, that is not the case. Instead of getting a confession, Rita starts going out with Adachi Miho (Wagatsuma Miwako), much to Hatori’s horror. That’s not how things are supposed to go!
Whilst she kicks herself for her stupidity, the most popular male student, Hiromitsu Kosuke (Sakaguchi Kentaro), begins to take an interest in her.
Perhaps not all is lost after all?
Is it worth a watch?
Despite the charms that “Heroine Disqualified” has, the fact that it has such an unrelatable main character does it a great disservice. Hatori is a product of directly translating an anime/manga character into the live action world, which more often than not isn’t a good idea. Not if you want a live action character that the audience can relate to on a human level, no.
Hatori is much like any anime/manga character turned live action. She’s exceedingly loud, her reactions are over the top and moments where she seems human are few and far between.
This wouldn’t have been such a problem if she wasn’t the main character, but she is.
That aside, the shiny offerings that “Heroine Disqualified” has come in the form of the two male heroes, Rita and Kosuke. Rita is a stoic lad who has issues with being close to others despite craving intimacy. Kosuke on the other hand is confident, and has no qualms whatsoever with initiating the first move with whomever he’s interested in. Both young men played their roles splendidly, though Kosuke does have a touch of anime/manga-ism to him (why in the world would he suddenly take such an interest in Hatori? In the real world, people would’ve had that girl tested).
As for the story itself, it is structured well enough that it does not feel like it is going too fast nor too slow. It also holds just enough of that cute, amusing factor to push it a tiny bit over the “just average” movie rating.
So is it worth a watch? Maybe, if you also like and understand how anime/manga works. Otherwise, the insanity of Hatori’s behaviour might be lost on you.