ZaiZai, Da S, or Ella â€" who is Taiwan’s number one comic book
character look-alike? “Taiwan idol dramas are so great! How did they
find actors that resembles the comic characters so much?� Japanese
girls are into Taiwan idols, and these Taiwan hunks and beauties who
seem to be peas from the same pods as the original comic book have
become Japan’s most “IN� (hottest) idol topic even in the face of
strong resistance.

In “Meteor Garden� who among F4 looks most like a comic book
character? According to our reporter who conducted a survey among
fans in the streets of Shibuya, the common consensus is that “ZaiZai
looks most alike�, the extent of similarity reached as high as 100%.
Second is Jerry Yan, with a similarity of 70%. And Da S is “very
similar, very kawaii.� Similarity of 80%.

At present, Taiwan idol dramas adapted from Japanese manga that have
already been released in Japan include "The Rose", "Come to my
Place", “Peach Girl�, “Hi, Office Lady� and "Marmalade Boy�" The
similarity of Ella and her character in “The Rose� is also deemed to
be 75%. It has attracted much attention, and a few Japanese fans are
already amassing.

Japanese TV has filmed several versions of “Meteor Garden�, but most
of them failed in the box office and word-of-mouth. Xie Jia Ling, a
doctoral candidate of the Tokyo Foreign Language & Regional Culture
Research Institute in Japan, indicated that: “Meteor Garden� (the
manga) sold over 30,000,000 sets in Japan, so the average Japanese’
impression on F4 (the characters) are too deep, they feel the
Japanese actors don’t look enough like the characters, their acting
is not good enough, and the audience doesn’t like it. But
Taiwan’s "Meteor Garden" looked so much like the comic book
characters, it was like a refreshing new musical piece, striking
deeply into the hearts of the Japanese people.

In the past, foreign actors must be adept at speaking fluent Japanese
to be able to break into the Japanese market. But ever since
the ‘Korean wave’ invaded Japan, it didn’t matter if a foreign actor
couldn’t learn the Japanese language in time. As long as the drama is
successful and the actors good-looking, they will certainly become
popular. Especially Taiwan idol dramas, most of which are adapted
from Japanese manga, as long as they look enough like the characters
in the comic books, then penetrating Japan will be doubly easier.
ZaiZai and Da S has already proved that “comic book look invades
Japan, is the IN thing of the moment�.

ã€�2005/03/16 United Daily News/ Lian He Baoã€`

Translated by grendel of www.vicpower.net