I don’t wanna feel Blue anymore...
Finally, 18 hours later I'm done watching 24h TV that took place on Aug 27-28. I could have just watched the NEWS parts since there weren't that many, really, but I wanted to have the complete experience. NEWS were the main personalities and I expected them to be the main hosts but they weren't, it was mostly Hatori-san and that cute girl. Guess the boys got used for their cute faces huh. I was a little disappointed but also a little relieved since there's fewer parts I have to cover. They also got to sing several songs and it was all good.
I was about to buy a box of kleenex for all the drama but in the end my emotions were very weak, I cried about 3-4 times and not even hard. I was hoping watching people with disabilities and severe illness would make me feel like my own problems are insignificant but alas no such thing happened. If anything, it only made me feel worse. About everything. The people in the show were all incredibly strong and amazing and they were supposed to give everyone courage but... Some of the stories were just tragic and unfair no matter how you looked at it. Like the 4-year old boy who was so full of life and charm and was more of a man in his very short life than many adults, the newscaster girl who died a year after achieving her dream or the genius young composer... Their fates were just cruel and if that's a part of a divine plan - fuck it.
Apart from that, I found some of the stories not as touching as they were supposed to be. Such as the one of parents celebrating 20th birthday of a girl who died years ago. I understand it's very hard to cope with such a loss, but it's not good pretending she is alive, you have to move on. There were several more stories that I had mixed feelings about. Tegoshi's project was... odd. But at least that was what the girl wanted. In Shige's case so much work went into the video and it was really amazing but it wasn't very clear if the girl really enjoyed it. I mean she probably did to some degree but it left a much bigger impression on everyone else. People were crying and I must be mean because I think the children born with severe impairments do not fully understand the scope of their disabilities and sometimes don't even know they are disabled and therefore do not understand why people pity them. It is mostly their parents who suffer. Anyway, some projects were nice and meaningful but others were pure tear-jerkers. Reminds me of that 7 Days project Koyama did in Amazon that was supposed to be all inspiring and sentimental but the children looked very unimpressed.
But if I had to pick one story I enjoyed, it would be of the swimmer girl, she is just so amazingly strong and lovable. I was also very touched by the family of a blind mother and a deaf father and their amazing kid. All in all, it was an interesting experience, I wanted to watch something so important to the Japanese audience. I am also glad the whole marathon went smoothly, I think NEWS were really good for the role. I mean maybe other bands did a great job too, but NEWS were probably a little more since because they were truly happy about this opportunity and didn't take it for granted.