Love Shuffle, Episode 1

The Actors
Rape-Huggist: Tamaki Hiroshi  ♂
Rape-Huggee: Kanjiya Shihori ♀

The Context:
 He is dating a girl with zero personality, and in a last ditch attempt to prevent her from leaving, he goes in for the kill.

The Result
As would be expected of a rape-hug in the first episode, this misguided display of affection was not received as he would have liked, thus setting up the premise of the dorama to have several people switch partners over several weeks.

The Depiction
Tamaki Hiroshi is a true professional at Rape-hugs - and it's amazing that he is still only 32 years old! He has still to his his rape-hugging prime. We here at J-dorama Rape-hugs.com expect great things from him in the future. Here, he is in top form.
First, he completely misreads the situation where a girl is trying to distance herself from him.
Then, he stands there motionless, staring at her like he has been lobotomised.
He runs up to her and attacks her from behind, which is all the more amazing since he approached from the side.
Then he doubles down and professes his love into her ear while he has her encased in an unwanted hug.

What annoys me the most is how he couldn't quite get the arm motion right. I appreciate that he was carefully trying to avoid touching her boobs. Speaking from experience, it's always difficult for a taller man to hug a girl from behind without at least brushing her breasts. Instinct tells you to go above the breasts, but in reality your arms could slip down a few centimetres into the erogenous zone. In reality below the breasts there is less chance of inappropriate contact, but in that case you definitely need to be sure that the hug is consentual.

Here, we see Tamaki Hiroshi straddling that no-fly zone, as if the script doesn't specify whether the rape-hug should be above or below her boobies (or perhaps doesn't even specify that it needs to be from behind). This makes me think that we are probably witnessing a method-acting rape-hug here. Usually we could entrust Tamaki to the task, but there is that split second before impact where he thinks he might be going too low to the boobies, so he recalibrates his arms and grabs the safe areas of her shoulders, ending up in a hug that is far too high, almost an atttempt at strangulation.





Awkwardometor ☆☆☆☆
This is a startingly awkward rape-hug for one in the first episode. It is from behind, he has the crazy eyes, and nothing about the situation suggests that a hug would be approriate.

Video
See the crazy eyes, the speed of approach and the slight hesitation of the arm placement. So much going on in such a short amount of time. 

Hana Yori Dango (Season 1), Episode 4

The Actors
Rape-Huggist: Matsumoto Jun ♂
Rape-Huggee: Inoue Mao ♀


The Context
He is an incredibly rich douchebag who is a douche to the girl he likes despite her being poor. In other words, he is the guy every girl dreams about (if you are to believe anything that has ever been on TV). Anyway, so he tells her to meet him for a date, and she has no intention of going, so he just ends up standing in the rain for the entire day. I know, it's so romantic, but it doesn't make any sense if you think about it above the level of teenage girl. At the very least he could have gotten his limo driver to buy him an umbrella or something. Seriously, he is so rich in this dorama that he could have gotten someone to build a giant roof over the city. But no, standing in the rain makes for a better drama.
Eventually, for some reason, she decided to go down to the meeting place at the end of the day, and when he sees her... Well, that's when angry aggressive rape-hugs happen.

The Result

I guess they eventually get together, and this was their first "romantic moment". So you know... Call me old-fashioned, but when I'm half of an old couple, I'd rather that our first romantic moment didn't include the words "get off me".


The Depiction
The production values of Hana Yori Dango are incredibly high, and that is in full effect during this scene. Lots of wide angles and over-the-shoulder shots, and the artificial rain is getting some good use. The actual mechanics of the rape-hug are less admirable, however. First she calls his attention by shyly saying the very Japanese "anooo...". He, shivering wet, looks up and goes into attack mode. She tries to escape, but he is too fast and snatches her from behind. The contact is made so forcefully that she drops her umbrella, and she now also gets wet.

There is a long awkward pause, and then he whispers in her ear "I'm cold." At least we can be sure there's no poking going on, which is reassuring when watching a rear-entry rape-hug.




Awkwardometor ☆☆☆☆
I would have given this another awkward star, but this whole series is so rape-huggy that I can't start with a perfectly awkward score. But it is a very good effort. There is a lot going on here - the going from behind, the agressiveness, the crazy eyes (and the fact that it is happening in the rain only adds to the crazy). 

Video
Enjoy the visual spectacle, along with the romantic silence as all is drowned out except for the pattering of the rain and the romantic music.  

Jiu, Episode 5

The Actors

Rape-Huggist: Shirota Yu ♂
Rape-Huggee: Kuroki Meisa ♀


The Context
This is the 2nd rape-hug of the series (the previous one is covered here), under almost the same circumstances - the only difference being that they did the dirty after the first rape-hug, so their genitals have already touched. Again, this rape-hug comes after she throws a punch at him, he swats it off and decides that it would be a perfect time for a hug. I honestly can't blame him since he was so successful last time. The main difference here is that while holding her hostage in the rape-hug posiition, he patronises her with Christian things like "I want to save you". (By the way, where does this idea come from that you can "save" someone by boning them?)

The Result
They end up in bed together again, which makes it sad when he dies.

The DepictionAgain this rape-hug takes place at night, after a disappointingly short and badly filmed fight-scene. Seriously, she is supposed to be an elight police SWAT officer, and one guy simply wraps her up? They both end up standing for the duration of the rape-hug with their muscles flexed while he gives his pattronising "I'll save you" speech. (And yes, he is Christian, if you're wondering. Even Japanese Christians are patronising.)




Awkwardometor ☆
This would be more awkward, however a girl loses all rape-hug credibility after sleeping with the guy. Talk about giving off the wrong signals. I'm not saying that it's fair game, but it would be far harder to prove in the court of law.
 

Video
See the shitty fight scene and heavy breathing in real-time.