Tobosha eps 1-3

Jdorama fansubbing is very far off from anime. Back in the day, most the English subbed jdoramas were captures from Kiku TV or HK subbed ones. I think the first time I saw GTO, it had English, Chinese and Malay subs. Basically, everyone knew the Englished subbed shows like the back of their hand. Nowadays about half of the shows get fansubbed though there are always those shows that get dropped or stalled along the way like Mop Girl. :( Its unfortunately that only shows with Johnnys are pretty much guaranteed to be subbed but beggers can't be choosers. Not to mention nowadays HK jdorama dvds all have poor english subs so basically it possible to get most current jdoramas in English. Of course, there are those older shows which are very unlikely to see English subbing.


Tobosha ep 1 was first subbed by Studio Oto in 2004. Unfortunately that was all SO released from the series. I was very dissappointed. The first episode was really good but the casting meant that most girls wouldn't even want to watch it. Last year, HaroRangers released the first two episodes but nothing after that. I still kept them in my HD in the faint hope that miracles would happen and hallelujah, SOS and HaroRangers have teamed up to do ep 3!


Tobosha is basically a Japanese remake of The Fugitive. Eguchi Yosuke plays Nagai Tetsuo, a probation officer falsely accused of murdering his family. I think he's a really good actor. His role as Kinpachi's brother in 101 Proposals was hillarious and so was his turn as the oldest brother in Lunch no Joou. Sad to say, I've not seen much of his stuff but what little I've watched is good.


Joining Yosuke is my favourite actor Abe Hiroshi playing the officer who wants to catch him. Unlike Tommy Lee Jones in The Fugitive however, Abe's character is not likeable. He seems aloof, pretentious and makes questionable decisions. He seems to claim some sort of higher moral ground yet enjoys the hunt a bit too much. Sad to say, Abe's character is bewilderment. I don't particularly like the character not do I hate him which is not a good thing for the audience to feel.


Mizuno Miki is the good cop of the show. The one who questions Nagai's guilt but is determined to capture him. There is a feeling that she is way overmatched in this show which gives her the underdog status as well. Still her performance has yet to catch me attention. Yosuke is good as the man on the run. I just hope that the writing for Abe and Miki's characters gets better. There is of course empathy for Yosuke but I'm not really concerned with the other two main characters. Maybe I just don't like how Tommy Lee Jones's character has been split into two.


I've ranted a few times about how stupid it is the Japanese can't even do basic simple action doramas. Well, Tobosha might be the first. While like many shows there is a slight tendency to stretch/milk the action scenes for what its worth, it doesn't reach the stupidity of shows like SP. After all jdorama budgets must be small compared to American shows. So basically we have Yosuke running around episode getting involved with some random person while trying to evade police and clear his name. Sounds like a recepie for a fine dorama, my nitpicking notwithstanding.


Thanks to SOS and HaroRangers for continuing to sub this show and hope to see the remaining 8 episodes subbed!