Banking/financial jdoramas are a rarity. That's why I even found Tokkan fun to watch. Financial jdoramas are also very difficult to watch for the non-fluent people like me without English subs. I started watching before the English subs came out and I was reaching for my dictionary and pausing every 3 lines till I had two pages of financial terms and jargon which I will only remember the meaning but don't remember the words. The English subs came out just after I finished watching ep1 but there's no point rewatching it.
Hanzawa Naoki is the loan manager of a bank and he was forced to do a 500 million yen loan by his boss. The thing is the company that he loaned the money to, Nishi Osaka Steel goes bankrupt straight away and Hanzawa is blamed for the loan and must now recover the money.
Hanzawa Naoki is an interesting financial conspiracy dorama. However, its not being done by WOWOW or NHK which means lots of overacting and cartoony villains such as the tax office guy who becomes interested in Nishi Osaka Steel. Not only does Hanzawa Naoki have to deal with recovering the 500 million yen, he has to play cat and mouse with the tax office.
I like the story. I want to see how Hanzawa Naoki and his friends survive. I just wish the villains were less scenery chewing/anime-like. An example would be Kagawa Teryuki acting like he's playing a Kenshin villain or when the president of Nishi Osaka Steel distracts Hanzawa Naoki with some stupid line about how banks don't hold an umbrella over your head when its raining. Of course you have to make the villains hateful like the table slapping guy but I would have preferred a more realistic tone like Hagetaka and Chase, two of the best financial jdoramas out there.
I can't hate Hanzawa Naoki for what it is; a banking anime. When I saw the trailer, I thought it looked very generic. The chances of Ueto Aya doing a realistic dorama is practically nil. I'm pretty sure the dude who looks to green to be in finance and is there for exposition is a johnny. Sigh. As long as they can keep the story interesting and keep throwing interesting obstacles at Hanzawa Naoki, I'll keep watching.
On an unrelated note, the second episode of Doctors is up on dailymotion here. I've downloaded it and retimed the subs but I'm not sure I should post it up on furransu's Japanese sub thread.
Rootabega here.
ReplyDeleteYeah, a good business dorama is the bomb, but just try telling that to the rom-com crowd;). This dorama reminds me of Sakamoto Yuji's Chase, where the "badness" of the villians also verged on the gothic. Will definitely give this a spin, I'm always on the lookout for something good in this genre, though it seems like nothing will ever beat Hagetaka in my estimation. Thanks for the synopsis.
Haha the green guy is a johnny! But even he seems to belong more in this drama than Ueto.
ReplyDeleteWhoever did the casting was not in their right mind.
This is a good watch, thanks Mike. But I agree, the overreaction by the bad guys, and the main actor's exaggerated line delivery and facial expression need some getting used to.
ReplyDeleteFor something realistic, check out Lady Joker. Even for a Wowow show, it has zero cheese, and quite adult flavored. A lot of reading in between the lines.
And of course, the densha otoko lan-evo guy is just awesome.
Tried Lady Joker and I had a hard time following the dialogue. My Japanese is not good enough for it. :(
ReplyDeletef*ck.. no one's subbing?! what a shame... And they're subbing the shitty Yamapi dorama... one trick tsundere pony.
ReplyDeleteWell, I might roll up my sleeves on this one then... expect something by 2015. lolz...
Rootabega here.
ReplyDeleteWhoah! This dorama is pulling 30% viewership in Japan. It's a ratings juggernaut.
Go, Besshi! (Manhattan Love Story in-joke):)
Besshi just kept telling squint-face what he already knew he needed to do lol
ReplyDeleteAnd his "give it back to them 2 times" facial expression pained me as I couldn't stop laughing. It just got more ridiculous towards the end.