Nanatsu no Kaigi

Can't stand the overacting and the unbelievable ratings of Hanzawa Naoki? Want your business doramas to be realistic and less black and white? Then Nanatsu no Kaigi is the one for you. Higashiyama Noriyuki is Harashima, the chief of sales division four at a electronics company and your average joe salaryman. One day, the chief of division one is ousted and Harashima promoted in his place. Its not a huge spoiler to say that Harashima's promotion is not because of his performance but to cover something up.

Yup, Nanatsu no Kaigi is a cover-up dorama from the perspective of the company doing the cover-up. Higashiyama Noriyuki does an excellent job playing Harashima. I've only seen him overacting in comedies like Kuitan and GM Odore Doctor but he really pulls through as the average salaryman worker forced into a difficult position by his company.

There's no stupid idealistic character in Nanatsu no Kaigi screaming every 5 minutes that cover-ups are absolutely wrong. This is a show about investigating what went wrong and looking at the potential losses of a product recall. Nanatsu no Kaigi is about being told by your bosses to do certain things that will have huge repercussions not just on your company but also other companies along the manufacturing chain.

The story is very straightforward. At the beginning we already know that everything gets exposed at the end. The interesting part is how Harashima slowly uncovers the truth and how he struggles with it and the various colleagues who help or hinder with him along the way. The various characters are interesting such as Lan Evo as the politician salaryman of the company. I'm happy to say non of the arguments get too long to become preachy.

Thanks to Arthur for recommending this one. Not sure about best dorama this year but definitely one of the best. Hats off to NHK for making this and Meoto Zenzai. Its unfortunate that these two great doramas are not English subbed cause these are the shows that make jdoramas good and not the summer nudes. Suffice to say Nanatsu no Kaigi is a great character and procedural cover up dorama and is a must watch.

Unfortunately, there's no Japanese sub for the last episode. The subs at jpsubbers are actually from a baseball game. The one thing I noticed while watching the last episode raw is that while I learned to recognise certain words by reading the subs, I never learned to recognise them by hearing. Maybe watching with Japanese subtitles is more detrimental to my Japanese because I never really remember the words and only the shape of the kanji. On the other hand looking up the dictionary can be a pain cause I'm not always sure whether I've got the right word.