Thanks to Robert for pointing out the English subs for ep 1~5 were also out at drama-otaku. I finished the series in 2 days and I have a lot of things to say because Hatsukoi no Akuma is a show that I have mixed feelings about.
Hatsukoi no Akuma is a show about many things. It starts off being an underdog team solving crimes together every week with your typical Sakamoto Yuji humour. There are a lot of food allegories and a few jokes made me laugh out loud but some of it fell flat.
Then Hatsukoi no Akuma reveals itself to be a triangle love relationship drama with a twist that has been foreshadowed since the beginning. It also becomes a really serious and dark serial murder mystery while still being this underdog team comedy and I just feel like Sakamoto Yuji is trying to do too much.
I was more excited for the murder mystery rather than the love triangle because it felt like two different doramas happening at once. On one hand you have this soapy story about two underdogs falling in love with the same girl and then there is this serious and supposedly high tension thriller and the contrast in mood is so much that I basically tuned the soap opera out. I basically was watching the soap opera stuff not being moved thinking Sakamoto Yuji should have taken this out and put it in another show. Seriously there is enough story material for that twist that the serial killer mystery is unnecessary.
I don't dislike Hatsukoi no Akuma. I like it better than Omameda. Sakamoto Yuji went for the stars and tried to this magnificent triangle love story with a serial killer mystery in the background. It is pretty obvious in the end that the love triangle was supposed to be the heart of Hatsukoi no Akuma the mix was too much. Its like ramen with too many colours. If ramen has too many colours it is going to taste bad because colours don't make ramen taste good.
A recent jdorama that does a better job of mixing genres would be Keishicho Outsider which mixed crime stories with comedy. Sakamoto Yuji also made the mistake of making the ending twist way too obvious with the Ito Hideaki phone call in the car. I would say all the twists were predictable
I also want to point out that a Sakamoto Yuji regular makes a guest appearance in the second half of the show which put a smile on my face.
Hatsukoi no Akuma is a flawed attempt at a home run and it produced a memorable but not so enjoyable show that while I finished in 2 days will not be rewatching ever. For hardcore fans of Sakamoto Yuji only or people wanting to see how bad the contrast in tone is when one of Japan's best writers try to mash a triangle love story with a murder mystery.
5 comments:
I really miss Quartet, and how this drama reminded me of Quartet and it's written by Yuji Sakamoto, I really hope it's going to be really good. Well, at least I can watch it for Mayu Matsuoka.
Hi Mike, do you know if J-Raws is offline now? I get an error when I try to download. No i'm not logged in. Is there a new site to get dramas. Thanks for all your content. I've been following you since 2008-ish, since Love Exposure came out.
@Anon: J-Raws is online but hasn't been updated in ages.
Please refer to https://hamsapsukebe.blogspot.com/2022/11/where-to-download-jdoramas-and-subs-in.html
Great stuff Mike, Thanks so much. Its been fun learning Japanese with you over the years since 2008. Keiko is great, and I trust your advice. I come and go over the years. But I always look forward to your Dramas of the year. English subs are nice, but I'm finding I like Japanese Subs just as much now. I Need the grammar and the Kanji practice. I also love your japan trip blogs. Great fun. Again thanks for your Japanese learning, drama, gaming, and travel insights over the years. You've been doing this for a LONG time.. I dont know what I would do .. if i come to your BLOG and find you are not here lol Take Care. Waves hello from Canada!
@Anon: Thanks for reading! Keiko contributes a lot to the jdorama community. It is so much easier to understand with Jp subs but I think I need to watch more shows without subs to pick up words with my ears. The road to learning Japanese is windy and never ending!
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