Sorimachi Takashi (GTO) is a meek doctor at Meikyo Medical University whose wife is currently hospitalised and their relationship is on the rocks. One day while doing an autopsy on the body of a former Prime Minister, he finds a new strain of coccus while can kill without leaving evidence which is dubbed Gift.
GTO then cultivates gift and then ambitious doctor and evil doctor played by Sasaki Kuranosuke (Giragira) starts using gift as a weapon and blackmails GTO and Haru to continue cultivating the gift. Gift is a suspense dorama about a weapon that can kill people without leaving a trace besides a spot on their neck filled with backstabbing and plenty of twists. There is also the mystery of who create gift in the first place.
Great Gift has an excellent cast. GTO and Giragira are two of my favourite actors as well as favourite doramas. (RIP Ashina Sei) I like Haru and Kurashina Kana is Anri, the owner of this club where rich and famous people make lots of deals and Ono Karin (Hatsukoi Zarari) is also in it as a supporting character who keeps trying to pair GTO with Haru. Perfect casting for me and I was willing to give Great Gift every chance to entertain me.
However the writing and execution is not good. You have to watch Great Gift with your brain turned off and the acting is bad. The best way to describe Great Gift would be trashy. I like trashy shows like Fukushuu no Miboujin but there is a line between trashy and just bad and sometimes Great Gift leans towards bad with the acting. No one would ever accuse GTO for being a good actor but he purposely hams it up as the meek doctor and the show has this hammy, trying to be funny tone.
That said, I was slightly entertained with how bad Great Gift was. What helped was that the pacing of the stories were very fast and lots of people die during the show. I like the pairing of GTO and Haru as two people who do not relate well to others but work well together.
I thought about giving up halfway but managed to finish the series by fast forwarding half the scenes in the second half and the ending got me interested in a sequel. If I have to describe Great Gift as food, it would be cheap and nasty. It doesn't taste the best, is lacking in many areas but it never tried to be anything but trashy fun. Great Gift is not a good show, its a question of whether you will find it trashy fun or just bad and for me it was a bit of both. I enjoyed half of it and the other half I was thinking I should watch something better but I could not hate Great Gift. Thanks to edwardwong for subbing!
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