Double Cheat: Itsuwari no Keikan Episodes 4~8

Double Cheat starts off as a Kurosagi clone but starts to get better as the scams get more interesting and Mukai Osamu's past gets revealed. 

Double Cheat is a Kurosagi for an older audience and I enjoyed the personal nature of Mukai Osamu's revenge plan against Yamagami especially with Matsumoto Wakana from Fukushu no Miboujin playing his ex.

I don't think Uchida Rio can ever make a convincing detective and sometimes she looks like she's still doing her character from Raise de Chanto Shimasu.

Decent ending with the twist being that there will be a second season on WOWOW! The whole WOWOW/Tv Tokyo joint production should have been a giveaway.

New bad for Mukai Osamu to go after but no Matsumoto Wakana. Let's see what the writers can do for season 2 because Double Cheat would not have been compelling for me without Matsumoto Wakana's part in the story making our main character a tragic hero. It gave our main character pathos otherwise it's just a generic scam jdorama.

Fingers crossed WOWOW can make a decent followup. Watchable first season for me but not so confident for second season though Ichijara Hayato is good casting for the villain.

Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai 2024 Eps 5~10

 

The first season of Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai is finished and it was pretty decent. The original 2014 series had 2 seasons and if the ratings were decent, I suspect we will get a sequel next year. 

I enjoyed the cast and the feel good element of uncovering corruption and Hanasaki Mai telling people off. As I have said before, Hanasaki Mai is a less grating version of Hanzawa Naoki. Maybe I just prefer Imada Mio's anime eyes instead of the kabuki overacting in Hanzawa.

Watchable feel good show with no flaws. I definitely wanted to see the bad people get theirs and Kaname Jun is good as the bad guy but I would not say Hanasaki Mai is particularly memorable.

On a side note, I was looking up the writer Ikeido Jun. He did Hanzawa Naoki of course but he also did Soratobu Taiya, Tetsu no Hone, Nanatsu no Kaigi and Hayabusa Shobodan. That is 5 of my favourite jdoramas there with 4 of them on WOWOW. I want to try Kabuka Bouraku which is a WOWOW show with Oda Yuji. Jpsubbers unfortunately does not have the Jp subs but looking at the Jp subs list, I realised Jigoku Sensei Nube came out around the same time and I should give it a shot since I am familiar with the manga. I would definitely give it a go if they had the manga fan service!