Sunday, August 18, 2024

Anti-hero jdorama review

I am living in a weird timeline where my 2 favourite recent jdoramas are from TBS: Warau Matroyshka and now Hasegawa Hiroki's Anti-Hero. TBS has always been the station with the most budget but worst jdoramas with WOWOW and NHK at the top but is this just a rare occurrence or crappy shows like Bloody Monday and Black Pean a thing of the past?  On a side note, I keep refreshing nyaa waiting for episode 8 of Warau Matroysha to show up. 

I enjoy jdoramas about lawyers who do some grey area things. Off the top of my head, Zainin no Uso, Bengoshi no Kuzu and Akuma no Bengonin. Hasegawa Hiroki is a defence lawyer Akizumi who will do dodgy things to win and wears an oversized coat making him look like a serial flasher. He also speaks very slow and hams it up like he is a villain in an anime which I enjoy

At his law firm, Akizumi has two lawyers working for him. The idealistic Kitamura Takumi and mysterious Hotta Mayu who like digging into Hasegawa's past. Nice to see Oshima Yuko as the paralegal. She is the only one from AKB48 who can act which I must admit is not saying much.

What made Anti-hero fun for me was two things. First is that it is a very exciting revenge dorama. I like Akizumi's plan and the pacing is fast enough that the plot holes don't bother me that much. Second is that it has a lot of great villains especially the chief who also hams it up but nowhere near the overacting in Hanzawa Naoki. Nomura Mansai's acting feel kabuki-like to me but dialed down and rather enjoyed it.

I love seeing Hayami Akari ever since she did Nanyobi ni Umareta No? as the receptionist who might be lying for the police and prosecution.

My other favourite villain besides the chief prosecutor is the Judge who act's all holy but has done horrible things. 


I had a blast watching on Netflix. It is a well done show about a defence lawyer and his plan of vengeance and you WILL support his plan and to see the bad people get theirs. The most important thing in any story is to give the main character pathos make the viewer support him and Anti-hero does it well, especially with the villains.

Well done to TBS. I did not see this coming. My only complaint is that I don't think they ever revealed Oshima Yuko's past because she Akizumi probably forgot why she was there in the first place. Very watchable and available on Netflix.

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