Jimenshitachi / Tokyo Swinders jdorama review

One of my favourite jdoramas on Netflix is the TBS Scams. I know me liking a TBS jdorama is rare but Scams was a fun guide on how the ore ore sagi has become more sophisticated and how the elderly are easily manipulated.

Tokyo Swindlers is a guidebook on the jimenshi business. Professional scammers who pretend to be owners of a big block of land who then sell it to developers or real estate companies. (Harrison) Toyokawa Etsushi is the leader of this group of scammers. He is smart, has no morals and does it for the hunt rather than the money.

Tsujimoto (Ayano Go) is our main character. He lost everything including his family to a jimenshi, was picked up by Harrison and is now his right hand man. Kitamura Kazuki is the person who scouts locations and finds out information, Koike Eiko is charge of getting and training the imposter and Pierre Taki is in charge of spreading information to catch preys and does a lot of shouting during negotiations.

Lily Franky is the cliched old detective from section 2 who is 6 months away from retirement partnered with a young detective and you can guess what is going to happen. Just want to say I am glad Pierre Taki is not cancelled and has been saved by Netflix. I wish Sega would just restore him to Judge Eyes.

Tokyo Swindlers is a dark look at how no one is safe from scams, not even real estate pros and that you can never be too sure, especially when it comes to land. The interesting part for me was what people were looking for to verify identity during a transaction. From shining through the back of the ID card to checking that the seal of the owner is the same. They are things that are not so easily forged but the kick is that there is only one meeting to verify the identity of the owner. What the jimenshi do is not let the buyers meet the owner until the very end. It helps to have an owner that is elderly or does not go out much.

Jimenshitachi is a show about bad people trying to trick not nice people into transferring lots of money to them. The show is held up by Harrison's ruthlessness and Tsujimoto who was a victim turned scammer hoping to run into the person who scammed him in the first place. I did not skip a scene but the characters were not as entertaining as Scams. There is a bit of sex and violence though some of the violence is over the top like the stomping bit.

Tokyo Swindlers is an OK show about bad guys but there is just something missing from the writing. Still I am glad that Netflix continues to make jdoramas and I want to support anything with Pierre Taki in it. Sort of watchable but kind of meh.