Gannibal season 1 jdorama review

 

Faiz Ikari recommended me the first season of Gannibal some time ago. I had it sitting on my HD for a long time because I wasn't in a mood for a cannibal jdorama. I was pessimistic that someone else can do a violent movie to Sono Sion levels. I knew nothing of this show nor what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised and I am glad I waited this long to watch Gannibal.

Gannibal starts off with a police officer accusing a bunch of people in a village for being cannibals before he is killed with a sickle. No point hiding the theme of the story, right. The name of the jdorama already rhymes with cannibal.

The Agawas, played by Yagira Yuya and Yoshioka Riho are a couple who moved to this village of Kuge because of Yagira's job as the village policeman and because of their daughter Mashiro, who is unable to speak after a traumatic event. Usually in stories like this, nothing seems suspicious but alarm bells are ringing pretty loudly from the Agawas first day in Kuge from the villagers behaviour.

Gannibal plays the behaviour off from stereotypical countryside behaviour of neighbours poking their noses into everyone's business and expecting everyone to behave a certain way or else they would be excluded but the most alarming is the threats of violence does not faze the husband Agawa Daigo.

In episode 1, I was thinking I need to watch Hayabusa Shobodan again. I was also thinking any sane person would have at least gotten his wife and kid out of Kuge. It kind of bugged me that because they were clearly in danger and the behaviour of the people was not normal. I guess the daughter loved it there and Yoshioka Riho was trying to fit in but Daigo knew something was rotten.

Agawa Daigo has become one of my favourite jdorama charaters because of one thing, this guy is a police office who has no fear and kicks ass. There are very few characters like this because jdoramas don't have the action budget but also as Kaname Jun said in Oshi no Ko, jdoramas are made for women and kids.

Here we have a police officer not afraid of violence, loving the danger versus the Goto family of Kuge. The fight at the end of episode 1 really woke me up to this show. Gannibal is not Hayabusa Shobodan nor a Sono Sion horror cannibal story. Gannibal is an action horror/thriller with an emphasis on action. This is what I want. Japan's version of the Roundup except the bad guys are cannibalistic villagers who act like gangsters instead of actual gansters.

There is a car shootout scene in episode 2 which was good and Gannibal got better with every episode. Every episode ended with a great cliffhanger and I finished the 7 episodes in no time only to be greated with one crazy cliffhanger.

The only thing I don't like about Gannibal is the way the story treats the traumatic event in Agawa Daigo's past. The characters react to it like it is a shameful secret when he should be seen as a hero. It is not like he had a choice which is really weird.

The reason I am happy that it has taken me so long to watch Gannibal is that season 2 is coming out on the 19th next month on Disney+. Wait, Gannibal is a Disney+ show? Wtf. Disney is responsible for this violence horror jdorama? Amazing! That's where they got the money for that car scene. The more companies invest in jdoramas, the happier I am, especially shows that are not made for the women and children demographic. Disney are getting my money next month. I can't imagine how long Faiz and people who watched it much earlier have been waiting for season 2. I would have devoured the manga while waiting.

Amazing show. I need to add this to my jdorama awards 2022. Must watch first season. It could come apart in season 2 but I love the action and the violence. Must watch. Bring on season 2!

OKURA ~ Meikyuu Iri Jiken Sousa ~ Episodes 1~6

 

Okura starts off as a police department that solves cold cases. They have a quota of cold cases to digitise everyday and they have cases to solve. I wanted to give Okura a try because of Sorimachi and I liked Sugino Yuusuke in Scams.

The most memorable thing in Okura happens in episode 1. Sorimachi and Sugino discover a video camera that has not been touched for a month. This thing always happens in jdoramas. Someone finds a video camera that has been left alone forever and miraculously it has charge.

This is the first time someone in a jdorama has said hang on, the camera should not have any charge. Being charged means someone must have done it. I never want to see some long buried/unused video camera starting up without someone charging it first.

Okura starts off as Cold Case wannabe but at the end of the first episode we learn that, Sorimachi has been planting evidence. Okura is about chasing up bad guys police have let go in the past. I was intrigued.

However, there are two problems. First is Shiraishi Mai's character is supposed to be some tough cop but she cannot do action at all. They could not hide her with the really short action scene in episode 1. Get Takeda Rina ffs. I know you want a Nogizaki46 person for ratings but this is the absolutely wrong character for her.

The main problem for me is that while the story is dark and serious. After all we are talking about planting evidence, the execution is bad. It is shot like a daytime police more concerned about doing an emotional twist every episode rather than building up the suspense of forging evidence and playing hide and seek with people at the top.

Okura is an example of good idea meets bad execution. It needed to be more like the first season of Mikkoku wa Utau but it is more season one of Zettai Reido. Do not watch.

Golden Kamuy live action review

Once upon a time, the idea of a live action remake of manga/anime shows would send a shudder down my spine. Sure we had shows like H2 which are easy to adapt but we had crap like Ranma 1/2 and Shingeki no Kyojin where it did not translate well to live action. I think a lot of the shows had bad budget and people still did not know how to do the costumes and makeup and everything looked like bad cosplay.

Then Sato Shinsuke brought a new standard to jmovie manga adaptations with Gantz, I am a Hero and Inuyashiki and it seemed like manga adaptations were getting better and better. Now we have one very faithful adaptation of Golden Kamuy.

Golden Kamuy is about 3 groups of people chasing this secret treasure of the Ainu people in Hokkaido. We have our main characters, Sugimoto who is a former soldier and Ahsiripa, a young Ainu girl looking for her father who hid the treasure.

Hot on their hells is the evil Lieutenant Tsurumi and his soldiers from the 7th division.

Along with Hijikata Toshizou's group. Yes, that Hijikata from Shinsengumi! One thing Golden Kamuy does really well is the casting. I am kind of meh Yamazaki Kento is Sugimoto because he gives off a rougher impression from the anime but everyone else is just sublime.

The casting and make up is just perfect. Having seen so many manga adaptation, I do not recall an adaptation with so many characters where everyone is just perfectly cast. I guess Rurouni Kenshin had a good cast but Takei Emi was so wrong for Kaoru.

Golden Kamuy live action came out as a movie which I watched on Netflix and then 9 episodes on WOWOW. There is going to be a movie after this set in Abashiri prison. As someone who has watched the anime, I have no complaints. I am not a huge fan but I am enjoying the jdorama more because how many action/comedy jdorama/movies are there with such a budget?

It is not all perfect. The bear scenes are pretty bad with the bears being men in suits ala Ultraman. Some scenes look very cinematic and some look very cheap and sound stagey. I can't complain because what WOWOW have been able to do with their budget is amazing. 

One of my favourite things about Golden Kamuy is showing the culture and customs of Ainu people, the indigenous inhabitants of Hokkaido. Their culture is so different from Japanese culture and is something you don't really see in Japanese media.

All I look for in manga adaptations is faithfulness and Golden Kamuy is right up there with I"s. Very watchable and I hope it continues to succeed so they have money to adapt the whole thing.

Hagetaka 2018 jdorama review

The 2009 NHK jdorama Hagetaka is one of my favourite jdoramas ever. Who would have thought that a story about foreign funds buying up Japanese companies after the collapse of the bubble would be so riveting to watch? I did not put Hagetaka in my top 10 jdoramas ever list but it deserves strong consideration.

Somehow I did not know or have absolutely forgotten that TV Asahi did a remake in 2018. I only realised it's existence while searching for a 1080p version of the original Hagetaka. Sadly, there is no 1080p version of the Hagetaka movie. So the question is how do you improve upon perfection?

The answer is by going for a different slant. While the 2009 NHK version of Hagetaka was more realistic and subdued, this 2018 Hagetaka follows the same story bit is infused with the Hanzawa Naoki DNA by being more flamboyant and having lots of overacting, especially from Ayano Go who plays the main character Washizu.

Besides imitating Gendo Ikari every scene he is sitting on his desk, Ayano Go goes all out in the cheesiness as if he was the main character in Salaryman Kintaro. The hairstyle just makes Washizu even more of a manga character. The funny thing is, all the bad guys don't overact much which is the opposite of Hanzawa Naoki which I appreciate. Over the top anime villains should be for comedies like Doctors and not serious shows.

Watabe Atsuro plays Shibano, the supposedly best banker in Mitsuba Bank who is somehow to stupid or is ignorant of all the corruption going on. Another difference from the NHK show is that the TV Asahi show is more direct in its criticism of post bubble Japan and I love it.

After the bubble burst in Japan, there were many zombie banks operating that should have been shut down because they had given out so many bad loans left, right and centre. Mitsuba Bank and all the failed business tried desperately to cling on and blamed everyone but themselves for their problems. Mitsuba Bank tried to hide all their bad loans with bulk sales reminded me of Olympis hiding their loses over 20 years.

They use phrases like this business has been going for how many generations or this is Japanese tradition to justify anything and vilify foreign funds like Horizon Japan lead by Hashizu for being vultures when in fact they are responsible for killing their own companies.

I enjoy this over the top Washizu because he goes around telling all these people hanging on to their bubble glories off and his best line is telling people who have lost everything that 'you are still alive'. It is not the end if you are still breathing because Washizu himself reached rock bottom when he was a kid.

Another big change is that Sawajiri Erika replaces Matsuda Ryuhei role as the daughter of a ryokan that is on the verge of bankruptcy. Her role is a more expanded and I am not complaining about more Sawajiri. I don't think she's been back in acting since she got cancelled? 

One missing character is Kuriyama Chiaki's reporter. I don't really remember that character much and I guess I will need to do a rewatch. Also Washizu's backstory is different and I won't spoil why except to say I like his endgame.

I enjoyed this version of Hagetaka tremendously. The best way to improve on perfection is to do something that has the same bones but feels so different. This is the first time I can remember where I watched a remake of a good show and thought, you are not as good as the original but you are different and interesting enough to be pretty good. 

Hiroyuki Ikeuchi plays Alan Fujita in a role that was played by a non-Japanese actor in the original. Wish they had done the same because the non-Japanese actor did pretty well from memory.

I bloody enjoyed Hagetaka 2018. Should have watched it when it came out but better late than never! Not as good as the original and not quite must watch but very, very watchable. If you have not seen the NHK Hagetaka, watch it and if you have seen the original, this TV Asahi production is worth your time. Very watchable and I would not mind rewatching it.

Informa - Yami wo Ikiru Kemonotachi

The first season of Informa was an ambitious but flawed yakuza action jdorama that had a really good parts and action scenes you don't normally see in jdoramas. As Kaname Jun said in Oshi no Ko, jdoramas are made for women and children so shows made for men are few in between.

Season 2 ups the action from season 1 by setting up a majority of the first half in Thailand which is an amazing idea because Thai people know how to do action movies though I have not seen any Thai movies since Abe Hiroshi's Chocolate. 

The Tuk Tuk car chase is worth watching on its own. Even Japanese movies don't even have the money to do proper car chase in Japan. If there is a car chase, it is on a road next to abandoned factories at night with no other cars around. Informa has a middle of the day chase on a major road and it is good. Much respect to Abema for throwing money at action scenes.

We have shootout in the streets and plenty of prison scenes with lots of extras who like they have been in prison. It is awesome and Japan should do more actions scenes in Thailand since it is cheaper and they have the expertise.

Oh, I forgot to mention the story. Ponkura achieved great success for his article based on the events of season 1 but he has done nothing since and goes around pretending to be the Informa. Ponkura gets involved with the real Informa played by Kiritani Kenta again, this time in Thailand when he investigates the murder of a seemingly random person by two people who have fled to Thailand.

Ponkura is our everyday person caught up in this world of yakuzas and killers which reminds me of the first season of Yamikin Ushijima-kun. In Thailand Informa and Ponkura come face to face with the a new Informa played by Ikeuchi Hiroyuki. He is in so many shows and always does a good job but I think this is his best on yet. He plays this merciless villain who turns out to be the anti-hero of the story.

There are two things I do not like about season 2 of Informa. The first is that the final action scene is lame and boring, same as season 1. My second problem is how Informa always operates by himself being the muscle and brains when surely he can afford some backup.

On the whole, Informa: Yami wo Ikiru Kemonotachi is much better than the first season and I really respect the effort that Abema put in to make a good action jdorama. They must have spent a lot of money on getting the actor for the last boss. Very watchable and definitely better than Vivant.

Shoujiki Fudousan Season 2

Shoujiki Fudousan was a surprisingly watchable jdorama. It was the first Yamapi lead role jdorama which I did not dislike and that is a miracle in itself. It was an educational and fun story about a real estate agent who cannot lie and everyone knows, you do not trust anything a real estate agent says so turning that on its head made for a feel good show. Every profession is based on being an expert at something and providing correct information to customers, except for REAs.

However, I did not have faith that a second season Shoujiki Fudousan would be as good because I think lightning does not strike twice. Truth be told I don't even remember most of what happened at the end of season 2. I remember some of the Ichihara Hayato bits but the main question is, can season 2 keep it up?

WHAT I LIKED

+ It is still an educational show on real estate practices in Japan and good for learning specialised words used in the industry. I enjoy the different rules in Japan. Did they do an episode on key money in season 1?

+ I do not dislike Yamapi's acting in this one because Fukuhara Haruka plays well next to Yamapi.

+ Izumi Rika (Mikkoku wa Utau) brings a lot of levity everytime she is on the screen as the love interest.

+ Kurashina Kana got rid of her crappy hair from S1.

+ Katsunori Takashi as the bad guy boss of Minerva Real Estate. He has been in so many of my favourite jdoramas but doesn't get starring roles anymore. :(

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

- It felt like the early episodes went too far into the generic boring sob story genre. Ie episode 1 was about a husband so hellbent on buying a tower mansion that he did not notice his wife was limping. Zzzz.

- Not enough Izumi Rika. She provides the best humour which this show needed more of and she should have been more involved with the stories.

- Not enough Matsumoto Wakana. It is a crime to have her and not give her a meatier role! It is so easy to get them involve because they can talk to the customers about financing, interest rates and offset accounts.

- At times, the series felt like it was on the verge of becoming boring instead of getting more exciting. There is an element of by the numbers.

MEH

= Dean Fujioka was ok as the baddie but there is something about his acting where I cannot see him playing good guys. 

SUMMARY

I finished season 2 very quickly but I it doesn't feel as fun as the first season. Not good enough to be watchable, I consider it tolerable. Whether you should watch season 2 of Shoujiki Fudousan depends on how much you like season 1. This type of show is hard to review because I don't really have strong thoughts either way but I don't think anyone can regret watching this.