Shizumanu Taiyo Eps 9-20 : WOWOW this is good

The second half of Shizumanu Taiyo is a bit too long. Its basically about the planecrash, the outcry, Kunimi becoming the President of NAL and our main character Onchi slowly discovering how deep the corruption was in JAL oops I mean NAL.

There's no Hanzawa Naoki super turnabout here. Its about people trying to do the right thing in a system that is corrupt and not necessarily having a fairytale ending though I just wished they had chopped off two episodes. Its not so fun when our hero uncovers corruption but can't do much about it though.

However at this point WOWOW had already built up Onchi so well in the first half that I was willing to see his story to the end. The character that most interested me in the second half was Gyoten played by Watabe Atsuro.

Gyoten is the character who walked the same road as Onchi but then took another path up the company ranks. He is not one those moustache twirling and sneering villains but neither is he willing to help Onchi out.

Throughout the series Gyoten is presented with the chance to do the right thing but because of ambition and self preservation never does so.

Gyoten is also more fun to watch because of his mistress.

I watched the scene where the wife finally met the mistress with bated breath and it did not disappoint.

I must say Kamikawa Takaya's English is not bad especially when compared with Watanabe Ken's no cadence English and Ishihara Satomi's indecipherable English from Shin Gojira. He takes his time and does not rush his words. Bravo to whoever was in charge of his English. Disappointed that Mimura's role was so small but then if I were an actor in Japan I would want to be involved with Shizumanu Taiyo no matter how small the role.

While I found the pacing of the second half too slow, when combined with the excellent first half, I still have to rate Shizumanu Taiyo a must watch. I still think Fumo Chitai is better though. Unfortunately, there is no English sub for Shizumanu Taiyo. It was difficult to watch with all the formal Japanese especially in the second half and I had to constantly use my dictionary.