Giver Taker jdorama review

More than a year after the incredible Samayou Yaiba, WOWOW has done another parent of a murdered child. This time it is Nakatani Miki playing Kurasawa Itsuki, a former teacher turned detective after her child was murdered by her student Kishi Ruoto. One day she hears that Ruoto will be discharge from juvi and a note is left on her front door saying I will once again take what is important to you.

Giver Taker is a cat and mouse thriller with another Johnny Kikuchi Fuma playing the monster Kishi Ruoto. The last Johnny to play a monster really well was Kazama Shunsuke. I always forget he is a Johnny because he can actually act!  Anyways Ruoto makes everyone think that he is reformed and that Itsuki is making baseless accusations towards him. Ruoto starts working in a bakery and Itsuki knows he is up to no good but is unable to prove it.

I actually watched the first 3 episodes some months ago with Jp subs from drama-otaku and just finished the last 2 episodes today. What I remember most about the first 3 episodes was that the police were not too smart and too easily manipulated. I guess that's the whole point of the show. The smiling Johnny taunting Nakatani Miki as the audience wonders what his plan actually is.

The writing for Giver Taker is just off. It has all the elements of a thriller with Ruoto is a great villain on paper with his past, his manipulation of his co-worker in the bakery and fooling the police but the tension is not there in the story. Whether the Johnny's bad acting or the half baked script I cannot say. Kikuchi Fuma lacks that evil that Kazama Shunsuke had and he is more like an annoying brat you want to slap around. I finished the 5 episodes but I keep thinking why is this show not up the usual WOWOW standards and lack of budget for Giver Taker is pretty evident.

Looks like someone has subbed episode 1 in English but even for a Nakatani Miki fan it was a forgettable show and it feels like it was made for Johnny fans. Its not completely bad, just not up to the usual WOWOW standards and devoid of tension. Go watch Samayou Yaiba if you haven't. Meh.

Kamen Rider Black Sun Episodes 1~5

I grew up on tokusatsu or Japanese special effect shows. Kaettekita Ultraman, Space Cop, Dennou Keisatsu Cybercop and of course Kamen Rider Black. They were my windows to this world that was Japan where Kaijus would attack Tokyo every week, usually at some abandoned mine area or abandoned warehouse and heroes would vanquish evil by shouting the name of their finishing move.

Black Sun is a reboot of Kamen Rider Black and I went into this one with zero expectations. The Anno Hideaki reboots have soured me on reboots of my childhood favourite shows. This is not a Ano Hideaki show and I would be happy if it just did not suck. To be honest my memory of Black is mostly the intro song, his henshin pose, special moves and of course the cool antagonist Shadow Moon.

Black Sun is a more 'mature' reboot. Instead of Kamen Rider killing a kaiju every week with his rider kick, this show is more about how kaiji have been living with humans but are facing discrimination. Though kaiju can change to human form, they have a different smell and people are able to distinguish between human and kaiju. 

The main characters are Black Sun (Nishijima Hidetoshi) and Shadow Moon (Nakamura Tomoya), two friends who were turned into kaiju when they were kids. Black Sun also takes inspiration from the 1960s Japan university protests as throughout the series we see what happened to Black Sun and Shadow Moon as their joined this group called Gorgom and were fighting for Kaiju rights. The protest flashback is so boring and I kept waiting for the twist to happen.

I thought racism was an interesting angle to go with especially the hardline protestors who wished death on kaiju. Alas, I had a hard time caring about any of the characters. Not Black Sun nor the girl Aoi who was giving the UN speech about racism at the beginning of the first episode.

I always thought that one of the genres you can't screw up is the older dude protecting young girl genre and boy did they screw it up. No chemistry, horrible dialogue. Everything feels stilted. I had no compulsion to watch the next episode after the end of an episode. Your average WOWOW shows end with a nice cliffhanger that makes me excited for the next episode while a small preview plays but Kamen Rider Black Sun makes me question why I am hoping for the show to get better.

The action sucks and the only good thing is that there is blood and gore. I am sure any tokusatsu show today has better action. The world building is bad after episode 1. They spent a lot of money on the protests etc but after that there are a lot of fields and it feels like Kamen Rider Black Sun is set in a small town in Mie instead of Tokyo against the political party running the government. I know the original Kamen rider happened in a lot of warehouses but couldn't they have at least done some city rooftop fights? 

I kept thinking why could I not enjoy this show? Have I become to old? Kamen Rider Black is clearly aimed at adults with the blood and gore and protests etc. It raised the target audience age but did not raise the detail in the world building. The script sucks and most importantly the action is boring. I just watched the first episode of Black on youtube and I was entertained a lot more. Kamen Rider Black Sun just sucks. I wanted to like it so much I struggled through 5 episodes. They should have done a more kid friendly kaiju of the week instead. Don't watch it. I am scared to watch Shin Kamen Rider.

Offbeat Cops / Ido Jirei wa Ongakutai! jmovie review

I have not seen Abe Hiroshi in anything good since Dragon Zakura 2. DCU was just bad and now we have an Abe Hiroshi learns to drum movie. Abe plays a grumpy detective Naruse  who  is trying to solve catch this gang that has been targeting old people by pretending to be police to find out where their money is and then robbing them. Naruse like to break rules too much and finally after a complaint from a fellow police officer is transferred to the police music band hence the Japanese title of the movie.

Naruse does not communicate well with his colleagues, his wife has left him, his mother has dementia and he does not know how to interact with his daughter. Naruse's life is at the lowest when the joins the band and encounters a bunch of underdogs of the police force, people who have to do their regular police duties and also do band practice.

Offbeat cops is basically Swing Girls set in the police world. If you have not watched Swing Girls, it is one of the best feel good jmovies ever created and it is the template on which a lot of feel good movies try to build on and Offbeat Cops try to emulate.

Offbeat cops is an unabashedly feel good movie. There are your obvious Naruse character growth moments as he learns to be a better person blah blah blah and plenty of sappy moments as Naruse connects with his band mates and learns to accept that he is no longer a detective. The joy on Abe Hiroshi's face when he learns to drum is infectious and you know he had a good time making this. I think getting paid to play music is a great job and I was wondering why everyone was so gloomy at the beginning of the movie. 

My problem with Offbeat Cops is that the script doesn't feel as polished as Swing Girls. It is emulating the beats and it tries to hit the notes but it feels like a poorer version of that movie. I had fun but I feel like I have seen it done so much better before and the script just needed more cooking. Plus they should have went for a different music for the final musical performance. Maybe they intentionally wanted to invoke Swing Girls. Watchable, just don't expect Swing Girls level of excellence. Thanks to Madmansubs for hardsubbing!

Why it is amazing that Triangle Strategy was made

 

The Wii U and 3DS eshops are closing soon and last night I was in the Wii U eshop thinking about whether to buy the Fire Emblem GBA games so I could play them on the Wii U pad instead of my small GBA. On a side note, everyone is having amazing firesales on the 3DS eshop except for Nintendo. Sigh, really don't like them as a company because they just refuse to drop prices.

Anyways I was thinking about how much I dislike what has happened to the Fire Emblem series recently. I love strategy games and fantasy stories set in the middle ages with politics etc and they have turned the Fire Emblem series since the 3DS era into a dating sim. If you looks at the sales and reviews people love this fanservice but I hate it so much because there is so much disconnect between this huge war going on in the game and the stupid slice of life dialogue and relationship stuff that does not acknowledge what is happening in the main story. 

Triangle Strategy is exactly what I love about the strategy genre. Good writing about politics between countries with a main character who uses his brains and recognises the difficult decisions in front of him instead of a stupid hero who has no plan except telling everyone to stop this while killing all his enemies.

There are no dating sim elements in Triangle Strategy to sell the game, no getting married and sending kids off to an alternate dimension so that they can come back as teenagers fanservice. I hate it when games rely on fanservice to sell. I get why they did it and Sega tried it with Valkyria Chronicles 2 & 3 to improve sales but it just means it becomes a lower quality product overall.

There are no everyone can be any character class bullshit. I used to like it in Final Fantasy Tactics but I have realised that  every character having a specific character class is part of the charm and it makes each character unique. A character's class is part of their personality and if they can be anyone they are not really a character at all. The story has also a branching path system where your decisions and make the story turn out different.

My only 1 minor complaint is not having character portraits with various facial expressions next to the dialogue when they are speaking ala Grandia but it is a minor complaint compared with the perfection the game is. For Japanese learners being able to go back through a dialogue and replay the voices is very good for studying. 

While Square Enix has turned Final Fantasy into an action RPG series, I am grateful some producer had the balls to greenlight a serious turn base strategy RPG that did not rely on fanservice to sell. There are hardly any new games for for old school turn based strategy fans like myself so I guess I have to keep replaying old Shining Force and Fire Emblem games until Triangle Strategy 2 comes out. They have sold over 1 million copies so there is hope for turn based games without fanservice yet!

Ninja ni Kekkon wa Muzukashii Episodes 1+2

Ninja ni Kekkon wa Muzukashii is what happens when you combine Rikokatsu and Mr & Mrs Smith with your Koga and Iga ninjas. Ninja ni Kekkon wa Muzukashii is a romantic comedy about Nanao and Suzuki Nobuyuki who are married but do not do not know that they belong to rival ninja clans. 

Well it tries to be a romantic comedy but nothing is funny. I don't think I laughed even once.I was groaning at the Nanao's sister who is a ninja youtuber substory. The skinny johnny who is a ninja maniac guy is so cringy he brings nothing to the show. Having two annoying character is a deathknell for a jdoramas because that means most of the time there are two characters I want to bash when I see them on screen.

Chemistry between the two main leads is flat and the only good things are Tomosaka Rie as Nano's oldest sister and Furuta Arata as the dad. The dorama slowly shows scenes of how Nanao and the johnny husband got together and they are now on the verge of divorce but it didn't make me care.

The saddest thing about Ninja ni Kekkon wa Muzukashii is that the manga panels at the credits are more interesting than the two episodes ever were. There's something interesting and melancholy about ninjas living in the modern day but the show does not convey this compared to the ending credits.

I actually kept thinking about how much better Rikokatsu is compared to Ninja ni Kekkon wa Muzukashii, not that it was that well written but the actors were a lot better and they really tried to make it work.

Action scenes absolutely sucked. Why do they keep casting Nanao in action doramas? She should be a supporting actress at most. Could Ninja ni Kekkon wa Muzukashii be better if the actors were better? Possibly but end of the day there is nothing redeemable about it. You are better off watching Rikokatsu. Do not watch unless you are a johnny diehard. 

Keishichou Outsider jdorama review

Keishichou Outsider is similar to Hatsukoi no Akuma in that it is a mishmash of genres and this time its a detective show mixed with comedy. Nishijima Hidetoshi is Kagawa, a detective who used to be in organised crime. He dresses like a yakuza, faints at the sight of blood and likes to walk backwards.

Hamada Gaku is Hasumi, a detective who has a secret and has to work with Kagawa. He is basically playing the straight character to Nishijima's quirky detective.

Kamishirashi Moka plays Mizuki Nao, the daughter of the assistant police commissioner who possesses the ability to inhabit roles. (You'll understand it when you see it) She's the other quirky character next to Nishijima and they have great comedic chemistry.

Happy to see Yuka as the forensic investigator who has a history with Nishijima. She used to be in so many jdoramas back in the day and its nice to see an older actress with a face that is not frozen. So glad they cast her in this role you don't really see older actresses besides the usual mother roles etc.

The comedy works pretty well. The NJPW cameos in the first episode is so bad that it is good and Red Shoes gets more screentime than the wrestlers. My only complaint is that no one would ever book a match between Makabe and Taguchi vs Okada and Tanahashi. Unfortunately there are no more NJPW cameos for the rest of the series, only product placements, posters etc. TV Asahi should put more wrestler cameos in their shows.

I can't remember the last decent detective jdorama that had comedy. A lot of them had quirky characters and moments it is not often it is funny enough to make me laugh and serious enough to make me eager to see what happens. As I watched Hatsukoi no Akuma around the same time, I keep comparing how easily Keishichou Outsider switches from comedy to drama and how awkward Hatsukoi no Akuma is going back and forth between serious mystery to a soap opera triangle relationship.

Keichishou Outsider still has your case of the week for our 3 main characters to solve and it also has the mystery of Hamada Gaku's identity and the connection with this case where a woman is stabbed 18 times. 

The characters and jokes grew on me in the end and I found it a satisfying show to watch. Watchable. Thanks to edwardwong for the subs and you can get the subs from discord or drama-otaku. Watch it if you like the actors or quirky and funny detective shows appeal to you. Give episode 1 a try because most likely you won't stop watching after the cliffhanger of episode 1.

Gokenin Zankuro Season 2 Episode 2

Season 2 of Gokenin Zankuro starts with one of the best additions to a series ever! Abe Hiroshi joins the series as Otokichi, the head of the seven young men brigade of firefighters or jyoubikeshi as they were called in the Edo period. 

This series has two of the greatest jdorama actors ever in Watanabe Ken and Abe Hiroshi with the delightful Wakamura Mayumi as Tsutakichi in the middle! Do you need any more reasons to watch Gokenin Zankuro?

True to all triangle relationships, Otokichi has long been in love with Tsutakichi who is oblivious to it while Tsutakichi likes Zankuro who is similarly oblivious but he knows about Otokichi's feelings for Tstakichi. On a side note, I really love the above shot with the slight red shading. Classic samurai scene with two people on a bridge with falling snow. They don't need to show Watanabe Ken's face because the focus is on Wakamura Mayumi.

Episode 1 is about someone starting fires all over Edo and Tsutakichi's adopted father being killed. I liked how the story payed off Zankuro's mom incessant drumming from season 1 to help solve the case. Abe Hiroshi makes a great foil for Watanabe Ken. Tsutakichi also gets to do a lot more fighting in episodes 1 compared to season 1 and some of the scenery shots are just beautiful.

Looking forward to the rest of the series and big thanks to Avallac'h for transcribing and retiming. Very watchable.

Gokenin Zankuro season 1 review

Gokenin Zankura is a 1995 jidaigeki starring Watanabe Ken and Wakamura Mayumi. Like all jidaigeki, Zankura is low ranking and poor samurai. As Zakuro is poor he has to take on various side jobs to make money. It is pretty hard to root for a main character who does not have money problems. Not only does Zankuro have money problems, he also has a mother problem because his mother has a taste for fine food and will spend all the money that Zankuro makes.

The big difference between Zankuro and most of jidaigeki heroes is that he loves drinking and having fun with geisha. Most of the time, jidaigeki heroes are like monks; they are pure goodness to the point of not having lust or any desires. Not Zankuro who always runs from his fiance to spend his nights drinking.

To me the best thing in Gokenin Zankuro is the chemistry between Watanabe and Wakamura Mayumi who plays Tsutakichi, a geisha who Zankuro is first hired to cut but later helps Zankuro with his jobs which are more like Zankuro playing detective than anything. Those two together sell the series because they are the perfect couple, the playboy and the geisha who will never be together but who make a great team.

Gokenin Zankuro has a comedic vibe to it though the humour of the series is pretty much Zankuro running away from his mom and fiance. Its sort of hit and miss for me though it did grow on me in the end and some of the stories are funny. The fights are bloodless and I am not a fan of the 1 vs 20 fights because the bad guys facing Zankuro's back always refuse to poke him with their sword/spear. They will only attack when the turn to face him. 

The production values of Gokenin Zankuro are much better than what you normally see today. I suspect it must have been a pretty highly watched show back in 1995. 

Gokenin Zankuro is a watchable jidaigeki that I like. Its not at the top of my list which features Shinsengumi and Yoshiwara Uradoushin but it is right below. Big thanks to Avallac'h for transcribing and retiming the subs! If you like jidaigeki or a fan of Watanabe Ken, it is worth a watch.

Hatsukoi no Akuma Episodes 2~10

 

Thanks to Robert for pointing out the English subs for ep 1~5 were also out at drama-otaku. I finished the series in 2 days and I have a lot of things to say because Hatsukoi no Akuma is a show that I have mixed feelings about.

Hatsukoi no Akuma is a show about many things. It starts off being an underdog team solving crimes together every week with your typical Sakamoto Yuji humour. There are a lot of food allegories and a few jokes made me laugh out loud but some of it fell flat.

Then Hatsukoi no Akuma reveals itself to be a triangle love relationship drama with a twist that has been foreshadowed since the beginning. It also becomes a really serious and dark serial murder mystery while still being this underdog team comedy and I just feel like Sakamoto Yuji is trying to do too much.

I was more excited for the murder mystery rather than the love triangle because it felt like two different doramas happening at once. On one hand you have this soapy story about two underdogs falling in love with the same girl and then there is this serious and supposedly high tension thriller and the contrast in mood is so much that I basically tuned the soap opera out. I basically was watching the soap opera stuff not being moved thinking Sakamoto Yuji should have taken this out and put it in another show. Seriously there is enough story material for that twist that the serial killer mystery is unnecessary.

I don't dislike Hatsukoi no Akuma. I like it better than Omameda. Sakamoto Yuji went for the stars and tried to this magnificent triangle love story with a serial killer mystery in the background. It is pretty obvious in the end that the love triangle was supposed to be the heart of Hatsukoi no Akuma the mix was too much. Its like ramen with too many colours. If ramen has too many colours it is going to taste bad because colours don't make ramen taste good. 

A recent jdorama that does a better job of mixing genres would be Keishicho Outsider which mixed crime stories with comedy. Sakamoto Yuji also made the mistake of making the ending twist way too obvious with the Ito Hideaki phone call in the car. I would say all the twists were predictable

I also want to point out that a Sakamoto Yuji regular makes a guest appearance in the second half of the show which put a smile on my face.

Hatsukoi no Akuma is a flawed attempt at a home run and it produced a memorable but not so enjoyable show that while I finished in 2 days will not be rewatching ever. For hardcore fans of Sakamoto Yuji only or people wanting to see how bad the contrast in tone is when one of Japan's best writers try to mash a triangle love story with a murder mystery.