Chase - "The taxation officer" - EP1 & 2

Trust me, this is the black horse of the season.
Although there are only 6 episodes, but the actors, music, storyline are absolutely top of the class.

Btw the storyline was written by Sakamoto Yuuji (坂元裕二), who wrote "Tokyo Love Story" over 10 years ago. Eguchi Yousuke (江口洋介) also played a part back then and started to get popular after "Tokyo Love Story". According to wiki, Eguchi was really excited about playing a part in this latest drama of Sakamoto. But when he saw the storyline he was confused, as he didn't know how to act as a "taxation officer" :)


Still, it doesn't mean that he can't do a good job here. Personally I think he did well acting as Haruma chasing up all the "business criminals" who attempt to avoid tax by each and every means.

Upon the other extreme was "The magician of Caribbean Sea" - Murakumo Shuuji (ARATA) who is top of the class consultant in avoiding tax. The climax comes when the two versus each other - but so far up to end of EP2 they havn't officially made the challenge yet. From the preview of EP3 they will, and it'll be an exciting one.

ARATA is another unexpected actor of this drama. I didn't know him at all before, but was fascinated by how he presented the black suited magician to the audience. This young gentleman seemingly will cause no harm, yet his tax avoiding ideas, plans and how he manipulate people around him in EP2 is just amazing. This magician is like having a chess match with Haruma, cunningly manipulating all of the people around him to avoid making any possible flaws and yet getting the maximum benefit out for himself.

I really like his character. ARATA has acted well as the antagonist which has no less advantage in comparison to that of Eguchi. The magician of Caribbean Sea has proven himself as the stoic and unpredictable character with every action with its meaning behind.

Another surprise was Asou Kumiko's (麻生久美子) character - Kawajima Kaori. The early 30'ish model is not the type of lady who gives you the "wow" factor straight off, but I have to admit she has been very attractive at her age. She seems to have some past with Murakumo which made her the "current" partner - hopefully this part will be elaborated more at a later stage. Right now Kaori is presented as a thrill-seeking widow who will do whatever sacrifice she has to do in order to see Murakumo till the end, disregard successful or not.

Saito Takumi (齋藤工) was meant to be another important character - but so far Eguchi and ARATA has been shining too bright so...hopefully Saito will have more parts to act at a later stage (which I'm sure he will).

And Kimura Tae (木村多江)...I thought you are finally able to continue on the "impossible relationship" within that of "Kyumei Byoutou" series (救命病棟24時), but you only managed to be Eguchi's wife for 1 episode....very sad.

EP1 and 2 basically lies the foundation of the main characters so audience get to have certain understanding of the characters in depth. Storyline is very fast paced so you'll find each episode too short like I do :)

The only downside I find so far is all the tax & tax avoiding jargons which the characters use the whole time. Although there are brief explanation on each but it's probably too fast for the user to understand fully. Apart from this I don't see much problem with this drama, it's a must get!