Team Batista 2 ~The return of General Rouge~ EP1

Guys, I'm bacccckkkkk!!! XD

After some busy period I can finally continue to write about the some of the new season of Jap drama. Note there are plenty of great shows on - including Kimura Takuya's latest love themed "Moon Lovers" (previous one was done over 10 years ago), Itou Atsushi & Nakamura Touru's "Team Batista 2", Eita & Ueno Juri's "Sunao Ni Narenaku te" (can't be honest) etc...lots and lots of titles with my favourite actors!

Anyway...back to Team Batista 2 (TB2) for the time being. Not sure whether everyone has seen Team Batista 1? I had lots of fun watching it, thanks to great plot and great actors. For a quick rating I would give it 9/10.

And just some background to fill everyone in coz in TB2 it launches pretty much straight into the storyline. In this series there are two main characters - one is Itou Atushi's character "Taguchi Kouhei" (田口公平) who is basically more a mind/psychological consultant. He deals with patients by communicating with them via words, getting to know them in certain depth and help them out by seeking appropriate help or handing them over to the correct Toudai hospital department. A very friendly person but at times can be undecisive and slow.

Taguchi Kouhei (田口公平) - Acted by Itou Atsushi (伊藤淳史)

Whereas the other main character - Nakamura Touru's character "Shiratori Keisuke" (白鳥圭輔) is complete opposite character to that of Taguchi. He is very sharp and smart, and is always aggressive in the way he questions/comments. To Taguchi, he is like a complete crazy person....yet he is the key person to solving the mystery in TB1. And there is always a reason for his action, although hidden away in his seemingly crazy behaviour/comment.

Shiratori Keisuke (白鳥圭輔) - Acted by Nakamura Touru (仲村トオル)

So now it's season 2, although it's no longer about Batista operation - instead this season focuses on the Emergency Rescue sector, and the character Hayami Kouichi who is also known as "General Rouge".

Hayami Kouichi (速水晃一) - Acted by Nishijima Hidetoshi (西島秀俊)

EP1 started off with the fast paced ER sector daily operation, then Taguchi was introduced to the scene as who has consulted the current ER patient once 2 years ago, followed by Shiratori who is yet to reveal his true intention on the investigation of ER sector.

The whole of EP1 is based on investigating the case of a flight attendent falling into coma for no apparent reason and slowly revealing & solving the mystery case. Like that in season 1, watching the Taguchi & Shiratori combo solving the mystery is still a great enjoyment. Unlike season 1, season 2 seems like it'll be one case per episode or it'll be interesting to see how the scenario writer can link all these together. EP1 also laid some hidden issues for further elaboration such as Shiratori and Hayami's past, Hayami's link with Medical Assort and of course, his real intention to be here. All these gave a great kick start.

Also the music is still terrific - the tense upbeat is excellent to bring audience in for life-pressuring circumstances and this has been done very successfully. I also quite like the theme song's tranquility.

By end of EP1 Taguchi has been organised by Shiratori (behind the scenes of course) to become a member of the ER sector handling psycological consultation. And from the actions of Haymi in EP1 he seems to have some kind of plot going on under the table. Shiratori sensed the abnormality of Hayami with Medical Assort but would he be able to find out what is going on? Let's look forward to the next EP!