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!

Shinzanmono EP1

I've always loved Abe Hiroshi (阿部 寬) as an actor, ever since I watched him played the classic of the classic "Kekkon Dekinai Otoko" (The man who cannot get married). His acting skill is superb, and has always been a joyful to watch.

Although not as much change in expression as in his last work - "Shiroi Haru" (The White Spring) where he played as a ex-Yakuza dad, this time he is more of a stoic (or seemingly stoic?) character, or in fact more like an investigator - Kaga Kyoichirou. Still he portrayed the character well, even though the "ability" to able to read other peoples mind is definitely not easy to act at all.

The story portrays around Kaga as the new comer to the town "The doll town" and his investigations to the murder of a 40 year old single female in her own mansion. The storyline is one which comprises of sub-storylines, each acted as an episode, and they all tie together to reveal the truth of this murder case. Which makes it interesting - as you won't know the culprit until final episode. And each sub-storyline may seem unrelated to each other but they do form part of the puzzle.

And more importantly, there are frequent humour throughout each episode so it's definitely not dull at all. :)

Story was originally from one of the bestsellers author of Japan - Higashino Keigo (東野 圭吾) and Shinzanmono was a novel of Kaga Kyoichiro series. By the way, just in case you are wondering, Shinzanmono means "New Joiner". In the story it symbolizes Kaga both as a new joiner to the local police force as well as a new joiner to the Doll town with the investigations he perform around the town.

Also the main cast of this drama simply makes it worth watching. Apart from Abe Hiroshi, Kuroki Meisa (黒木メイサ), Mukai Osamu (向井 理), there are also other excellent actors such as Kagawa Teruyuki (香川 照之), Natsukawa Yui (夏川 結衣), Terajima Susumu (寺島 進) etc...just to name a few.

Music...here is another good example to complement the storyline. I'll let you go and discover them yourselves ;)

In conclusion, I have to give Shinzanmono an even higher rating than "Absolute Zero" - although both are definitely worth watching, but if you are short of time then Shinzanmono would be my recommended choice.

Another Century Episode R: PV1 Released!

Here it is:



Basically the OP of the game - a bit like teaser movie XD
Hopefully PV2 will be released soon to show some actual game play clips :)

ACE:R Official Website:
http://www.ace-game.jp/

Absolute Zero ~ Research of the unsolved cases EP1

"Absolute Zero" - I think that's enough to call this drama. Well, in case you are interested, the full name is
"『絶対零度～未解決事件特命捜査～』" 
And in English?
"Absolute Zero ~ Research of the unsolved cases ~"

Hey, it's actually not that bad huh? Anyway, I'll call it Absolute Zero from now on :)

Speaking of these detective type of drama there has been plenty. From what I could recall there would be at a minimum of one detective drama pretty much every season. And this season we have Absolute Zero which describes the story of a group of police investigators delving into the unsolved cases in the past.

Not sure whether this is the first time Uedo Aya play as the main actor? I havn't seen her much before - except in the time of "Konkatsu!" with Nakai Masahiro. Even then she didn't quite gave me the wow factor...maybe coz of the character.

But this time I think she plays quite well as Sakuragi Izumi, a 25 year old Police Sergeant who is mainly responsible for keeping memo during investigations. Sakuragi started off as a rookie and I believe she will grow as the storyline progresses. At least in EP1 she is still quite a rookie - and Uedo Aya played the ignorant part well. She makes mistakes like all of us do but quickly learns from it and most importantly, she has the perseverance to dig down to the bottom of a case.

She also has some interesting team members -

• Fukazawa Yuuki - who think she should just keep quiet and keep to her own notes XD

• Tsukamoto Keigo - who likes to plagiarize other people's work to gain all the merits, and a guy who likes to flirt around.
  
  
• Takamine Ryoko - seemingly cold outside but actually do help out when needed. She doesn't mind about gaining merits - a contrast to that of Tsukamoto
  
  
• And Sakuragi's top boss Nagashima Hideo - a very nice senpai who looks after Sakuragi well by giving her puzzles to solve all the time XD

Oh and not to mention those two in the labs who does analyses, the whole team is quite a combination. And that's what makes this a fun to watch.

OK enough about the characters, let's talk a bit about the storyline.

The story is actually quite sad, definitely not one you would watch for laughters. EP1 talks about a robbery done by 3 OLs 10 years ago, but all 3 OLs being chased after all disappeared just like vanishing into air. It's been 10 years and the case is not closed as no one can find the 3 OLs.

I find the way of interlacing the scenes 10 years ago (crime scenes of the 3 OLs) with that of today (investigations done by the Sakuragi team) a bit confusing. Although the way camera scenes taken for 10 years ago do look a bit old fashioned on purpose, but it can still be confusing especially in the beginning when no background information was given.

About mid way through when audiences have certain understanding to the story then it's much easier to settle into the interlacing concept. That's when the storyline becomes more enjoyable.

The story itself is quite intriguing and can easily attract the audience trying to find out the truth, although there are still illogical bugs here and there but every drama pretty much will have some. Again I must stress you only start to enjoy the story once you have certain understanding of the storyline - i.e. about one third way through.

Hopefully the interesting plot will continue on as we get to know more with these characters :)