HERO 2

Summer 2014

After being transferred to other districts, Kohei Kuryu (Takuya Kimura) the charismatic public prosecutor returns to Josai branch of the Tokyo district prosecutor's office. Old and new faces greet him including his beautiful new assistant Chika Asagi (Keiko Kitagawa). Will the branch be able to tolerate Kuryu's meticulous style of seeking truth and justice?

Recommendation: Well in terms of the ratings it looks like Takuya Kimura is back on top returning as Kohei Kuryu. It was good to see him in a drama that helped solidify his status as a popular actor. In terms of the drama itself though, it's basically the same formula as the original series with some minor cosmetic changes. Honestly, like the first series, I think that Kuryu is just too good at what he does and so there isn't a lot of drama or tension in each episode. I was hoping for more back story from other characters. Even in the first series the supporting cast didn't do much and I hoped that they could of added some special skills for the other members to help Kuryu in a pinch more often. I did begin to enjoy the stories from around episode 9 and I was happy to see the bartender back with his usual "aruyo" cameos, but overall the drama comes off as a bit pretentious and too idealistic for my taste. Still, it's always a pleasure to see Kimura act and Kitagawa wasn't bad either. Strangely, I did miss Kuryu's orange down jacket...

Story: 0.5
Acting: 1.0
Directing: 0.5
Character Development: 0.5
Emotional Factor: 0.5

3.0 Out Of 5.0 Crowns

N NO TAMENI (Nのために)

Fall 2014

N No Tame Ni is a drama based on a best selling novel by Kanae Minato. The story is based on four young adults, Nozomi Sugishita (Nana Eikura), Shinji Naruse (Masataka Kubota), Nozomi Ando (Kento Kaku) and Masato Nishizaki (Keisuke Koide) who are found at a crime scene with Naoko Noguchi (Manami Konishi) and her husband Takahiro Noguchi (Yoshimi Tokui) dead on the floor. Nishizaki is sentenced to a 10 year prison term for confessing that he committed the crime and that no else was involved. 10 years later, when Nishizaki is released from prison, a former police officer Shigeru Takano (Tomokazu Miura) who worked on an island in the Seto Inland Sea has doubts about the verdict in the case, especially because he was acquainted with Sugishita and Naruse 15 years ago when they both lived on the same island and were involved in an unsolved crime.

Recommendation: So it's been about a year since I posted on my blog and I do deeply apologize as I was busy with other hobbies of mine. Nevertheless, I am back and I watched this drama because a friend recommended to me. I usually try to avoid possibly dark, moody, creepy crime dramas but this one was actually not as heavy as other ones that I've seen. The acting is also very good and the chemistry between the actors/actresses were quite smooth in my opinion. It is a bit on the slow side, but it has its moments of suspense and the story keeps you on your toes as the crime unfolds, teetering back and forth 10 and 15 years ago and then back to the present day to offer clues of the crime that took place. If you like mystery crime dramas, this is one to watch. It's all about misunderstandings so I was caught off guard in terms of how it all played out.

Story: 1.0
Acting: 1.0
Directing: 1.0
Character Development: 1.0
Emotional Factor: 0.5

4.5 Out Of 5.0 Crowns