Those like me who are big fans of Higashino Keigo and Meitantei Conan will surely like this. Nice plots, funny, non-intrusive comic relief...too bad they tried to really screw everything up with the last episode (so bad it hurts, seriously!), but they recovered well with the very nice special. Apart from the aforementioned crappy episode 10, the only thing that really bothered me was the absurdity of the "Galileo-starts-writing-formulas-on-some-crazy-surfaces" scenes, present in each ep.; c'mon guys, I understand that a bloc-notes and a pen would have been less dramatic, but there's a fine line between dramatism and idiocy, and those scenes went too far imho...
The main issue I have with this dorama is that, until ep.8, the only interesting things about it were the scenes with Romaya-sensei and the ever-changing BTS clips shown during the closing credits (BTW, great song, seriously!). Dull script, unappealing characters and an annoying plot (or rather lack thereof) made it a real pain in the you-know-what to keep on watching until that point. Luckily, though, I didn't give up, as things picked up very quickly from then on and the last episodes were like a fireworks display reaching its climax. Now, how to grade something like that? Seven painfully slow and uninspiring episodes would deserve a "3" or "4", 4 very good episodes could get an "8" or even a "9"...I'll go with something in between and give it a "6". Self-reminder in case I'll ever decide to rewatch it: watch the first ep., skip the next 6, and enjoy the rest! :)
Although extremely difficult to categorize (Is this a noir? Or is it rather a drama? Is it a feel-good story? Or rather a dark tale of personal growth? Or maybe...a little bit of all of the above, and then some more?), this is without the slightest doubt a deeply original and interesting dorama, featuring a very nice message, a pretty weird but solid script, some great acting (plus, there's Yoshitaka Yuriko, which is always a good selling point for me), some very good directing/photography, and last but not least, a superb jazzy soundtrack!
Kamiji Yusuke is funny. Aya Ueto is beautiful, and so is Kuninaka Ryoko (though I must confess having been eerily attracted by Wakamura Mayumi and her impeccable blonde bob, here). The story is the Nth retelling of Cinderella's tale (or maybe I should write "stale", heh), this time with a coupla twists that actually made it a little less annoying than usual, for this humble reviewer: 1) he's poor, and she's loaded; 2) being loaded isn't the goal here - as a matter of fact, the dorama conveys the message that being loaded and being a decent human being are pretty much mutually exclusive (something that I appreciated - what with the "it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven" and all that, you know). Unfortunately most of the dorama is just "meh", often being silly rather than funny. Still, differently from other reviewers, I liked the last episodes a lot better than the previous ones, and as far as I'm concerned those last eps and the afore-mentioned message are the reasons why this gets a passing grade.
I could only find this unsubbed (and without the Special, BTW), but I still just HAD TO watch it, since it's based on one of my all-time favorite manga (published in English as "Steaming Sniper"). Unfortunately, my understanding of Japanese is limited to the simplest sentences, although I could still follow some eps - those which were (loosely) based on chapters from the original manga so with those I already knew more or less what was going on - and the 2-out-of-10 words I could grasp here and there also helped a bit; so all in all I won't comment on the dialogues, as it'd be unfair of me to do so. I'll still comment on the script, though, albeit admitting that, given the complexity (and the length) of the manga, there was no way one could manage to squeeze it into 12 short eps. (less than 30 minutes each, minus the opening and ending credits and the preview of next episode, let's say around 25 minutes each, actually). The only way one could have done justice to "Steaming Sniper" would have been to make an AsaDora out of it. Now, if you watch this dorama you'll think that it'd be absolutely impossible, given the sex and the violence which are in it! Well, this is where, fluency in Japanese aside, I have a real beef with whoever scripted this abomination, as it has very little to do with the original story, and that showed a lack of respect which I can't forgive. For instance, although targeted at a more grown-up audience, the manga ain't no freaking hentai nor a frigging gangster story "à la John Woo", for crying out loud! It's a "slice of life" story, dammit! Still, the dorama writer(s) specifically selected the manga chapters containing some sex & violence (which are minor ingredients in the manga chapters themselves, but became, like, the main dish here!) and even went the extra mile and added more sex and violence which weren't anywhere in the manga - and all this really pissed me off, to be honest. So, I'll stand by my opinion that this could've worked as an asadora, since "Steaming Sniper" doesn't revolve around sex and violence, and 99% of that could be expunged from the story without affecting its value at all (and as for the remaining 1%? Well, what's so bad in a good old fadeout here and there?), and with 16 volumes, each consisting of 10 or 11 chapters, there would have been enough material to write the around 150 eps. of an asadora. Had they done that, maybe they could've also afforded a better cast - and look, I'm not discussing the acting skills of the actors/actresses chosen for this; I'll only say they have very little - and in some case nothing at all! - in common with the manga characters! I particularly disagreed with the casting choices regarding Gen-san, the Okami and Tomoyo-san! (Ooohhh, that lazy and silly decision of using two different actresses for Tomoyo-san with or without makeup! Aaaargh...) Okay, I've written too much already: considering all of the above, I couldn't possibly give this a passing grade. The beautiful, jazzy musical score still managed to sweeten the pill up a bit, so I'll give this "only" 5 out of 10 and not 4 or even 3 as I was tempted to...
While looking for the right words to comment on this dorama, I'm wondering whether I should copy&paste the review I wrote on another site for "Kanojotachi No Jidai" ("Scriptwriting 101: the ideal script should have great characters and a great plot; you can still write something nice with a weak (or even no) plot but at least great characters, and you can still come up with something watchable with weak characters but at least a great plot. But if you write something with no plot and dull characters, what you'll get in the end is just a waste of film. Uninspiring.") or if I'd rather take inspiration from what a fellow reviewer wrote on that very same site ("...I didn't really care for the characters, which is not a good thing for a character-based drama"). Or maybe I should be less lazy and, instead of copying&pasting something previously written, I should try writing something new? Then a possibility could be the "Christmas Present Metaphor": you know how some Christmas presents look so beautiful all wrapped up nicely and whatnot (just like the photography, editing and directing in this dorama) but when you finally unwrap and open them up you realize they may have looked beautiful from the outside, but actually there's just a totally plain, dull and uninspiring thing inside? I'll let you pick the approach that you'll find more appropriate. As for me, even taking into consideration the great performances by Tsumabuki Satoshi, Eita and Aoi Yu - BTW, what a waste of acting talent, casting them for this poor script! - and also the lovely opening credit song....still, I can't possibly give this waste of film anything higher than a 4/10. Boring, uninspiring and horribly, painstakingly, intolerably verbose!
Matsuoka Mayu is really beautiful and Itoh Sairi is seriously über-funny (so much so that after a coupla episodes I realized that I had ended up being a lot more attracted by her than by her colleague, LOL!), but this weird "mockumentary-behind-the-scenes-of-a-fake-tv-program-metatvdorama-whatchamacallit" is, well, pretty much a load of cr*p - pardon my French, but there's no better nor more honest way to put what I sincerely think of this dorama...^_^; p.s. nice opening&ending credits songs, though!
Shinohara Ryoko and Eguchi Ryosuke were both very good. Unfortunately, the dorama itself was horribly slow and I couldn't help feeling that it was unnecessarily dragged (and filled with useless side stories, subplots and minor characters) only in order to stretch into twelve episodes what would've worked much better as a movie or anyway as a much shorter drama. It's a pity, because the last episode was imho very good - but having to endure eleven, mostly boring episodes to get there, was pretty tiring!
There's an Italian idiom ("senza infamia e senza lode") which would apply perfectly to this dorama. In English it would mean, literally, "without infamy nor praise", and in a less literal and therefore better translation, it would sound as "not particularly worth of praise, nor of criticism". The dorama has its moments and the main actors (Kanno Miho, Amami Yuki, Tamaki Hiroshi, Koichi Mantaro and Miyoshi Ayaka) all deliver solid performances. Unfortunately, the script is a bit plain, so it ends up been watchable and even quite enjoyable, but at the same time not particularly remarkable.
One of the most original dorama I've ever seen (possibly, THE most original!), this lovely production shines thanks to a beautifully written script, to some enchanting characters, and to a superb performance by the whole cast! My personal top3: Nagase Tomoya, whose performance here could very well be his best ever; Yakushimaru Hiroko, whom - as cheesy as it may sound! - I'll always fondly remember as the okaa-san in "1 lt. No Namida"; Kutsuna Shiori...who's simply gorgeous, period...^_________^;
There were some good moments and a coupla good episodes, but that was it; imho this second season is much weaker than the first one (Toda Erika was soon replaced with Hasegawa Kyoko, and being a fan of the former, that also contributed to my disliking of this season, sorry...^__^;;;...); the humor bits, which had a big part in my liking of the previous season, were much less funny this time around (let's face it: you can only laugh that much about Yamamu's iron wig!) and the plots were mostly poorly written...
Having watched them almost one after the other, I couldn't help comparing this dorama to "Unfair" (particularly since they're both cop-shows with a female lead) and imho "Boss" wins hands down: not only is the main character much better (somebody with brains instead of a female "Dirty Harry"), but also the supporting cast is quite good, the plots make some sense and the constant humor makes it much more enjoyable (all this imho of course). I didn't have many expectations but I ended up unexpectedly liking it.
Being quite a big fan of Japanese mystery comics (Meitantei Conan) and novels (namely, Higashino!), I really enjoyed this anthology series! True, a coupla episodes are only so-and-so imho (#3,4,7), but several others are absolutely brilliant (#1,2,5,6,8,11), and the average quality is therefore pretty damn good imho. The frame story being played for a few seconds before and after each episode and reaching the climax at the end of the series is also enjoyable (making constant fun of mystery tropes in a very fast-paced and minimal way - kind of like a 4-koma manga, if you know what I mean - adds some nice comic relief). A well-deserved "8", as far as I'm concerned! ;)
Albeit as crazy and "shonenjumpesque" as they come, this dorama and its sequel do provide a few hours of evasion and entertainment. Morikawa Aoi is a perfect "tsundere" type and Hamabe Minami does also really well as the compulsive gambler - managing to be at the same time funny and scary when she goes "gamblerserk" and shouts/utters/whispers - depending on the episode - "Kakeguruimashou!". I might raise or lower the vote depending on how they wrap everything up in the subsequent movie (which I haven't watched yet), though...
Calm, relaxing, full of "mono no aware", it reminded me of two of my favorite manga, "Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou" and "Aqua/Aria". Unfortunately, I think that some characters aren't developed enough (Seitarou, Barbara, Danshaku) while others are, imho, absolutely useless (Morikage-san, most of all!). And that's the reason why it gets "only" a 9 instead of a 10. But it's still a very nice dorama, too bad it didn't get more episodes or a second season...this stationery store is a place one would love to visit time and again, just like "Café Alpha" or "Aria Company" ;)
