Caster (2025)

"Every day is April Fools"

Abe Hiroshi played much the same type of character in News Anchor aka Caster as he did in Vivant. I liked that character so I was okay with him looking rumpled, stunning and irreverent in his black suit and white shirt, this time as a no holds barred news anchor.

Shindo Soichi is hired to destroy the JBN news program from the root. Failing and stagnant, the evening news might need a shakeup with a journalist who doesn’t play by the rules, but the employees aren’t overjoyed by his process. Sakikubo Hana is tasked with being his handler. She has a secret past connected to him that makes her loathe his presence. Motohashi Yusuke normally handles the camera on assignments and is often caught between Shindo and Sakikubo. What neither of his colleagues know, is that Shindo is also searching for the people behind the death of his father and attack on his former wife.

As I mentioned, I’m okay with Abe playing Abe. At 61, he’s still got it. Shindo was the stereotypical loose cannon that doesn’t play by the rules but (nearly) always gets his man. Nagano Mei as Sakikubo Hana, despite her offset troubles, was handed a tough role. Perhaps Sakikubo was supposed to be the voice of compassion but I found her completely insufferable from beginning to end.

News Anchor had the murder mystery and coverup at its base. On the surface it covered organ transplants and Japan’s extraordinarily low donation rates, murder, sneak photography, and a wildfire. It also showed how reporters and news stations often comply with governmental offices, sponsors, and police departments in order to maintain access. It’s something that happens worldwide and has been one of the worst things to happen to news organizations. By refusing to ask the tough questions and dig for the real answers in order to access the soundbites they need, they cede reality and truth to those in power. Shindo blew past all those niceties.

Aside from Sakikubo who was nails on a chalkboard to me, I enjoyed News Anchor for the most part. That’s not to say it was a great drama, far from it. Aside from the FL, the various pieces of the puzzle were ham-fistedly shoved together in the last episode while leaving the corner piece to be found should there be a season 2. News Anchor took a lot of dramatic license and loved to throw out red herrings. Probably only for fans of Abe Hiroshi or other actors attached to the drama and viewers who don’t need a great deal of realism in their journalistic drama. Categories it would seem, I fell into. lol

13 July 2025

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Bland, predictable, boring

Every episode tackles a societal issue such as police brutality, gambling, healthcare, corruption, illegal porn etc.
Sadly those issues get a surface level treatment, while the majority of the episode is just getting a source to reveal something sinister such as a lie or conspiracy. Plot twist upon plot twist each episode. that always ends the same way; the truth is revealed live on TV by the news anchor.

The series just can't decide what it wants to be, a commentary on japanese society, an insight into the work of a news anchor or just a drama of humans, and that is probably why it fails on all those things. It's so bland, so boring, so predictable.

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