You can also check the most popular list for this drama on MDL "HPriest's Subbing Projects" for direct links to the two most common places for jdrama subs and my patreon at the top of the list (description), which also has the subs.
This drama has the biggest and most frustrating flaw -- it's too good yet too short! It's been years since I felt…
I know what you mean. When I first watched it while it was on the air, I dreaded the approach of the ending because of the same complicated feelings, but I couldn't wait to watch it. Unfortunately or fortunately, I can only sub about one episode a week, so people who watch along with the subs will experience the same excitement and dread week after week. :,)
Thanks a bunch! I really appreciate your work! The first episode was very enjoyable.By the way, are you watching…
I haven't yet, no. It's only on unext and they don't offer Japanese captions. I always feel like I'm missing something if I don't have Japanese captions to support my Japanese listening ability. ^^;
I'm curious how you like this moot finale. I guess this will help some people realize that this isn't some fiction, but a real thing that happened back in the late 90's and early 2000's, so there isn't some great victory for our protagonist.
Also, the author of the original non-fiction novel specifically seeks out people and stories like this one to write about, because he wants to highlight people who work blood, sweat and tears simply out of conviction and not for some grand motives. He often gets approached by people and receives story that are more heroic, but he usually refuses them. He doesn't want another Hanzawa Naoki story, he wants write about the cogwheels or "pebbles" (ishi tsubute) that work in big organizations.
If I remember correctly, the author used to be a newspaper reporter for Yomiuri himself. He also was in charge of covering Second Division at some point, getting to know the types of detectives who work there. Later, after he became a novelist, there was a year in which 0 corruption cases were uncovered by them (as prophesied by Yagura in the drama), so he got curious whether that could actually be true or if there were some great powers working their machinations behind the scenes to keep corruption from being uncovered. He then went down the past and saw that this case fraud case was the last "big" case uncovered by Second Division and started to interview all the people involved on both sides.
Another thing I like is how they included the baton pass at the end. In some interview, the author stated that it's not just the power from above that causes the number of uncovered corruption cases to decrease, but also the lack of certain types of detectives. As the drama portrayed, you kinda need old-school hard-boiled detectives to really dig in there, because the government and all the ministries, etc. haven't really changed much over time. They're still the rigid old organizations. The old-school detectives, however, have died out and their know-how has been lost to time, since you can only teach so much to newer generations. Yagura served as a hopeful symbol in the drama, and there are probably still some hot-blooded newcomers today, but they're few and far between.
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Check the most popular list for this drama here on MDL for more info.
Feel free to share your thoughts (in spoiler tags).
You know where to look.
Also, the author of the original non-fiction novel specifically seeks out people and stories like this one to write about, because he wants to highlight people who work blood, sweat and tears simply out of conviction and not for some grand motives. He often gets approached by people and receives story that are more heroic, but he usually refuses them. He doesn't want another Hanzawa Naoki story, he wants write about the cogwheels or "pebbles" (ishi tsubute) that work in big organizations.
If I remember correctly, the author used to be a newspaper reporter for Yomiuri himself. He also was in charge of covering Second Division at some point, getting to know the types of detectives who work there. Later, after he became a novelist, there was a year in which 0 corruption cases were uncovered by them (as prophesied by Yagura in the drama), so he got curious whether that could actually be true or if there were some great powers working their machinations behind the scenes to keep corruption from being uncovered. He then went down the past and saw that this case fraud case was the last "big" case uncovered by Second Division and started to interview all the people involved on both sides.
Another thing I like is how they included the baton pass at the end. In some interview, the author stated that it's not just the power from above that causes the number of uncovered corruption cases to decrease, but also the lack of certain types of detectives. As the drama portrayed, you kinda need old-school hard-boiled detectives to really dig in there, because the government and all the ministries, etc. haven't really changed much over time. They're still the rigid old organizations. The old-school detectives, however, have died out and their know-how has been lost to time, since you can only teach so much to newer generations. Yagura served as a hopeful symbol in the drama, and there are probably still some hot-blooded newcomers today, but they're few and far between.