Thebluescraze

I hope he gets best supporting actor for this.

Drama otaku has subbed version

AFAIK, this movie and drama are different stories. This movie is not a movie version of the drama. The only similarity is the ties to the song by HY.

I don't subscribe to u next but it's already subbed at drama otaku.

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Kainuma's technology was still useful in crime solving. A person can both be a genius and a psychopath. When Maki had dinner with Kainuma in ep 1/2, you could see Kainuma's hand trembling as he involuntarily knocked off a glass or something, and Maki asked he was OK. Kainuma's facade dropped a bit, clearly because of his age he was suffering from something. As for how he lured his victims, wasn't that revealed that he was a master of hypnosis. A single trigger event or word would drive his victims crazy and perform his bidding. He was involved with youth rehabilitation, training of the ninth, etc. It's plausible he didn't have to physically drag them to his house (his basement seemed to be where he killed his victims). Seemed like in his quest to develop the MRI technology, he needed to do a lot of research which involved tons of human brains from his victims. No one knew he went to this length to develop the MRI technology.

Hmm.. I can understand not getting the story better because not everything from the manga is adapted. But from your comment, I guess you didn't watch it properly? Because you wouldn't need to read the manga to answer the things you highlighted. The basis of this story is about a fictional technology used to aid investigation into serious crimes - the MRI brain scan that helped investigators view the Victim's Pov in order to find out their killer. It's literally a fictional technology and imo, they did quite well making sense of it, like how the brain needs to be extracted immediately upon death for best quality data. How not all that is shown by the brain is reliable because victims could be hallucinating, how severe damage to the brain would affect the brain's ability to be scanned, the ethical parts about whether it's right to even view a dead person's brain, and the implications on those who viewed the brains. Suzuki died, Maki's life at stake because of the secret he learned from the brain, etc. These premise alone made the story compelling to me.

As for the villain, isn't that the main point, though? Kainuma developed an obsession for Maki. He wanted to own him, he wanted him to suffer. He wanted Maki to never be able to forget him, to suffer from the fact that Maki himself killed his best friend Suzuki. Why? Kainuma was a psychopath, nothing he did would be logical to a sane person. Kainuma was also ill with something in the beginning, so he knew he would eventually die, he just wanted to go in a sadistic way so that Maki would never truly forget him.

As for the relationship, as someone mentioned, Aoki was pulled to Yukiko because he saw Suzuki's memories. Even he began to question his own feelings towards the end. Yukiko was genuinely attracted to Aoki because of his actions and personality. As for her feelings for Maki, that was hinted from ep 1 itself.

Yeah I honestly have to agree to disagree especially on the chemistry part because for me, Aoki and Maki's chemistry is top 3 of what makes this drama so good. Their chemistry is what also carried the manga and it's nice to see it translated to the screen. The manga always had that BL undertone anyway and they translated that so well again on screen

Go ahead and read it. It's been subbed, although not Season 0

I guess so. I mean, a part of me wondered whether I rated it too highly because I already read the manga and I really appreciate how well the adapted it vs usual LA adaptations. Made me wonder whether the drama was poor if not backed by additional clarification not adapted from the manga.

I saw a poor review of this drama and felt compelled to clarify the followings (even though the reviewer is entitled to their opinion) :
- Suzuki was never the main character from the manga. Scenes of Suzuki in the manga only appeared during flashbacks. Hence why they didn't explore his character in depth, especially given the limited no. of eps.
- Maki's character description was someone who looked too young for his age hence he would be confused as appearing much younger than his age. So yes, this was why Rihito was the perfect cast for Maki given Rihito's age. He was the perfect height and size too.
- Aoki's feelings for Yukiko was definitely compromised by his view of Suzuki's memories. Also, imo, Yukiko's feelings for Maki was never that shocking. From ep 1 itself, Suzuki himself already suspected this. Girl literally mentioned Maki after sleeping with Suzuki, like wth. Even in ep 6 when Yukiko and Maki argued, you could tell Yukiko vied for Maki's attention, so she attacked him where it hurt - bring up Suzuki and Aoki

My take from the manga is that it is definitely BL. I think they both have feelings for each other. Idk if you read the manga but the manga didn't stop with the airport scene. The scene afterwards definitely hinted at something more. Aoki explicitly expressed his intent to get to know Maki outside of work, spend time with him, and considered him a family. Maki hung a picture of Aoki and Mai in his Paris office and had a deep sense of protectiveness over Aoki. Besides, Yukiko married someone else and as per what I saw in Season 0 (it's not translated), Aoki never had any romantic attachment to anyone else even though Mai was about 6. For me, Maki waiting left the space for the two of them to develop something organically and Maki leaving didn't mean he would cut ties with Aoki.

I saw some on AO3.. Not many but there was one I absolutely love, it was written quite a while back

I wish we could Eng sub version of Season 0. Hopefully the drama's fame could get someone to sub it. Also, it's ongoing so I hope the author would also be motivated enough to release new chapters.

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That's exactly the point. It leaves it up for interpretation. You get this vibe as well from the manga.

For those wondering about the ongoing manga Himitsu Season 0 - no it's not subbed, and even though it's described as a prequel, the ongoing story has already gone into sequel mode. So it's not just a backstory of a young Maki and Suzuki anymore.

Tbh after reading the manga, I figured they'd end the series at the airport. I feel like they're definitely opening the door for a sequel with that ending. I hope they continue because we still have Season 0 manga which contains even more storyline to explore

If you mean a continuation, the manga continues with Himitsu - Season 0. It shows the life of Maki when he was a student and his friendship with Suzuki in university, but also an actual continuation after The Top Secret ended. Idk if you read the manga, but Season 0 definitely is a continuation And it's ongoing. Unfortunately it is not subbed yet. But some continuation from the manga, in case we ever see a sequel :
- Maki returns back to Japan after leaving and working in US and Paris at the end of top secret
- Time jump, Mai-Chan is 6 years old and even calls Maki as Maki-chan
- Yukiko's pregnant and her name's changed to her husband. She married an SP inspector but I forgot the name

Tbh I expected they would end the series at the airport because it fits perfectly with a teaser of whether or not to end the series or to continue with a sequel depending on the success of the drama (still find it weird why no ratings of this drama was released, only for ep 1). I also like that they were still teasing the AoMaki relationship. I love the change that they made to bring back Kainuma, I love the character so much more in the drama. But at the same time, I understand why they changed the name from Takizawa to Takimoto, because they changed the character and he was no longer the main villain. Aoki and Maki's scenes were all heartbreaking. Just realised that Aoki was pretty much a crybaby in all scenes shared with Maki. I really really hope there's a sequel.