The battle of wits between Atsuro Watabe & Jiro Sato (superstar!) The meta joke (?) of casting a nepo in a desk job, and Ryota Bando on the beat trying to move up the ladder. Much better constructed than Ngai's last thriller, Character (2021). It's so rare to see a thriller entirely driven by the central acting performance.
A must-see if you like the comedies by the "Fukuda group". Especially EPS 6 - the shoe is on the other foot of Jiro Sato for once, and Tsuyoshi Muro opens with an incredible, sweetest skit. The recurring themes of night shift at convenience store, a lovelorn woman for a handsome lead, etc. in Fukuda comedies have never been done better. And it says much more about Japan's "lost generation" than serious movies by Kyoshi Kurosawa or the festival traveling arthouse movies. It is so grounded in issues of Japanese economy, I do not think it compares to Seinfeld at all. More like Tortilla Flat meets Napoleon Dynamite (Kenji Urai!), but completely its own thing.
By the last episode, the web of conflicts set up in the first 9 feels like an epic on par with Fukusaku's 70s cops VS. yakuza movies. No wonder the mangaka had a 10 year break between this and his loan shark series! The bromance doesn't kick in until EPS 10, which has interesting work from Hakuto Matsumura. Supporting roles are almost more important than the leads. Ishikawa Ruka and Kurosaki Kodai do such realistic work I expect them to be future heavyweights, as Ryota Bando will be from Light of My Lion. This matches Yagira's comment about awareness of social issues; his role is not the typical unsung hero/heroic savior holding anyone's hand. Everyone has to make their own choices in life.
Yoshizawa really comes into his own in this meaty role. At 1 point he goes crazy in EPS 5, his face recalls Kazuo Hasegawa (who also played an onnagata in An Actor's Revenge!)
A prospective employer telling ML to take a pill, no explanations given, before he'd be hired? Informed consent has been a touchy issue since 2020. It's unfortunate Nogi Akiko isn't aware of this (especially after making MERS a normal event in Unnatural.)
What a beautiful surprise! It's too good, and i love the ending, they all knew that one day they have to separate…
The separation came especially after Mi-kun got Hiroto to save "Lion", then proceeded to play with "Lion" and sideline Hiroto (tired out from the rescue mission) completely. The last 2 EPS are very anti-climatic for their growing distance and estrangement. It's interesting that Hiroto is a mature adult if he takes care of others beyond what's reasonable, but he is at a total loss for himself. He had no identity at all, but most people would think he's a catch from the way he handles anything by de-escalation.
https://archive.org/details/1_20260430_20260430_2040
https://archive.org/details/15_20260430_20260430
The bromance doesn't kick in until EPS 10, which has interesting work from Hakuto Matsumura. Supporting roles are almost more important than the leads. Ishikawa Ruka and Kurosaki Kodai do such realistic work I expect them to be future heavyweights, as Ryota Bando will be from Light of My Lion. This matches Yagira's comment about awareness of social issues; his role is not the typical unsung hero/heroic savior holding anyone's hand. Everyone has to make their own choices in life.