CRISIS Review

Title: CRISIS

AKA: Crisis: Public Security Mobile Investigation Unit Special Investigation Team

Genre: Police, Action

Episodes: 10

Broadcast period: 2017-Apr to 2017-Jun

Cast: Oguri Shun, Nishijima Hidetoshi, Tanaka Tetsushi, Nomaguchi Toru, Araki Yuko and Nagatsuka Kyozo.

This drama follows an elite squad focusing on the national security, the Special Security Squad (SSS)

Inami Akira (Oguri Shun) is a former SDF (Special Defense Force), but due to a traumatizing event he was discharged. His partner Tamaru Saburo (Nishijima Hidetoshi) is a stoic character, specializing in undercover work. These two are the 'legs' out of the quintet group, containing the chief Yoshinaga Mitsunari (Tanaka Tetsushi), a biochemist Kashii Yusuke (Nomaguchi Toru) and hacker Oyama Rei (Araki Yuko). The group deals with terrorists, bomb threats and other national emergencies.

Soon a terrorist group called the "Heisei Restoration Army" begin to unveil their plans of political ideal, and it is up the SSS to stop them...

I started this drama because of Oguri Shun, and I finished it because of him. When I started it, it was very exciting as I hadn't seen any Japanese dramas with such a quality fighting – but unfortunately, I felt bored towards the end. Not the fighting or even the story, but the overall progress and direction. I was a bit hopeful halfway through, but noticed very fast how it would end, and which way the narrative went. This ruined the experience for me, but it might not be like that for everyone. The action and acting is good, and the dialogues were good as well. So it might be your cup of tea.

All in all, a good drama, but not a favorite of mine.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts

Team Batista 2 Review

Title: Team Batista 2

AKA: The Triumphant return of General Rouge

Genre: Medical, Mystery

Episodes: 12 + SP

Broadcast period: 2010 Apr to 2010 Jun

Cast: Ito Atasushi, Nakamura Toru, Nishijima Hidetoshi, Kato Ai and Matsuaka Tori

Six months after the Batista incident, Taguchi Kohei (Ito Atasushi) is still working in the Special Complaint Department. When a former patient of his gets admitted to the Emergency Room he is called upon and meets the famous ‘General Rouge’ Hayami Koichi (Nishijima Hidetoshi) a man famous for accepting all patients and never letting anyone rest. At the same time he stumbles upon Shiratori Keisuke (Nakamura Toru) who is back to do a compulsory audit on the hospital, and becomes fairly interested in Hayami whom he seems to have a former relationship with. When some doubtful documents pop up, Shiratori makes Taguchi join the Emergency Room team as the ‘Mental Care’ doctor, meaning dealing with the mental states of the patients, but also helping them overcome their emotions. With Taguchi there it gives Shiratori the ability to check up on Hayami, and to find out what really is going on…

Again the great thing about dramas is that you can get to know the characters and their situations better than in a movie, and that is what I think makes the biggest difference between the movie and drama. Though the movie was great the drama sort of is much more detailed and much more heartfelt - kind of lets you like the characters more, even though they are not all that great. The duo has grown even more on me - like Sherlock and Watson - they have these comic moments and usually work extremely well together, yet they are complete opposites. And honestly I like season 2 a bit better than season 1 :)

But you can watch season 2 without having watched season 1, though season 1 is great watch too..

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

School!! Review

Title: School!!
Genre: School
Episodes: 9
Broadcast period: 2011-Jan to 2011-Mar
Cast: Eguchi Yosuke, Nishijima Hidetoshi and Kitano Kii.

This drama revolves around a newly hired principle, Naruse Shinjiro (Eguchi Yosuke), who believes in team work and that every person no matter age has to deal with the consequence of any action. The school he arrives at is different than what he’s used to: the students are basically ’saved’ from any form of danger, meaning things like sports day are banned because the children could get hurt. It is very different than the usual neglected students, but in a way much more messed up, since these students have too much power, and too few rights.
Naruse takes on the challenge in making sure the school will stay in it’s spot…

I was once called ”the demon of reviews” (joke joke!)… Just wanted to try that! Hehe… That Naruse Teacher keeps saying ”the demon - of this and that” lol, in the end everyone was saying it!
The drama is good, little slow in the beginning, especially as a school drama, but it slowly picks up, and I ended up liking it. It was also pretty interesting to have it from the principles point of view instead of a teachers. Another thing I really liked was that the people involved were human, or human like, instead of the typical ’Yankumi’ type. And the teachers (and principle) were all learning, they didn’t just lecture. They made mistakes, and tried really hard to correct them.
To sum up, defiantly worth a watch ^^

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts