Kagi no Kakatta Heya 2014 SP Review

Title: Kagi no Kakatta Heya Special

AKA: The Locked Room Murders

Genre: Mystery, Detective

Broadcast date: 2014-Jan-03

Theme song: Face Down by Arashi

Cast: Ohno Satoshi, Toda Erika, Sato Koichi and Fujiki Naohito.

The story continues after Enomoto (Ohno Satoshi) leaves Japan, after the case of the missing diamonds. Serizawa (Sato Koichi) has been successful in many of his cases due to the extra time he has got with not following around Enomoto, and Aoto (Toda Erika) has become more familiar with her work after having become a real lawyer on her own. Even though they have not heard of Enomoto for a long time, the two secretly miss the “Team Enomoto” and the mystery cases.

When Serizawa arrives early at a client’s home, he sleeps in his car after spotting a man looking at him, and is woken by the client’s niece. The two enter the locked room only to find him murders. At the same time Aoto is looking for a man who has saved a man’s life, but had no way of entering the room except with a key. There she meets Enomoto again, who solves the case in matter of minutes, and decides to help Serizawa in finding the locked door murderer…

This drama has a certain ‘feel’ to it, which I had forgotten about. But when watching the special all the emotions and the ‘feel’ I had watching the serial, I remembered when watching the special. The comedy was great and awesome as always, and the crime was amazing due to the point it being actually reasonable and not theatrical. I was actually very interested in seeing how the killer did it, which I couldn’t do in any way even if it was possible to guess. I love these actors, Ohno of course, Erika as always, but I really enjoyed Koichis comedic role. I love that Erikas character has become smarter in guessing the murders, and also I love Ohnos character becoming more interesting, with that I mean his past and most definatly his way of dealing with his knowledge..

So recommendable? Yes, but you should watch the drama, just for the sake of the amazing cast.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

Blackboard Part 2 - Ikiro SP Review

Title: Blackboard part 2 - Ikiro

AKA: Blackboard: Survive

Genre: School, School violence

Broadcast date: 06 Apr 2012

Cast: Sato Koichi, Shida Mira and Kanjita Shiori.

This is the second out of 3 stories about the school system changing in Japan.

Gota Akira (Sato Koichi) used to be a student of Shirahama’s (Sakurai Sho), and he has a hard time understanding the students hate for school, since he had a hard time being able to go to school at all. Never the less did he become a teacher, but with a different vision than most teachers. He became infamous in his previous school as a “violent teacher” meaning he uses corporal punishment towards delinquent students, which most schools are having a hard time dealing with, mainly ‘school violence’ meaning the school is getting vandalized.

On his very first day he meets the root of the problem, Furusawa Yukari (Shida Mira) who was forced into suspension, and has come back, but ruined several classrooms with two of her friends. When the two meet, Gota uses ‘his fist’ on the delinquents, and gets a lot of attention, not only by teachers, but also parents and the media..

I actually like this one more than the other one, even though it’s Sakurai. This one focuses more on the students and the school as a general, and also makes you wonder about different kinds of situations. Okay yes, the delinquent part does make it more my kind of genre, but on the other hand the storyline seems more school-related. The actors are doing a good job, even though it does get lengthy at the end. Somehow they manage to get it swirling in its own bad habits, but yet it has the flavor of excitement.. LOL.

It’s good, and worth 2 hours of your time - or mine at least.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts