Review of Mr.Brain Ep 2

Please be warned beforehand that there are some spoilers in this review so if you have not watched this episode, you may wish to skip this post.

Compared to the first episode's story, I prefer the case presented in Ep 2. There were some loopholes here and there e.g. why nobody detected the conspiracy between the policemen who covered what they did. During questioning, it is always common to see someone monitoring the interrogation from another room while the duo who do the work itself are talking to the suspect. As such, I found it strange that the duo had a chance to negotiate a deal with Takegami Teijirou (Gackt) without anyone's knowledge. In addition, it just makes no sense that a junior level staff can hack into the system to change fingerprint records where there should be multiple levels of security to guard against such actions. A password protected system is not sufficient especially when it comes to such an important amendment to the database.

Nonetheless, it was still interesting to see how the people at IPS managed to reconstruct the actual happenings from past evidence. Goes to show how advances in technology can really help in nabbing criminals. However, it also brings to mind another question. Although the police can say that technology wasn't to their favour years ago, the sloppiness displayed during investigation showed that the attitude towards handling of cases leaves much to be desired. With the best technology but with a slipshod way of doing things, there is only so much that science can help in investigations. And that is probably Takegami could manage to manipulate people even though he was behind bars and on death row.

Gackt did a pretty good job this time although his character had very little airtime. Compared to the other guest star Koyuki, I'm sure most people would agree that Gackt made a stronger impression on viewers. All along, Gackt has been very secretive about his private life. Maybe it's because of this secrecy factor which makes Gackt very hard to fathom. And this lends credibility to his potrayal of a maniac killer who seems to have no logic in his actions. It does get really gross when the scenes about Takegami feasting on his victims are shown but Gackt did look the part. It is by no means easy to do this but on the other hand, I can't help wondering if this mystique air will be an obstacle for Gackt if he has to take on an "ordinary" man role in future. Nonetheless, good job this time by Gackt!

I still don't like Kimura's hairstyle and I really think his stylist or whoever came up with this image should reconsider why Tsukumo must take on this style. It makes me cringe everytime I see Kimura on screen. I don't wish to discuss too much about Kimura's performance for now and would like to reflect on this at the end of the drama. I must say that I am not too impressed at the moment though. There isn't much novelty to distinguish Tsukumo from the past Kimura roles.

However, I think his pairing with Ayase Haruka is rather good. It was rumoured that Ayase was specially picked by Kimura to be his partner this time since they worked well together in HERO. Ayase's role Yuri Kazune may be fooled all the time by Tsukumo but the bantering between the two of them is enjoyable to watch which speaks volumes about their chemistry. When it's time for them to get serious, they work well together too. I just hope the scriptwriter doesn't "force" them to get romantically involved. It would be better to keep the relationship between them platonic or else this drama might evolve into another soppy love story. Do take notice of the little anime clips appearing in each episode where Tsukumo explains some neurology theory. The chibi-characters of Tsukumo and Yuri are quite cute to look at and makes the difficult concepts easier to understand.

Talking about Koyuki's involvement in this drama, I can't really say that she did badly. Her performance was as usual to a certain standard but there wasn't anything too spectacular about her role. And it was so easy to guess that she was not as innocent as she seemed. A damsel in distress? You would be greatly mistaken if you think of her role Miyase Kumiko in this way. Usually in such detective/investigative dramas, it's easy to guess who is the culprit because he/she is usually played by a well-known actor/actress. And of course since Koyuki was in the drama, it was highly unlikely that her role would be limited to a victim's fiancee. As such, it was quite easy to see through her even before she was said to be suspicious by Tsukumo.

The 2nd episode managed to salvage the waning interest I had for this drama but it is too early to say if I will grow to like this drama in the end. The trailer in the 3rd episode features Kamenashi Kazuya and Aibu Saki. The media was making a big hoo-ha over Kamenashi's appearance in this drama but frankly speaking, I'm not keen about his onscreen collaboration with Kimura. Like what I said previously, big names or those who attract attention may be selected to appear as guests but the story must be able to stand on its own. If not, all the big stars would not be able to save a sinking plot and end up as ratings poison. I'll wait and see how Ep 3 turns out then.