Ep 2: Akogare no Hills e (Going to the aspired hills) - reference to Roppongi Hills since the office of Frontier is in that building
O.A. 21 Apr 2005
Ratings: 17.4% (an increase of 1.6% and the only drama so far to see an increase for the second episode)
It's getting better and I think the highlight of this drama would be the confrontations between Takayanagi (Tsutsumi) and Shimao (Kusanagi). Their conversations are always so full of meaning and Tsutsumi is such a fantastic actor. He's got that charm that will make you go crazy so he's definitely suited for this role. Seeing two good actors pit their skills against each other is definitely worth spending 45 minutes watching this every week besides the engaging story and wide range of supporting cast.
Shimao finally meets Takayangi and tells him that he wants to be rich. Actually, what spurred him to change his thinking is the fact that his mother died, his business collapsed and his house would be auctioned in a month's time if he does not have the money to buy it back from the bank. I guess he is unwilling to lose the only thing which holds fond memories of his family so Shimao made up his mind to change his situation.
Takayanagi seems to be rather unconvinced by Shimao's determination to be rich and tests him by showing how to cancel someone's contract even though the other party even went down on his knees. Being kind and soft-hearted, Shimao is definitely struggling to come to terms with Takayangi's ways which the latter tells him frankly that he has to be ruthless in order to succeed. If Shimao is just after a small sum of money, he has come to the wrong person because Takayanagi would only teach him how to make big money. Shimao cannot stay with him if he does not have the determination to reject people. He even tells Shimao outright that it is not the illness which killed his mother but rather poverty is the culprit. If Shimao had the money for the operation, his mother would be saved. Takayanagi reveals that he bought Shimao's IT company 6 years ago when he was in the Uni because Shimao had left the running of the company to his friend then since his father just passed away. Takayangi makes it clear that there are only 2 types of people in this world i.e. those who use people and those who are being used. He tells Shimao to choose whether he wants to be the master or the slave.
Well, Takayanagi may be a bit forceful and frank when it comes to his attitude. His logic is very much twisted towards money makes the world go round but he does have a point too. He is very practical and may come across as unfeeling. This is the exact contrast of Shimao who is compassionate and trusting which led to his downfall twice. As a result, Takayanagi's clear stand is bringing about conflicts within Shimao who wants to change but this cannot be done so easily. Is he being undecided? From what I see, Takayanagi hires Shimao primarily because of curiousity (Shimao's values are different from him and that he came to Takayanagi to ask how to become rich) and to make use of his skills as a software engineer. There is nothing such as a free lunch in the world. He believes Shimao will change to be like him while Kirino (Wakui) bets that Shimao will not change.
Shimao is given his first job to terminate the contract of a toy shop which uses Frontier services to market their goods. He cannot bring himself to do this and happens to come up with the idea of using online auctions to sell the antique toys in this shop. Even though he helped that shop make 5 million yen a day, he still has to terminate the contract since Frontier had entered a contract with a major toys manufacturer and that they cannot provide the internet services to a competitor under the terms of the contract. As such, no matter what Shimao does, it does not change the situation. Sometimes, there is no such thing as a win-win situation in life. What makes this worse is that Shimao thought that he stood a chance with Kaori when she helped him with the auction but he found out that she is dating Takayanagi. He practically ignored her after that, feeling betrayed even though Kaori doesn't really need to explain to him about her relationships. He's not even dating her in the first place but it sure doesn't feel good to see the person you love being in love with someone else. Thus, this seems to have taught Shimao a lesson that hard work is not equal to good results. Putting in effort does not pay in the end.
Something I noticed is that Matsuzaki Nao is wearing white suits most of the time while the other secretary played by Takisawa Saori is wearing black. Trying to contrast good vs evil? Too much white is quite boring so I'm hoping she can wear something different. More variety would be good.
Looking forward to the next episode and this drama's definitely staying on my watchlist!
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