Season: Autumn 2022
Broadcast by: TBS
Rating: 7.5 / 10
Recommended for: those who are interested in the gaming industry, fans of the cast and/or like David and Goliath stories.
Liked:
- Odagiri Jo. I admit that I am personally biased here because I am a fan of Odagiri and would be happy with whatever he appears in (well, most of the time). However, I cannot ignore the fact that him standing in for Kagawa Teruyuki just before the season started turned out to be the icing on the cake for this drama and a blessing in disguise in a rather unpleasant situation. In fact, I think that the role fits Odagiri way better in terms of appearance and character setting. I wouldn't have liked this drama as much if it had been Kagawa who played Okitsu and the subsequent bromance subplot with Yamazaki Kento wouldn't have worked at all if not for Odagiri.
- The lead trio played by Yamazaki Kento, Matsushita Kouhei and Kishii Yukino showed great teamwork and chemistry which was reflective of their respective characters' friendship and elevated the comrade aspect in this drama with each challenge cleared together. And I was relieved that the scriptwriter didn't try to create a love line or love triangle between them or it would have been really awkward and soured the friendship aspect of this story. Friendship between men and women being great partners at work does work well so not everything has to end up in romance.
- The insights into the gaming industry were quite interesting as I highlighted in my episodic reflections posted throughout this season. For someone new to this industry or those who have some basic knowledge, it will still be quite insightful to know about the process of creating a game before it finally meets the world. To be honest, I was quite skeptical about how this story of a struggling toy manufacturer becoming a game producer would turn out but the gradual progress of this transition turned out to be quite believable and engaging most of the time.
Disliked:
- The finale was pretty underwhelming. After being fed with lots of dramatic twists and turns so far to get to this point, the resolution turned out to be so predictable and somewhat too straightforward. The usual style of using just words/arguments to convince a key person to change his/her mind has been used so many times in Japanese dramas but the argument has to be moving/convincing enough to make the viewers agree with how the story ends. Unfortunately, I personally didn't buy into Nayuta's reasoning so if I was the major shareholder, I wouldn't have been convinced to vote for SAGAS. And to think that Okitsu didn't get a chance to save his company himself, I thought that was very disappointing to see.
- The flashback scene sequence was way too long. I get that it was meant to show how the characters concerned had come a long way to resolving their differences, achieving success in different ways and moving on to what they want to do but it was getting too draggy by the time it went past the 1-min mark. Flashbacks don't need to be that detailed and I certainly don't need a recap of the entire drama with another 10+ minutes to go before the episode ended.
- Throughout the course of the drama, I did mention that there were quite a number of illogical points which I could appreciate that was for dramatic effect or for the drama to move forward. Seriously speaking, given the gullible, somewhat naïve and overly kind nature of those in "Atomu Gangu" and "Atomu no ko", it was a surprise to see them survive till the end.
The issue is, if a drama is meant to showcase a real-life business world or industry, the balance between reality and fiction ratio is very difficult to achieve. If you go overboard with the reality, the drama becomes very much like a boring documentary. However, if it becomes so detached from reality, it's difficult for the viewers to feel immersed or believe the story. The later situation was what prevented me from enjoying the story more because the logical/practical side of me would be very bothered by the discrepancies with reality. Then again, this issue might not be so applicable to all though especially those who don't mind the sometimes overly dramatic or smoother-than-expected developments to benefit the protagonists.
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