I have to admit - I am watching this primarily for Tsumabuki Satoshi and Fujiwara Tatsuya.
Otherwise, why would I want to watch another medical drama about a talented surgeon who does operations illegally? Why would I bother watching some underground group who seems to have some lofty aspirations to save people according to their own principles (a medical version of "Avalanche"?) ...although they aren't doing it for free and still charge an exorbitant sum for what they do? Why would I even spend time on watching preachy stories about what is good and evil in this world where there are no clear boundaries between black and white?
I think you get the drift now. In other words, I wasn't expecting anything about the medical nor moral parts of this story.
What I wanted to see more of was how the four characters in the group got together, their personal motivations in doing what they do and their background stories. As an introductory episode, there were more revelations than what I expected which is a good thing. Before the drama started, I got the impression that the four of them were more or less equals even though Ace i.e. Hazama (Tsumabuki) and Joker i.e. Shimoyamada (Fujiwara) clearly seemed to be the leading figures. However, it's obvious now that Hazama calls the shots and has a very strong opinion on what operations to take on even if the patients are willing to pay. Shimoyamada just can't deal with Ace's unpredictable temperament at times that he's stressed enough to go and consult an obviously fake psychic for help.
About this part with the fortune teller/psychic, the style of the scene and the content is a close resemblance to what you would typically see in "TRICK" or "SPEC" by Tsutsumi Yukihiko who is the leading director for this drama. Much as I do like these two series, I do not really like this side distraction which stood out like a sore thumb in this episode. Maybe they wanted to show that Joker is somewhat naive outside his professional life and so stressed by Ace that he is seeking solutions from such a questionable source despite not being convinced in the first place. Still, I think such scenes hardly add value to the plot, at least not at this stage for this drama.
Joker and Queen i.e. Yoda (Matsushita Nao) owe Ace a debt of gratitude because of how he helped them when they were in the doldrums of their lives. Joker was diagnosed with a very serious illness and told that he was dying with no treatment option available for him but Ace managed to save him. Meanwhile, Queen was chased out of the industry she used to be in because of an incident so Ace's invitation to join the team probably gave her a place where she could regain her self worth, confidence and of course, money to survive. Spade's i.e. Shirase story is still not clear though but it looks like he had a slightly different kind of encounter with Ace who roped him in for the technical part of things for their operations. From what it looks like, Joker and Queen are on pretty close terms and banter like close friends unlike the frosty attitude that Ace adopts towards them. However, Queen can still poke fun at Ace from time to time so it doesn't seem that she is as fearful of Ace like Joker who desperately wants to keep his leader happy so that he will do the surgeries. Spade looks to be in awe of Ace although he also finds the latter a bit troublesome to handle.
Much as I found the background stories and group dynamics quite interesting so far, there are some aspects which might make or break the deal for viewers:
First of all, if the underground medical group has such interesting personalities to explore, the same cannot be said of the doctors at Chiyoda Medical University's affiliated hospital and the special investigation unit which is chasing after the group. The scenes featuring these two groups were pretty bland to watch in general so it remains to be seen if things will get more interesting between these 3 groups of people or the limelight will be hogged by the 4 leads until some formidable opponent comes up to catch them.
The only thing which is worth thinking about for now for the hospital group is - was Kenmochi's (Kaga Takeshi) reluctance to save terminally ill patients due to his intentions to protect his career by not taking on unnecessary risks so that the failures won't count against him? Or is it because he has some hidden agenda for his personal interests because his refusal to save the vice prime minister really sounded like it was politically-motivated? If it's the former reason, then there's nothing special to look forward to but if it's the latter, there might be some major conspiracy swirling around waiting to be discovered.
Secondly, this is not a very typical medical drama or maybe it wasn't meant to be in the first place. One telltale sign was the disclaimer at the end of the episode which states that most of what was presented in the medical scenes are fictitious and differ from what's actually done in the real world. It could mean two things - either the medical conditions depicted do not exist or the treatment methods are fake. Most medical dramas would have this disclaimer to explain that there are different forms of an illness and varying treatment methods but to say that the medical parts of this drama are fictitious is pretty rare.
What baffles me is, how clean and illogical the surgical scenes were. Usually, it's common to see blood all over the place in such scenes but that operation room was so squeaky clean and there's hardly any blood even on Ace's gloves nor the patients' organs which seemed awfully pale. Was it the harsh lighting that caused the white-out effect then? Erm...is the lack of blood in the operating theatre even possible? I get it that Ace is supposed to be some super genius at operating but is he really that capable of dealing with all parts of the body? Wouldn't he have specialized in one particular field as part of his medical training? Or did he even go through the proper education to become a doctor? Was there a reason why he became the Jack of all trades (clearly he's skilled in everything though)? It certainly doesn't look like Joker and Spade had medical training but the two of them were looking at the surgery's live stream and commenting like some experts. Or is it because they had seen so much until they know a thing or two by now? As such, if you are looking for a proper medical drama, this may not really fit your expectations especially if you prefer a more realistic take on doctors and how they treat their patients.
Next, the significance of the title was not obvious until the end of this drama. At first, I assumed that it was just a signal call by Ace to get his people into action but it does seem that it's a signal to the AI system used in the operating theatre to start the surgery. I was already skeptical that Ace and Queen could do the surgeries themselves without other medical personnel around but it seems like tasks like anesthesia, administration of medication during the operation, monitoring of vitals and coming up with 3D images for Ace to check the patient's condition are all done by the AI so that they can focus on the operations. And that explains why Ace kept speaking English in the surgical scenes because the AI probably only understood instructions in English. The thing is, the signature line's presentation by focusing on Tsumabuki's lips as he mouthed the words does seem overly pretentious and can get on the viewers' nerves over time. And I certainly hope that the title has a deeper meaning than just being a command call to the AI system.
Last but not least, the moral aspect of the story came across as rather preachy for now. Much as I can see how Ace's group is being shown as some morally-upright team which helps people worth saving, the criteria applied is very much subjective and dependent only on Ace's assessment. When compared to Kenmochi's autocratic manner of "passing a death sentence" on those patients who he refuses to save, I don't think that Ace is necessarily more moral or kinder than Kenmochi at this stage. His judgement does come across as double-standard and not so convincing for now but there should be a proper reason to explain why later.
Guest stars typically don't get enough airtime to show their acting chops (or the lack of it sometimes) but Ikematsu Sousuke's portrayal of a money-grabbing CEO on his death bed was pretty solid and complete. There was enough build-up to show who he was back then and now before he "redeemed" himself to the extent that Ace was willing to save him. However, Ace playing the role of God/judge in this case goes against the principle of not discriminating against a patient which we would have seen being repeated countless times in many dramas. Then it begs the question, if someone was poor and couldn't afford the fees Ace is charging, what happens then?
Fujiwara also surprised me a bit this time with his portrayal of Joker. Usually, he tends to take on relatively unique roles with strong character traits but this time, Joker does seem like an ordinary chap in his real life. Nothing wrong about that and it actually made him look a lot more wholesome and warm which I think was a reflection of his near brush with death caused by his illness.
In contrast, Tsumabuki's image this time just resembles Black Jack and it probably is no coincidence considering that he acted in another drama i.e. "Black Jack ni yoroshiku" although the appearance in the drama then was quite different from Black Jack himself in the manga. The thing is, I don't mind homages to past works and quite like them as well but that half-covered face while working as a patissier seems so out of place. All I could think of was how unhygienic it was for someone preparing food not to do something about their long hair.
The beautiful desserts were a nice distraction though to relieve the tension.
For now, I'll probably give this drama a few more episodes before deciding whether to follow this till the end.
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