Frankly speaking, the reason why I wanted to give this a shot was to see if there was anything novel about the story despite having the unexplainable feeling pre-season that this was somewhat similar to the 2021 Korean drama "Law School".
Perhaps it is due to the setting of the story i.e. law schools in both dramas and that we have a lecturer/professor who gets sent to the law school to teach, not exactly out of their own will and there's a bunch of students who are trying to survive in the cutthroat competition there. And not to mention, the constant and never-ending discussion on ideals and reality in the legal world. In school, the students seem to be inculcated with the mentality that everything is black and white and everything will fall into place nicely as assumed in traditional stereotypes. However, in practice, it doesn't always happen like this and when confronted with the limitations that the law has, it no doubt brings about the self-questioning within the characters that the law still creates unfairness, injustice and pain to people despite the best of intentions.
However, there are some significant differences between the two as far as can be seen in Ep 1. For example, the law school in the Korean version i.e. Hankuk University Law School is a prestigious one so it's really the cream of the crop that makes the competition stiffer than elsewhere. On the other hand, Seinan Law School in this drama isn't really considered a top school so it's a different ball game all together but still competitive since there is only a limited number of candidates who do pass the postgraduate course and go on to qualify to take the bar exam. And of course, the Korean version has an underlying murder case running throughout the entire story while at the moment, this drama doesn't have anything similar yet but I wouldn't be surprised if there is some hidden past/case to be revealed later into the drama.
In my previous post about the bar exam system, I'm sure you would have understood the implications of not passing the postgraduate course in Seinan and the bar exam for the students involved. And that is why Hiiragi Shizuku's realistic approach of making sure the students know what they are getting themselves into is a huge contrast to Aoi Jin's approach of fulfilling the needs of the students. There is actually no right and wrong here since their purposes are different and Hiiragi was meant to be a lecturer teaching practical stuff rather than theory.
I was a bit worried that there would be a lot of preaching on the right approach when they clash but I'm glad that Hiiragi hasn't been nagging that much yet and would prompt her students to search for answers by asking them questions rather than feeding them hints. I thought that was pretty interesting but who knows if she might become more preachy later? As for Aoi, there's really nothing much to note about him for now because all he appears to be is a lecturer who ranks his students and seems to only want to spend time helping those who are likely to succeed. It will be interesting to see what kind of person he truly is and what happened in the past to make him behave this way.
From the way things go, the drama will most likely focus on one or two students from the main group every episode before moving on to the critical parts of the story. For now, the questions which need addressing are:
1) Was Hiiragi transferred to the law school solely because she was not efficient enough to clear the required number of cases in court? It does feel like she is the female version of Iruma Michio who wants to know everything about a case and have all the doubts cleared before passing judgement so it's no wonder that she was singled out by her boss for her "poor performance". However, the pre-existing relationship with her former teacher Morimiya Kiyomasa probably meant that this was a calculated move on his part. And like what Aoi pointed out, Hiiragi could actually refuse to take up this appointment so why didn't she do so?
2) Who is Aoi Jin?
3) Why did Hiiragi switch lines from an economics graduate to study law from scratch? And why did she choose to become a judge?
4) Why is a police officer i.e. Kazami Hayate visiting the dean of a law school often? Some cases to discuss or get an outside opinion on?
5) What are the reasons why the 5 students want to study law or join the legal profession?
As for the acting, Kitagawa's portrayal of Hiiragi is quite interesting with a fine balance of her cheerfulness, positivity, enthusiasm and seriousness. Yamada Yuuki's expressions can't be seen that easily because of his hairstyle and he's constantly in a grouchy or scowling mood. Oikawa Mitsuhiro excels at roles like this with a seemingly frivolous appearance but hiding something within while the rest of the key "adult" characters in the law school and outside haven't made much of an impression.
As for the students, I have only watched Maeda Oushiro's acting before so I'm not so familiar with the rest beyond knowing their faces and names. At this stage, the character who is most intriguing would be Manaka Shintaro played by Takahashi Fumiya because of how fake and pretentious his character is despite that smiling face and friendliness.
For now, I will keep watching this unless the story gets really boring or preachy. or predictable There have been so many law-themed or school-based dramas to date so this drama really needs to distinguish itself in more ways than one in order to hold the interest of the viewers. Ep 1 was decent but more needs to be done going forward.
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