Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Thoughts about "unknown" Ep 1 (spoiler alert!)


To be honest, I wasn't that keen on this drama when I first heard of it. 

A love story about two people, or rather 1 vampire and 1 human being, where they have unspeakable secrets. Hmm...been there, done that. However, throw in a suspense element of "whodunit" for a serial murder case, now that's something I might be more interested in.

The first episode focused largely on the love story between Kokoro (Takahatsu Mitsuki) and Toramatsu (Tanaka Kei) from the time they met to them actually falling in love with each other. However, because both of them have secrets that they can't tell the other party, they just cannot progress to marriage despite everyone around them thinking that it's high time they do it since they are so in love with each other and have been dating for some time.


At present, what we know about Kokoro's secret is that she is a vampire and her family members are all the same. Considering that she has some living habits as a vampire which are bound to attract Toramatsu's attention if they do get married and start living together, it is no wonder that she is apprehensive about marriage. Her family is also a mix of rather unique characters - father Kaizo (Yoshida Kotaro) who is a doctor but keeps dressing up like a vampire and gets mistaken as a cosplayer by their neighbours, mother Iori (Asou Kumiko) who goes on primetime news as a popular newscaster and younger brother Ren (hasn't appeared in the first episode yet) who is a police detective. No wonder she is worried about how Toramatsu would react because she truly has feelings for him and wouldn't want him to leave when he finds out the truth.

On the other hand, Toramatsu's secret isn't revealed yet. Other than the fact that he went through a divorce, nothing much is known for now. Although it's hinted that he has a big secret which he is hiding from Kokoro, I just hope that when the revelation comes, it won't be underwhelming when compared to Kokoro's secret. 


Coming to the part about the serial murderer who was supposedly active 5 years ago and only resurfaced recently, the fun part going forward would probably be guessing who among the cast members is the killer. Despite the fact that the bodies of the victims had their blood drained out, it would be too premature to link this to one of the vampires so the actual killer might have some reason for doing this even though he/she may not be a vampire. However, there aren't many clues to work with for now so it's not easy to guess who it might be at this stage.

Looking at how Kokoro saved Toramatsu from the burning house, it seems likely that she may be using her powers as a vampire to help him with the investigations as the story progresses. And given that Kokoro had already told Toramatsu about her secret (whether the implications of this has sunk in for him is another thing) and he seemed relatively calm about it, this might not be as big as an issue between them after all.


In summary, the first episode was a decent introduction to the story with lots of lovey-dovey scenes between the lead couple. Takahata and Tanaka looked so good together and had great chemistry as a dating couple. The supporting characters are also well-defined with interesting traits which should entice viewers to stay on for the sake of finding more about these people. However, I remain cautiously optimistic because like what I said, I'm in this more for the suspense. If this element fails to do well, I don't think I will like this drama simply for the relatively straightforward romance.

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