In the few times I had watched Koshiba's works, she was able to stand out in the cast even if the role wasn't that big. As such, I had faith that she would be able to do well in this drama which featured her with a huge image change and having to speak many lines quickly. Despite so, I was still amazed by how she did - the lines didn't come out muffled or incomprehensible despite her speaking speed and the loud and colourful image of Koda Minare strangely didn't seem out of place here.
The downside to this is, this sort of made her co-stars pale in comparison which of course may change in the later part of the story. However, at this stage, I can't deny that these characters did seem quite boring and hardly left an impression. Perhaps the sole exception was Nakahara Chuuya played by Katayose Ryota who was simply annoying from the start with his overly open display of affection for Minare but actually doesn't act in her best interests at times when he tries to impose his opinions on her. Kitamura Kazuki's character Matou Kanetsugu also didn't have much of the charismatic and influential director feel and came across more as a wilful ojisan at the moment.
What concerns me more about this drama is how the story is progressing. I was of the impression that this drama would be more about Minare's growth story in the radio industry and how she influences those around her but the part where there was a dramatisation of what she spoke in her first radio show felt really odd and didn't blend in so well with the main plot. As this appeared out of the blue without warning, it felt at first that what was depicted did happen. However, once Matou appeared in the dramatisation and his actions simply felt unnatural, it was a telltale sign that somehow this was all imaginary. And true to my guess, it turned out to be so. However, I didn't really feel any gratification about guessing correctly - what bothered me more was whether this was going to be the norm going forward. I get it that the intention was probably to show how Minare's words had the power to engage listeners as if they were seeing the story unfold before them and the ability of using radio as a medium to do it. Perhaps, there might be a better way to show this rather than this kind of dramatisation which don't seem to blend that well with the main plot's flow.
For now, I'll give this a couple of episodes just to get a feel of how things go. Much as I am interested to keep watching for the sake of Koshiba, if the story doesn't get interesting enough or her interactions with the supporting characters fail to be engaging, I think I might just drop this before the midway mark.
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