Title: Anti Hero / アンチヒーロー
Rating: 8.5 /10
Recommended for:
For those who like legal/courtroom dramas with a strong humanity angle and are fans of the cast
*Do not read on if you do not wish to know the spoilers!
Liked:
- While the first couple of episodes felt like the overall direction was shrouded in mist and it was not easy to see where the story was heading towards, the pace of the developments sped up considerably from then. I have to admit though, I stopped watching for a while after Ep 3 because I felt that it was yet another legal/courtroom drama like others and there was no hook factor for me to go on watching. As the revelations after that came fast and furious with numerous twists and turns along with equally unexpected cameos - the most talked-about probably being Fukiishi Kazue who has not acted ever since she got married to Fukuyama Masaharu and she played a pivotal role this time, not a guest star who only appeared for a few inconsequential scenes. As such, I would rate this drama very highly in terms of it being engaging and compelling to watch but you do have to be patient in the beginning before the good stuff is served.
- This drama is quite unlike other legal/courtroom dramas where the protagonist is usually a hero figure who saves the weak and bullied to overcome unfairness created by wealth, status, power and position in society. This made it quite refreshing to watch and would set viewers thinking about many questions, sometimes very difficult to have a definitive answer to. The central figure in this drama i.e. Akizumi can be said to be controversial and uses questionable tactics at times to achieve his aims. While he would be considered to be more on the good side, it is indeed difficult to classify him as a true-blue hero. Besides him, even the other characters may not be considered as fully good or bad just as how life is like when black and white isn't so clear-cut too. Even though many dramas would emphasize the message that the law is supposed to treat everyone fairly and that it metes out appropriate punishment to those who are guilty, I think that many stories also do not say it as it is happening in real-life i.e. that the world is not always a better place especially when there are injustices caused by the application of law in a wrong way. It is an uncomfortable fact that is sometimes glossed over or merely hinted at so for this drama to point it out so frankly and not be politically correct about praising the legal system, I thought that this was a very unusual take on this topic and enhanced the uniqueness of this drama.
- The acting was really impressive across the board this time. While there were some who really didn't get to shine until the very end because of the way the story was designed e.g. Kimura Yoshino, there were some surprises and noteworthy performances such as Kitamura Takumi and Hotta Mayu whose acting had a newfound level of maturity (perhaps because their characters were lawyers who had a little bit of experience and they were thrown into the deep end early into the game to "grow up" quickly) or Ogata Naoto who only appeared in small pockets of airtime here and there but was able to show a full spectrum of emotions especially when his character Shimizu's story was revealed. Hasegawa Hiroki managed to carry the show well with his portrayal of Akizumi and the cross-exchanges with his co-stars especially Nomura Mansai and Kitamura were actually quite interesting to watch.
Disliked:
- While I was generally satisfied with the story, the only issue which I had was how "obvious" or rather how stupid the baddies in the story always had to bring about their own downfalls by being too complacent and wanting to rub salt into injury for their enemies/rivals just when they thought that they had the upperhand. It happened so many times that it was becoming predictable and as the viewer, that was a sure sign that the tables would be overturned soon. Well, it is not difficult to see that such stories would probably try to make sure that the evil will have their due punishments but to have a blatant hint or pre-warning that it's coming, that just kind of spoils the fun. Not to mention how it always irritated the hell out of me to see the baddies gloating for that fleeting moment of "I think I already won" and suffer a crushing defeat later. The gratification of beating the bad guys shouldn't be diminished by an obvious warning - I know it's coming and I don't need to be told about that beforehand in such a way.
- This may be just me but whenever I see Nomura Mansai in a drama or movie, his acting style as a Kyogen stage actor seems a bit of a mismatch with TV. While I understood that Datehara was a not-so-typical prosecutor and that he was a narcistic person who only thought of his own interests but still masked his self-love and selfish actions as for the sake of his loved ones, I thought that Nomura's acting was still a bit over-the-top at times. I have to say though, I do think he acts well but somehow it's a bit too "big" for TV dramas in terms of expressiveness and scale of emotion projection.
I've read before that stage actors tend to have different ways of projecting their voices and are "bigger" or more expressive in their body languages as compared to those who appear more on TV and in movies. This is so that the audience can see their performances well regardless of where they sit in the performing venue. As such, when you put that expanded way of performing on stage within the constraints of TV dramas and movies where cameras can do close-ups and "expand" these actions and expressions to look even bigger, the stage play style of acting then looks exaggerated as a result. For those who may find stage actors like Nomura acting in a way quite different from their peers who mainly appear in TV dramas and movies, this could be the reason.
Some actors do manage to tone down or adjust their approaches depending on the genre e.g. Nakamura Shido does a pretty good job at this. Fujiwara Tatsuya who had a lot of stage play experience in his younger days, did come across as pretty overwhelming to me back then but has also toned down quite a bit to make his acting less "in-your-face" in dramas and movies. As such, if the characters in question call for a more exaggerated or dramatic way of acting, this difference in scale of expression might not be so much of an issue. However, in Datehara's case, he was always animated and exaggerated so there wasn't any tone-down moment that could offer some respite.
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