Quick Review #147: "Housoukyoku senkyo" - Summer 2025

Title: Housoukyoku senkyo / 放送局占拠　　　　　　　　

Rating: 1 / 10

Recommended for: 

For those who have been watching the "Senkyo" series and don't mind the illogical developments and blatant attempt to stretch this franchise for as long as possible

* Potential spoilers ahead!

Liked:

- Nothing.

Disliked: 

- Much as my expectations had been very much lowered especially after the pretty disappointing Season 2, this was really terrible in more ways than one. There were plenty of ridiculous developments such as someone suffering a seemingly life-threatening injury yet coming back as if nothing happened or that Musashi just seemed to emerge unscathed no matter what happened to him. Even playing this at 1.5x speed was a huge test to my patience and I kept wishing for this drama to end once and for all. Although I could have dropped this halfway, I guess I was being a bit "defiant" as well because I wanted to see how bad this could get and to give myself a strong reason to stop watching this series, if it does have a sequel in time to come.

As I see it, the biggest issue with the story was the motives spurring the criminals who took over the TV station being terribly "trivial and stale". Actually, one common theme across all three installments of the Senkyo series was the injustice that people suffered or rather their loved ones did. As such, to rise against the rich and the powerful for causing those injustices was something I sort of expected to be a motivating factor for the three groups of criminals featured to date. Beyond this aspect, the underlying themes such as people being influenced easily by the mass media which present only one side of an issue (sometimes skewed, twisted or even faked) and irresponsible keyboard warriors who fail to realise the weight of their reckless actions are actually topics which can spur a lot of soul-searching and be analyzed in a meaningful and deep manner. However, this drama "packaged" the story in such a way that the significance and meaning of these issues were superficial at best. For example, the reason why the leader of the group bore a grudge against Musashi was for a reason that was no fault of the latter because he was just doing his job and that it was really a set of unfortunate coincidental circumstances that led to the situation. The lack of a compelling and convincing story to justify the actions of the criminals was really the biggest downfall of this drama. As a viewer, I couldn't care less for the group even when they were rounded up by the police and had to see their scheme fall through right before their eyes.

Although the drama's ending definitely hinted at a sequel by throwing up another BIG question, I think I've had enough. I don't think I can stomach another installment even in the name of supporting Sakurai Sho.

- While the concept of having a masked criminal group take over a key facility and the face reveal may have been refreshing and interesting in Season 1, the novelty had already worn off by Season 2 and it would take a lot for Season 3 to build on this predictable formula and introduce some new elements so as to entice viewers again. And I have to say, the cast playing the masked criminals just didn't spike the same level of interest and wow factor with each passing season. Unless you have someone who can really attract viewers' attention or at least have an actor who will make people excited seeing to lead the group, chances are, people won't bother staying on to find out who are the actors behind the masks. While the Internet was abuzz with netizens guessing who played who in Season 1 such as identifying Kikuchi Fuuma from the very first episode, I just didn't see that kind of fervent activity and interest during the runs of the sequels. And with each face reveal, it hardly left a dent and impression because it was pretty easy to guess especially from the midpoint onwards.

To keep bringing Kikuchi's Yamato back but not really giving his character much meaning to his motivations and depth in the story was a bad idea. It felt almost like the series was trying too hard to cling onto this character to be the thread that would string together all the installments in this series besides the lead character Musashi. It might have been better to move on and create a new nemesis for Musashi if all they are going to do with Yamato is just for him to appear periodically as a ghost haunting Musashi.