I had no plans of watching this drama and did not even do a preview of this on the blog. I wasn't too keen on the lineup which featured a group of relatively unknown and young actresses (except for Sakuraba Nanami perhaps?). To top things off, TV Tokyo dramas are rather difficult to find online as compared to those from the other private networks so I didn't bother checking this out. So why did I watch this in the end? Well, a friend first strongly suggested that I catch this drama and said that it was very interesting. It was a bit unusual to hear this from a friend who's not an avid J-drama watcher. Still, it wasn't enough to push me into action. However, when I started to hear from more than one person tell me about this drama within a short period of time, I began to wonder: what is this drama which had slipped under my radar? Did I really miss something good?
I finished this drama within a week where I sped through the second half relatively quickly because the plot was heating up. I wouldn't say that it's a super fabulous piece of work but it does have its winning points which I'll like to share here. If you haven't watched this drama or are in the midst of it and do not want me to reveal all the spoilers, please skip this review and the photos within.
First of all, let me talk about the story which starts in a senior high school called Hino Koukou and the focus is on this Year 2 class which is heading for a school trip to Yamanashi Prefecture. Little is told about this class of students except that you can see some very standard relationship types portrayed in many school dramas e.g. the bullying group and those being bullied, people who are lone rangers, the popular and the not-so-well-liked types. Everything seems to be going well until it's realised that the bus driver who is supposed to transport them to the field trip site has driven to Shizuoka Prefecture instead due to his punishing schedule and this leads the class and their teachers to their doom literally. When the bus plunges down a cliff into the forest, most of those on board are dead except for five female students: Konno Mizuki (Sakuraba Nanami), Kamiya Chieko (Tsuchiya Tao), Morishige Arisa (Yamashita Rio), Ichinose Haru (Kudo Ayano) and Usui Chikage (Masuda Yuka).
As the story unfolds, we get to know about the backgrounds of these five survivors and in turn understand why they are behaving the way they are after the near-death encounter. Our heroine Konno appears to be a well-liked person in school who hangs out with the most popular girl in class Himesawa Sakura who died during the crash and another survivor Ichinose. However, Konno does have a cold side to her because she seems oblivious to things around her or turns a blind eye to the bullying of other classmates by Sakura and Co. Konno takes pride in the fact that she's able to move along with the current and keep a low profile because she had made up her mind never to trust anyone easily after being betrayed by her friend back in junior high. At that time, her best friend was bullied by other girls in class so Konno decided to stand up for her friend and give those bullies a piece of her mind. Unexpectedly, the buddy who was now free of the bullying because the group changed their target to Konno, decided to join them in the bullying which made Konno very sad and bitter that she vowed never to help anyone again. It is only until now that Konno realises that her so-called excellent way of surviving in class backfired on her long ago because Ichinose hates her for hogging Sakura's friendship and attention while other people view her as a pretentious person who may not have bullied people directly but actually helps those bullies in one way or another by turning a blind eye.
Kamiya is the exact opposite of Konno because she does not belong to any clique and is regarded somewhat as a lone ranger in class. It's not that Kamiya is naturally cold and aloof but it has to do with her family background because she has to take care of her three younger siblings and elderly grandfather after her parents died in an accident when she was in junior high. Having to spend a lot of time outside of school to take care of the family, Kamiya simply doesn't have the luxury to hang out with friends even though deep down, she may have had a fleeting thought that she envied those who could do that. As such, she finds it silly that people like Konno have to stick to the popular group for comfort and to avoid being picked on. When Kamiya sees that the bullies are at it again, she doesn't hesitate to speak up but frankly speaking, that still doesn't help to stop the bullies. The good thing is that, she doesn't get bullied because the bullies do not seem to view her as a pushover like Morishige or Usui. In a way, you can say that the Kamiya now is the old Konno before she got betrayed by her friend. Kamiya also doesn't mince her words and would reveal her frank thoughts about people which may make her seem blunt and insensitive. After the bus crash, she should have been as scared as the rest but chose to toughen herself up in order to ensure that survival chances are high so she's somewhat like the leader of the pack.
Morishige is one of those being bullied in class and she gets singled out because she's quiet, keeps to herself and spends time drawing manga rather mixing around with her classmates. However, little does everyone know that she is a victim of domestic violence and her own mother's attitude towards her further destroys her self-worth. With no place to release her pent-up frustration, Morishige goes to great efforts to record the number of times she has been bullied and who had done it while waiting for the perfect opportunity to retaliate. As a result of the bus crash, this actually "empowers" Morishige in the group as she finds herself in possession of the sickle which their form teacher had brought along for clearing wild grass at the school trip site. She uses this to make the others do her bidding and relishes in turning them against one another for the sake of survival. It's not really because she's sick in the mind or what but the constant violence she suffered may have twisted her belief into thinking that force is the only way to get things done your way and the only defence to protect yourself.
Ichinose belongs to the popular crowd and used to be close friends with Himesawa before Konno came into the picture. She feels left out and always fears that Konno will take away Himesawa from her but pretends that everything is fine on the surface. In actual fact, Konno does realise that something is not quite right with Ichinose but chooses not to do anything about it because she wants to keep things status quo. Due to the stress of not doing as well as before in her studies and the fear of losing her beloved friend, Ichinose takes to binge eating in order to relieve stress. The bus crash forces Ichinose to confront her true feelings towards Konno as she lays bare her fear and uneasiness about the latter's presence. Even though Ichinose feels this way towards her, Konno still tries to assure her that things have not changed between them and that she's thankful that she can finally understand Ichinose. However, Ichinose herself feels ashamed that she bore ill feelings towards Konno and their friendship doesn't seem to be the same as before. If it had been that Himesawa had also survived the bus crash, Ichinose may never tell Konno about her feelings so I think there was a reason why Himesawa had to be taken out of the equation so as to force Ichinose to be true to herself.
Usui also belongs to the bullied side but the key difference between her and Morishige is that Usui somehow feels that she deserves to be bullied and doesn't seem to harbour any thoughts of taking revenge. This probably has a lot to do with her mother who keeps reminding her to keep a low profile and avoid causing trouble for others. As a result, Usui feels bad that she cannot do much for the survivors since her mobility's affected by her leg injury and the others have to spend time and effort to take care of her. In turn, this makes her worry that they might abandon her to die alone if they have had enough of her being a nuisance thus Usui feels very jittery all the time and tries to be on her best behaviour. However, when the ownership of the sickle switches from Morishige to Usui, this causes a change in the latter's attitude and she even goes missing with it while the rest search for her whereabouts. Morishige needs it to regain her power over the group while Konno and Kamiya do seem genuinely concerned about her well-being.
In the first half of the drama, the story is centred on these five girls as they struggle to come to terms with the sudden crisis and think of ways to survive in the forest without any means to contact the outside world. If they are best friends, it might have been easier but due to the fact that their relationships as classmates were complicated due to the power dynamics prior to the bus crash and the presence of that sickle gives a power to those who wield it, it takes a number of episodes for the girls to clash with one another before being more focused on ensuring that the entire group survives the ordeal. However, with the appearance of another survivor Hinata Haruaki and the disappearance of Usui at around the same time, the story switches its direction to one of survival to one more leaning towards a suspense thriller as Usui is later found murdered. The survivors then suspect one another of being responsible for the deed as the situation gets more dire with the passing time.
On the other hand, things in the outside world are also in a mess due to various reasons. First of all, the class's assistant form teacher Igarashi Wataru (Kubota Masataka) fails to realise that the class did not reach the study trip site because he was mistaken into believing that the form teacher had called him. When he finally realises his mistake, Igarashi tries to make amends but is stopped by the school's principal who wants to make sure that they will not be held accountable for the lapse in communication. On the other hand, the bus company's president also wants to cover the inconvenient truth of his drivers being overworked and resorts to destroying important evidence in order to do so. Luckily, Igarashi still has a conscience and wants to save his students as soon as possible so he owns up to his own misdeed and even gets a chance to redeem himself towards the end of the story. At the bus company's side, a responsible employee exposes the truth to the police because he could not stand the president shirking responsibility at the expense of his colleague's life and reputation.
Frankly speaking, one key reason why I didn't bother checking out this drama was due to the fact that the synopsis did not spark my interest as it was merely stated that this drama talks about a group of students struggling to survive the bus crash. That alone isn't very interesting and I was skeptical about whether there was enough material to last the entire season. After watching the drama, I must say that I do like the reference of the class being a miniature society whereby people knowingly or unknowingly group people into different levels i.e. the popular, the shunned, the bullied, those in power and those who don't. As such, by looking the plights of Morishige or Usui, you can somehow project that onto the adult's society where people who are deemed to be less useful or do not have obvious strengths are relegated to the sidelines and ostracised. People who behave differently from the "norm" are said to be lone rangers who are strange i.e. Kamiya. Then there are also people like Konno and Ichinose who go with the flow not because they like it but rather they don't want to be singled out for being different. This actually brings a lot of relevance to the story so that it's not easily written off as a survival story in the forest. And the fact that each of the survivors have some time to tell their story and reveal why they are behaving the way they are actually makes the story more logical.
The second part of the story focuses on the search for the "criminal" i.e. who killed Usui. Everyone in the group gets their turn at being the suspect at one point or another so by the time it gets to the final revelation, it wasn't really that unexpected. When Hinata popped out of the blue, it was obvious that something was not quite right because he appeared a bit evasive on the topic of Usui. However, the truth behind Usui's death had more to do with an unfortunate turn of events rather than Hinata bearing ill will against her so I think that was a good way of explaining the circumstances behind Usui's death. However, the second arc did seem a bit too long at certain junctures so I think it would have been better to keep the drama short to about 10 episodes so that the balance of the story is maintained.
As for the performances of the cast, Tsuchiya Tao and Yamashita Rio who played Kamiya and Morishige caught my eye more than the rest. Tsuchiya's image in the drama may be a bit bland and bordering on nerdy but that's in line with Kamiya's character who appears cool, collected, unruffled and very learned throughout most of the story. What I like about her acting is that, despite the calm surface of Kamiya, Tsuchiya was able to show the inner feelings of her character especially when she talked a bit about her envy of people who walked around with friends or revealed some of her insecurities to Konno. It felt as if she was talking about someone else and fitted the impression Kamiya gave to most people. On the other hand, Yamashita had a more elaborate role as Morishige where she had to go to extremes in terms of showing emotions. When she was initially bullied, she had to keep her fury to herself. When she was beaten up by her father at home, she had to display fear and helplessness. When she got the power through holding the sickle, Morishige felt like a mad person who was dizzy with her newfound strength. Although Yamashita's role is yet again like Tsuchiya's i.e. bland in terms of appearance, she managed to steal the limelight with her great performance.
On the other hand, although Sakuraba Nanami was the lead, her character didn't really resonate with me and I found it a bit irritating that she could be "goody-two-shoes" even after Ichinose had intended to kill her to ensure her own survival. I could understand her rationale for wanting to stay under the radar and her need to be in the popular group but from the point when the hunt for the killer started, there she was again trying to be a nice person and not wanting to suspect anyone which seriously got on my nerves. Perhaps it's too early to write off Sakuraba so early since it's only her second piece of work which I've watched (first being the Nazotoki movie) but I think she needs a good role to cement her position in the up-and-coming world of newbie actresses. Playing a sweet young thing doesn't really make her memorable to the viewers which I find is a pity given that she took on the heroine role here.
One other memorable mention should go to Kubota Masataka. He may not be the leading man here but there's something about his acting which makes you sit up and take notice. The first time I saw him was in "Saikou no Rikon" where he was a cutie attempting to marry Yuka (Ono Machiko) despite being a much younger man and having to take care of his siblings. He didn't have a huge role then but had a very interesting chemistry with Ono in that drama. This time, his role Igarashi may seem a bit irresponsible initially but he later steps up to admit to his mistakes and shows true concern for his students who he had spent a fair bit of time with. It was especially heartwarming to see his scenes with Kamiya's siblings. Given the right opportunities in future, he will certainly leave a deeper impression on many people.
And my ratings for this drama...
Story: 8 out of 10 (I would have given this a 9 if the number of episodes had been lesser. The pace was just fine until the ending stage when it got too draggy.)
Acting: 8 out of 10 (On the whole, the young cast did fairly well with special mention for Tsuchiya Tao and Yamashita Rio)
Theme song: 6 out of 10 (Both the opening and ending themes didn't leave a huge impression on me but I must say that the ending theme sounded slightly better to me.)
Visual effects / Scenery: 6 out 10 (Well, most of the scenes were in the forest and cave the survivors took shelter at so there was really limited variety in terms of scenery which couldn't be helped.)
Teamwork / Chemistry: 6 out of 10 (I think because the characters were not supposed to be good friends right from the start, there was more squabbling but later on when it got to trying to ensure their survival, the friendship became a bit more evident. Still, I wouldn't call that chemistry between the actors.)
Total: 34 out of 50
