Notes on "Invisible"

 Not gonna lie, I was hoping I was going to like the new crime drama “Invisible” a lot more than I did- while on the surface it seems like a worthy successor to last season’s Avalanche, complete with a “loose cannon” type guy (Issei Takahashi) who is hell-bent on catching the murderer of his partner, somehow the show just hasn’t been wowwing me…

For one thing, Takahashi’s character aside, there just aren’t that many charismatic characters. Whereas Avalanche had an entire team (and leader besides) of colorful and very unique members, Invisible’s cast seems rather mundane and by-the-books..

Shibasaki Kou is the  titular “Invisible” Agent Kiriko,  working as a go-between between people who desire chaos and the terrorists who can make it happen, and I thought the drama was going to be a cat-and-mouse game between her and the determined Takahashi character Takafumi…

Instead she is brought in right away and spends the rest of the episode with a very annoying smug look on her face as she purposely gives these vague hints at who terrorists are and when the next attack will be. Very snarky!

It is up to the Shimura and the team to figure out what her words mean, and of course they eventually do,  but it's very anticlimactic for them to go back to her after diffusing the latest situation and Kiriko saying "Ah, I see you figured out what I meant..."

I tell you, it’s a lot less thrilling to have her already in custody when she’s giving her speeches…it would be like if Riddler was already in jail and THEN giving Batman the riddles to solve….

Ah, we’ll see where this one goes, such a shame, out of all the new dramas this season, Invisible was the one I was most counting on to blow me away!! Hopefully it can still do it in the coming episodes!

Ore No Ie No Hanashi

 As some of you may know, I am a HUGE fan of the 2007 rakugo based drama “Tiger And Dragon, and when I read that the same Director (Fuminori Kaneko) and Cast (Nagase Tomoya, Nishida Toshiyuki, Arakawa Yosi, etc) were going to be in a new drama Ore No Ie No Hanashi, I couldn’t wait to see it....

Basic storyline is that Pro Wrestler (Nagase) comes from an established family of NOH players, one of which he had long since abandoned. He gives up his career when he hears his father (Nishida) is ailing and prepared to take over the family legacy. But with a fussy father, grumpy siblings  and a suspicious  caretaker (Erika Toda) seemingly  interested in his father for his inheritance, he has his hands full....

So far I can't say I've been overly thrilled by this drama... Far from the fun premise of a Pro Wrestler becoming a NOH performer, this is filled with a lot of morose moments and draggy plot points..Hope the show picks up soon!

Tangled Up In Marigold

Sota Fukushi plays Mikoto, and young man working as an EMT for a hospital. In his profession he has to deal with people who are on the verge of dying, and it’s here that he realizes that when he touches hands with people, he can see the moment of their deaths.

As a child he’d always thought his strange visions while holding hands with others were merely scary unexplained illusions but as he sees his patients passing away in the Emergency Ward JUST like how he envisioned when clasping hands, he now knows for sure that he is seeing their deaths.

When he is confronted with the future of his patients deaths, Mikoto tries everything he can to prevent the visions from coming true. When he sees that adrenaline is administered too late in a patient, he urges his partners to administer it earlier.

But though he is able to stave off the results for awhile, sadly his visions always come true in the end, leaving him devastated. Mikoto truly cares for his patients and is strongly affected when he sees one die, but there is a bigger reason for him desperate to find the key to circumvent any tragedy that his hand gasping shows him...

When Mikoto was very young, his father remarried a woman with three children, and though his father has since passed (and the mother off on some expedition) he regards these step-siblings as much as real family, and they, him.

There is oldest brother Ren (Kenta Kiritani), the brash, blustery brother who feels the need to be the “man of the house” and see after his sibs. His day job is as a Security guard.

There is the youngest Boy Ai (Ryusei Yokohama, last seen by me in the Erina Mano drama Kareshi Loan de Kaemashita), who is a thoughtful student with a knack for cooking (and the target of affection for cutie Yuka Suzuki)

And then there's oldest sister Sara (Nanao) who everyone in the family adores. 

Mikoto especially cherishes her, and in fact is hiding a few secrets from her. One is that, despite being his stepsister, he is in love with her.

And the other secret he is keeping is the fact that, because of his curse, he has seen her destiny and knows that she only has one year left to live before death claims her.

It is because of this that he tries every way he can think of to find a way to break the foretelling made by his future visions. Until then, he can only give her the best life he can.

From the first time seeing Nanao in the Mao Inoue Crime Movie “The Snow White Murder Case”, it seems she’s always played these ultra-glamourous vixens,  and if memory serves, her character of Sara in 4 Bunkan No Marigold is the first time I’ve seen her play a homey, down to earth girl. Though I’m used to her as a model, it’s very refreshing to see her in a more relaxed role.

Though the drama is based around a paranormal set-up (much like the fun Keiko Kitagawa drama “Mop Girl”), the show seems more focused on death and losing people, and so far it’s been a very slow moving and actually quite dreary affair. Honestly I almost nodded off in places. Hope the show delves more into his awesome ability and perhaps focuses more on his trying to defeat the curse than the tragic aspects.

And then there’s the thing about him being in love with his sister. Don’t know how they’re going to lay that one. Haven’t seen a drama with that plot device since the 90’s (the Nene Otsuka/Naoto Ogata drama “Ai to wa Keshite Koukai Shinaikoto”

 and it was rather icky! Theme song “Omae Ga Hoshii” by TUNNELS didn’t help! LOL.

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com