Also checking out the drama “Shiyakusho”about the “Death Office” where you go after you’ve died and they make you fill out all the necessary paperwork to decide if you got to Heaven or Hell. Seems even in death you can' get away from all this officious stuff!
I was excited to see Yuina Kuroshima in a “modern” drama after loving her in “Ashi-Girl” (yeah, I know there were modern bits in Ashi-Girl) and she’s such a doll here!
Yuina plays the just-deceased Miki Michiru who wakes up in the death office and is having a hard time wrapping her head around her fate.
She is introduced to the coordinator of the place Shimura (TOKIO's Masahiro Matsuoka) who tries to get her to fill out the paperwork and send her on her way, but the rambunctious girl isn't having it- She is convinced that she has been murdered, though no evidence seems to be found!
So instead of filing her paperwork, she wanders the strange office and snoops around. She’s always where she shouldn’t be, and it’s here she finds the dark side of the business!
With Masahiro Matsuoka in the role of the floor coordinator of the office, I was dying to see this drama, expecting some wacky FUN...So far though, I have to say it is soooooo SLOOOOWWWWWWW that i could barely keep my attention. Instead of a fun romp dealing with the afterlife doings (a la DEATH OMUKAE or SHINIGAMI-KUN) this is one DREARY and MOROSE show.
As well, there are a lot of ideas here that just don't pan out. Why is Miki the only one who seems befuddled and confused here? Surely every person here is experiencing death for the first time like her, but she's the only one who seems lost.
And the procedure of having to fill out all those forms, even while bleeding all over the place and with missing limbs/parts of face. Surely there are a lot of deaths where you wouldn't be ABLE to physically do anything (blown up bodies, etc,) and what about the dead who have no heads, how could they even think much less fill out papers?
And speaking of bleeding, how come some of the people in the background all have bandages and casts while the main characters are left to walk thru the whole episode dripping blood everywhere? Very inconsistent.
And I dunno, maybe I've seen too many episodes of his previous show, but Matsuoka, with his clipped speech and stern features kept reminding me of MITAZONO-SAN, his wacky crossdressing Housekeeper.
His co-workers are a bit more lively and I hope they pep the show up some (Marika Matsumoto in particular is a sassy one!)
...but if not, at least we have the ALWAYS genki Yuina to save the day! Gotta say, I’m really hoping Yuina has a BIG part in this show, she’s the ONLY thing giving it its ZEST…at least so far!
Will continue to watch….
EDIT: Ooh, looks like Kimiko Yo is set to be added to the cast in the next episode!
Besides being Akira's favorite channel, these three people, Anna (Fumika Baba), Minato(Mizuki Itagaki), and Sho (Masaki Nakao) just happen to live on the same floor of their same apartment! 
Add in a photographer (Keisuke Watanabe) who, while stuck at home, discovers the beauty of his pretty next-door neighbor when she is watering her plants, and you have an apartment full of lively inhabitants and interactions!
