Last Man: Zenmo no Sosakan

Masaharu Fukuyama stars as Hiromi Minami  a blind former profiler turned detective working for the FBI in America, who has come back to Japan to create a joint FBI/Japan Task Force.

A veritable Zatoichi, Minami’s blindness has given him a set of skills that help him with his sleuthing and give him the upper hand above his workmates: heightened hearing that can sense the slightest footstep and  a sense of smell that can detect the slightest scent upon a suspect, as well as an infallible brain that puts all of the clues and comes up with the perfect answer, a skill that his pointman to the team, Shintaro Godo (Yo Oizumi) realizes firsthand when Minami deduces everything about him at their very first meeting!

Minami is gung-ho about joining the Japan Police Department and is eager to forge new partnerships, but the station agents have their reservations about the eccentric if affable man suddenly added to their team.

Led by the initial investigator Madoka Sakura (Yo Yoshida), she is curt and abrupt with her conversations with Minami, not seeing how this man can bring anything to their ongoing investigation, a case following a string of deadly bombings happening sporadically throughout Japan.

Neither more forthcoming are the other detectives including Izumi (Ren Nagase),Hasegawa (Tomoya Oku)  or the hot-headed Manome (Satoru Matsuo), who watch from the side to see if this guy can prove himself.

The only one who seems to understand Minami and welcomes him to the Japan precinct is rookie Yuki Agatsuma (Mio Imada), who embraces Minami’s observations and predictions. She seems to be the only one not jaded, but we will find she has a history with Minami that even he may not realize…

Asking Yuki to join them on the site investigation

!

When the bomber strikes again, while the rest of the squad head down together, Agatsuma is added to Minami’s team of him and Shintaro Godo! Welcome to our new power trio!

Her involvement will become clear when she is instructed to download a program onto her laptop.  With a camera and earpiece affixed to his ear, Minami can broadcast his “sight” to an app on Yuki’s laptop, and with her instruction, becomes his “eyes” through the earpiece. In this way Minami can canvass the bomb scene and use his special skills to nail down the perpetrator!

So far, Last Man: Zenmo no Sosakan seems to be another “Quirky Detective with Odd Skill” series like so many others (including some of Fukuyama's own like “Galileo”, but with the sense of smell, reminding me more of the Hiroshi Abe crime drama “The Sniffer”…

Still, the characters here are very well-developed, and even in just the first episode, we are given slivers of backstory to many of the main characters already, and makes you want to learn more!

I really like the Mio Imada character and her relation with Minami, and hope they develop stories like this to keep me interested, as I feel the show will eventually and inevitably turn into another “Corrupt Upper Level Cops/Politicians” show, which they’re already hinting at.

Takaya Kamikawa

Nonetheless, looks like an interesting one to check out each week!

PS: Mmm, who's THIS cutie serving up as Hotel Help "Namba"?

 Credits say her name is "Ourin" and that she's a former singer/idol...VERY easy on the eyes!

Just another reason to check in each week! LOL

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Eriko Kitagawa Back with Another Romance Drama: "Yugure ni, Te wo Tsunagu"

 The latest drama penned from “Queen of Romance” Eriko Kitagawa, and as expected full of all the usual cliches and trappings of her most famous works.. Must say that after “Hanbun Aoi” I’m not super eager to dive into another romance drama from her so soon, but Suzu Hirose is SUCH a sweetie in the role of the addled Asagi that I just HAVE to keep watching and see what comes next!

Umino Oto (Ren Nagase) and Asagi Soramame (Hirose) are two individuals whose paths have crossed a number of fateful times, the first of which they had bumped into each other while listening to the same music on their airpods (a fact they get a kick out of when they accidentally switch pods and hear the same song!)

A few months later Umino (who is a singer-songwriter) is sitting at a park composing where a frazzled girl stops to refresh her face in the cool water of the fountain. He immediately recognizes her as the ipod girl from months back, but before he can say anything, his phone flies out of his hands and is about to go into the water!

Luckily the spry Soramame is able to intercept the phone and save it…but as she is handing it over to him…the fountain sprinklers go on, DOUSING her in cold water!!!!!!

A mortified Oto begs to pay for dry cleaning for her, but she waves it off, saying she’s much too busy and has places to be! Scurrying away, she steps out of his life once again…but not for long!

The reason for her rush is that Asagi is in town to meet up with her fiance, to go over details of their upcoming WEDDING! But, as these dramas usually go, he is only there to inform her that he’s fallen for someone else and that the wedding is OFF! She's been unceremoniously DUMPED!

A devastated Asagi tries to keep a positive outlook on things, but ends up going to a five-star hotel to blow the wedding money  on deluxe lodgings…and ALL the fancy food and wine she can consume in order to drown out her problems!

At the same restaurant some tables over, Oto is with his savvy manager (Wakana Matsumoto), who , after hearing his latest offering, tells him that while his songs are catchy enough, they lack feeling, and says that it’s because he’s never really been in love. (MAN, this HAS to be the BIGGEST cliche whenever there’s a struggling songwriter in a drama, huh?)

When Oto goes to freshen up, he comes across Asagi once more, who is now  a drunken mess. He reminds her of who she is and once again offers to pay for the clothes cleaning, but she cleanly says that she never cleaned the clothes so there ain’t no bill. Through her slurring, he learns that she’s been dumped by her fiance, and though he’s concerned about her state, she waves him off.

After saying goodbye to his Manager, Oto is alarmed to see the still inebriated Soramame teetering on the edge of a bridge railing. She’s taken off her engagement ring, and is pondering her future. When the ring slips away from her, she leans over try and catch it, sending her dangerously over the railing- where Oto luckily leaps in to grab her!

He tells her suicide isn’t the answer, to which she adamantly tells him she had no intention of killing herself!  She seems OK, but he is on alert to what she may do. As one of her shoes fell over the bridge when she was pulled back, Oto takes it upon himself to piggyback her back the the hotel.

It’s while on his back that the tears of all the frustrations of the tumultuous day that Asagi has been holding in come out, and Oto stoically carries her home without a word as she silently weeps behind him. 

Once back at the Hotel, Asagi is pleased to get a warm pair of house slippers and is seemingly back to her old outspoken and spritely self. But Oto is worried about what she may try to do, and decides to stay a little longer with her...

Though neither of them realize it yet, this is the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship!!

So far an entertaining but LOADED with cliches, and they’re even setting up the “Elderly Grandmother doesn’t know the Wedding is Off So We Need Someone to PRETEND to be the Fiance” cliche ... But as I mentioned, Hirose easily makes it well worth checking out!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com