Da Capo Shimasenka asks: "Do You Want To Play A Game?"

 Part Liar Game, part Squid Game, DA CAPO Shimasenka? tells the story of a mysterious servant named Ninomiya (Takeda Tetsuya) whom, at the behest of his Master, has found a series of despairing individuals pushed to the edge and about to commit suicide due to crushing debt.

Stopping them at the very last second of their demise, Ninomiya invites all of them to the home of his benefactor, where they learn that they have been invited to participate in a macabre and deadly game of chance.

Called DA CAPO, each individual is told to sign a life insurance policy to the host of the game, an unseen individual named only MR.X. The “contestants" will them participate in a series of dangerous games where each round is ended by the death of a member.

Once that person dies, his life insurance will kick in and there will be a payout. And after a fee has been paid to Mr.X, the rest of the money go to the PARTICIPANTS! The more people that die, the more insurance will pay out and the LESS people there will be to split the money with! That means that the more people that DIE, the more you GET!

Normally no one would even think about playing such a deadly game, but these are people whom debt has destroyed their lives, and for even the chance of paying it off and starting again clean, most won’t hesitate for a second to join! And in the end, ALL EIGHT of them take pen in hand and sign the contracts!

Once the legal papers have all been signed, the first of the "games" is introduced: Champagne glasses filled with water for the contestants to drink. But ONE of them is laced with POISON,  a deadly agent that will KILL the drinker soon thereafter!

...Are the guests brave enough to go ahead with such MADNESS???

The Contestants: Otawara (Makita Sports)

Shimon (Takaya Sakoda)

Sakuragi (Momoka Hasegawa)

Masumi (Kei Inoo)

Maeyama (Atsuko Hirata)

Mihashi (Ryoko Kobayashi)

Inaba (Tetta Sugimoto)

and Nagumo (Arisa Mizuki)

Each of them has their own dark reasons for being in debt, (which we will learn over time) and by hook or crook, each one has a determination to become the one holding the prize at the end!

So RAISE your glasses and make a toast, for the games are about to begin...and one is about to DIE!

CHEERS!

Let the Games Begin...

A truly BIZARRE show, kept loose and FUN by Takeda Tetsuya who plays Ninomiya with a particular ZEST!

My Family おわり

 I was initially really intrigued by this story of the harried game developer Narusawa (Ninomiya Kazunari) who never has time for his wife (Mikako Tabe) or child, who is suddenly forced to see things in a real light when his daughter is kidnapped.

Strong characters and a smart police team led by Katsuragi (Hiroshi Tamaki) made me think this was going to be a crime drama of high stakes with the family and police coming together to track down the kidnapper and bring the daughter back home...

But almost immediately, it degenerated into the typical red herring fake-out “suspect of the week” shenanigans as both the police and the family seemed to be doing the most boneheaded of moves! As you all might recall from my experience with Shinhannin Flag, I have no patience for this stuff, and thought I might have to drop it.

But I stuck with it, and I must say, by the halfway point, it was beginning to gel and by the show’s last three episodes, all the parts came together to paint a very compelling narrative, and by the show’s last episode, I was on the edge of my seat in anticipation of how it would all play out! The way the story all wrapped up was so satisfying (and tear-inducing!!!), I began to worry that they would ruin it by adding one of those cheap ‘gotcha’ twist things at the end. But I needn't have worried as this one closed with as good an end as you could get!

The way the story all wrapped up was so satisfying (and tear-inducing!!!), I began to worry that they would ruin it by adding one of those cheap ‘gotcha’ twist things at the end. But I needn't have worried as this one closed with as good an end as you could get!

Glad I stuck this out out!!!