SayaOtonashi

One of the best doramas I've seen so far! This is not a common dorama; it seems more like a long movie divided into several episodes (eleven, each of them being one day in Kita Yoshio's life before he commits suicide).

Incredible cast: Matsuda Ryuhei won a prize for his role, Kuriyama Chiaki is wonderful as always, really credible, and Kohinata Fumiyo was the perfect actor for his role. Konishi Manami did a wonderful job as well, but I don't quite like her. And what a nice surprise to see Namase Katsuhisa in there! Each character has an outstanding and recognizable personality, and it's beautiful to see how they are connected through all the story. Music is also wonderful, and it stands out as almost another character through the series, creating incredible atmospheres in different situations. In fact, because of this OST, I just got interested in jazz :D

Some have said this dorama is slow, but I just don't agree. It focuses on Kita Yoshio's deep feelings, his subtle changes, his peace of mind and his determination, his fears, his frustrations, his love, his gratefulness, his dark side, and all the subtle ties with all that surrounds him. If pace had been quicker, then all these things wouldn't have been so well explained. And again, Kohinata Fumiyo was perfect.

There's only one detail that was totally missed in the final episode, one specific relationship detail that wass not explained, and that's why I'm giving it a 9 and not a 10. Anyway I will rewatch this jdorama for sure, because I feel I will discover new things the second time I watch it, little details that I may have missed the first time. Please add this jdorama to your list ^^

About the dorama:
I enjoyed this second season more than the first one. I feel all mind games were better explained, and it was nice to see some old characters such as Fukunaga-san in there. It is, once more and as expected, full of twists and turns, but this time not so predictable (which is very good). Great Matsuda Shota and superb Kikuchi Rinko. Nao-chan is still irritably naive but this time she seems to use her past experiences in the Game for good. And sometimes I even felt a bit like her... "What should I do in that situation? Would I trust Fukunaga-san or not?". OK, I would probably not XD but you never know. I must also mention the great production, and I really *loved* the camera movements and the sets, and music too. Impressive. Finally I must say (and this goes for both seasons and the movie) that, again and even with all the masks variety, all Dealers (Leronira, Solario and Kelbim) resembled jigsaw's puppet from SAW too much.

About the movie:
Quite the same as the 2nd season. In fact the 2nd season had 9 episodes plus the film, and it could have just been an 11 or 12 ep dorama. That's fine, anyway. Loved the chemistry between Akiyama-san and Nao-chan, which has developed over the whole series. It surprised me too, although I found the ending a bit fast.

Conclusion: This is one of the very few jdoramas I think it's worthwile rewatching in the future. Don't miss it.

This dorama was far better than I expected. It is the second one (the first one was My Boss My Hero) that actually made me laugh, mainly thanks to the incredibly funny Nakatsu's monologues; he is the best character of the series, and I laughed out loud watching him so worried and confused about his sexual orientation. The doctor was terrific too (and I loved his blue contact lenses!). Another great thing is how they put these weird paranormal things in between taking for granted that they are absolutely normal XD

Although there's a love triangle bewteen Mizuki (who was too nosy, and girlish too, mainly because of her voice, but she acted really nice as a guy), Sano (too reserved and complex for my taste) and Nakatsu (simply great!), episodes are not only focused on it, but there are side stories that although a bit repetitive (and somehow confusing at times), are really nice to see. I had a great time watching this one!

PS: Two really good surprises:
- 1st, Inagaki Goro as a teacher. I've never watched any of his doramas yet.
- And 2nd (the best one) is in minute 59-60 of the Special, when they are talking about Nakatsu playing soccer with Nakatsu's mother, and you can see a guy wearing a FCB (Futbol Club Barcelona - Barça!!) t-shirt!! You can even read 'CAMP NOU' (that's the stadium name) on it!! This was recorded on 2008... On 2009 we won 6 cups in a row!!! (being the first team in the world to achieve this!!). Wow!! n_____n

The special was just HORRIBLE. Bad acting, bad pace, bad writing, terrible story, so unbelievable, so badly protrayed, so IMPOSSIBLE! Special is a 1. It's a pitty since the idea is really good. I totally agree with user prestoli's review.

I started watching the dorama because I wanted to see a really BAD one, something like RH Plus XD But the episodes just surprised me. They are quite different from the special: pace is better, as well as acting, production and writing. I loved the music. Yamada Ryosuke's performance is simply great; he's a very talented guy (but still, no bruises after being hit). I didn't like Sayama's character though. The story slowly developed in an average way (much better than I expected) with good twists until an end that, again, was really badly portrayed. But hey, low budget I suppose.

So this dorama has very good things and very, very bad things. But believe me, it could have been worse. At least I kept entertained and enjoyed Ryosuke's performance. Sincerely, you may hate the special, but you should give ep.1 a try and then decide.

Btw, I was really worried for Rin all the time :D

I wrote a review for a really good dorama (MR. BRAIN - I gave it a 10) and now I'm reviewing the worst dorama I've ever seen so far.

So here we have a really BAD dorama, plenty of things you should never do! I'm sorry for all the shonen ai fans but you won't even get many of that. Vampires? Maybe six scenes in the whole dorama. Really bad acting, worsened by a really bad production (did they even know where to place music and how to cut scenes at all?) and writing (I still don't know what they tried to explain to me on the first 10 episodes; and characters presentation was way too forced and terribly bad done).

The characters: Let's see... We have a tormented child, Makoto, who's the only one that acts cool. Then we have Ageha, somewhat childish, and he's not that bad (sometimes). But then there's that Goukon guy who seems to have had too many surgeries to look like David Bowie (creepy) and whose acting is really exagerated ALWAYS. And finally Kiyoi, that tall guy who acts so cool, who is meant to be really mature because he's already lived many years... A guy that always has a totally fake smile, and he seems to be sleepy too, with those almost closed eyes, or is he maybe smelling something rotten by the looks of his face? And I'm not going to mention the secondary characters like Konoe-kun; what the hell happened to his hair? Is that really 'cool'?

And the plot? Almost all episodes talk about something quite stupid (like the garage selling) to explain a (theoretical) greater thing. From the start I had the feeling that there was no plot at all, and I don't really know how did I manage to get through all the show, but episode 12 was suprisingly interesting. It's a shame that (again) episode 13 was too badly written... But story was quite good though (only the last episodes!), although too tipical.

So I'm giving it a 2 because I really want to think that they tried their best doing this show, and because I had never seen a shonen ai dorama and I'm not sure if this was the first one. And my conclusion is that, from time to time, it is good to watch a really bad dorama to be able to see the quality of other doramas.

Great dorama with some similarities to some US TV shows. You can see Patrick Jane (from "The Mentalist") in Tsukumo's clothes and acting (he even wears a vest). You can salso see "CSI" in some science scenes (noticed those colours while working in the lab? or the skyline views), as well as in the intro. "Bones" is also seen there, in some of the strange tests they do in the IPS premises, as well as the premises themselves (though the skull was pretty worse than in "Bones", ne?). And finally there's some "24" as well, in the last episodes. I'm sure some other TV shows are portrayed...

Anyway I just had a great time watching it. It was wonderfully written and produced, and it casted great actors such as Nakama Yukie, and some surprising ones such as Gackt. Pace was incredibly good and action scenes were some of the bests I've seen so far (in a dorama!). I'm sure they tried approaching another style of making doramas. Don't miss the slow motion scenes, they are just wonderful. Besides that, Mr. Brain still maintains some characteristics of a Japanese TV show, like jokes or specific comic scenes. And cases are somehow believable and more complex than in other doramas. Definitely a must see.

Watching it just after 4 shimai tantei dan makes the difference...