alwennia
Europe
A lot of good ideas and thought-provoking scenes that sadly fall short of its potential
I first heard about this show on Ladyteruki's blog (which I highly recommend if you read French) and it touched on two things I am passionate about and also have experience with both practically and academically, youth involvement in politics and politics, especially municipal politics.
This show is highly uneven when it comes to its story and characters. It starts a lot of things, it has a lot of ideas, it even has several genres. That's a shame because it feels like it's starting a lot of threads, but never bringing them to their ends. The beginning and middle bits especially are very thought-provoking, especially re: our real life. The last two episodes are way more about the drama. Before I talk about the characters, I want to talk about those first few episodes. Because my thoughts when watching them was that this was the kind of show I'd love to study with students. I don't agree with all of the points made in this drama when it comes to administering a city for the future, but I think it is a great start for a discussion. It is asking a lot of important questions that we need to ask ourselves too. When watching this show, what do you agree with? What do you disagree with? What can we do about people becoming disenchanted about the current political system? What about corrupted politicians? How can we ensure that both young people and older people are integrated and have their voices heard? How do we integrate communities when we plan our cities? How to reconcile municipal development and traditions? Just how far should we integrate technology and AI in our political systems? Those are some of the questions I was asking myself when watching this show.
As I said, this drama is very uneven and it doesn't necessarily go far enough in exploring those questions, but it feels like a good starting point and I hope that more dramas will look at those questions. That is the benefit with TV shows looking at a near future, it calls back to current events and push them a little further to see a possibility. It is what I expect from anticipation as a genre (talking of a reference that maybe one other person will get, it reminded me somewhat of the French TV show Trepallium from a few years ago).
But as mentioned, the latter part of the show feels way more dramatic and less about those societal questions. Which is also interesting, but because of the structure and the length of this drama (only 5 episodes), it also feels undeveloped. It has interesting characters, but they're all mostly underdeveloped. I would have wanted more in-depth scenes with the main characters, more development of the young ministers (I really want more about them), just more. I wasn't as invested in what happens at the end because of this unevenness of the plot. Which is a shame because there's lot that could have been done there.
That being said, some things were actually on point. The cinematography was top notch! The CGI was constantly present, but seamless. I could totally believe all of the technology they had. It felt futuristic while also being something we could have in a few years. (The glasses very much reminded me of the glasses from the webcomics Space Boy.) Finally, the music was really good! It fitted very well with the drama and I need to go and see if it is available anywhere because I would like to add it to my playlist.
I think the conclusion I have is that this drama tried to do a lot of things, had a lot of good ideas, but by trying to do too much, it didn't manage to go through them all which is a shame. The production quality was nevertheless really good. It is still an interesting drama that I would recommend, especially if any of the questions I asked earlier interest you, even if only to make you think. I am glad for the NHK World putting it on their website so I could watch it. If you're reading this when the episodes are still available, go and watch it. It is only 5 episodes of 50min.
This show is highly uneven when it comes to its story and characters. It starts a lot of things, it has a lot of ideas, it even has several genres. That's a shame because it feels like it's starting a lot of threads, but never bringing them to their ends. The beginning and middle bits especially are very thought-provoking, especially re: our real life. The last two episodes are way more about the drama. Before I talk about the characters, I want to talk about those first few episodes. Because my thoughts when watching them was that this was the kind of show I'd love to study with students. I don't agree with all of the points made in this drama when it comes to administering a city for the future, but I think it is a great start for a discussion. It is asking a lot of important questions that we need to ask ourselves too. When watching this show, what do you agree with? What do you disagree with? What can we do about people becoming disenchanted about the current political system? What about corrupted politicians? How can we ensure that both young people and older people are integrated and have their voices heard? How do we integrate communities when we plan our cities? How to reconcile municipal development and traditions? Just how far should we integrate technology and AI in our political systems? Those are some of the questions I was asking myself when watching this show.
As I said, this drama is very uneven and it doesn't necessarily go far enough in exploring those questions, but it feels like a good starting point and I hope that more dramas will look at those questions. That is the benefit with TV shows looking at a near future, it calls back to current events and push them a little further to see a possibility. It is what I expect from anticipation as a genre (talking of a reference that maybe one other person will get, it reminded me somewhat of the French TV show Trepallium from a few years ago).
But as mentioned, the latter part of the show feels way more dramatic and less about those societal questions. Which is also interesting, but because of the structure and the length of this drama (only 5 episodes), it also feels undeveloped. It has interesting characters, but they're all mostly underdeveloped. I would have wanted more in-depth scenes with the main characters, more development of the young ministers (I really want more about them), just more. I wasn't as invested in what happens at the end because of this unevenness of the plot. Which is a shame because there's lot that could have been done there.
That being said, some things were actually on point. The cinematography was top notch! The CGI was constantly present, but seamless. I could totally believe all of the technology they had. It felt futuristic while also being something we could have in a few years. (The glasses very much reminded me of the glasses from the webcomics Space Boy.) Finally, the music was really good! It fitted very well with the drama and I need to go and see if it is available anywhere because I would like to add it to my playlist.
I think the conclusion I have is that this drama tried to do a lot of things, had a lot of good ideas, but by trying to do too much, it didn't manage to go through them all which is a shame. The production quality was nevertheless really good. It is still an interesting drama that I would recommend, especially if any of the questions I asked earlier interest you, even if only to make you think. I am glad for the NHK World putting it on their website so I could watch it. If you're reading this when the episodes are still available, go and watch it. It is only 5 episodes of 50min.
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