The look on porn industry development in Japan in the 80s is interesting, but as an underdog story about how an ordinary salesman overtakes the industry, the show lacks pathos. Muranishi is quite easy to root for in the beginning when he was this down on his luck everyman estranged from his family but as he gained more footing as filmmaker he seems to stop growing as a character and there's hardly any intimate, personal struggle left for viewers to root him on except that he’s the main guy. Why is making AV in HIS way so important for him? What is at stakes for him (besides his livelihood)?

The production of each Muranishi's films could be seen as milestones in his journey to 'revolutionise' porn as we see the making-process and the impact of his movies to the industry, but in most of them the 'star' is really the porn actresses themselves as they're the ones who were given anything resembling character arc throughout, complete with personal stakes and all, and whose lives are affected the most by the production they starred in. On the contrary hardly any of Muranishi's works relates to him on personal level. He has these passionate speeches about what he believes AV should stand for and how they should be made and viewed, and while they’re challenging to both the mindset of people in the 80s and even today’s viewer, there's a clear lack of build up to them and I don’t see where this belief comes from. They ended up coming across as random sentences writers put in just because the real Muranishi mentioned them in some interview instead of the iconic quotes that define him. Again, Megumi instead seems to be the one carrying out this role of exploring sexuality more impactfully, as we follow her growth in finding her passion and her struggle and sacrifices she makes to follow her ideal. Meanwhile how easy it looks for Muranishi and co to recover from every setbacks they encounter also leads to lack of emotional investment from my part because I don’t see the characters struggling in emotionally evocative way. I'm not saying it's devoid of entertainment watching him coming up with over the top ways to raise to the challenges, but while it's not always sunshine and rainbows it also seems to aim for chic and cool Hollywood-esque style of direction which is refreshing compares to how bleak Jdrama tackles topic of sex industry usually but at the same time it sucks out the soul from the story.

The kingpin of porn industry is the villain of the story in this season as he hold onto the 'old ways' of making AVs and monopolize the industry. They're the source of every Muranishi and co's setbacks and the 'new ways vs old ways’ angle could've been real intriguing if we also know where the villains are coming from instead of them simply seeing Muranishi and co as pest for not following their rules. Still, I'll most likely watch the sequel because I do think this is a well-acted, well-directed show with rarely portrayed subject matter and charismatic characters. I do hope that the sequel will either humanise Muranishi more or develop him in more interesting course, but I'm not holding my breath, and as an entertainment it's been adequate even without it.

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