Coming off of Unnatural, I was unbelievably excited for a medical mystery drama with Kubota Masataka in it. And though I can't say I'm a huge fan of romance plots, the one in Radiation House isn't the worst I've seen, and I like that they address the fact that he's unintentionally making her feel bad about her own accomplishments. The camerawork is gorgeous, noticeably so. I'm not one to pay much attention to OST but hey, you can't go wrong with an ED sung by Man With A Mission.

There's a problem with the plot, though. That is, I don't think this drama ought to have been this long. I think the way that they bookend every episode with narration that has a meaning that changes before and after the episode, but the content of the episodes in and of themselves just doesn't seem quite... enough? Conflict is minimal and easily solved, and it really starts to grate after eleven entire episodes. The show settles into this formula of Igarashi sees something -> asks for more scans -> they don't give it to him at first but then either they bend the rules or someone has a change of heart -> Igarashi was right. Also, along the way one of the supporting case has a day in the limelight. It's just a bit trite and cheaply feel-good, you know? So I suppose if you're looking for a pretty time waster with nice actors but minimal real plot investment, this is for you?

Read More

ive been up for 24 hours and honestly the other review on this page is a pretty good review of the series even if its got endgame spoilers sums up some of my problems with the plot but ALSO! IMPORTANT! some content warnings are needed for the series in case you're thinking about it.

-theres sexual assault/r*pe/sex under false pretenses mentioned and kiiinda shown? more than once or twice. its not an insensitive portrayal at all, not for shock value, but still its there and u should probably b awares of that

-its not like a. huge thing. but theres def at least one protracted, kinda transphobic joke in the container hotel arc which SUCKED it wasnt even really important to the show but like. please. dont use the word renyao.

-there might be more but like these are the ones that i wish i knew the most before watching. have fun with this tho yalls

Read More

I've read the original novel and I just have to say that while I understand that it would be impossible for the drama to adapt 1700 chapters and several million words into a 40 episode drama series, and obviously their budget for game animation would have had significant limits so that the large-scale battles and boss raids in the novel couldn't have taken center stage. There's several changes that I did like, too-- Ye Xiu having zero life skills and constantly being clowned on by customers and his boss? Hysterical. Love it. I liked the expansion of Ye Xiu's past with Su Muqiu and Tao Xuan, too-- it made all the present day scenes hit harder, knowing where exactly he came from. Qiu Fei's new interpretation suprised me a bit but yknow, I can get behind it.

But... I really wish that the changes had focused more on the strategy and politics parts of the novel, which is where I thought Butterfly Blue's novel shone the most. I loved the lavish detail that they spent on describing tactics and all the maneuvering, and I was looking forwards to seeing that! However, where I'm at in the drama, the most significant changes I see are that they've add what is essentially several episode's worth of meaningless fluff with Chen Guo vacillating from silly antics to self doubt at her ability to manage a guild. She feels seriously defanged to me in the drama, which is disappointing.

Actors are all pretty good, Yang Yang is the prettiest man alive, soundtrack... all I have to say is that if you watch like 5 episodes in a row it starts to get repetitive because all the tracks seem to be derived from like the same 3 sonds, but generally speaking it does the job of setting the mood.

Read More

The story's fine, the acting's fine, the music is fine, but I can't quite seem to jive with this show's sense of humor? Far too often an otherwise suspenseful scene will be interrupted by a running gag for me to take any of it seriously-- they're not even especially funny gags most of the time, it's all stuff like a character's career as an underground idol or another person stumbling over his words and everyone staring at him. And they just don't stop. They never stop, nor are they well integrated into the scenes that they're in. It's a pity, because there's a really interesting story here buried underneath the surreal tension breaking humor.

Read More

The first few episodes of the live action are pretty good! However, by the end of the show it's become fully evident that the writer (or perhaps the person who adapted the light novel into a live action?) has very little idea how to keep things suspenseful for the viewer, which is- as you might imagine- a fatal flaw for a mystery show. The first three or so episodes are fine, but by the ending I can't help but have a sneaking suspicion that there are hardly any real narrative consequences for the characters.
It's a pity, because while I haven't watched the anime myself, I became curious about how this live action version fared as an adaptation as compared to the anime and I love what they changed. Instead of a high school sidekick, they made Shotaro a college grad, they took out Sakurako's fiancee, etc. Shotaro's internal monologue was quite funny as well. But ultimately, these changes aren't taken to their logical conclusions, instead hovering in some sort of nebulous space where Shotaro keeps insisting that he's twentysomething but the show keeps treating him like a child, and where it rather seems as if most problems can be solved by a good speech or two. It's worth watching the first half, at least, but its definitely not a show that gets better as it goes on.

Read More