Start Date: October 11, 2015... Sundays at 10:00 pm.... Episode one rating: 12.5%
Main Cast:
Takaya Kamikawa as Ryo Saeba
Saki Aibu as Kaori Makimura
Ayaka Miyoshi as Glass Heart/Xiang Ying
Shohei Miura as Liu Xin-Hing
Brother Tom as Falcon
Reika Takashima as Saeko Nogami
Soji Izumi as Karito
Watching another drama that's much different than most of my past views, what I'm liking about three series I'm currently viewing is that none of them have any current Idols in them. To me at least they really bring a drama down, they're okay if the drama is about the group they're in such as "Majisuka" or 'Bemars", when they're around better actors you really notice their lack of talent.
Once again went in cold to a drama, just decided if a series looks promising or has a cast I like that has no Idols then will give those kinds of shows a chance, so none of the three can be called must watches but all have had solid starts. This show is based on the long running manga, there's also a Korean version of the manga. It's only been one episode but haven't seen any many similarities between the two shows except the main character is referred to as City Hinter.
Last few recaps for an episode one haven't given much of a review, instead been concentrating the posts on describing the main characters. But in those character profiles have mentioned what's happened in the episode so it does give a breakdown of what happened just in a different format.
Two of the main three characters in the show are Ryo(City Hunter) and Kaori. They're engaged to be married and they work together in a mysterious occupation. And that line of work is that Ryo is called an 'Underground Sweeper', he helps people out who have been cheated by gangsters, been threatened or really anything that the victim cannot go to the police about. Like most dramas not much has come out yet about the main character, for instance how did he get into doing that kind of job? How long has he been doing it and so many other questions but sure most will be answered as the series goes along. The way to get in touch with Ryo is by saying 'XYZ', for some reason he'll know then that a person is in trouble and comes to their rescue, how I don't know yet.
But the biggest question is does Ryo and Kaori work with someone else higher up then them, such as a secret organization? In the Korean version City Hunter works for the government, so far in this show they've just worked freelance. For some reason though the police seem to be on their side as they both help each other out so kind of wonder how that situation developed.
Ryo does the muscle work and he's quite a fighter, really don't know what Kaori's role on the team is but don't think it really matters. It doesn't matter because about a 1/3 of the way through the show she gets killed, she tried to prevent a young child from getting run over but in the meantime she gets run over. The doctors could have saved her but they let Ryo know she would probably always remain in a vegetative state, he decided then it'd be better if they let her die. That's what happened then but Kaori was also an organ donor, after her death her organs were transported to an organ donor warehouse. Unknown at the time to everyone the truck carrying the organs was hijacked and her organs were stolen but mainly the hijackers just wanted Kaori's heart.
The heart was stolen for the thrid main character who goes by the code name of Glass Heart, she also has a Chinese name but I'll keep referring to her by that code name. Glass Heart worked as an assassin for an evil organization called Legion, however she had problems on her last assignment and was shot. Glass Heart doesn't have long to live and needs a heart transplant, hence the hijacking of the organs truck. The operation wasn't performed at a hospital but at a secret Legion location, they seem to be a fairly big organization but so far not too much has come out about them. for example what exactly is their purpose?
Lot of questions already need to be answered but that's okay as it may keep this series interesting. Back to Glass Heart and her transplant was successful but shortly after her recovery she managed to escape, no one knew why she betrayed Legion. Didn't know it was possible but the new heart has changed Glass Heart, she's starting to think a bit like Kaori and perhaps Glass Heart then has changed her assassin ways. Now that she's escaped from Legion though it's an all out search for her, she's managed to elude them a few times mainly to the help if Ryo.
No code name for Liu, one more question to be answered is why do the members of Legion have Chinese names, does the organization come from there? Legion gets their assassins by recruiting orphans at a young age, training and brain washing them to do the job. Glass Heart has a change as we've seen and has betrayed the group, joining her in the betrayal is Liu. He was one who was assigned to hunt down Glass Hunter but instead of killing her he wounded his superior allowing her and Ryo to escape, he also goes with them. At the show's conclusion Liu was about to leave Tokyo but was asked by Ryo to stay and join his team as he's going to need all the help he can get if the huge army of Legion will be after him, looks like Liu is going to accept the offer.
Will give some brief details about two other main characters, there are a few more but we really haven't seen nor learned much about them yet. Nogami is a Police Superintendent, seems as though any time something happens with Ryo she and her department are the ones assigned to help him. Her and Ryo seem to know each other well, Nogami seems to be a good person to have on your side so there may be more to their relationship that hasn't come out yet.
Most of the drama took place at the Falcon's cafe which is called Cat's Eye. Think at one time he worked for the police force, why he left is unknown but he is respected by all the officers who visit his cafe, he is older so perhaps he's retired. Falcon also keeps Ryo well armed, he's got a small arsenal behind his coffee counter, his windows are also bulletproof which saved the lives of Ryo and Glass Heart towards the end of this episode.
Ryo and Kaori did do one case at the beginning of the show for someone who was being threatened by the Yakuza, it got solved easily but now that Kaori is deceased and Legion is after Ryo we may not see any more of these cases.
Kind of a long recap but breaking it down this way makes it feel shorter, also think it makes it better as I think what happened and who the characters are got explained quite well. Hard to do all reviews in this style though but then again most aren't as long as this one, plus this episode was 70 minutes long as most first episodes tend to be. Next post though has many more screenshots from this episode so anything missed you should be able to find viewing them.
Like I mentioned above all three current dramas I'm viewing have been solid though none of them could be considered classics but that's fine as long as they remain an interesting watch. The one thing I'm wondering about concerns Saki's character Kaori, she died so wonder how much of her we're going to see as we didn't see too much of her after her death. Started this drama after three episodes were aired, the fourth aired tonight so hopefully will be back soon for the recap for episode two.
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