Aiba Drama Review: Last Hope

I think among all of Arashi, Aiba has the worst luck with dramas.

What always seems to happen is he gets something that sounds really interesting on paper, but in execution just falls flat. Half the time it has nothing to do with whether or not he can act.

Last Hope is about a band of specialist doctors (with tragic/confusing PASTS!) who work together at a center that specializes in cases other doctors have rejected. They are the patients’ ‘last hope’, something they never fail to mention (I’m talking every single episode, to the point that it’s lampshaded by the characters).  To solve these cases they use “cutting edge medical technology”. They deal with the aforementioned pasts and “help each other”. They also wrestle with heavy questions about Japan’s medical system, about life and death and ethics etc.

It sounds good, right? Having a tragic past is a bit of cliche, but it can work well, if it’s done properly, right? In fact, the reveal of one of these “pasts” left me completely floored.

Then why, WHY is it so boring?

(SPOILER ALERT!!! This review contains major plot spoilers – basically I’m spoiling Aiba’s ending – as in every detail. Also, this review focuses mainly on Aiba’s story arc more than the others.)

Aiba Drama Review: Mikeneko Holmes no Suiri

I was really quite surprised by this one. Such a great poster. Interesting (if not a bit of a baffling) premise. And yet.

Aiba Masaki plays a detective, the kind where you have no idea HOW he managed to become one with all those fears: heights, women, blood, the list goes on. But he believes in people. Yes. That ‘belief in others’ thing that at least one main character in a Japanese drama MUST have. His father had it, as a matter of fact. Being a detective is kind of a thing in the family…

Then there is this cat. A cat that solves mysteries. And is…well, a bit of a jerk, but he’s a CAT so what do you expect-? As far as plot, that’s about it. There’s this guy who wants to be a better detective and the cat that talks to him some times about it.

No. I’m serious. They solve mysteries.

(This post contains spoilers. Just a couple.)

In Which Face-Down Takes Isilie’s dignity

Arashi’s (semi) new pv has been capped within an inch of its life, by just about every Arashi fan out there. I know exactly why…because you just can’t help it. Because looking at them is…

*deep, happy, sigh*
Refer to my header also.

Let’s just do this so I can get back to pretending I’m an intelligent person and not a drooling, squealing, Ohno-obsessed fan-gurl.

(Warning: This isn’t a review so much as a pointless pic-spam. Of hawtness. And Face Down, the theme of Ohno’s drama Kagi no Kakatta Heya – which you should also watch.)