Hi wa Mata Noboru [ep1 +2]

Coming out pretty late this season, I was hesitant to follow but seeing how the first episode rating was considerably high, at 13.5%, it's worth giving it a try, I thought.

So here goes. Basically it's a police academy drama. The first kind I've watched as much as Japanese dramas are concerned. I saw something similar before but that's Hong Kong drama,On The First Beat. But anyways, the only reason I watch this is Miura Haruma, really. Basically coz he's the only one that stood out for me, there were several casts I know but he's definitely the only one.

From first ep, Tono (Sato Koichi) a detective was asked to train a group of police students. He was a long time serving detective but because of his sudden separation with his wife (who eloped with a younger man), he wanted to resign, instead, he was put in charge of a group in the police academy. He had a hard-boiled character, strict and forced the students, including Miyata Eiji (Miura Haruma), to undergo strenuous training, which included a 100km run each day.

Eiji entered only because he couldn't find a job outside so there was once he escaped the academy to meet up with his girlfriend. And then, he got caught up with a dejected man who held him and several others as hostages at this cd/video store. With Tono's help, they managed to cool him down and arrested him. The situation caused Eiji to finally see some light in the profession, but later that night, his hopes were dampened almost as quickly as it began by Tono, who challenged their determination and constantly spit them with discouraging words.

Moving on to episode 2, their training continued. Before that, let me just show some of the characters. If you've watched Taiyou to Umi no Kyoshitsu, you'd recognize this guy below, Tomiura Satoshi. The moment I saw him and listened to his voice in here, I knew I'd seen him somewhere. So I cracked my mind and finally, I found his identity. Why would I even care so much to find out, you ask? Well, for one, his voice is really recognizable, it's out of the world! It's like a girl's basically and initially I couldn't recognize him because he has a haircut in this drama. I prefer his longer style though, but since this is a police academy drama, they had to trim it. Anyways, he's just so conspicuous! I kinda still cringe whenever I hear him speak, because of his voice basically. His character here is also predictable. He's a weakling in the squad.

Another character is Yuhara Shuta (above) who is you know, the one that always carry a serious face, no nonsense/crap guy in every drama or classroom or academy. The character is really cliche basically. Actually ALL of them are! But I'm not gonna complain much about it since that's to be expected in dramas nowadays.

And finally, Miura Haruma!

His hair has been cut shorter as compared to his previous drama, Taisetsu no Koto. In episode 2, he tried to sneak out twice, first of which was to eat a famous shop's ramen after the exhausting training with several mates. They got caught by Tono himself who was eating at the same place. Talk about coincidence. They were forgiven. Second time, he wrote a withdrawal letter and sneaked out to meet his girlfriend, who later on, revealed that she'd lied to him about her pregnancy on the phone. Yuhara kept the letter of withdrawal and gave it to Tono because he didn't want Eiji to quit just yet. He wanted to have a competition with him in the future. Tono pleaded to the Chief to excuse Eiji. So, Eiji was saved, basically.


Some shots from the drama.

Thoughts:
Though the characters are cliche and almost predictable, I like Tono a lot. He's the typical strict teacher, but also gauche. His marriage is a failure and his students disliked him for his methods of teachings, however, he did prove that he's capable of giving them the lessons they'll need when they work soon. At the end of episode 2, he stated that he shall not let anyone from his class quit, which made the students happy and relieved. I see more harsh days ahead though.

Tono has never-ending love for his wife even when she ran away! At the end of every episode, we see him leaving her messages, telling about his experiences as a new academy teacher. Initially I thought I'd just care about Miura's character, but Tono is surpassing him in a mile! Eiji is not exactly a likeable character yet, maybe because of that I'm leaning towards Tono atm. Sato Koichi is definitely a good actor. He shines throughout the show, even if there are just 2 episodes.

Rating:
I've never given any ratings before this, maybe I should, just to give you a rough idea of what I thought after watching, mostly, each episode.This is from personal evaluation so it might not even be the same for others.
All things considered, I'm giving this a 7/10 for now. That said, I'll continue this drama. xD