Sunday, October 23, 2011

Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de [ep 1]

Keiko Kitagawa is back in dramas and while I like her as an actress, I was hoping that she’d step out of these stereotypic characters because I’ve seen her in similar roles previously – psychological detective in Lady~ Saigo no Hanzai Profile and annoying rich girl in Moon Lovers (though I kinda like her in there). I’ve only seen her other drama which was one of her first dramas – Mop Girl and I actually like that a lot. Compared to the recent ones, I find Mop Girl’s still one of her best, not just because she was lead, but because of the different kind of genre and her character was funny! She was so natural back there compared to her stiffer acting in LADY and unappreciated role in Moon Lovers. Buzzer beat? Well she was obviously BETTER than Yamapi but too bad, all her role did in there was to be his partner.

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So how does this new one fare? She’s playing a rookie detective, Hosho Reiko, who has to rely on her butler for advices to solve the cases she’s working on. Butler? Yes, so by day she’s a normal detective but by night, she’s all dressed up as an heiress and Sakurai Sho acts as Kageyama, her butler who recently takes over from the previous older butler. If you ask me, her role’s nothing new or anything to shout about, in fact, it’s just a mix of Yuzuki (Moon Lovers) and Kazuki (LADY). The only thing worth mentioning though is the addition of a butler who is so much cleverer than her, has excellent deductive skills and god knows why he’s working as a butler.

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Namiki RULES in this show even if he's an airhead
It’ll most probably be an episodic drama, she gets a difficult case and while relying on her Chief,  Namiki would be suicide, she turns to her butler who surprisingly gives really good ideas and helps her solve the cases faster than she can decipher the analysis. She’s not slow per se, in fact, she’s a million times better in logical thinking than Namiki who is too self-conscious and a true example of a male air-head. However, as clueless as he is, I like Namiki, for the sake of his comic character. Namiki is also like Reiko, heir to his father’s business who also happens to be Reiko’s superior.
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Overall, I don’t care much for the case. I just find myself amused by the comic relief, thanks to Namiki for that. Also they use a lot of comic-like features which make it all the more interesting to watch. Watch out for Reiko’s EYEROLL whenever Namiki makes a dumb deduction and acting all triumphant about it when a 2 year-old kid could’ve done the same thing. As for Kageyama, I’m curious of his past and why with his outstanding mind skills, he’s working as a butler. There must be something behind all this. It’s also amusing how he follows Reiko wherever she goes, much like a stalker. But nothing beats Karasawa! That old man appeared in EVERY SINGLE PHOTO Reiko was in throughout her life, now that’s what I call STALKER!
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Overall, it's a mixture of comedy and mystery. I was expecting for something more, frankly but at least I'm content with the comical features they offer in this first episode, in an otherwise dull show. I'd say comedy is its saving grace for now. The first case is average so let's hope they improve that soon. 

Rating: 8/10

Why do I have a feeling that this will have the same fate as Zenkai Girl? Will this have high expectations but then kinda fall short towards the end? Let's hope not xD

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