The star-studded cast has been the talk of the town, but…
The film is an ensemble coming-of-age drama with semi-autobiographical elements by Koki Mitani, and features many popular and talented actors such as Masaki Sugata, Fumi Nikaido, Ryunosuke Kamiki, and Mina Hamabe. There was no shortage of topics, including the discovery in the first episode of Ken Watanabe’s “voice performance,” which had not been announced in advance. The new drama by Mitani Koki is poorly paced and lame, and I’ve had enough of it after the first episode, Why have they been subjected to such harsh evaluations? A writer for a TV magazine pointed out a trend in Mitani’s recent works. The most recent one that comes to mind is the movie “Let’s Talk about Suomi,” starring Masami Nagasawa, which was released in 2024. Immediately after its release, the film did well and was said to have grossed over 3 billion yen at the box office, but in fact it grossed about 1.7 billion yen. This is not a low figure for a recent Japanese live-action film, but it was about half of the previous film, “I Don’t Remember,” which stalled at around ¥1.7 billion. However, it was hard to deny the impression that the film had stalled at about half the amount of the previous film, “Memories! The first episode was aired on the Internet, and after the first episode, the following comments were made. The “King’s Restaurant” is a TV drama scripted by Mitani that was broadcast in 1995 and starred Koshiro Matsumoto (now Shirako Matsumoto II), Michitaka Tsutsui, and Tomoko Yamaguchi. What in the world is going on? The truth is that “The King’s Restaurant” was being rerun on terrestrial television in the Kanto and some other regions on weekday afternoons to coincide with the broadcast of this new drama series. The King’s Restaurant” was broadcast the year after the popular series “Furuhata Tosaburo,” when Mitani’s reputation was rapidly growing, and it is still regarded as one of his masterpieces. Speaking of Mitani, his three NHK historical dramas are also popular, and one of them, “Shinsengumi! (2004), one of his three NHK Taiga dramas, has been available on NHK On Demand since September 29, 2004. (2004), one of NHK’s three popular Taiga dramas, has been available on NHK On Demand since September 29, 2004. Mitani fans who have unfortunately dropped out of the new drama series can now enjoy the “brilliance of yesteryear” in “Shinsengumi! may be a good way for Mitani fans who have unfortunately dropped out of the new dramas to bask in the “brilliance of yesteryear” with “Shinsengumi!