Drama Review: Ryuusei no Kizuna

This one sort of took me by surprise! I was pretty excited when I first heard of it since I love Nino, but couldn’t find subs for a while and didn’t end up watching it until much later. I have to say, while it’s a bit of a sad drama I liked it a lot! Nino is indeed an amazing actor. :) I also gained newfound respect for Nishikido Ryo (this is the first time I’ve seen him in a drama) and Erika Toda. I thought the three of them had pretty good chemistry on camera. I’ll make sure not to reveal any plot details or anything that could ruin the ending, but I would like to give my general opinion of the show including its ending… so do be careful just in case (^^;)

The plot is about three kids by the name of Ariake, two older brothers, Koichi and Taisuke, and their younger sister Shizuna, whose parents get murdered (a cheerful story, this one…). They vow to one day find the murderer and kill him, and fourteen years later their thoughts are still on solving this case. They spend their time as con artists, swindling money out of their targets in a series of fairly comical episodes, although the plot takes a more serious turn as the focus becomes the long sought-after murderer. There are several surprising plot twists towards the end, and while I won’t spoil anything, I will say I found the climax pretty intense.

I was thrown off by the story a bit at first, as while the premise was revealed to be as morbid as I expected, many of what I guess you would call “filler” episodes were actually pretty lighthearted. While accepting the fact that the main characters were comically swindling people took some getting used to, I found the episodes easy to watch and I felt pretty hooked. I was always amused by Koichi’s intricate scripts that he wrote and how engrossed he got in them (Nino’s acting makes me happeh XD). Taisuke’s fiery personality was entertaining (Ryo is quiiiite charming), and his and Shizuka’s aliases were pretty funny too. Also, I have to say, after watching this drama I finally ended up finding Erika Toda really pretty O.o;. Then again, the first time I’d seen her in anything was the Death Note movie, and while I don’t hate Misa’s character as much as some, she’s still pretty annoying, so that was my initial vision of Erika. But I didn’t think Shizuka’s character was really annoying… she was realistically girly, but not too girly, strong, but with understandably weak moments. So yeah, I really liked the characters. The three of them worked really well together and had downright heartwarming, adooorable moments, as well as serious, intense times of discordance. I just felt like they pulled the sibling thing off really well, despitetheplottwistsIwon’treveal. Their kid versions were sooo cute too!

Anyway, there were some really fun scenes, but then, of course, some very serious ones as well. I won’t say very much as I don’t want to ruin any of the plot twists, but do be aware that this is not a super-happy drama. The last episode was pretty hard to watch (although I was virtually glued to the screen), and I actually felt a little bitter about how certain things turned out. However, I have to mention that I really appreciated the way the drama put aside quite a bit of time at the end to wrap the story up nicely. I feel like a lot of times plotlines tend to either end pretty abruptly or have long, drawn-out conclusions where you wonder if the episode will ever end (*cough*HanaKimi*cough*). Some people might find this ending to be kind of drawn out too, but I found it pretty refreshing myself. There were just several loose ends that were tied up that really needed to be tied up, and it gave me some time to breathe after the dramatic climax haha. The only thing that didn’t really rest with me was the (semi-spoiler alert)… I guess, “final outcome” when it comes to the parents’ murderer. Again, won’t mention details, but if you’ve seen it you might know what I mean…

Ultimately, I thought this was a great drama: nice visuals, quality acting, engrossing plotline with both lighthearted and depressing moments; overall a bittersweet story that was well worth the watch!

…yay Nino!!