Mou Yuukai Nante Shinai SP ~ もう誘拐 なんてしない
I'll probably watch this SP again once the sub is up because there are some missing pieces that I don't really get, but maybe I won't. I have a mixed feeling about this drama, or maybe, indifferent to be exact, because though it's in my list, I just feel obligated to watch it (it's Ohno's for goodness sake). Though it's entertaining, but yeah, I don't feel overjoy and full of praises for this one, despite the appearances of Kageyama and Tokita and PR after PR across the new years (only find out later that they mostly only promote this drama during Arashi variety shows, so it's not overly promoted... but me only watch Arashi variety shows, so me is overwhelmed).
The story is about Shotaro who had a dream of becoming a super hero (super sentai, to be exact, power ranger series anyone?) when he's a kid. He didn't forget his dream and now worked as a bad guy extra (those who wear the black spandex outfit and try to bully the hero but ended beaten up instead) in a super hero show. He then met his senpai and worked as moving sweet potato seller (the van is cute). Then his life turned upside down upon meeting the bratty yakuza daughter, Erika. The girl just jumped into his life and commanded him to do a make belief kidnapping of her to rip out money from her dad to save her sister. Shotaro's super hero wannabe instinct finally won him over and together with his senpai, they planned a kidnapping scenario. On the other part of the town, we have Erika's sister, Satsuki, was dealing with a fake money case, along with her senpai, then, there's a murder... ... what? Then, how is this 2 event collides?
I have to admit, although the first part of the story is rather confusing, but when it's all cleared, I find the reveal of the mystery (if you can call that a mystery, but I don't really have a good choice of words here) is quite interesting, which means I'm not glued to TV until the 2/3 of the drama and that bothers me because you have a star studded drama, but this drama is not wow-ing. I like Ohno's acting here, though I like him more in dark roles (so yeah, Kaibutsu-kun is not my fave). He has lots of expressions in here and they're amusing as well entertaining. Off course there are some funny scenes. Example, when Shotaro was seasick and he kept on puking at the side of the boat, Shotaro hit himself on the boat during the money delivering scene, Shotaro was finally conscious in the yakuza's house and blurted out that he's still alive. But, don't expect you'll jumping out LOL over these. Even Shotaro's WTF face when he saw Kageyama is not fantastically funny (only hardcore fans will LOL on this). The rest of the cast also act very well on their roles. Aragaki Yui is good at being the bratty ojou-chan, complete with the fake crying, bossing around and pulling off innocent look just because the whole clan dote on her.
After watching this, again, I conclude, FujiTV is lazy. Having Arashi in your cast does not equal to good drama if your script is not up there. Arashi can act their butt off (well, my standard is skewed with how much I adore them, yeah, I'm looking at you Aiba-chan), but without good script and plot, no matter how good the actors are, they won't be able to pull the audience in. So, I'm quite worried now with Lucky Seven, I hope I'm wrong though.