Reply To: Live Actions & JDorama Review & discussion

http://aramajapan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/aramajapan_nube-300×184.jpg" />

Type: Live Action

Genre: mystery sentai

Year: 2014-Oct-11 to 2014-Dec-13

Introduction:

This is a big budget live action based on the manga series Jigoku Sensei Nube by writer Sho Makura & illustrator Takeshi Okano (1993 to 1999 in Weekly Shonen Jump).

Summary:

Nueno Meisuke aka Nube is a new homeroom teacher of a 2nd grade class-3 at Domori high school. He has a cursed left hand which houses the demon lord Baki-Oh. He secretly solves curse/demon cases and fights desperately to save the students from monsters (yokai). A long the way he gains allies and comrades in arms. But his greatest enemy is closer to him than he prefers.

Critique:

Like all sentai shows it features a japanese sentai acting and costume/CG monsters. Although not as much a classic sentai shows but it can’t escape the impression. The actions are good, though. The cast is good as well as their performances so it’s not that bad. It just downgrades the seriousness and leans toward silliness.

Maruyama Ryuhei (Nueno Meisuke) as Nube is alright if only there was not this stupdity side of Nube. If he were more like Eikichi Onizuka from GTO (1998) with a better balance between stupidity and funny that would have been perfect. His cool attack is in total contrast to his usual clumsy bakaro appearance. But that’s his classic role so I blame the script for not tweaking it better.

If this show were Final Fantasy 7 then Hayami Mokomichi (Tamamo Kyosuke) would have been the perfect Sephiroth. Here he’s the perfect ikemen Tamamo-sensei, a man among men, who catches the hearts of both sexes. He even has his own BGM. Tama-chan is full of cliches but his execution is too good and attractive to leave a bad impression. The only stain on his perfection is his true-form of a Yoko tribesman (Fox mage that looks like a Werewolf).

Kiritani Mirei’s (Takahashi Ritsuko) displayed personality has a stark resemblance of Fuyutsuki from GTO (1998) but she’s the prettier model. Nube being head over heels for her and other relationship related reactions are the really funny. Her blog in the show has a S&M apperance! Her beating Nube was not quite convincing, though. She’s a chemistry teacher but does a physics experiment…

Yamamoto Mizuki (Hazuki Izuna) plays the female summoner quite well if only her being a model wouldn’t be so distracting, too. As an Itako-girl she has a very cute fox jokai, Koinari. Koinari houses in a bamboo pipe which she decorates like they do with cellphones.

Sano Hinako (Hosokawa Miki), too, in her role can’t stop being a model despite her twin-tail disguise. Yes, that’s right this show has a handful a of super models if not the majority among the cast. Please try to focus when watching. There’s a scene where Mikitty proves her superior ‘strength’ by employing her otaku fan base. This is another show misusing and showing otaku power. Otakus seem to have become quite accepted these days for TV screening.

The show follows typical classic character development and relationship schemes, augmented by influences from modern social media tools like twitter, instagram etc. Naturally its weakness lies in annoying classic elements. In every episode there’s a discussion between angel (Minako-sensei) and devil (Baki) over troubles like moral and how to deal with it. Despite some serious topics the allegories are sometimes amusing.

The show appears to try to promote Buddhism and implicitly countering Christianity, even getting as far as having the famous Exorcist scene. Overall it’s a solid show and better than I expected.

Verdict: 8.3

Cast 8

Cast performance 9

Script/Directing: 8