HiGH&LOW THE WORST EPISODE.0 (2019)

Who's it gonna be - Oya's full-time Leader!

In the six episodes we are following the storyline in the Oya High School. The series begin with the introduction of new first year characters that admire to steal the position from Todoroki's hands, and become the school's leader for the full time students. This incident takes place, after the fight containers of the High & Low movie and during the Kuryu groups casino plan.

At the meantime, while the full-time first year students are trying to prove themselves, Murayama's group are betting who is gonna be this year's leader for the full-time students. Will someone win over Todoroki and be the next leader? Who has the highest changes of become the one to rule over the full-time students?

Todoroki (Maeda Goki) is in a position that he has to defend his position, from the people who want to take it, with every available tool. Nakagoshi (Kamio Fuju) is a first year who declares that he would become the new leader of Oya high school; while Yasushi (Sato Ryuji) and Kiyoshi (Uekiya Satoshi) are not only threatening that they would take the leader's position, but they also invited the potential candidates for the position to a fight. One of the people who are invited in this fight is Tsukasa (Yoshino Hokuto), however, this second-year student, has no interest in the position.

Even though, in general the plot is rather fast-forward, I have to admit that there were a lot of flashbacks from the main story. I do realise that we needed to establish the same timeframe between this series and the parent story, but we don't need to be introduced every time what SWORD is and is the current story.

I am not going to analyse their acting, as there are too many characters; I will say only two words: amazing acting. For the whole franchise, people with good acting skills and ability to express themselves through their emotions, were picked.

I know that I might be biased, as I said that I was not going to analyse their acting; but I have to point out how amazing Yamada Yuki was. In my humble opinion, he was the best actor in the series, as he was able to execute the peculiar character of Murayama and his questionable sanity. Hands down to his acting skills.

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I watched this little drama - 6 eps 20 or so mins each - mainly and mostly for Yamada Yuki as Murayama. Murayama is truly one of his best roles so far, hands down. Why? Because Murayama is so very multifaceted: dumb yet wise, ruthless yet caring and loyal to a fault. And then there's his obsession with - and devotion to - Cobra-chan!

This drama is set during the 2nd and 3rd High & Low movies. And before High & Low: The Worst. It goes deeper into what had been happening in Ouya High at the time and it introduces many of the side-characters from The Worst. It's also interspersed with various flashbacks to the movies, all in the vein of "meanwhile in SWORD..." so that you can get a better idea of what's happening when.

Like I said, my favorite part was Murayama. His journey towards outgrowing them all. It was beautifully portrayed not just in scenes with Murayama himself but also through Todoroki who has always craved defeating Murayama - while Murayama never really cared. But here, you could see Todoroki realizing that Murayama was getting farther and farther ahead of him.

One of my favorite moments happened in ep 6, when all the other gang leaders talked in hushed, awed voices about SWORD going against Kuryu - together with Murayama and the part-timers. The moment they realized that this was completely out of their league.

Another great moment was when Murayama actually realized the same thing, that the full-timers were there, in Ouya High, to actually learn something and to graduate and that they could not do that if they meddled in SWORD's affairs. And thus he permanently divided the school into full-timers and part-timers who would, from that moment on, never cross lines. And he banned the full-timers from ever sticking their noses into SWORD's business again.

Not only did that prove that Murayama matured into a real leader, it also meant a clean cut for the future movies and dramas. From here on, even though those stories would be happening in the same universe as High & Low, they would follow their own line of storytelling.

Overall, a good series that became great whenever Yamada Yuki entered the screen. Goodness gracious, he's awesome!

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