Shudan Sasen was unexpected

I was really going to give this a miss when a saw it was going to be another Kagawa Teruyuki playing another overacting villain in another variation of Hanzawa Naoki.

I ended up giving episode 1 a show and luckily Kagawa Teruyuki is not a sneering villain and secondly while it is another Hanzawa Naoki with a banker fighting against overwhelming odds, Shudan Sasen doesn't take itself too seriously and there is a kind of showa innocence with the always positive and ganbaru Fukuyama Masaharu as the main character.

Shudan Sasen is like this fable that as long as you work hard, you will succeed even if your own bank is against you and wants to see you fail.

The standard plot of banking jdoramas is that if you show your sincerity and effort, clients will be impressed.

How much you enjoy the show will depend on how much you enjoy such positivity. On a side note, happy to see Nakamura Anne from Suits in this. Also, I love the theme song. Never heard of Elephant Kashimashi before this but they remind me very much of Ulfuls.

I can see myself getting tired of Fukuyama Masaharu's ganbaru everything solution but at least we've got the mystery of who's the traitor to keep us guessing and I'm 100% sure its not Kagawa Teruyuki.

On the whole, I don't hate Shudan Sasen which was unexpected. Maybe Fukuyama's showa positivity is more conducive to my tastes rather than the always sneering, taking itself too seriously Hanzawa Naoki. If you like your Japanese banking doramas where the odds are stacked so high any sane person would have given up, this show is for you.

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Omg! Like this star cast is UNBELIEVABLE!

This drama revolves around the Mashiba family of 7: Tetsuo, the loud father (Takenaka Naoto), Meiji, the free-spirited grandfather (Suginara Naoki), Yumi, the sick mother (Harada Mieko), Michiru, the clumsy oldest sister (Ayase Haruka), Go, the ‘almost’ yankee brother (Ichihara Hayato), Horo, the strong kid (our narrator)(Kamiki Ryunsuke), and Uta, the cry-baby youngest little sister (Matsumoto Rina). Horo has never cried before, or to say he doesn’t know how to, so as his mother becomes sick, and everyone starts to cry, he finds himself in a situation where he doesn’t know what to do. He befriends ‘the weird kid’ Nagumo Shu (Hongo Kanata), who lives with his single mother, and Sakamaki Nana (Shiho), who tries to make her guardian angry by doing stupid things.
The story focuses on how the family copes with the mothers hospitalization, and how there are big problems in different families, even though they live on the country side
Omg! Like this star cast is UNBELIEVABLE! I guess this is how they became famous? :P
I loved the drama, though I have to say some parts of the love story kind of made me annoyed, mostly the Ayase-Oguri love story. It was sweet and all, but damn that girl had a fast change of heart. But otherwise, I found everything brilliant, from the fights at the dining table; to the search for “Rainbow-Soldiers” (if you watch it you’ll understand). And I finally realised what it means when actors shine through the screen. When there are a lot of actors, it’s hard to make all of them look good, which sort of failed for Ayase (though her performance was decent – don’t get me wrong I’m a fan!). Ichihara Hayato, Oguri Shun and Kamiki Ryunsuke shined trough, and made me like them even more.
This drama is TOTALLY a family drama, and it’s REAAAAAAALLY heartfelt, so if you want to watch something like that, this is a GO!

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Excellect

What a great drama. Personally ranked it behind Toshiie Matsu and Musashi. I didn't think Takizawa would pull off the Yoshitsune historical figure. But he did a fine job. Very believable as the upright, honorable, and naiive Yoshitsune. His acting still needs improvement, too dead-panned sometimes. Love the girls, can't complain there. Aya Ueto, Ishihara Satomi, Koike Eiko (man they put too much war gear on her, too bad :-( )....nice. Matsudaira Ken as Benkei is the strongest character in the movie. He really played the part well. Nakai has always been a Taiga dorama staple. Very underrated imo.

The drama theme of utter devotion between lord and vassal is interesting and touching. The ending is so emotional and heartful, you could feel the tragedy that was to become of Yoshitsune and his men. Life can be brutal even for the innocent. Very powerful ending, even more so than my two favorite Taiga dorams that I mentioned above. It's truly like a Shakespeare tragedy and I could see why the Japanese still honor and admire Yoshitsune even today. He has become one of my favorite Japanese historical figure. May his dream of a new country of peace always verberate in the hearts and minds of the people of Japan.

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