It's interesting actually.
Usually I'd give political dramas a miss, because they're usually kind of serious. Not to mention Japan politics is a bit foreign to me. Another interesting thing is that this serial was actually recommended by my sister! For a person who prefer American serial to Japanese ones, now that's really new.
The story basically starts with a politician and his son dying over the skies at Vietnam, and a by-election has to be held in a prefecture in Fukuoka. However, with no suitable candidate to run for the seat, Seiyu party, the main political party, decides to ask the dead politician's second son, Asakura Keita, to run for the seat. With no political experience and zero knowledge, he manages to win the seat by a razor-thin margin. With party secretary Kanbayashi thinking that Asakura is a perfect puppet for him, he pushes him to run for party chairman candidacy when the Prime Minister resigned. However, with his raw experience, Asakura proves his mettle as Prime Minister and Kanbayashi is forced to used other means to force him to resign as prime minister so that he can snatch the top post.
The reason that kept me riveted to the show isn't Takuya Kimura this time, but the storyline itself. For a political drama, this series is surprising refreshing, possibly due to comedy moments peppered into the show. However, what I feel that under this show is the underlying message regarding the current Japan political scenes. Issues like health care, declining childbirth, education reforms etc are all mentioned in the show. If you've watched enough Jap dramas, you'll understand these problems quite well enough. Also, they also highlighted the very problems of the current Japanese bureaucrats and parliamentarians.
Normally I wouldn't comment much of Takuya Kimura as I've always felt he's an accomplished actor, almost guaranteeing viewership success. However, the pairing of Takuya Kimura and Fukatsu Eri is one of my favourite pairngs, since Sora Kara Furu Ichioku no Hoshi.
An excellent drama all around, with a very strong cast and excellent acting all around. 8.5/10 for me.
