Drama : Bitter Blood (2014)

Profile

• Drama: Bitter Blood / Partners by Blood

• Romaji: Bita Buraddo

• Japanese: ビター・ブラッド

• Director: Hiro Kanai, Masaki Tanimura
• Writer: Shusuke Shizukui (novel)

• Network: Fuji TV

• Episodes: 11
• Release Date: April 15, 2014 -- June 24, 2014

• Runtime: Tuesdays 21:00-21:54
• Language: Japanese
• Country: Japan

CAST

• Sato Takeru as Sahara Natsuki
• Watabe Atsuro as Shimao Akimura
• Kutsuna Shiori as Maeda Hitomi
• Fukikoshi Mitsuru as Inaki Toshifumi
• Tanaka Tetsushi as Koga Hisashi
• Minagawa Sarutoki as Togashi Kaoru
• KEIJI as Takano Koji
• Takahashi Katsumi as Kagiyama Kensuke
• Hirose Suzu as Sahara Shinobu
• Kusamura Reiko as Yamamura Machi
• Oikawa Mitsuhiro as Kaiduka Takehisa
• Furukawa Yuki

Plot

Natsuki Sahara (Takeru Sato) is a rookie detective. He is assigned to work as the #1 detective for the Ginza Police Station, but his father Akimura Shimao (Atsuro Watabe) also works there as a detective. Natsuki Sahara does not like his father at all. After his parents divorced when he was 13-years-old, he was raised by his grandparents. Meanwhile, Akimura is a bit eccentric and a playboy with the ladies. This is in direct contrast with his son who is poor when it comes to dating. Akimura feels bad for his son for divorcing when he did. He tries to help him at work, but has difficulties approaching him in the right way.

I couldn’t remember what led me to watching Bitter Blood. This is my first time to watch a Satoh Takeru drama wherein he is the main character. Anyway, I could definitely say that Satoh Takeru’s acting has improved a lot from his Kamen Rider Den-O days which I think his acting was kinda awkward— haven’t seen the entire season. I’ve only seen a few episodes.

I love Takeru’s facial expressions, even if sometimes it’s over the top. Well, I’ve watched quite a lot of Japanese dramas and I’ve noticed that, having a little exaggerated or animated expressions are known to their acting. But I think it really suited his character well. I didn’t know he could be that effective in comedy. Because for me, he’ll always be Himura Kenshin— who is most of the time, serious and deadly. His acting in this drama was fairly different from RuroKen. Takeru was so into the character of Sahara Natsuki. A very funny and charming detective.

The main characters Sahara and his father Shimao Akimura have great chemistry. And they had a lot of funny scenes together that I couldn’t help laughing my ass off in the middle of the night.

Oh, well, there were some annoying side characters like the guy “Skunk” but he’s tolerable. LOL. I fairly think, their Team wouldn’t be as good without him.

Story-wise, it was really nice. They incorporated action, crime, mystery, comedy with a bit of drama rolled into one in this drama. And they would throw some family values after every episode. This is one of the good things about Japanese dramas. And aside from that, they do not focus on the love angles. And they do not have to have lead characters having kissing scenes. Heck, they could manage a good drama without kissing scenes or love scenes. I wish local teleseryes here in my country could think of dramas like the Japanese’s.

First season seems to be short, tho. We need to see more of them. There were still some questions in my mind and I want answers. I’m hoping they would do a second season or an SP. Perhaps? I really wish.