* Story:
Ryuzaki Ikuo and Danno Tatsuya are two orphans who grew up in an orphanage called Mahoroba. When they were there the woman who took care of them and was like a mother to them got killed by someone before Ikuo's eyes. The were threatended by the police not to reveal anything and the case was mysteriously covered up. Determinded to take revenge for her death, 20 years later, Ikuo has become a detective and Tatsuya has risen to the ranks of Yakuza, in order to find the truth and expose her murderer.
(Based on the manga series "Ouroboros" by Kanzaki Yuuya)
It may sound cheesy, but believe me it's a lot more complicated and unpredictable than what it's expected to be, keeping you on edge up to the very end.
* Acting/cast
the two protagonists: they were both very realistic and convincing. When it comes to Oguri, everytime I see him in a drama/movie, I'm blown away by his acting skills and talent and this time was not an exception. Ikuta on the other hand, did a fantastic job as well. I always liked his acting, but I think now he has matured as an actor and he was absolutely flawless.
the rest of the cast was excellent too, especially Ueno Juri, who supported her role really superbly. So were the two sweet kids who played litte Ikuo and Danno.
* Music
One word : fantastic. The main OST "no one" by ENA and Sakura by Arashi fit perfectly to the drama's atmosphere and to characters's psychology, linking harmonically to the plot
* Overall
a fantastic drama with a great bromance, much suspence, a little bit of romance and plot twists, leading to an unexpected climax as it is progressing, that will draw you in feels.
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Ikuta Toma as Ryuzaki Ikuo and Oguri Shun as Danno Tatsuya are perfection. The emotions I felt from these actors are the reason why they have done so many dramas/movies. It makes me want to go back and watch all the dramas that I have missed. There are some other great characters in this drama played by some good actors.
I liked the music.
I may rewatch this some day.
I recommend this drama.
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The bit of Ikuta Toma being Arashi... that's just a bonus I think! (;
I definitely recommend this to many Ikuta Toma and Oguri Shun fans; but, this cast has many spectacular supporters and main roles as well, so don't leave anyone out even if you watched for a specific person. I feel like this drama is what it honestly is: a DRAMA. There was so much to swallow that towards the end I was afraid I couldn't keep up, but the recaps helped and if you follow the subtitles closely it helps a lot too. Otherwise, you may get lost because there are some episodes that move fast. Also, prepare tissues...
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If you were to ask me what I liked about this drama, I would be brutally honest in saying, Oguri Shun's deep voice, Oguri Shun occasionally topless, Oguri Shun's terrible glasses that still make my heart flutter and lastly Oguri shun's double “kabe don” which is a word I just learned recently and he can double “kabe-don” me any time. Nothing else though because I'm not a creeper.
So what about the drama? This drama is a very mildly loveable mess that was borderline an annoyance at times. It gathers a really cool and quite decent cast and pretty much flings the dog shit that is the script at them. This script is so messy and at times just borderline stupid. It's got themes of cheesy speeches, saintly characters, feel good nonsense and the stereotypical Japanese and dorama cliches packaged into a rather nonsensical plot.
Supposedly intelligent characters behave in such irrational ways making me find them irrevocably stupid. There is very little intelligent planning and don't let the convoluted dialogue full you as the revelations are tame if not illogical and the end result from most sequences is often, very avoidable injuries. Suspense is developed in very soap opera like fashion and boy did that make me cringe.
This is one of the few scripts where the leads do not evade bullets because people are still clinging to that scarface theme but hold the applause, because they could hike mount kilimanjaro with bullet wounds in them. Did I mention they recover from bullet wounds quicker than the common cold. One minute Oguri Shun is limping, the next, you wouldn't even know he was shot in the leg. However, these little illogical inconsistencies were not what really brought this down.
The plot simply could not keep track of itself and there were random revelations that revealed plot holes that just made you question this. The whole vengeance theme is super loose and ultimately features numerous clichés that were hard to overlook such as:
A very inflexible female lead. Oh did I mention how absolutely annoying she is. She is the very definition of wishy washy and completely unrealistic especially for a detective!
Invincible leads who have been left alive for twenty years for reasons no one knows. Oh yeah, that's right, we need them to conveniently be skilled so we can have a plot. Expect very convenient situations.
A convoluted plot with a horrific yet totally nonsense revelation.
A rushed ending with soap opera like theatrics that made me roll my eyes.
Overall cheesy speeches and preceding dialogues and speeches when someone is about to kill someone. Seriously, I don't know why they have to give five minute speeches before they kill someone.
Oh yes, speeches before big revelations and someone eventually dies halfway during this speech leaving very little valuable information. I thought I was watching a telenovela. You know how when someone is about to reveal who the father is on their deathbed and they cough and wheeze for a good 10 minutes before dying by uttering one syllable. “It was am---” DEAD.
Cliche suspense music. The only way it could be worse is if they put the tom and jerry theme.
Oh, this drama also features terrible parents.
I do feel my rating is on the generous side although some may not agree but I halfway commented that this drama would be very lucky to get a five from me.
Overall, a convoluted and nonsensical mess that misuses its cast.
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Ouroboros' main problems lie within its unoriginal story and how said story is executed. I'm not saying that is a bad thing because plenty of stories are unoriginal, story writing thrives on borrowing elements and themes from one another, but its how these unoriginal stories are tackled that is what makes them original. Do I make sense? (I probably don't because I'm an insomniac, and my brain is muddled due to lack of sleep). I digress - my point was, Ouroboros doesn't do anything different with its story to make it original. Most of the major plot twists can be seen from a mile off and have been seen before. It makes the scriptwriting seem a bit lazy and contrived, because an intelligent viewer has already figured out something major before the characters had. There are also lot of plot holes. They aren't exactly massive, but they're important enough to be detrimental to the score of the drama. After you watch Ouroboros you'll probably be sitting there wondering why so and so's backstory wasn't properly explored before they popped on screen, or what happened to so and so after so and so was killed. The villain of the week type structure that the writers were trying to maintain for the first 4-5 episodes, whilst attempting an overarching storyline, is what contributed to the problems in plot. There's also a massive sense of inevitability from the outset of the drama.
However, despite my criticisms of the predictable nature of the drama, I do commend the writers for managing to keep the MAIN major plot twist unpredictable. I did really go WTF when the BIG big reveal was revealed, and when the drama ended. And as I said before, whilst there is a massive sense of inevitability from the beginning of the drama, the ending will genuinely have you sitting in shock for a couple of seconds (maybe more of you're a more sensitive viewer).
Whilst the story might not be particularly innovative, the characters sure are. Ryuuzaki and Danno are not your typical one-dimensional revenge drama male leads. Both believed they had gone off the righteous path a long time ago, when they were really still struggling between right and wrong. Ryuuzaki found it difficult to fight between his desire to avenge the only mother-figure he'd ever known or just forget his vengeance and move on with his life with a woman who cared for him. Danno - who just seemed like a ruthless, yet intelligent, yakuza - who didn't want anyone to see the real him and was still holding on to the love he had as a child and was willing to sacrifice himself for another's happiness. Whilst the two did do quite immoral things and sold themselves as dishonest men, the trajectory they went through for redemption - and eventual happiness - was befitting and highlighted their essentially child-like souls. I also think that the two had one of the sweetest and endearing bromances as well. The two characters were also played wonderfully with great nuanced performances by Ikuta Toma and Oguri Shun - who had a great dynamic with each other.
Inspector Hibino was also a beautifully sincere and resilient character who learnt that forgiveness can be more important than justice when it comes to the people you hold near to you. Although she went through a lot of pain during Ouroboros' run, her trajectory made her grow as a person and see the world in a wider sense so you just knew that her scars will heal and she'll come back even better. Ueno Juri played her so wonderfully that I forgot she's the same actress who played Nodame - she really became Hibino Mizuki.
The supporting characters were also great and there wasn't a single character or performance I disliked. The villain, though, was a bit eh but otherwise the rest of the cast managed to hold their ground and deliver nuanced performances despite the three leads being at such a magnanimous level of talent.
At its heart, Ouroboros is essentially a character study which redeems the somewhat lacklustre plot since the characters in Ouroboros are so relateable and are backed up by an excellent cast. Don't watch Ouroboros if you're hoping for something that breaks the mould in the revenge genre, but watch it because you'll be moved by each characters trajectory and the realness of their suffering.
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I found the Ouroboros series because I have been reading the manga, not only that but I found out that my two favourite actors were also the main actors (Ikuta Toma and Oguri Shun)
The story is incredible, the cast is amazing, the music I personally love. Everything I would want in a drama is in this series, I want to re-watch right now and I have just finished it!
The main story is very strong and even though there are a couple of mysteries along the way, the story never leans off the path. The relationship, friendships, enemies that you come across really make the story beautiful. I can not recommend this drama enough
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The scenes they are together are awesome. The story wasn't at all what I was expecting and you are keeped on the edge cause you don't know what is going to happen just almost until the last minute.
The acting is very good. Perhaps I'm not really objective, cause both actors are among my favorite Japanese actors ever, but even at the end of this drama, I couldn't guess what Ryuzaki Ikuo (Ikuta Toma) was thinking to do. Ueno Juri's acting was good too.
If you aims to watch something with a good mistery, action and good actors, this is it!
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The story is quite dark, many people have said it was easy to guess what was going on but I didn't guess at all. Lots of violence and action scenes, which were very well done. No cartoon punching sound effects that ruin so many drama fights.
The acting was A++. Although I am a huge fan of both the leads, so I am slightly biased. I really enjoyed seeing Shun and Toma in a drama together again, the chemistry between them was brilliant. You really believe they care about each other.
I wouldn't say its very re-watchable. Its quite heavy and tragic. Its not what I'd call an easy watch.
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Warning: prepare tissues while watching this and mostly the final episode (like literally the whole episode).
This made me go through all possible emotions. I started watching this coz I'm a fan of bromance and I was served.
I loved the way Tatsuya created a weekly character in the first episodes and I laughed so hard each time he decided (one of them was giving compliments, being in disguise, distrustful...).
Ikuo is such a baby but I liked how he called Tatsuya, Tachaan, like isn't that sweet? And they protected each other through the whole drama (2 dragons indeed).
In overall the whole drama was just amazing to watch and even though the ending is bittersweet, I loved how it finished in my case cause that is love and trusting to the end your special one and family!
Totally recommend this and if you love watching shows with bromance then you'll like this one☺️
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The acting was really good, without any dissapointment from all the stars in this drama. I would say Shun did better though, he suits this character so much.
The music was good enough for me even thought i'm not a fan of Arashi but the emotional scene has a verynice BG music, i like the slow BG one better theme song.
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The background, the conflict even the reveal of each secrets is really superb! I love the slightly plot twisting in this series, but really I dislike the ending T^T
Acting/Cast :
You don't have to ask me this, Ikuta Toma, Oguri Shun and Ueno Juri in one frame? It's like heaven on earth! Their acting are superb, dazzling and badass at the same time.
Music:
Honestly I forgot about the detail of the music, what I remember is the music really fit the series.
Rewatch Value:
Definitely will rewatch this to find any detail I might be missing in the first place because I'm too busy to fangirling. LOL.
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