Saigo no Bansan~Keiji Tono Kazuyuki to Shichinin no Yougisha~ (2011)

I think this drama special is a rather average story about a policeman solving a crime. It’s not bad, but not in the least bit amazing either.

I’m not going to lie; I watched it for two reasons: 1) Arata is in it, and 2) I was hoping for some backstory for the drama Hi wa mata noboru that I watched and enjoyed a couple of months ago. In both respects I got disappointed, because Arata has even less screentime than in the drama, and as a background for the events in the drama, yes, it makes sense, because it provides us with some explicit reasons for Tono’s later actions and behaviour… but it doesn’t really go in depth. If you have already watched the drama, then you’ve already figured out the backstory as far as Tono’s personal life goes; if anything, I feel that knowing the drama makes me understand the special better. What I really wanted, though, was to get to know Anzai and Natsumi better since I felt that their relationship (as well as Tono’s and Natsui’s) was the drama’s weak point. I probably just had the wrong expectations, though.

If you haven’t watched the drama and just want a crime story, well, you’ll get what you want. There’s a crime, there are suspects, there’s a detective burdened with a troubled personal life, and people in his workplace who doesn’t like him, and a young colleague whom he dislikes... In other words; the usual.

I found the plot to be decent. Some of the things were too easy to figure out, the only mystery that remained until the end was what the perpetrator’s actual motivation was. I also found it hard to believe that such a scheme would be possible…

As for the acting, it was good. Nothing that stands out, really.

I found this special rather pointless, and I would have preferred if the drama were two or three episodes longer instead of having this prequel.

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