Lucky Seven

ラッキーセブン

2012, 10-episode FujiTV detective drama that starred Matsumoto Jun as Tokita Shuntaro, a 'freeter' who is great with women as well as reading people.

The story unfolds with some private detectives spying on a married woman having frequent interval sex with an unsuspecting Shuntaro. The PI's pop the woman, and the next day, when Shuntaro calls her for another bit of afternoon delight, she tells him to stop calling her on account of being caught by her upset husband.

Shuntaro figures out how it happened and goes after Eita's Nitta Teru, one of the spies he bumped into in the underground parking garage of the 'love' hotel.

The two don't get along, and the first episode showed it in spades. It was an action-packed episode straight out of the gate that never slowed down much until the very end, and even then it had me wide-eyed and laughing.

Nitta is a hot-headed loud-mouth with issues who isn't inclined to smile, much less take the time to listen or get to know anyone.

After the two duke it out inside the detective agency, the boss appears to break it up, and then she propositions Shuntaro, asking if he thinks he can cut it as a detective.

This is the second time around for me, having watched it shortly after its upload at aznv.tv and then again at dramacrazy.net because apparently aznv.tv is having technical difficulties once again.

The subs were stupid. Since graduating (even before) I began to notice that one of the big issues with these subbers is their inability to comprehend or lack of education with regard to prepositions, subject/verb agreement, and tense.

A, and, the, is, was, the be's, etc.

The inability to properly word phrases, too, like butt OUT.

Then there is the problem of Asian phrases not being properly translated to English. Their strange use of ordinal versus cardinal, time, and context.

I'll leave 'first', and hang up 'now', until just now, and since just then don't compute well in English vernacular and sound ridiculous to the English-trained ear.

Regardless, this had a minor effect on my LIKE of this drama.

Each episode brings a new client into the office, and then the mismatched group of detectives do their thing right up to the very end - which starts out normal, goes wrong, and usually with Shuntaro figuring out what needs doing to set things right.

The first episode, though, was a powerhouse packed full of amazing and hilarious fight scenes between Eita's Nitta and Jun's Shuntaro.

Their first client is a disillusioned and heartbroken fire fighter who gives up on life and keeps entering illegal fight club rounds, letting whatever contestant ends up in the cage with him beat the crap out of him without defending himself or fighting back.

The tag team of detectives discovers gambling on the premises and enlists the aid of the police, but until they can get there, a diversion is needed in order to keep their client's aniki out of the ring - fearing he might, just die this time around.

Enter Shuntaro and Nitta.

Way too much fun there.

An aside or story-within-the-story is Shuntaro's little nephew, who lives with Shuntaro, his grandmother, Shuntaro's mother, and his father, Shuntaro's aniki.

The little boy is addicted to a long-running detective show on TV, and toward the end of this 10-episode drama, fantasy meets reality.

The five-rainbow rating is simple. This drama is re-watchable, not over-the-top stupid, less predictable than you'd think, and not cram-packed with ganbatte messages.

Watching guys like Matsumoto Jun and Eita bicker, learning the secrets of what makes each of the stars character's tick, and being interested in each of the stories that make their way into the detective agency also helped decide on such a high rating.

If you haven't seen this one yet, get going. You won't be disappointed.