The basic story is that Kimura's character is a washed up F1 driver, Kanazaki Jiro, that has returned home after getting fired and can't get a new contract to continue racing with. 'Home' though has been turned into an orphanage by his father, who Jiro isn't on good terms with. In this home there are thirteen children all with their own troubles.
The first episode covers Jiro getting fired and his return home. He ends up meeting a kid, Nakajima's character Shuhei, who ends up stealing 1000 yen (about $10USD) from him. Shuhei had just been dropped off at the orphanage but ran away to the train station, which is where he ran into Jiro. After getting the money workers from the orphanage, one of the them being Jiro's older sister Chihiro, arrive and end up taking them both to the orphanage.
The rest of the episode does a quick introduction of the characters, and I think they did a good job as I'm not confused about who is who even though the cast is rather large. It also sets up the fact that Jiro has not given up his dream of racing and where his place is with the people at the orphanage.
I think I can begin to see why Kimura is so loved for his acting. I'm not a great judge of these things but I can't help but want to watch whenever he's on the screen. And already I don't think I could imagine anyone else in the role.
If you're a Nakajima Yuto fan I think this would be a good drama to watch. Especially the first episode as out of all the kids he gets the most screen time. It's so strange to see him so young as I've gotten used to how he is now, all height. His character I think could be interesting as Shuhei is the kind of kid who acts and speaks like someone much older than he is. I'm curious to how he will change over the drama.
In this drama Daiki's character, Toru, is an 8th grader and upon thinking about things between this role and his current one in Scrap Teacher character-wise he has only been able to advance one grade in three years. I hope he makes it to high school finally in his next drama role. But back to Engine, he plays the eldest of two siblings whose parents passed away. There's really not much else known about the character yet but the siblings will undoubtedly get their episode devoted to their troubles later.
I was a bit surprised to have recognized Toda Erika so quickly, as I'm usually bad with remembering names and faces. I guess it's probably because I'm also watching Ryusei no Kizuna and she's the lead actress in that so I got familiar with her face, even though you can tell she's younger in Engine.
So in the end, I'm not completely hooked on the series yet, but I'm interested in learning more about the kids and seeing how Jiro changes them and vice-versa. And I'm rather glad this is one drama I don't have to wait for the subs for.
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