49 mid-season impressions

Needless to say one of the main reasons I have taken so long to review the rest of this series is that it just does not interest me much. But I forced my way through Sprout and 49 is at least much better than that drama was so I feel like I need to finish this.

To be fair there does seem to be some hope for the drama to be more enjoyable for me as we hit the mid-way point. Just the episodes leading up to it have done little to get me to care much for the main cast of characters.

I think my biggest issue is that I really do not care for Kagami Dan's father. He comes off being rather selfish to me, even the things he says he is doing to help his son all seem to be doing what he thinks is best for him without taking his son's feelings into account. It does seem though this is not something being completely ignored in story, but it took it long enough to get to that point that it is going to have to do much more to make me care for him.

Yet I will say that Sato Shori is impressing me with his acting in this. I have been watching Hungry! on the side and seeing how wooden he was in that and comparing to how he has been doing in 49 is amazing to see the improvement. Johnny's would do well to keep getting him acting roles, and he has a young looking face so he should be able to pull off being a teenager for quite some time.

Takami Sachi (Yamamoto Maika) is another character that is just not clicking with me at all. She seems to mainly exist to be a tag along for Dan's father and the sudden shift to her liking him enough that she would be willing to sleep with him (which thankfully he has no interest in) just confused me. I feel that there is something missing with her character to put everything into place with her words and actions.

Honestly I never got the hype for Yasui Kentaro before but he is winning me over with this drama. I doubt he will ever be a favorite but I still hope Johnny's does right by him as he looks to be a talent worth promoting. He is currently the main reason I am watching this drama as every scene he is in he is a delight and I wish he was the main character of this drama. I would much rather watch a drama about his character dealing with a defunct basketball club and trying to save it with a member who is possessed by his father's ghost.


Everything else just seems to fall into the "okay" area. Not terrible but not great either. So far the drama has felt uneven but there is some time for it to smooth things out so I do not think I can write it off just yet. I just hope it does have a stronger second half.