Subete ga F ni Naru was a gem for me this year- it was a compelling watch, and genuinely, every episode had something a little different to offer.
The story was well though out and well paced- if a bit odd at times. The promo photo had me expecting something QUITE different, but it was still a satisfying show to watch, with a romantic plot that was nicely subtle. The relationship between the characters was great, but I felt some of the supporting characters were not well rounded and had very little to offer to the plot at times. I personally think a season two would help sort that out!
The cast played their parts- especially the leads- very well. Moe and Saikawa were a brilliant duo, and I loved their camaraderie. My only issue, is as stated before, some of the cast were under- utilised.
I loved the theme song! It was the only music I really remember, but none of the background music was out of place, so no complaints there.
I doubt I will watch this drama again- at least not for a long time. I am still hoping for a season two to iron out all the niggling questions I still have however! (Much like Hard Nut!)
Overall, it was a great drama. I gave it a nine out of ten because of the loose ending. I still think there should've been at least a bit more to this series- another episode perhaps? It was a nice surprise to me as to how good of a series it was.
I thoroughly recommend Subete ga F ni Naru- its biggest failing is that it ended. :'(
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Overall: 8.5. Good mystery's and murder's, great geniuses that make you want to be a genius (almost in a sherlock style, but softer.... much softer), and agonizingly wonderfully slow relationship development (this is great because although a lot of people want a quick romance development, going slow makes it even sweeter in this case. It really portrays how much the two mains love each other even before they really discover they are "in" love with each other.)
The main plot is very...clever, brilliant, almost to an unrealistic sense... but still very good. (Perspicacious, would be the vocaby world to describe it.)
(It probably, truth be told, is an 8, but I really enjoyed this drama and so, even though I try (key word try) to be a tough rater, I give it an extra .5)
= Definitely a watch, even if its just an episode on a whim :)
The opening scene hooks you. Your introduced to the show with a blank scene; you know nothing. Not whats going on, not what it means, and not why it would be used as the prized opening scene in a drama. This absence of knowledge makes it a great start. (Honestly I watched this on a whim, and was hooked in the first minute. Plus the hint of romance totally did it for me.)
And then, your introduced to the seemingly main plot of the show, two geniuses solving impossible murder cases, and a small dash of romance. Personally, the romance drew me in more than the crimes themselves, figuring out the relationship between the two mains was definitely a great plot line (though they could've execrated it a little more, but of course, in traditional JDrama fashion they made it slow as hell. Anyway... back to the main point(s):
Story: The main plot lines, both the mystery and relationship, were well planned and well executed. I gave the story an 8.5 because, like most dramas with varying plots, there was definitely room for improvement. One being they totally could've lengthened the romance plot, and intertwined it with the main mystery plot in a much better fashion, but it was exhilarating and agonizingly good they way it was officially done.
Acting: Overall the acting was pretty darn good. I really liked the main actress, and although her acting wasn't perfect, it was almost there. As far as the main actor... I really liked him too, he was really cute, very good at being both lively and brooding at the same time (I know, I don't know how it's possible but he did it and he made it look damn adorable), but I feel there were definite moments that his acting could've been better during the more serious scenes. I do acknowledge the fact that his role was harder the main actresses though. Everyone else was more of a side character and I can't really judge them, first of all they're either to small to have a difficult part, or are just not super good/professional actors so... (I mean that in the nicest way possible...).
Music: There wasn't much music in this particular drama, but I really enjoyed the opening and ending credits songs. Also they made good use of suspenseful and creepy music when the need showed itself so... B+...(more like a B, but I really liked the opening song so..... + for personal preference!!!!)
Rewatch Value:
Ok, so I would probably re-watch this if it was on in the living room or something, but I'm not sure if I would ever intentionally re-watch start to finish.
Reason 1: It's a mystery drama. And I'm really good at remembering plot lines and endings, so, I would probably remember who killed who and how, in order for me to completely re-watch it, I would have to wait a couple of years. That's basically the only reason...
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Another fact that i love about this drama is, it's very detailed and give the audiences for 2 episodes to solve the case. All of the cases here i would say brilliant job for all of them. The first one case gave me little bored but once they solve the case, it amazes me totally how they make the case to turn out very intertesting and cleverly i would say.
There are many twised within every case in this drama so, whoever love the twise in investigation drama please give this one a try, you would love it and you can ignore some chessy parts too because the case is very intense and the action of Ayano Go made this drama even more interesting when he has some doubt of the case and correct all the details together and solve it later on.
The story is brilliant and also the scriptwriter for this drama is great as well. The cinematography in this drama also just the way i like it to be little dark and little humor in some part. Mostly i would say dark but it was a easy dark atmosphere to watch so, i think anyone could watch this one easlily and enjoy all the cleverly cases.
Even though the rewatch value is low because it is the weakness of this genre once you know the answer, the second times to watch it might not be intense like the first time.
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Story
Unlike most detective mystery dramas which usually follow detectives this drama revolves around a female student played by Emi Takei and her teacher who is played by Ayano Go. Personally i liked this paring as this kind of relationship was pretty unique and i loved to see the relationship that the two characters have.
As with all detective mystery dramas the drama revolves around the solving of cases by the pair.
Casting
Having seen Emi Takei in the Ruruni Kenshin movies I knew full well that she was more than capable of playing the role of Moe. And having seen the entire series i was correct as Emi's performance was amazing.
Having only seen Ayano Go in Soratobu Kouhoushitsu where he had lead role alongside Yui Aragaki i knew that he was a capable actor. His portrayal of Moe's professor and friend Kohei Saikawa was good but some of his expressions i felt were a little stiff.
Arguably one of the best performances in this drama alongside Emi's was Akari Hayami's portrayal of Shiki Magata who is a central character in this series. Her performance as the calculating genius level scientist was excellently played.
Cases
A good detective mystery series won't be one without some good cases to make it interesting. All of the cases in the series were well created and the mystery behind them was not always easily solved which is always a good thing. The cases in the series covered plenty of variety and all were pretty interesting. However i believe that the series did overuse on the locked room mystery's which though popular can get old pretty fast if overused.
Likes
Dynamic relationship between the main characters
Believable villains
string acting from Emi and cast
Music
Conclusion
This was a good drama that i particularly enjoyed because of the strong story and the strong acting from Emi and the rest of the cast. The cases featured were pretty interesting and can be surprisingly hard to figure out. The music in this show was particularly good and was appropriate for different scenes.
If you like Detective mystery dramas that have a strong story and a strong cast then this is definitely a good series to watch.
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The female lead is supposed to be clever but I don't feel it at all. She just uses her uncle's position to get whatever she wants and gets away with it. Plus it's absurd how she and Saikawa-sensei winds up in every crime scene.
Plus what's with that weird trance Saikawa-sensei goes into before he figures out each case? Lol, it looked kind of silly..
I don't like the individual cases either. Well the 1st case was pretty good but then it starts getting progressively worse from there onwards. The 3rd case and the last case, both involving Dr Magata Shiki were the most ridiculous ones. I don't get why the two leads are so obsessed with her.
There were a few ideas in the other cases that were kind of good but overall it was a hot mess.
This drama is just over-hyped, in my opinion.
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This review may contain spoilers
Seven is a lonely number
I randomly started watching this, I didn't read any reviews or comments, I just saw the title and was like This looks interesting, so I watched it.Story
It has it's flaws but the overall concept and cases were super interesting.
I like that it was episodic, someone gets murdered and they solve the case in two episodes, no dragging.
Murder happens, Nishinosono and Saikawa are for some reason at the scene, they get involved and solve the case and the big mystery surrounding the case, because not even one murder in this drama was committed in a normal way.
The concept of locked room was used a lot and every murder was done in some complicated way but that's what makes it fun.
You can't solve the case easily, you need to think and pay attention to clues that are given.
Nishinosono Moe - she is smart and we are shown she is smart but she needs to stop going back to crime scenes alone at night.
She also needs to stop trusting and following suspects.
Also, don't drink water from a shady dude that you know is doing something shady.
It was explained that she doesn't feel anything towards death or dead bodies so her doing reckless things is understandable. It first annoyed me but then it was funny.
Saikawa Kohei - he is smart and he solves the cases but he doesn't want to get involved in them.
Most of the time he solves them because of Nishinosono, she keeps telling him information about the cases or she gets involved and he needs to save her.
Their dynamic is fun and I like how they interacted and protected each other.
Dr Magata Shiki - her first appearance was creepy, a big smile and a blank stare, it definitely left an impression.
She is a complicated character.
Overall, I enjoyed watching this drama.
I recommend it to people who like weird mysteries.
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Impossible Possibilities
This story was really nothing like I expected it to be. The synopsis and poster are completely, I don't want to say "misleading", but they are the complete opposite ALMOST of what this show's story truly was. I'm not entirely sure parts of this show weren't all dreams in the first place...The cast line up was amazing. The story and cast carried this show together in an even balance of 50/50 quite perfectly. I've seen some stories similar to a few cases within this show, however, the cast really made such a compelling and enthralling story. I haven't been able to stop watching since episode one! The dramatics of this show aren't exactly what you would expect, and some stories aren't really dramatic at all, but the intense story itself is ridiculously epic from episode 1 until episode 10!
I think this show may be an underrated gem, but then again, if I'm being completely honest, I almost gave up on watching this story within the first 5 episodes, however, as the story base grew and grew, to lead up to the finale, I changed my mind and was simply swallowed whole by the story itself.
However, and this may be irrelevant and/or my personal opinion, but.... I'm not entirely sure the "sidekick" role was necessary for this story as a whole. Even though the creators seemed to build up the role's importance from episode 1 and as time continued, the role seemed to fit as the last perfect puzzle piece. I feel like Ayano Go could have handled this show (i dont want to say "better" or "best") by himself well enough, but that may just be because of his popularity, too. If you watch a few episodes, if not the entire show, without really paying attention to Takei Emi's role, imagining her not there at all, then this show seems to be lacking something of a "female touch"... whatever that general, old way of thinking is. In other reviews and/or comments, I noticed people calling her a "damsel in distress role", which really only seemed to fit for an episode and a half; please, believe me when I tell you that that way of thinking is only half right. Takei Emi's role is a very smart, strong character and while she does seem to attract trouble, she doesn't seem to fit the "damsel in distress" way of thinking. Though maybe that way of thought is because this show is from 2014 and I'm watching this story in 2022.
Each person's way of thinking is different and wonderful to watch and listen to, so please, watch this show and enjoy... And please leave a review or comment to show your own hypothesis!
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