Ashita no Kita Yoshio ep. 1

I figured he has 710000 yen left.

The premise:
Meet Kita Yoshio. A man who has decided to…commit suicide 11 days later.

He feels that the world doesn’t need him, and therefore he doesn’t need the world too. His beautiful wife left him and he ended up with heavy debts. Thus he decided to end his life on the same day which his only friend passed away, which is 11 days later. He sold everything he has in preparation for the day and carries a grand total of 1 million wherever he goes….but?

He’s a coward. Can a coward really commit suicide?

On the 11th day before his death date he meets Yashiro Heita [Matsuda Ryuhei]:

Who seems to be too helpful and resourceful. But as Yoshio says, Heita is his Pandora ’s Box, because Heita helped him experience good things he never did before (and disasters too :x).

Yoshio’s ex-wife, Mizuho [Konishi Manami], is apparently now the director of a company. Her second husband passed away and it seems that she got to claim 1 billion worth of insurance, and thus triggered investigation from the insurance company (done by Sugimoto [Namase Katsuhisa]).

Other characters not known much at this point in time is Rika [Kuriyama Chiaki], who seems to be Heita’s girlfriend, and Moriwaki [Kaname Jun] who is Mizuho’s employee. These people that Yoshio meets will most probably give him the most unforgetable 11 days in life.

Impression:
This is the only drama in this season that attracted me both plot and casting wise. The plot is…twisted enough one unique plotline that got my interest to watch the debut episode. XD

This is Kohinata Fumiyo’s first lead role in a drama, but I didn’t need this drama to know how superb an actor he is. He has been casted as a supporting actor for many dramas/movies that I’ve watched, such as Hero, Ushi ni negai wo, Furin Kazan and Sore demo boku wa yattenai, and he can play both comedic and serious roles very well. He was funny during most of the episode, but the serious monologue at the end was impactful and sad. Kohinata handled the transition really well, which quickly sucked me into the seemingly amusing but pathetic life of Kita Yoshio.

Matsuda Ryuhei’s Heita was a pleasant surprise. Both his appearance and the role itself was a change from his previous works. Heita is a comedic character (Panda box! XD) which is break from his previous darker roles, and I really like it. I suppose he has an ulterior motive in helping Yoshio? Most probably for Yoshio’s money but he managed to conceal it very well at this point.

From the first episode it seems that it is a mixture of several genres: comedy, mystery and drama, and definitely way more complicated that it appears to be. It should take a few more episodes before the main and subplot (Mizuho’s insurance investigation) gets clearer, so I’ll definitely watch on and see how the plot develops! XD

Next episode: Yoshio goes back to visit his mother whom he has not seen for 3 years.