天下制覇

Nothing says "great show" like a man’s hand up a butt.

Impressions:

This ended up being exactly as I expected, only perhaps possibly even more cliche. Well, that may actually be a bit premature. We actually know practically nothing about any of the kids as of yet outside of their names and crimes. We do know that Sakuragi was the blandest and most uninteresting character imaginable and the prison guard was barely a step above that. It’s hard to take the drama seriously when the cliche overrides absolutely everything else. Yes, yes, the ‘old’ guy with a book who’s actually a secret badass, beating up all the main characters at the same time and then calling them kids who don’t know anything before they bond over a cigarette (and MANLY TEARS) and then smile into the sunlight because TOMORROW WILL BE ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY. Could that have possibly been any more trite?

Production was middling at absolute best, typicaly far below that, and the music was "SUNLIGHT WAS THE ONLY THING THAT FELT RIGHT (……) WE’RE NOT ALONE!" That really kind of sums this up better than I could. It’s the kind of show that I can already see self-styled critics and erudites furiously pleasuring themselves to and drawing parallels between it and the plight of yada yada yada. It’s about six angsty boys, Japan’s rather bizarre prison system ("Hey guys, I’ve got a great idea, let’s use public transportation to transport criminals!"), and learning to find that wonderful rainbow that makes life worth living oh god shoot me before my brain escapes out my ear and does something I’ll really regret.