In this world there are always opposites — left and right, up and down, light and dark, good and evil. In Orthros no Inu, the stage is set for the ultimate battle between good and evil, light and dark. Ryosuke Aoi is a humble high school teacher with a very dark, and hidden, secret. Shinji Ryuzaki is a disturbed individual who’s spent ten years of his life on death row also holding a dark, and hidden secret.
Once the two meet, the stage is set, the rules are laid out and the game begins. Who can outwit whom? Who can be victorious in the game and who can control whom? How much can it take to truly drive humanity crazy? It’s a no man’s land game of cat and mouse, where anything goes and humanity suffers for each move they make.
When I first watched Orthros no Inu, it was when it premiered. I was actually somewhat looking forward to the drama, despite my more outward displeasure with the drama because of its leading male (clears throat), but I ended up being sorely disappointed with a slow story, flat acting, and a stupid co-lead I couldn’t believe this was all happening in an hour and fifteen minutes.
I didn’t touch the drama again nor did I have any desire in continuing Orthros no Inu until I was suddenly going on a trip out of state and needed something to marathon while I was flying across the country to satisfy my boredom. Since I decided to suffer through Buzzer Beat on my way to Otakon, why not drown myself in my own misery by marathon Orthros no Inu on my eight-hour trip to Colorado? So that’s what I did. Downloaded all six episodes currently available and began to marathon the series.
Orthros no Inu has a slow pace storyline. Its like watching a snail crawl across the street, there’s really no change in the storyline other than Ryuzaki using people under his warp sense of rationalization of human nature and Ryosuke’s adamant displeasure with the fact that he has the ability to kill people. Then we have Hasebe’s inner plight with justice and the struggle of accepting Ryuzaki’s offer or watch her daughter suffer. Orthros seems more like a drama that tries to dive into the human psyche, but in return fails in delivering something captivating. I don’t know who to blame in this situation, the writers for writing a story that seems to slowly advance and go absolutely no where or a cast that seems to act as stiff as a board?
Hideaki’s (Ryuzaki) acting is too stiff. His character is supposed to be cold, but it comes off more as he’s performing a character from one of his stage plays than for television. His face doesn’t carry emotion and its almost as if I’d have a better time watching paint dry on the wall then seeing him spew out another one of his “ Humans are stupid and pawns in a game “ speeches that he loves to deliver to Ryosuke.
Nishikido and Mizukawa really fail to pick up the slack as well. One thing I’ve noticed from Mizukawa’s (Hasebe) acting is that all her performances and characters tend to come out the same. She really lacks variance between her roles; its always the same from role to role. Nishikido’s character gets one my nerves, both in the writing and in his performance. He either goes all the way or none at all. But I already brought up my issue with Nishikido in my Niini review.
The character of Ryosuke baffles me. He’s naïve and stupid, constantly falling for anyone that will tell him if he does something for them everything is going to be okay. His constant calling of Hasebe to tell her he killed someone really doesn’t sell guilt to me, as I am sure the writers want it to. He still continues to go day to day rather than eat guilt – always trying to find Ryuzaki to put a stop to him. If he had much more guilt for the murders he has committed, I would have expected more mental anguish from him rather than brief moments of sulking.
My major problem with Orthros is that its advertised as a battle between good and evil; but so far its evolved into a story about how quick humans are to trade in what they consider important to them for their own gain. Ryuzaki’s constant toying with human emotions, from getting Hasebe’s boyfriend to essentially sell her to Ryuzaki to having the Prime Minister nominee sleep with him, seem to really loose itself between this so called battle between himself and Ryosuke.
Ryuzaki claims that it’s a game, and each one of them should make a move, but with powers like these it seems as if it’d be the destruction of humanity rather than themselves. With episode six marking the exposure of Ryuzaki’s skills to the world, I don’t know where this story is going. They still haven’t dived into what Rukoku Village actually is about, other than that the village probably disappeared due to obsession with Ryuzaki’s gift.
There is potential in Orthros no Inu, but I do not see it being tapped into. There’s obviously a piece of Christianity thrown in, and if you’re familiar with Christianity and Japan it’s a very interesting piece of information to be added to a drama. But with no concise direction, I do not know where this drama might lead us. I’ll be highly disappointed if they do not dive into this.
There are so many questions to be answered and only four more episodes left. I hope Orthros picks itself back up again and try to end itself with some dignity.