ROMES – airport security system – Episode 1, Um….

Unfortunately, I’ll still be watching it.

Tokyo Bay International Airport, the gateway to the world for Japan. Armed with a state of the art security system called Romes, it fights against crime and terrorism while making sure that its passengers and visitors traverse around its corridors safely.

After receiving a message of a video of someone who he thought was dead, Yuya Narushima heads straight to Tokyo from London in search for him while working with Tokyo Bay Intl. Airport’s security team that run the ROMES security system.

I’m not going to write a summary for this episode because that would then require me to actually relive the piece of shit that this drama ended up being. I would like to say that after the ten-minute mark I had lost interest and then throughout the drama, until the last ten minutes, was busy checking my email and tweeting.

The pacing for this drama is off the ball and the editing is so ridiculous it kills the mood.  I had a feeling half way through, with the offsetting “vogue” character introductions, that I was watching a Tokyo TV drama – Something along the lines of Princess Princess D because I am quite sure they introduced their characters like that as well.

The jokes fall flat as well. When I did bother to pay attention to Romes, Narushima’s random spouts of “ cuteness “ would come off forced. At one moment he’s the cool and collective boy genius and the next moment he’s this childish “cutie” that makes faces and carries with him a dolphin plushie. It doesn’t help that Ohkura can not act to save his life, so it just watching this just reminds me of how much power J&A has over the entertainment industry.

Yasuda Shota’s performance of Sumamura Taku, the bumbling new guy to the task force, isn’t that much better. I really can’t tell if he’s trying too to act like he’s a security agent trying to hard, being half assed playing an agent trying too hard, or just not knowing what he’s doing. Because I haven’t seen Yasu in much acting, besides his guest appearance on Yasuko to Kenji as the villain of the week and whatever’s he done with Kanjani8 – I can’t really compare him to his previous roles.

But, with, Ohkura I can. It seems as if instead of getting better with his acting, he’s regressed and it truly baffles me on as to why this guy actually managed to score the lead in a drama before everyone else in Kanjani8. I feel like his best performance was Jun in Yasuko to Kenji; maybe because it didn’t require him to do much then smile and ask Yasuko how was her day…. And maybe facepalm at his sister’s bipolar attacks.

The supporting cast was pretty interesting to see. While not heavy hitters in Japan’s acting industry, they have been in the industry a while and have more so a pop culture type of notoriety than anything else. Mostly starring in B rated dramas, movies, and tokusatsu.

I really don’t know how long I’m going to stick to watching this drama. I really do feel as if I’m just going to probably drop it before we hit mid season just because the acting is so terrible and nothing so far has been convincing enough for me to keep watching – But the last ten minutes did prove to me slightly interesting, enough that I was kind of angry that it dropped off right on a cliffhanger .

The music was pretty funny. Considering how it sounded like it was ripped from the McGuyver soundtrack.

Maybe Romes will pick up the pace. Maybe Ohkura will stop sucking with his acting. Maybe there won’t be this weird chemistry between them that comes off as “ Stop trying so hard trying to act as if you’ve never met. “ – Because Ohkura’s side comments and Yasu’s weak silent grumbles really don’t sell anything to me.

Oh well, another episode next week. Two down, one more to go.

Please don’t suck, Guests of Room no. 0!

…… right.