If I could rate the cheesiness of this dorama, it would be 100%. Cheesiness to the top. Cheesiness at maximum. I guess all doramas based on sport + all guys tend to be like this (Gokusen is an example) but not to this level. Which is surprising since Yamamoto Yusuke and Daito Shunsuke normally chose good roles.
There are a lot of: tears, clenched fists, yells, listening while hidden, fights, overreact. Most of the tears are lame, and in group. The only guy that moved me with his tears was Mizusawa, the gay guy (poor actor, is he fated to play gay roles all his life? First Takumi series, now this...) I liked his story, how he was rejected and how the guys reacted. Not because it was good, but because it was the most real scene I saw in the whole dorama. The guys in the team were scared to be labeled as gays as well, and were a little bit cold towards him. Of course everything ends well, with them accepting Mizusawa and blah, blah, and again, with a predictable scene where all of them are crying and asking Mizusawa to please not quit the team.
The listening behind doors are mostly done by the teachers, more specially the one played by Kuninaka Ryoko. I thought Akira's role was going to be good, but alas, he ended up being the cliched good teacher who touches his student's hearts (why? he didn't spend that much time with them, he wasn't prepared to be their coach. But all of them accepted and liked him enough to shed tears only because he "worked hard" by researching for their performance). It was silly, and he looked even more silly because he looked like Dave Grohl in "Learn to Fly" or any one of his videos where he plays dumb characters.
Overreacts... gawd, these guys liked to throw punches and kicks just because. It was so stupid. Like for example, one of them is walking down the streets, there is a group of yankees, one of them bumps his shoulder and the result? A fight. Most of the chapters ended with some of them with bruises/blood in their faces (the ending involves with ALL of them with bruises).
Yamamoto Yusuke surprised me with this role... in a bad way. He spends most of the time shouting. Most of the time glaring. But so what, he is always the good guy who helps and supports his friends **eye-roll** The villains were so cartoonish, with their "evil" smile and of course, they all redeemed themselves at the end.
Kaku Kento and Sato Jiro... the only two characters who were the comedic relief, so of course that involved A LOT of overacting. Minna, this wasn't an anime. This wasn't a comedy dorama. They looked stupid instead of funny.
Tomiura Satoshi, who played the cute character... yes, he is cute and I wanted to pinch his cheeks a couple of times, but gawd, his voice! Does he really talk like that, like he is 5 years-old? he was like 19 in that time, he couldn't have NOT broken his voice yet.
Seto Koji... I don't have any complains, he (along with Daito Shunsuke) were probably the best. Although he did cry too much for my liking. Gawd, did they have to cry so much??
I am sure that Daito and Kaku Kento were picked for their talent in acting only, since they barely did any tumbling. In general, the tumbling was super amateurish. But overall, since the actors did them all by themselves, it was, if not impressive, at least remarkable.
11 episodes felt too long... I fast-forwarded the last 2 episodes. This wasn't for me.
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