the truth is often disappointing

Yakusoku: 16-Nenme no Shinjitsu is an investigation/mystery drama that had a lot of potential to be a great drama with the initial premise but fails to capitalize on any of it. I will not delve into any plot details of the story to avoid spoilers.

Story:

The story attempts to present itself as something deeper than what’s on the surface but it fails to mask the “truth”. The story is just far too simple. The simplicity of the story means that it is very reliant on amazing storytelling. Unfortunately, the storytelling was not up to par.

In this drama every character is presented as a suspect, and every episode is dedicated towards misleading the viewer to suspect someone, only for it to be explained moments later why this cannot be the case. This aspect was extremely repetitive and made it a drag to watch till the end.

Characters:

The main characters, Kiryu and Kosaka are the driving forces in the show. They have differing motivations but are working together towards a common goal. Just like everything else in this show, they can be characterized as very straightforward characters that lack any sense of depth.

While I want to criticize the bland acting, I believe the issue is with the direction. The characters motivations are so blatant that their actions become predictable. The only interesting aspect of the characters was the mystery of their “past”, and even that had no pay off.

If there’s any saving grace, there is some synergy between the two.

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In truth, all of this would be excusable if it was enjoyable. In the end, this is all that really matters when it comes to dramas. Personally, I found it to be barely watchable. To me the drama was like a roller-coaster ride with no payoff after reaching the peak.

While it may seem like I have nothing good to say about the drama, it is definitely not the worst I have seen. If you want to take a chance on the show, I would say you can try watching the first few episodes and before the second half you would have a clear understanding of what to expect for the rest of the series.

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