I've got mixed feelings about this one.
The story itself is as trivial and cliched as it gets. To the point it feels ridiculous at times. There is the
- two headed dog from the Greek mythology,
- the biblical god and the devil,
- the American superpowers/superhero stuff
- all of it in Japanese settings and mixed with some old Japanese luck totems.
As if the writers wanted to put every bit of international legendary there is into the story.
On top of that the old dull story of the opposite....- hm, don't want to spoil it, so just call them "guys": one good but with terrible powers - the other one with the power to heal but (seemingly) cold and evil:
1) Aoi Ryosuke, played by Ryo Nihikido: good, gentle, guiet and confused by his evil powers. He seemed kind of lost to me.
2)Ryuzaki Shinji, played by Hideaki Takizawa - ....well the opposite
Although I don't quite understand why every single review I read about this series is picturing Ryuzaki as "evil". To me he is the personification of Jesus Christ reborn - divine and so profoundly human at the same time (or at least it is how I would imagine Jesus Christ, if blending out the Asian facial features).
As for the cast: except for the both lead actors, the rest of the cast was whether:
a) annoying (especially the female lead - Asami Mizukawa who plays the detective Hasebe Nagisa) or
b) ridiculous (especially Seiji Rokkaku who plays the legal guardian/or whatever, in whose temporary care Ryuzaki was) or
c) a screen filler, with no understandable reason of being there at all (pretty much everyone else).
Despite of all that, I still gave this series 10/10 because I just got all emotional. The reason for that is the outstanding performance of the two male leads.
They simply nailed it. The tension, depth and level of emotions between them were just absurd intense. I hurted with them thru every single episode of the series to the point I found it difficult to watch. Normally I would binge watch a short series like that, but this one took me a few days to get thru as I had to stop several times to take an emotional break.
Overall, I won't say this series was a light entertainment and I don't know if I will ever come back to it just for the fun of repeating the experience. On the other hand the acting and interactions of Aoi and Ryuzaki were beautiful even if heartbreaking. In fact, I felt kind of schizophrenic watching it: didn't enjoy myself, but loved it at the same time. Jeez, you Japanese people, stop messing with my head!
