Innocent Days(イノセント・デイズ) Japanese Drama Thoughts

    Innocent Days is a Japanese drama that used to air on Sundays produced by a company named Wowwow. The drama was directed by Ishikawa Kei and written by Goto Noriko. Kazumasa Hayami was the writer of the original novel this drama adaption was based off of.  Tsumabuki Satoshi, Takeuchi Yuko(Strawberry Nights, Creepy), Hirofumi Arai(Gintama), and, Yoshine Kyoko star in the drama special.



   A woman is accused of a crime then sentenced to death. Her childhood friends race against time to try to prove her innocence before she is executed.

   I'm not sure how long the novel was but the writer of the script managed to compile everything into six episodes. Plus, the episodes are not extremely long either. The first episode is basically an introduction to the characters's back stories. Much is learned about the characters origins in close detail. To be completely honest with you, the first episode was kind of boring to me. Seeing the characters before they were grown wasn't too exciting. The reason being that nothing exciting happens during this episode. Some pretty shady and interesting information is introduced to viewers but you don't know what to do with this information until latter. Things defiantly pick up the pace staring from the second episode onward. More info is told about the main character through the eyes of the people who knew her. In fact, the whole drama is one of the friends taking matters into his own hands for a little game of detective Sherlock Homes. He tries to put the pieces together to figure out the kind of person this woman has become during the years that he hasn't seen her. Watching the different accounts told by the people who knew her was engrossing. These people all had a connection to her committing the crime: They all felt like they drove her to do it. Each person had actions of wrong doing in their stories, making this drama all the more engaging. You're then leaning over in the edge of your seat trying to figure out if she did the crime or if she's covering for someone else. My biggest disappointment involving Innocent Days is the way everything ended. The ending makes viewers feel kind of like all that transpired was all for nothing. There's a bit of a "smoother over" but it still felt a bit like a downer to me. Other people might feel differently so watch for yourself too.

   I watched this for Satoshi mostly. He plays the childhood friend who is trying to prove the woman's innocence. His character is pretty quiet and awkward but he finds the confidence to see his investigation through till the end. I felt awkward watching him in character on screen. That's how good he was. The best performance award goes to Yuko, No question about that. She had so much inner battles with her self since she didn't have an easy life. All her scenes with the other characters made me want to rip my heart out of my chest. Especially the scenes her character had with Satoshi's character and the prison guard(Kyoko). You don't really have one set emotion for her character. Viewers will watch her resolve slowly crumble as time passes. All of the extended cast did well as the ones who had to keep the background stories alive and interesting.

   Watch Innocent Days for the drama and mystery but don't expect too much. If you're a fan of any of the actors/actresses in there, I would say to watch it. Six episodes is nothing compared to other dramas. You'll be done before you know it.