Thursday 28 March 2013

Just finished: Biblia Koshoudou no Jiken Techou

This series was a charming but, frankly, over-long series of mysteries based around literature. It was entertaining, and I admired how each episode managed to involve some piece of literary history. But at the same time, while the stories were clever, they didn't really need forty-five minutes.


Episode nine, in particular, should win an award for longest exposition. The mystery was revealed after about twenty-five minutes, followed by twenty minutes of slow reaction shots as each tiny aspect of the story was drip-fed to the viewer piece by piece.

Plus AKIRA, in the lead male role, didn't really have much to do except repeat the last line of the previous speaker, or go "Ah!" at moments of high tension. Gouriki Ayame was very good, though, really quite convincing in the role of timid book-keeper but often the best lines went to the supporting cast. In particular, Suzuki Kosuke as the interfering coffee-shop manager, Fujinami.


It was a nice, warm, cosy piece of drama and it certainly captured the feel of a dusty second-hand book shop. And the stories were interesting, and they certainly made me want to go out and read the books they talked about. This, at least, makes it all worthwhile.

9 comments:

  1. Thank you for subbing this series! It was really amazing to watch and my friends and I really enjoyed every moment of it. If it wasn't for you we'd never be able to really see it so much thanks. I wrote about the show and your work here (http://2bg.tv/8645) if you're interested. Thanks again for bringing Biblia to English speakers :)

    Elaine

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's very kind of you. And I liked the review (and the website). Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Elaine introduced me to this series, thanks for translating, it was a great show for me after watching lots of lousy shows in the US. Would love to read those books mentioned in the series, too bad I won't be able to read it in Japanese. Thanks again for translating.

    ReplyDelete
  4. My wife and I enjoyed the series - I also found it a little odd that everything seemed to be resolved 20 minutes before each episode ended, but it didn't bother me too much. I haven't watched the final episode yet but they also didn't seem to do anything with the guy who can't read working in a bookstore part of the storyline.

    But I really just wanted to comment and say thanks for the subs and the blog.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for the subs and blog. I love this series. My friend who is big fan of novel it based on has few complaints for it though. Especially Gouriki Ayame as lead protagonist. The author of novel tweeted that "Drama version cahnged the way I think about the series in an unimaginable way"

    It made me downloaded "Sorekawa (And Then..)" Movie version after I watched 1st episode. But can't get through it yet though even it has english subtitles.

    ReplyDelete
  6. where can i get the subtitle of this drama?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thank you you for giving me the opportunity to watch such a great show. I appreciate your hard work!

    ReplyDelete
  8. That's what happened when Gouriki would become in the right safe hand. I hope she will get into shows with excellent directing like this

    ReplyDelete
  9. I thought that Gouriki had a very good role that suited her talents in this drama. The episodes could have moved along at a faster pace. But this is about an Antique Bookstore - the slow pacing fits.

    ReplyDelete