Avoid: Guilty Akuma to Keiyakushita Onna

Twenty minutes. That’s how long into the first episode I lasted. That’s some kind of record, since I usually make the effort to get to the end of any series' opening episode. But not with this. Something about it made me think I was better off doing something else.

Guilty begins with a suicide, and then progresses to a scene with some plain-clothes police officers being cold and distant to each other before one of them leaves the office and saves a dog. But he doesn’t care that he saved the dog: he’s that kind of man. And the dog’s pregnant, and her owner’s gone missing. So a worker at the pet salon looks after it.

The problem with this show is that halfway into the first episode and there’s still no clear storyline. People either glare silently, or they look awkward when not answering a question, implying some deep mysterious secret that no one dares talk about. Unfortunately, if no one can answer any questions, it just looks as if no one knows what’s going on.

I decided to read the synopsis on the Drama Wiki. The last show I had to check on the internet to understand what was going on was Atami no Sousakan, but for completely different reasons. With Atami, I wanted to learn more. For this, I was looking for any redeeming features at all. But, if anything, the synopsis put me off even more. It turns out the pet salon owner also has a big secret. Of course she does. Everyone does. Why the Hell not? Maybe even the dog has a secret.

I guess I'll never know.