Maou Episode 01

I was pleasantly surprised that this series actually turned out to be pretty good. I tried watching Code Blue the other night and I'm still not quite too impressed with that one despite my penchant for medical dramas. In any case, Maou is a pretty entertaining watch for those who like thrillers. The acting is surprisingly good and the theme song is nice, but I do think the singing is a bit off at times... What can I say... Johnny's boys are not always the most talented singers... Anyway...


Story Synopsis:

For those who do not know, Maou is actually a remake of the 2007 Korean drama "The Devil." The story is about a 28 year-old lawyer, Naruse Ryo, called the Angelic Attorney, who is an ally of justice to the common people and a kind, brilliant, young man. However, unbeknownst to everyone, this angel actually has a brutally dark side and is plotting revenge against the one who murdered his younger brother eleven years ago.

Opposite to Naruse is 26 year-old Serizawa Naoto, a young detective who pursues a series of murders linked to tarot cards delivered in a red envelope by someone called "Amano Makoto." He is aided by Sakita Shiori, a psychometric who reveals the meanings of tarot cards related to the cases and is able to see the truth behind the deaths of victims. As Serizawa continues to chase the perpetrator, he is reminded of his dark past and finds himself chasing the devil deeper into the depths of hell.

Episode 1:

Our story begins with the picture of Lucifer from a page in a book of which Sakita Shiori is reading to a group of children at an orphanage. When she tells the children that the demonic being is an angel, they all protest that it looks like a devil instead. She flips the page over and the children see a beautiful angel. Shiori explains that it is the same angel as before and that Lucifer incurred the wrath of god, which caused him to fall to the underworld and in doing so became the lord of darkness.

Jump several cut scenes back and forth and we see a young boy with a knife sticking out of his chest inside a warehouse. Naruse Ryo, holding a bouquet of flowers, is standing in the distance as the boy is desperately reaching out for something. When he walks closer to the spot, we see that the boy is actually someone from the past and the flowers he brought, are placed over the area where the boy died. Naruse mourns over the area where his younger brother, Hideo, was killed eleven years ago.

Blackout and cut to a scene in the courtroom, in which Naruse just won a case at proving the innocence of a man. The reporters chase after him as he leaves the courthouse and ask for a picture, but he tells them that he as somewhere else that he needs to go and leaves. At the same time, Serizawa Naoto is chasing after a man and manages to catch up to him at the top of the building's roof. In order to get the answers he wants to hear, he dangles the man upside down on the building's edge until his team arrives to stop him. Meanwhile, Naruse is stationed at a distance with a viewfinder watching Serizawa. When he returns home, he enters a red-lit room in his house full of pictures taken of Serizawa and those related to him.

Some time later, Serizawa's classmate from junior high, Souda Mitsuru, is taken into the station apparently for hitting his girlfriend when asking for money. He goes to interrogate him, but is asked to switch out later. When he returns to his desk, a package has arrived for him from a person by the name of Amano Makoto (雨野真実) and he opens it to see a single red envelope and inside is a single tarot card, "Judgement." As he and his teammate, Takatsuka Kaoru, are looking at it quizzically, a case is phoned in and Serizawa rushes out to get in on the action. As he bolts down the hall, he meets Naruse who has arrived to act as Souda's attorney. Naruse asks where the interrogation room is and Serizawa points out the way, he realizes that Naruse must be Souda's attorney and asks that Naruse takes good care of his friend before dashing away.

[-Opening Theme-]

The story picks up with Sakita Shiori and her friend, Nishina Eri, who are searching for an earring. Shiori uses her psychometric abilities to locate the missing accessory before picking out a tarot card for the day for herself, "Fortune." She then leaves for work at a library and is accosted by Naruse who is looking for architecture-related books. She helps him locate the books, helps him check them out, and then asks if they've met somewhere before; however Naruse looks puzzled and she decides that it must be her imagining things.

At the police station, Serizawa is getting a verbal beating while at the law firm, Naruse is told by his coworkers that the public has sent him a lot of fan letters calling him an angel. He smiles, goes back to his office and reflects on his meeting with Serizawa. Back at the station, Serizawa and Takatsuka are on the rooftop going over the tarot card when he suddenly gets a call from his older brother, Noriyoshi, who wants him to come back home for the business party. Later during the day, Serizawa meets his friend, a yakuza-looking debt collector named Ishimoto Yosuke, and they talk about Souda.

Flash forward to the evening and we see Naruse putting on black gloves, getting ready for the kill, and Serizawa arriving at the party. He meets his friend, Kasai Hitoshi, who is also his brother's secretary, and then is approached by Noriyoshi and his wife, Mari. Noriyoshi points Serizawa out to a man Serizawa is indebted to, a lawyer called Kumada, who is currently talking with his father. When Serizawa approaches Kumada to greet him, he is attacked by his father for becoming a police officer rather than succeeding the family business. Kumada tries to pacify things between father and son, but then leaves to take a phone call from Naruse. After the call, Kumada excuses himself and goes back to his firm while Naruse watches from outside.

The next day, Serizawa rushes to Kumada's firm upon hearing that his benefactor has been murdered. He searches through Kumada's desk to find a familiar red envelope with the same tarot card he received, "Judgment." A box from the sender, "Amano Makoto" is seen on the floor and Serizawa asks one of the people at the firm if they knew who sent the package. No one knows, but they only know that a knife also came with the package -- the same one sticking out of Kumada -- and that he got a phone call the night of his death.

Meanwhile at a church, Naruse is listening to the choir sing and notices Shiori a few seats away from him. He looks at her with a calculating, cold, and positively frightening expression. Cut scene to Serizawa, everyone has gathered back at the police agency and going over the tarot card left behind at the crime scene. When new information comes in about the killer, Serizawa bolts out of the station. Scene changes back to Naruse and Shiori who end up talking and walking together for a while, and we learn that Shiori became an orphan soon after she was born. She is ambushed with hugs from the children at the beginning of the episode after saying so and Naruse watches with a friendlier expression.

Later, Serizawa, Takatsuka, and Nakanishi Hiromichi come find Shiori to get her to do a reading of the tarot card. With her psychometric abilities, she witnesses how Kumada is killed and tells the group what she saw. She tells them that Kumada took a knife out of the box and pointed it at the opposite party, and the other man pulled the blade close to himself, but then they struggle and fall down on the floor. As a consequence, Kumada actually stabs himself with help from the other party. Serizawa does not believe Shiori and thinks that it's all bullocks. He does feel a bit unnerved at remembering her explanation of the judgement card: "Atonement for sins of the past."

Cut away to Naruse's home and he is sitting on the couch looking at a music box with a picture of his mother and younger brother inside plus a harmonica. He remembers the day his mother throws her body on top of Hideo's while sobbing over his death, and also how his brother's killer, the very same Serizawa Naoto, was acquitted of all charges based on the allegation that it was really the victim who took out the knife first and Naoto was only acting out of self defense. Because of this, Naoto was set free and Naruse watched as his brother's killer got out of his crime.

Another day at the station, everyone is discussing more details of Kumada's death and we learn that the suspect is Hayashi Kunio who was last seen with Kumada. Just as Serizawa is about to leave to catch Hayashi, Naruse comes in with Hayashi in tow saying that Hayashi wants to turn himself in. Later in the interrogation room, Serizawa asks about the red envelope with tarot cards and demands to know why Hayashi sent them, plus why did he kill Kumada? However, Hayashi says that he did not kill Kumada and the evidence is from a voice recording between Hayashi and Kumada just before his death. The group hears of the struggle, which confirms that the death is an accident, but the detectives are still unconvinced. Then Takatsuka brings in a bag full of red envelopes and inside them were letters this time addressed to Kumada, telling him of his sin from twelve years ago and how everything that is happening was started by his own two hands -- meaning that because Kumada helped a murderer get acquitted of charges and placed the blame on Hideo, karma is now coming back to get him. As Nakanishi reads these words, Naruse sits with a calm expression on his face. Nakanishi, Takatsuka, and Serizawa go over the facts and Serizawa discovers that Hayashi has been had by the one called "Amano Makoto," because Amano was the one who made the call, which got Kumada to get back to the office. The more Serizawa questions Hayashi, the more agitated he becomes until Naruse asks that he calm down. Serizawa demands to know how he can stay calm at all when someone who has a family who will be missing them was killed. Naruse swallows his anger before answering that Hayashi is also important to someone in his life, and not just the victim or him, but also Serizawa and also Naruse himself.

Later, Serizawa hurriedly rushes to find Shiori in order to get her to do a reading on the letter and at first she rejects him, but after his persuasion, gives in and helps. When placing her hand over the letter, she sees a man was typing something on a laptop and he is wearing black gloves when putting the letter into a red envelope. When Serizawa asks if there is more, she says that that's all she saw... but what she did feel is that this person has no soul.

Back at the warehouse, Naruse is mourning for his brother again and looking at the harmonica he gave him for his birthday. He remembers Hideo playing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," their mother's favorite song, and Hideo then confesses that when he grows up, that he's going to become a lawyer and make lots of money (for the family). As Naruse grips the harmonica tightly in his hands, tears stream down his eyes.

Another day, Kumada's son approaches Naruse and demands to know if Naruse is honestly saying that his father killed himself. Naruse apologizes for the boy's loss, but he gets really angry and pushes Naruse up the wall. Naruse only tells the boy that there's only one truth so please wait and see. Kumada's son lets Naruse go, and the attorney heads to the detective agency where Serizawa and Hayashi are to do a simulation of what happened that night. Hayashi narrates everything that happened while Serizawa plays as Kumada. Halfway through when Serizawa pulls out the knife to attack Hayashi, he sees his past play out before him: a boy lies on the ground with a pocket knife protruding out from his torso. Serizawa is completely shaken up from the simulation and even more rocked when Naruse uses the exact same words that Kumada used to defend him years ago: "The victim was the one who pulled out he knife first and the defendant was only acting out in self defense, therefore the defendant is innocent." Having proved his point, Hayashi was allowed to go free and Naruse walked away triumphantly.

Later that night, Serizawa went out drinking in order to drown out his past and he gets very drunk. As he stumbles back home, he falls over a bike and rolls up in fetal position on the ground while crying out from guilt. Back at Naruse's apartment, he is in the red room looking at current pictures of all people associated with Serizawa and focuses on Serizawa's father last.

Impression:

The acting was pretty good, though the story seemed kind of predictable, and there were a few holes I think, but it's good for what it is. Ikuta Toma plays these types of roles pretty well. I honestly like him in a role like this than I do when he's playing a nice guy like Takemoto from Honey & Clover. Ohno Satoshi really surprised me too, I really never would have imagined him playing a role like this so seeing him like this was really refreshing.

I especially love the fact that Naruse used the name "Amano Makoto" when delivering red envelopes to his victims and to Serizawa. Though the kanji is different, if one only goes by the phonetic sound, the name would actually sound to look like this: 天の真実 Ama no Makoto (Shinjitsu) = Divine Truth. I thought this was pretty creative.

Perhaps I'm too tired to really hear it correctly anymore, but I'm not quite sure why Hayashi had the voice recorder on him... If I watch it again, I'm sure I'll catch it, but I guess I'm just too tired at the moment to know. In any case, I really enjoyed this episode so I hope the rest of the series continues to get better.