My Home Hero (2023)

A Great Adaptation to a Great Manga

As someone familiar with the original manga, the live action is a strong adaptation that also cleans up the shortcomings of My Home Hero's "Hangure" arc, its first act.

Tetsuo is still the meek salaryman who loves writing mystery web novels on the side. When he discovered that his daughter, Reika, was being abused, his paternal instincts drove him to confront and ultimately kill her "hangure" boyfriend. The man planned to kill Reika in the first place, so what else could he do? What I love about My Home Hero is not Tetsuo's mystery novel knowledge-turn-applied skill but his chilling moral descent to protect his family. He's a great anti-hero, one you're not sure whether to cheer for or not.

Kuranosuke as Tetsuo is the perfect casting. He makes Tetsuo very lovable, and his quips with Kasen are very funny. I'm glad they kept the comedy of the manga instead of going full-on dramatic (loved the final episode for this.) The comedic side of Tetsuo was key to humanize him, especially considering the lengths he goes to for Reika. Kasen is this super mysterious character, especially early on. You can feel the lovelessness between husband and wife before they started working together to save Reika. Why is she so quick to jump onto Tetsuo's plans? Tae plays that mysterious role well, and I love it when she is "acting out", considering it's an important character trait moving forward. But my MVP has to be Eisaku as Matori. How maniacal of a man Matori is in the manga isn't obvious outside of his manic episodes, but here, every time Matori talks, you know the type of man he is. A very unstable man who never knew how to love until Nobuto, his son, turned to a life of crime. I love his characterization of Matori because you can see what type of father he would become if Nobuto led a normal life. Maybe he and Tetsuo would've been good friends.

There were a few tweaks that occurred from manga to live action, like replacing Takeda's RV, but my favorite was how they treated the final conflict. They skip the whole "noise complaint" subplot, which honestly felt unnecessary, and give the climax the breathing room it deserves. The lighting and cinematography in that scene, not to mention Tetsuo's exhausted yell, make the live-action version blow the anime adaptation out of the water. To the anime fans that felt cheated by how the series was portrayed: watch this instead.

The live-action ends at chapter 48 of the manga. Act 2 follows Tosu Textiles: why the hangure wanted Reika in the first place.

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Japanese series are always so interesting for me. I sometimes don't know what to say in a review. I started watching this b/c I am a huge fan of Sasaki Kuranosuke and he was great here as Tetsuo. The cast is fantastic especially, Kimura Tae as Kasen and Takahashi Kyohei as Kyoichi.

The series has an interesting premise and each episode made me want to see what will happen next. I couldn't believe they would be able to wrap this up in 10 short eps. But the shortness of eps helps the series. No fillers or unnecessary subplots. Tetsuo and Kyoichi being togther for most of the series leads to the palpable tension created by the situation. I loved too that Kasen was all in with her husband. Quite the dynamic duo! I enjoyed the series even with some of the quick solutions that Tetsuo came up with. I also liked that the the crime organization were not stupid/dumb criminals.

The last episode was hilarious but also heartbreaking. Totally worth the watch.

4/13/24

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