Disclaimer: This is not, by any means, a review.
Notes: I’ve never watched Mawang so I don't know what happens next. I do plan to watch it after Maou just so that I won't look at Maou through Mawang eyes and be all "Compared to Mawang..." when referring to Maou.


Episode 1


The first time I saw this, I had a premonition that Naruse is going to die. Is he? No, don't answer that. *sniff*


Okay. So in Ohno’s first appearance in his first serial drama, he is seen carrying flowers.
Somebody, everybody, SCREAM.


What’s with this awkward scene?


Naruse in crazy stalker mode.


Police brutality.


I am so gonna grab ya.

Let’s skip the shower scene. Everyone has remarked on that.


So this is how hell is like. Looks expensive to me. And clean and organized. Like the devil himself.


Dundundundun. The red room of doom! –insert Psycho theme–
This somehow, makes me think of The Shining, because the kid kept on writing red rum on the walls, then mommy saw the words reflected on glass and read mur der! –insert shrieks!–


Every breath you take, every move you make, every vow you break, every step you take, I’ll be watching you.
Fic, people!


Gratuitous Tomaishot screencap.


Amano Makoto! That cracked me up! Made me think of Okita Souji dancing to Rain! XXDD WHAT.
The explanatory flashback that Naruse has a little later in the episode, with him standing in the rain watching Naoto and Eisaku and Kumada had me rolling my eyes.


This guy is an Arashi stalker! First Hanadan, then Yamataro, then Maou!!!


I find this interesting. Ryou is standing in front of the stairs going up [and under the light] and Naoto is under an arrow sign going down [and in darkness]. Can be interpreted in various ways, but I read this as Ryou in the light because he “sees everything, knows the plan” and Naoto in the dark because, well, he’s in the dark about what is happening and what will happen. He’s the only one who sees this “chance” meeting as that.


I kept on replaying this, the Hajimemashite scene. Ryou clearly knows who Naoto is, been stalking him all this time, but he shows no telltale signs of this.
Ryou looks so fucking controlled. He’s got more than ten years of rage bottled up; of course he's careful not to ruin The Plan.


With all the meaningful stares and smiles Ryou has peppered episodes 1 to 3 with, the slow transformation of his face here, from one registering courteousness to one showing hostility is the scariest of them all for me.


The opening credit sequence is very good. Some skillful editing there, specially the synchronized audio theme and visuals when Ryou and Naoto face each other and a circle of fire surrounds them, meanwhile the song rises and fades into falsetto.


There’s something mystical about her. She looks like your regular nice, pretty Japanese girl when she laughs and smiles. But like this, she’s someone mysterious, unearthly.
But really, I find the kzztkzzt sound effects and the erratic camera treatment when showing her “powers” very annoying.


She has a crush on him already. *facepalms*


I am wondering, from the perspective of an Arashi and Ohno Satoshi fangirl, just where he got this expression from. The word evil doesn’t seem to apply to this expression, particularly not to those eyes. Those eyes reflect nothing but soullessness. *shriek*


I was thinking if it was a mistake, focusing on this stranger for a few counts too long. Of course, by the second and third episodes, this identity of this person is slowly revealed.


Ah, I love this crying scene, I do, I do. And how his tears spring out but don’t fall, and the lilting sounds are cut off when he snaps the music box shut, plunging the room in silence and the violent sounds from the heavy rains outside come rushing in to uproot the stillness. Nice.


Amano Makoto, as he walks to justice.
I’m walking in the rain, just walking in the rain...
Teehee.
I was thinking that he's some hotshot lawyer, wouldn't he like, be driving some nice car [Never mind that the actor doesn't have a freaking license]? Could it be that we don't see it because he just leaves it somewhere far because he doesn’t like parking illegally? Or maybe, yeah, he doesn’t drive and has something against driving?
But yeah, well, they addressed this driving issue in the third episode. Good.
His shoes are kinda noisy, too. Always making creepy sounds on the floor. Are those specially made ones? Where does he get those?


Another gratuitous Tomaissohot screencap.


Aha! So this is where the calm down line he kept throwing at Toma in TFPII came from!


Everyone in this scene is leaning forward [even the guy behind Naruse], and doing something. Everyone except Naruse who is leaning back and observing his handiwork.


Here, before Naruse looks up after Serizawa accuses him of not understanding what it’s like to have a loved one die, Naruse swallows almost imperceptibly. As if trying to control himself from lashing back, from making accusations of his own.
Beautiful.


Exquisite.
Is this Naruse idealizing his memories of his brother?


And Hideo says he wants to become a lawyer, thus revealing one of the crucial reasons why Ryou became one. And no, I don’t suppose wearing a suit all the time is one of these chief reasons.


Maou 2, starring Ninomiya Kazunari as Kumada Masayoshi. Plot: He becomes a judge to avenge his father’s death. His adversary is Ohno Satoshi as Naruse Ryou.
Yay!


Yeah. *licks screen*
If I capped all scenes highlighting his body parts, I'd be capping almost everything. XD


Hideo looks happy.
O_o o_O



Funny how in this scene, Ryou’s eyes are the steady, observant, cold eyes of justice while Naoto’s are agitated, unfocused, feverish eyes of guilt.
They share a very painful past, but whereas one wants to rewrite it, one wants to escape it.
I like Toma’s acting best here, in all the three episodes.


And it ends here, with Ryou wrapped in his pain and guilt and anger. Isn’t it funny how here, where he doesn’t utter a word, is where he seemingly screams the loudest, with the stain of his vengeance engulfing him?
Yes. This is me waxing lyrical.


Episode 2


Is this guy supposed to be Nino as Masayoshi? Hmmm… Fic idea…


WTF. YOU AGAIN?
You stalker you.


Altogether now! Every breath you take, every move you make, every vow you break, every step you take, I’ll be watching you.
For the nth time, fic, people!


Oh, Sora! Didn’t your parents teach you any better?


Kuma! So this is what happened to you after high school! Where’s Shin?


Umai.
XD


Threesome! XD
Tarot cards. A girl and two boys. All the hymnal bgms. I keep expecting Escaflowne to appear. Haha. Okay, between the boys, who gets the long hair and sword and who gets the wings and the girl?


WHAT. You’re the one doing the stalking this time, Naoto.
It’s not my fault anymore, it’s your fault anymore.
XXDD


Shiori: Now look what you’ve done! Just when things were getting better, too.
Naoto: Why’d he go? Is it because I’m still wearing the same clothes since the first episode?
Shiori is starting to grow on me. Like a wart.


What are they doing in there? I wanna join!


You're looking hot, you devil you.
Ohno Satoshi is LOVE!
And Naruse Ryou, the opposite of love, is evol!
Right.

On to the next episode!


Episode 3


Finally, we see Naruse driving.
See? He lives alone and has a car. So not Ohno.


Wanna fuck? I mean, um, wanna come upstairs and fuck? Um, no I mean, wanna have coffee then come upstairs and fuck? Wanna have coffee?
And she looks disappointed too, when he said no, it’s late.
And OMG, their love theme is Over the Rainbow! How gay.
ARASHI! WHERE CAN I RUN FROM YOU?! <--A funny question considering the theme and protagonist for this drama.


I like him. He’s the perfect foil for Naoto’s impulsive nature. And he doesn’t scream to be forceful, too.


His version of an emo!guy tormented man, like in episode 1, is that of a cat screeching and arching its back.
He and Ryou should fuck already, to put his shrieking into good use.
I’m obsessed with people fucking. What the.


A realization: For an Asian drama, no one seems to be eating. Except for this where Takatsuka gives Serizawa some food. And it’s in a plastic bag. Is this a premonition of all the bodies we’ll end up seeing in bags? *gasps*
So yeah, eating as an emphasis on life, is not something we might be seeing much in this series.


This cake from episode 1, the only food item I’ve seen so far, is a symbol of that time when Naruse still felt alive, when his brother and mother were still around.

EDIT: There is another food item shown in this series! Mari served cakes to both Noriyoshi and Hitoshi at the office just before Souda Mitsuru arrived.

Hm. Three. Arranged in a triangle. Is she trying to say something?
Something like "how else can I arrange the plates in this small tray, moron!"?


What is this? Guilt? Is Naruse Ryou remorseful?
This is so not you, Naruse.
For the first time, he seems unsure of himself. Interesting.
What I assume as Naruse’s guilt/remorse here seems to stem from the realization that the people he’s using, though they may not be innocent, may get so fucking hurt, may be stained by the color of his vengeance.


Previously, we see Nakanishi removing Serizawa from the investigation because the victim is Serizawa’s friend. As officers, they should not let anything color their judgment. But what is Nakanishi doing here upon learning that Shiori got a Tarot card from Amano Makoto?
Well. They’ve sworn to protect and defend people, plus, Shiori is an asset.
And it’s harder to be impartial when the ones threatened are those you know.


Obligatory Tomaissohot cap.


Everyone has a hidden side.


We all have hidden selves.
This is Ryou telling Naoto, “Look, I’m shitting clues all over your face and you still don’t fucking get it. Watch me gloat.”
IDK. Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that there’s something about Satoshi’s face, an element, that can’t be captured by screen caps? I mean, when I try to get some stills from his videos, it looks like something has been lost.
Or maybe it, whatever it is, doesn’t want to be confined.
Or maybe this drama has warped my brain.
Or maybe I’m just really warped. Why blame this series?


OHNOSATOSHIISLOVE!!!
The temperature here is around 42 degrees Celsius and the humidity is something I’ve never encountered before. The airconditioning units are all working efficiently yet, at this point, my nose has started to bleed. Literally.
This is my body saying the heat got to me. Yeah. My body loves stating the obvious. *eyeroll*



Both scenes remind me of Neil Gaiman’s Murder Mysteries when Raguel tells God, “I feel dirty. I feel tarnished. I feel befouled. Perhaps it is true that all that happens is in accordance with Your will, and thus it is good. But sometimes You leave blood on Your instruments.”


Shiori looked prettier and older as a child. Why is that?


Both Shiori and Naoto are looking inside themselves, unaware that they are seeing their versions of the  same scene from a shared memory.




Master of all I survey.
This is Naruse, the all-seeing devil.

Good that no one dies in this episode [Technically, Yosuke's death happened in the second episode because he was "killed" there]. I would hate to have a person die for each one. But with Naruse in a cemetery at the end of this chapter, heads will probably roll in the succeeding ones.

WHERE'S EPISODE 4???????!!!!!!!!!


Questions



Why does she always have her bag with her when she’s running with Serizawa?


Aniki is the nervous sort, isn’t he?


More questions

• Why now? Why did Naruse choose to act now? Because his plan is already in place, is that it?
• Can someone explain how Shiori’s powers work? In some scenes she can see the last memory of the object, but in the empress card one, she saw the memory of Hideo’s death. And when she touched the lily, she saw Naruse's memory. But in the investigations, she saw the memory residues of the object—like in the moon card, even though Naruse was the last one who touched it. Or does she read the strongest residual memory from objects?

Wishlist

• I wish they'd tone down the angelic lawyer lines/evil glares of doom already. I know, I know, this is television and relevant points need to be reiterated but please ease up on the devil angle, all right? We already fucking get it.  The Naruse evil glares of doom have been explored from all fucking sides already, it's getting annoying. Plus, it's scarier when Naruse smiles, anyway. I just hope they don't overdo the smiles, too.
  
• I wish they'd tone down the lipgloss. Distracting. I mean, just when I'm getting scared silly, they zero in on Naruse's shiny lips, which ends up with me kissing my laptop screen! See? Distracting.
• I wish Ryou and Naoto would fuck already. Or Shiori and Ryou, I’ve nothing against het sex. But the three of them would be better. The more, the many-er. Yay!
• Where are the fics, dammit!

Babbling

Ohno: I’ve never had doubts that he can do justice to his role. We’ve all had glimpses of the bundle of surprises that is Ohno Satoshi. Yeah yeah, we've seen some of his acting, from the movies, clips of his stageplays, Yonbun no Ichi no Kizuna, Tensei Kunpu. Although in almost all of them, he seems like himself, another Ohno Satoshi, they’ve made me see that the man can act. Now, in that Engimono one, Katte ni Nostalgia, he’s different there, and THAT convinced me he can do this. As for him being convincing as a dashing lawyer, we’ve seen him dance, we’ve seen the looks of intensity. As for his height, that is something we can’t do anything about.

Still, seeing him here is such a surprise. And omg, he's in a fucking suit! But is it me or he's been wearing the same suit forever, except for his inner shirt and tie?

There were some very tiny eh? bits from Ohno’s acting in episode 1 but those are forgivable. Biased, am I? Of couse I am. Everything is based on our biases, on our own perception of the world; this drama specifically points that out, how relative truth can be skewed based on judgment.

The best part of it is, he is not Ohno Satoshi here. If you put on Johnny’s shiny costumes on the tiny lawyer, he won't turn into Ohno Satoshi.

Because here, he is Naruse Ryou.

His acting here is so effective to me that although Ohno has been inside a church in both episodes 1 and 2, it took this scene before it occurred to me, “OMG. Ohno. In a suit. In church. I’ve got to run and get my gown! And the priest!!”

Who needs flowers and guests when you’ve got Ohno for your groom?

Of course your friends will understand!

Ikuta: Toma seems to be from the Matsumoto Jun school of over the top acting, but whereas it works for Jun because he has started to master being a ham [like Al Pacino], Toma can still be a bit off sometimes, and still be lovable. I have yet to see Serizawa Naoto in this drama, though.

Kobayashi: She’s so charming and we see her blossom as the series progresses. I especially love how her eyes light up when Shiori sees Naruse. Like she’s asking, Why aren’t we in bed yet? XD

Well she's young, she probably really thinks that a bed is necessary. Eherm.


More Babbling

A gentleman will walk but never run: First thing I noticed was that while Ryou was always moving so slowly, so precisely, Naoto was fast, always running. And Ryou is always speaking so gently, whereas Naoto screams almost all the time. This reminded me that Ryou had more than a decade to plan things out so his movements are all focused, and very very cautious.

This is best seen here:

In this scene, Ryou is very still, while Naoto is so agitated he needs to be restrained.
This makes me think of bondage fics.
I don’t know, either.

Wanna buy watch, Joe?: Ah, I love how Naruse looks at his watch in such a slow, deliberate manner. Everything is planned, calculated.

I love how Naruse swallows whenever there seems to be a glitch, like when Shiori asks him if they've met before, when Shiori asks Sora about the shiranai oniichan. And how, when, in episode 1, Naoto screams at him that he doesn’t know how it is to lose someone, we see his throat working, like he is swallowing up all the words about to rush out of his mouth, all the words that would have dropped his emotional baggages at Naoto's door.

Naruse turning the tables on Serizawa Naoto:

• Naruse making Naoto powerless to save Kumada and Yosuke, like Ryou was powerless to save his brother, making Naoto guilty of killing both as Ryou feels guilty of being unable to save his brother
• Naruse using the self-defense argument, the same defense Kumada’s lawyer used to defend Naoto, to defend the persons who killed the people around Naoto
• Naruse making sure that people around Naoto dies, like everyone in Naruse’s family did

I like Nakanishi because he seems to be the least judging of all the characters, so far. Admirable acting there by Miyake Yuji.

I like Serizawa daddy because he is a brutally honest man. And I’d like to think whatever his thoughts on his prodigal son are, he loves him and wants to save him. He’s a powerful man, he could just force Naoto to do what he wills, but he doesn’t do that. And I doubt if it ever occurred to him to ask if his son is indeed guilty or not of killing Hideo. All that mattered to him was to save his son. Or at least, that’s what I’d like to think.

My thoughts On Naoto: He sure is self-righteous. His struggle to atone for his sins has made him a pretentious bastard who is ready to point at people and blame them. The whole gray area of whether Hideo’s death was his fault has left him so tormented he wants nothing to do with gray areas anymore. A simple dichotomy of good and evil is enough for him. And this could be because of projection, too. The guilt he accuses people of is his own. He keeps on saying he’ll catch someone, he’ll definitely catch whoever, because he himself was never caught. And now his conscience is catching up with him.

My thoughts on Naruse: Naruse is self-righteous, too, he has made up his mind that the people who were involved in his brother’s death are guilty and that’s the whole truth. It's the only truth he'll accept. He keeps on saying that the Truth cannot be distorted, and yet he deceives people to "undistort" it. What a hypocrite. His rage and need for vengeance have blinded him to his own contradictions.

Naruse Ryou and Serizawa Naoto: Their current selves are both the results of their reactions to Hideo’s death, the subsequent court case and the verdict, and now they are looking at each other from the opposite sides of the street. Naoto wants to erase his past  so he tries to escape it and becomes a policeman. Naoto’s idea of justice is chasing after the bad guys. Ryou wants to erase his past so he tries to rewrite it and becomes a lawyer because that was what his brother wanted to be and because he wants to avenge his family’s death. As a lawyer, he saves the weak, helps the disenfranchised, and clears the names of the innocent. Or does he?

Regardless of how he sees his role as a lawyer, in my eyes, this is what he believes in: Justice is the truth that wins.

Naruse or Naoto?

The lesser evil?

Is still evil.


Babbling Myself to Death

I find stories with religious symbology fascinating, especially those of the Christian persuasion, particularly those heavy with Catholic icons. Although this dorama is not putting a lot of weight on the religion angle apart from the Church thing, I love the parallelism of the fallen angel/devil and the evolution of Naruse’s character.

In the beginning of the first episode, Shiori tells the story of Lucifer and Satan: Lucifer was a cheerful, beautiful  archangel who was loved by everyone. But Lucifer displeased God,  was banished from heaven, became Satan and went to Hell. She tells this while Naruse is shown looking all kind and gentlemanly, with flowers. After a flashback explains the reasons for the flowers [and Naruse's seeming grief and bitterness] Naruse was seen with a malevolent look on his face. Then, a picture of the devil in Shiori's story is superimposed on Naruse's.

Digression: Some of us were taught that Lucifer was Satan when he was still an archangel, however, not everyone thinks so. There are differing beliefs on whether Lucifer and Satan are the same, and if Lucifer really was an angel, although according to the Book of Enoch, Satan was an archangel, and in the Book of Isaiah, Lucifer was a term given to a Babylonian king who "fell from the grace of God". Some seem to have read 2 Cor 11:14b "For Satan himself masquerades as an Angel of Light" as a sign that Satan and Lucifer are the same. IDK.

So anyway, in Shiori's story, Lucifer became The Devil as a consequence of "God's displeasure" or because Lucifer fell from the grace of God. But, why, what did Lucifer do? In religious literature, there are different contradictory reasons, but one of the most popular is that Lucifer rebelled against God when he said in his heart, [Book of Isaiah] "I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God." Some people argue that this passage was addressed to a king of Babylon, not necessarily an angel, but I digress. In Jewish belief, Lucifer became Satan because he wanted "to make his throne higher than the clouds over the earth and resemble 'My power on high.'" Anyway, in the Catholic stories I was fed with as a child, Lucifer fell from the grace of God because Lucifer wanted to equal/surpass God and led a rebellion to achieve this end.

So let's go back to the parallelism. In this story, Naruse Ryou is an angelic lawyer. With all the light used for Naruse in this dorama, one can't help but think of Naruse as Lucifer, the light bringer. This also makes me applaud every time light is used to represent Naruse's thoughts, like a thought balloon with a light bulb.

So why did Naruse Ryou [as Lucifer] "fall from God's Grace?" As I see it, he “fell from God's grace” because he wanted to be God-like—he passed judgment [a God-like role] on people related to his brother's death, deciding that all of them are guilty of Hideo's "murder". And, having judged that people will choose to harm or kill given the right provocation, Naruse used and is using other people as his instruments in his plans for vengeance. Clearly, our Naruse is not a fan of the belief that humans are inherently good.

In one of my most favorite stories, Neil Gaiman’s Murder Mysteries, it was implied that Lucifer fell from grace because Lucifer led a rebellion against God as a reaction against God’s injustice. In this same vein, Naruse Ryou reacts against injustice and his actions to “rebel” has caused him to fall from grace.

And now this is the fun part. I love how, as The Devil, Naruse as Amano Makoto doesn’t just fucking kill them all. Why the convoluted plan, all the sneaky signs, the planted articles leading to the "accidental” deaths?

Because The Devil is not the Angel of Death, The Devil is not The Vengeance of the Lord; The Devil is the one who provokes, the one who presents temptation, The Seducer. In Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus [I haven’t read Goethe’s Faust], The Devil, in true Biblical fashion, did not tell Faustus what to do, but presented him with choices. Similarly, his instruments Hayashi and Shintani were just given weapons; Naruse did not guide their hands to kill. And given the circumstances (Circumstances that Naruse did not create on his own [the Kumada/Hayashi and Ishimoto/Shintani stories were already written, they were things he did not make], but rather, he enhanced), all the people involved decided to act the way they did. Hayashi decided to confront Kumada, Kumada decided to use the knife. That Kumada died is an “accident”. Shintani decided that Yosuke kidnapped her child; she decided to rush to Yosuke's and threaten him with tear gas, Yosuke decided to wrestle with her. And again, that Yosuke died is an “accident”. -insert Naruse's creepy smile-

And this is what happens to his victims so far [they were provoked, they grabbed the murder weapon, and “accidentally” died] and his instruments [they were provoked, came charging in with the intent to harm, and “accidentally” killed].

So is Naruse a murderer?

He did not kill anyone. He did not order anyone killed. Although he did plan to kill his enemies, the final choice wasn't up to him, the results were all left to chance. He did incite his instruments to such heights of anger and desperation that they would want to kill, he did supply them with deadly weapons, he did plan all these maliciously. But then again, he did not tell them to kill, did not guide their hands to do harm.

Should he be accused of murder? Should he be deemed guilty?

What is he really guilty of apart from passing judgment on the people around him, on the people he used? What is his sin apart from not having faith in human nature? Is he guilty of manipulating circumstances, of using history, of using what he knows, to his advantage?

Is he, then, guilty of knowledge?

Oh, rhetoric.

Did Naruse really make a fool proof plan? What would he have done if his instruments opted to do something else?

AND.

Naruse is always using the ironic “self-defense” argument to torment Naoto. He is twisting the truth as the truth was twisted before when Naoto was set free. Or so he thinks.

But he defends his clients, knowing that he provoked them. Could he be thinking that maybe Naoto was also provoked? Could Naruse be contemplating that maybe Naoto was not necessarily at fault but under the circumstances, a life was taken, and so, he needs to avenge his brother’s death?

Or could he be thinking that accidents only happen when people refuse to take responsibility for their actions?

Could Naruse be thinking that, like Naoto, his instruments are also guilty?

Hm.

With Amano Makoto sending the Tarot cards to Naoto, is he trying to make the younger man responsible for  the deaths if he failed to read the signs that Amano has so cleverly spread everywhere? Is Makoto making Naoto guilty of knowledge?

Is Amano Makoto out to torment Naoto with the Tarot cards, or does he just want to be caught? Because deep inside he thinks he is wrong?

Hm again.

Does Naruse really think there is just One Truth? Does he really think the Truth cannot be distorted? Or does he think there are many, but one emerges as the Absolute Truth when one wins in the struggle for power and becomes the only accepted one?

And in this revolution of the many truths is he determined to make the truth he knows win?

Hm another.

In his cases, it superficially seems like the evil ones are killed by the good ones. Does Naruse see himself as the good one who will kill Serizawa, the bad one?

Somehow, I don’t see it as a simple division of good and evil, good and evil are not necessarily exclusive.. And people are not paper cut outs that can just be labeled as one or the other.

What is apparent to me is that, in Naruse's plan, the relatively powerful die at the hands of the relatively powerless.

So is this Naruse’s revenge, this reversal of power?

Hm. Hm. Hm. And hmhmhm some more.

In the parallelism between Lucifer/Devil and Naruse Ryou/Amano Makoto, one thing baffles me. Although Ryou did “rebel” and became The Devil, there seems to be something missing.

Lucifer did not become The Devil because he rebelled, he became The Devil because he fell from the grace of God [because if God forgave Lucifer, there would have been a different ending, yes?]

In Naruse’s case, whose grace did he fall from? His brother’s, his sense of justice’s, his own?

Who/what is Naruse's God?

I don’t know either.

EDIT: Naruse's God is the Truth.

I'll expound on this later.