Runaway ~Aisuru Kimi no Tame ni~

Slightly above average. The beginning is very good, just a jailbreak followed by an escape "outside". On the way, the boys pick up a clever scoundrel, and so the escaping gets better and worse. Each of them has his own motivation behind his escape (of course, the sight of 50 million yen alone would be enough for some, but not for our heroes, there is a more important motive). So they more or less escape. For more than half of the series, they’re pulling it off. Then it starts to heat up, the psychopathic game gets mixed in, and the series loses the momentum it had at the beginning. The actors here are fine, but not everyone will like them. I was watching it mainly for Suda Masaki, because I used to see him in supporting roles and here he finally plays a lead (or rather one of the leads). And yet our main protagonist is Katsuragi Ataru played by Ichihara Hayato; he cried just as much as he did in Rookies, but otherwise you can see a distinct, if not too large, advancement in his acting. Don't think I mean this in a bad way: he wasn't bad before, plus he has beautiful diction. :-) He's playing a good guy to the bone, a guy so good it can drive you crazy. But apparently the Japanese need to show some good guys. And of course some reformed good guys (Kawashima Ryunosuke). Prison Break is definitely better (at least season 1 is), but this is Japanese and has 9 episodes and a sick daughter with a mother who only recently played a high school girl. I’m torn – it has pros and cons, and thankfully the cons don't outweigh them. Even though, episodes 7 and 8... Check it out if you're in the mood for a little – a lot – of running. (12.02.2012)