Japanese sprawling cranberry I watched the first episode of this series by accident. I was “lucky” and now I regret the time spent. The series is a collection of ideas about Japan of a man who not only was not there, but also did not bother to search the Internet, at least superficial information about the culture, life and customs of modern Japan. According to the writers, the most technologically advanced country in the world still lives in 17th-century houses without any hint of civilizational goods such as computers and electricity, and “Gaijin” food is almost banned (although the actual consumption of the same sushi, statistically, in Russia is higher than in Japan). Against this background, San Francisco (where the main action takes place) seems to be a real paradise.
So, the plot revolves around a simple 19-year-old girl with a very “Japanese” name Haven, who comes to San Francisco in order to marry the son of the head of the yakuza, and not the “local branch”, and the most that is not Japanese. Why? Apparently, the action took place there. And of course the marriage is dynastic, she does not like it and so on. And then the wedding ceremony is attacked by ninja, as if they came from the 17th century with kusari-kama, ninzdya and other “attributes” of films with Michael Dudikov. And this “finished me”, because, as archaeological data show, the ninja were very “advanced” for their time – they used a lot of special equipment that allowed them to quietly and imperceptibly penetrate the place and kill their target, they even have primitive analogues of scuba and underwater lantern. Next, I watched the series “in fast-forward” and, apparently, the whole series is built around the investigation of “who? where? why?”
The actors are good enough, but there are no Japanese. And I understand that for most Europeans all Asians on the same face, but the fact remains a fact and goes to the show in the red.
Sometimes good and even very good TV shows are closed after one season, as shown by the example of Jericho and Firefly. This series should not have reached the airwaves at all, as it is a “cranberry” in the Japanese manner, straight from the era when the public Internet did not yet exist. Why such a release now is not clear.