Team

The most promising long shot in this autumn's race is a drama that is tackling the serious issue of juvenile crime. The Fuji network's Team (Wednesdays at 9 p.m.) teams up SMAP's Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and Masahiko Nishimura in a script that has some buzz to it.

Kusanagi is on the Education Ministry fast track writing catchy little slogans on how youth are a canvas which adults color in. As a reward (or punishment) for his early success, he is sent plummeting from his lofty perch to the police department for a four-month internship to watch things at ground level.

The young bureaucrat is teamed up with tough cop Nishimura, who has been assigned to baby-sit him as punishment for muffing up a hostage situation in which a younger officer got shot in the shoulder. 

It is not a partnership made in heaven for sure and Nishimura seems to enjoy shoving the visiting bureaucrat around as if he was just another juvenile offender on the street. Still, Kusanagi is all for counseling struggling youths with empathy and sympathy.  

The next 10 weeks will have them clash and learn from each other and hopefully get the public thinking about the issue of juvenile crime. Done well, this could be a valuable show, if it does not fall into all the usual cliched traps. The big IF...

In the first episode, Kusanagi seems to score an early success by getting a kid who knocked his teacher unconscious to apologize. But while he is celebrating, the kid escapes and bashes a girl in Shinjuku. He is quickly caught and snarls, "Don't worry I'll be out in no time" at Kusanagi as they lead him away. This series has a realistic tone that will keep me tuned in for at least a few more weeks.  [From Daily Yomiuri - Wm. Penn - 10/21/99]

STARRING: Kusanagi Tsuyoshi, Nishimura Masahiko, Mizuno Miki, Kuroki Hitomi, Toda Naho, Koba Ken, Mizuhashi Kazuo, Ohsugi Ren, Shimada Naoki, Izawa Ken, Haba Yuuichi, Kagaya Junichi, Kobayashi Takashi and more.
THEME SONG: "Kaze no muku mama" by Canna
NETWORK: FUJI TV
DURATION:  October 13, 1999 through December 22, 1999 + Three specials.
REVIEWS: 

Watching this drama, the message was you may have sympathy for struggling youths but when you put yourself in the shoes of the police officer, you see things differently.  You see how Kusunagi's character changes to the end.  The final shot of him hearing the gunshot and the look in his eyes is enough.  His life has changed.-KNDY