Once upon a time, I stumbled upon a news about some beloved stage actors starring in a drama about swimming boys. As I adore the guys on stage, I thought it would be interesting to see them on-screen, too. And so, I set my eyes to see this drama entitled Dansui!
Dansui! is based on a webcomic of the same title written by Kiuchi Tatsuya. Started being published by Hakusensha in 2012, it is currently serialized in Hana to Yume. The drama adaptation aired on NTV from January 22 till March 11 this year.
Basically, it’s a story about a group of three friends who are the only ones left in the swimming club, so they look for new members. Then, they also set their eyes on the Nationals.
Honestly, the story is totally generic and predictable. It’s really a bit like Free! but with less drama. There’s a friendly rivalry here, too. The team is the underdog while the rival team is from a prestigious school. The characters all fall into tropes you can easily recognize — the strict and passionate coach, the hot-blooded rival, the mother-like figure of a friend, and so on. Despite these, I was still able to finish it, mainly thanks to the casts of the show.
The casts is full of theatre actors. If I have to recommend this, I’ll only tell the people who love these guys from their productions. I think the most decent actors on screen out of all of them are Shintaro Anzai, Kuroba Mario, Ikeoka Ryousuke and Tomoki Hirose. By the way, I already thought of this before while watching Daiya no A The Live, but now that I’ve seen him act on screen, I can’t shake the thought that Tomoki looks like Oguri Shun!
I thought Matsuda Ryo had moments when it was obvious that his acting’s from his experience in theatre, but the rest are, I think, good, especially his dramatic moments. My dear Ozawa Ren‘s performance is fine, too. I can’t stop grinning when he’s on screen! And I’ve just got to let out that I was so happy that Wada Takuma had a cameo role! It was only for a short scene and his character and acting isn’t outstanding, but I think he’s easily recognizable. *insert hearts here*
I enjoyed this like the YowaPeda drama. Much more, I think, because I now know a lot more of the actors here than when I first watched YowaPeda‘s. However, I can’t recommend this easily because it’s a guilty pleasure.
Add the fact that the ending is a cliffhanger. But there’s the stage play which was shown this May. Maybe the conclusion was shown there? Unless it’s really meant to be open-ended which will be disappointing.
By the way, the ending theme song, Growing Up! Go on!, is sang by the ten guys on the picture above. (Most of them are actually part of previous Tenimyu productions, so yep, they sing.) The song isn’t bad but it’s not memorable to me either.
Ahh, it was a fun short drama especially for me who’s been watching some (most?) of these guys for quite some time now. (And actually, it’s a real fan service because, y’know, it’s swimming so there’s a lot of skin.) It’s a nice change to see them away from the stage and I’m just happy because I know they enjoyed doing this as well.
I most likely won’t watch this again since I prefer to watch the stage plays they were in. (Most of them are Tenimyu casts!) But I’m still happy I got to at least check this out.
Treasure Box 