Another one of those popular Japanese 'dramas' about the little man fighting against the system, "Little Giants" follows the rule-book from its cover to its last page, with little surprises or twists. However, great acting, a nice pace and a look into more than just the inner workings of the system make for entertaining viewing. And it is always fun to see the one oppressed by the system fighting against it.
Hiroki Hasegawa plays Shinichiro Kosaka, a hard-working, I-always- follow-the-rules, policeman who makes a mistake and gets demoted. However, even if he lost power, he will not give up in his search for truth. That will make him confront the ones over him in the police ladder, especially Yoshinobu Onoda (Teruyuki Kagawa, typecast in this kind of roles, but always playing them with a glee and an energy that makes us forget that he has played the same character like a 100 times now). The show follows the fights, power struggles and betrayals that happen within the police department and that make truth hard, not only to find, but also to make public.
The series centers basically on two cases, both of them quite interesting, the first one more of a mystery one, the second more the political type, and where we get to know Kosaka and Onoda and the people that populate their working world (surprisingly, we get quite a lot about Kosaka's private life, even if it basically consists of him getting home to say hello to his wife and his mother; as it normally happens in these shows the women take a step back and are just cheering for the 'hero'). The fun is not only in the cases, but also in the personalities of the characters and their relationships and in this, the show delivers, with fleshed out characters that have well- developed personalities. We come to care about Kosaka and his frenemy Haruhiko Yamada (nicely played by Masaki Okada), as well as everyone else that populates the show.
The cases too keep our interest, even if sometimes it feels they are stretching them a little bit thin, with a couple of unnecessary twists or 'surprising' developments. The characters, also, talk way too much, with too much exposition.
If you enjoy the fight against the system, "Little Giants" is for you.
