Shinryochu ~In the Room~ mid-seasons impressions

And I continue on with this drama that I hope to finish off by next week.

At this point I can say that I am completely this series just for the sake of completing it and because I like some of the members of the cast. So basically the same reasoning I made it through Sprout. Though I would place Shinryochu above Sprout as it at least has some interesting characters and does not drag nearly as much.

What hinders me from enjoying this drama is that I have no clue with what it is trying to do. It comes off as a drama that should be trying to bring some meaningful message to it but I am not seeing one, or at least not consistently. That and it seems to amp up the drama for the sake of drama, making it hard to believe. I think if perhaps Tenma Ryo (Inagaki Goro) was without all the personal family drama he would make for a good point of view character for the series because without that there really is none for the audience to be able to place themselves in their position.

If I was a drinker I would have made a drinking game around this expression.

And I have a hard time believing that Tenma is supposed to be a seasoned professional with how often he looks at his patients shocked. Are we meant to believe that this is the first time he has had troubled patients like this and that they are all coming to him at the same time for counseling? And I doubt having a therapist look at you like you have grown a second head would give you a sense of confidence in them.

At this point in the drama there is quite the cast of characters to try to keep track of. This is probably another reason why it would have been better to skip Tenma having personal drama to deal with and just focus on the kids and their issues.

At this point the only ones I care about are Kitahara Ren (Senga Kento) and Ito Nana (Yoshikura Aoi), as they are the easiest to follow and understand where they are coming from. And Katayama Hikaru (Tanaka Juri), as while his issue is rather out there it is easier to figure out where it probably will go from the cues given in the one session we have seen with him so far.

The rest either come off as outlandish with how overly dramatic things get with them or the characters give so little about themselves to make you want to care about them. Aikawa Sakuya (Sanada Yuma) is both completely over the top he just comes off as simply psychopathic and there is nothing revealed about him that brings out any sympathy.

A drama like this should be built around the characters and have stories naturally come from them but it feels like the opposite is going on. It is hard to believe that characters who have worked themselves up to becoming emotional and irrational can suddenly shift to calm and rational the next. The reverse can be believed as people can hide those things or sometimes such behavior can be triggered by something but I know I have never heard of the reverse happening. So I can only think that this happens in this drama because the script calls for it.

I will muddle through the rest of this and hope that perhaps closer to the end there will be some clarity given in some of the story lines. But I have given up hoping that this drama knows what it is trying to do.