Kami no Shizuku (JDrama) * *

If you don't drink wine or alcohol, I don't recommend watching this drama. This is the kind of story where you learn a lot on a subject, in this case wine, mostly French wines. It does drive you to drink, though do be careful, it's easy to overindulge in wine while watching it.

The story itself is interesting as well. Kanzaki Shizuku is the son of a famous wine critique, but he doesn't drink wine for an emotional reason. When his father dies, he has compete with Tomine Issei, who is also a wine critique adopted by his father shortly before he passed away. The competition is made up of seven riddles written by the father that all lead to a wine. The one who gets the most right gains the wine collection worth 2 billion yen. Though Shizuku doesn't want the money, he ends up competing anyway in order to learn more about the father he never understood while alive. Issei is not really interested in the money either, he wants to surpass the old man.

Kanzaki Shizuku is played by KAT-TUN's Kamenashi Kazuya. Frankly, I'm not very impressed by his acting skills. I wasn't in previous dramas I've seen of him and not in this one either. Often his characters seem to be in kind of a daze, not being very passionate about anything. The character is a rather brooding one in this drama, but I just don't find myself liking him or rooting for him.

Who does make you want to root for his side is Shinohara Miyabi played by Naka Riisa. She has all the passion that Shizuku lacks and she is the one who gets him to drink in the first place. She is a sommelier-in-training who first tags along with Shizuku in an effort to learn those things from him about wine that he himself learned from his father, though mostly unknowingly. She then becomes a vital person in his life and his female helper. She offers her own knowledge on wine and draws in more people to help Shizuku.

Tomine Issei is the opposition. He is played by Tanabe Seiichi who portrays a calm passion towards wine. He is much older than Shizuku and is a renowned wine critique in his own right. He obviously has more of a chance of winning and he does manage to make the identifications on his own. However, it is sometimes exactly his vast knowledge than hinders him in the game.

Issei has his own female helper, Saionji Maki played by Uchida Yuki. Though her role is more of an emotional helper than Miyabi's. She helps Issei by keeping him focused and cheering him on. Though their relationship is based on her being his girlfriend, the two still feel distant at the start of the drama. They are both adults and have their own baggage.

This drama is worth watching for the knowledge that you can gain from it. The story does have interesting twists, but doesn't draw you in completely. You may find yourself getting bored without having an interest in wine.