Resident ~ 5nin no kenshui~ (2012)

Country: Japan
Format: drama in 10 episodes
Genre: medical, drama
Cast: Naka Risa, Masuda Takahisa, Hayashi Kento, Oomasa Aya, Ishibashi Anna, Sudo Risa, Arakawa Yoshiyoshi, Minakawa Sarutoki, Terajima Susumu, Furuta Arata, Ozama Yukiyoshi, Chiba Yudai,
Synopsis: Five interns become part of a medical team to but their skills into practice. They do not have to save only lives of their patients, but their mind must grow as doctors to be able to continue saving lives in future. Each of them faces the challenge of their past that keeps interfering their work.
Rating: 3/5
Seriously, I have never waited after subtitles for so long as for "Resident", but I am so grateful that they still decided to finish it even if it took around 1,5 years.

So let's start with the most important characters. Shizuku is one character who I do not understand, because she is full of mysteries. She has point in her speech when she talks, but her actions are rather unprofessional and she does not know how to talk professionally. She is like side-watcher, but at the same time is involved with everything and everyone.. maybe it is that she wants to be left aside, but everyone drags her intentionally and unintentionally into stuff. But the more the drama goes on, the more annoying she gets and in the end I was not even interested in her stories, because she like burned out really fast, making her really depressed and tired all the time!! If she is going to continue like that, then she will not be able to work as a doctor for a long time. Naka Riisa's acting is great, but I have a feeling that I have seen it all before, so there is no wow-point.

Manaka Junichi is a intern who is also a heir of Manaka Clinic. Being a young master also brings him a lot of despise by others, who think that everything comes easy for him. But he is not the strongest or most confident man. He is the person who gets used by others really easily, because he is sincere, takes everything into heart and does not always understand when people are taking advantage of him. He becomes closer to Shizuku than other residents. You can see Masuda in a crying scene, it is not so believable for those who have seen him cry in real life on stage (NEWS/Tegomass concerts), but it is not the worst either. If I had doctor like Manaka in my hospital, then I’d injure myself all the time just to get to see him and get “a treatment” from him. 

At first Oomasa Aya’s character is so annoying. I understand that she has the moto “woman first, doctor second”, but at least she should to her work correctly. She became doctor by an “accident” and not real intentions – just to be number 1. I was irritated by her motives, because I  think that you can only be the best in something when you really have the passion for it. But she has more of a great pride, that is dangerous to crush. As the episodes go on then her screen-time is cut down and down. Oomasa Aya made a great acting and it was nice to see her in a role like that. 

Yazawa is full of himself and he is the person type who I dislike the most. He is full of prejudice and he does not give a possibility to get to know the person at first. He does not like women and says that he only wants to have sex with them. He is REAL BITCH with everyone and almost everything he says is negative or sarcastic.Of course, men like that have reasons behind their story and woman who loves them despite the reasons. There is a saying that line between love and hate is thin, and that is exactly what I had with him - though I hated him for many reasons, he become one whose stories I wanted to see the most. Not to mention, that Hayashi Kento's acting was the best from all the cast.

Shinjo Sachi is not so much portrayed as others, but she is the one who becomes the closest person to Yasawa. She sees through his moods and “hang out” “off-duty”. She is like the perfect "good girl" who is wearing really old-fashioned clothes and has conservative mind, which makes you wonder if she ever will get a boyfriend. There were many things that I wanted her to do in some situations, but she just stick to her usual behavior and basically did not do anything so important. I must say that Ishibashi Anna was the only one from the main-cast who I did not know before and even in some fandoms she was referred as "the unknown actress" as she has not have really outstanding roles.

From other characters I think I should mention Miyajima-sensei who is so cool and cold and mysterious. He knows exactly what interns have to go through and that is why he sometimes gives the most heartbreaking decisions to them, but at the same time he is made clear that not all of his choices and decisions have been right.
Sudo Risa plays a female doctor who does not trust interns at all and that is why she is such a bitch and most of the time made me angry. But there are a lot of things that are most of the time kept in secret, just to keep her reputation. Luckily I can say that if nothing changes, then there is one thing that definitely will change every woman life. 

There is also Tabuchi-sensei, who actually is pervert-minded doctor who almost harasses all female interns, doctors, nurses etc. There is also Ippei who is one funny character, who thinks he is so important and smart, when most of the time he is just one big mess. He literally is "Forever intern". 

There is a big similarity to “Code Blue” – you can stretch parallels between some personalities, cases, etc, but the biggest difference is that “Resident” is concentrated on their personal lives and mental development. They do not show everything about the procedures on the surgeries and things about the illnesses, though it sometimes makes it look like everything is much faster and easier than it really is.
Of course there are a lot of good reasons why to watch it, but as a medical drama I recommend something else.

SPOILER-review:

I was really rooting for Yasawa x Shinjo loveline and I am glad that it worked out, because it was like silly little hidden romance. But what I did not like was that they kept giving hints about Manaka and Shizuku. Even Masuda Takahisa himself has said that he was actually sure that there are going to be some love-line development with Shizuku, but in the middle they basically gave up on it - leaving it only one-sided crush by Manaka. Of course I understand that they already put too many stories for Shizuku and she was so messed up. I believe that if they would make a sequel than actually Shizuku ends up with Miyajima-sensei. Well, Manaka really deserves a better woman than Shizuku.