Poor boy, Gomagori Futaro grows up in poor household with alcoholic father and gets a scar across his left eye. Mom dies and Futaro becomes obsessed with money. He lives in an unfurnished room and hides his money under the floor. They never really explain why he doesn't put his money in the bank where its so much safer. If a thief broke in and stole his money, it'll be over. Maybe Futaro just loves sleeping on a huge pile of money and he decided that losing it is worth the risk.
Futaro supposedly is money crazy but all he does is odd jobs at factories so one can surmise that he's not that money crazy. If he were, he would be cheating people with scams or risky jobs that can get him money quick. He's more like a miser who doesn't spend his money but hides it under his bed. He's killed twice for money but they were both stupid and unnecessary kills that did not profit him financially. He runs into the daughter of a rich shipbuilder, Midori and comes up with a plan to get close to the family through the younger daughter Akane who has some strange blueish colouring on her face. One would imagine that the Mikuni fortune would be able to afford a surgeon to get rid of that blue stuff on Akane's right cheek.
The tone of the jdorama is weird. Its suppose to be set in modern day Japan put parts of it feel more like a show set in ancient times with aristocratic society. Its got a vibe of a peasant infiltrating aristocratic society rather than poor dude trying to be a leecher. Like the scene with the rich dude proclaiming his love for his watch. It just felt so fake, even by usual jdorama standards. Actually its as bad as Hana Yori Dango except that show is a shoujo fantasy while Zeni Geba is supposed to be more edgy.
The poster and title screen tries to give the impression that it is a dark dorama but its not. Its like a weird amalgam of genres especially with the restaurant side story which plays like an unfunny comedy. Its like Futaro walked into a sketch show. Futaro's father will figure prominently into the story so Zeni Geba will be more of a thriller type show as he see how much he can get the Mikuni's to trust him while keeping his father at bay. I'm pretty sure some dark secrets from the Mikuni family will come to light later and Midori won't be as nice as she seems.
I really wanted to like Zeni Geba. A serious storey about obsession with money is just right up my alley except Zeni Geba isn't about money obsession. Its about two gullible ojousans who can't see the big elephant in the room. Money crazy is calling old people and impersonating their grandkids to get money. Money crazu is killing people for profit. Money crazy is doing whatever one can without regard to morals to make the most money possible. I'm looking forward to seeing how he's going to manipulate the Mikunis and to what end though. This show can definitely get better. We just need Futaro to be smarter and his adversaries not so dumb. We need high tension as all parties try to expose each other as frauds.
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