The first episode of the TBS Sunday drama "GIFT" (Sundays at 9 PM), starring actor Shinichi Tsutsumi, aired on April 12th, and Tsutsumi's portrayal of the protagonist, Wu Tetsubunto, has been generating a lot of buzz.
Fumito Gotetsu (played by Tsutsumi), an astrophysicist whose only purpose in life has been to find answers to difficult problems, agrees to lend his strength to the Blaze Bulls, a struggling wheelchair rugby team facing numerous challenges. When Gotetsu analyzes the reason for their inability to win as "the absence of an overwhelming ace," the team's ace, Ryo Miyashita (played by Yuki Yamada), challenges Gotetsu to a race in a racing wheelchair (rugby wheelchair), and in a fierce clash, defeats Gotetsu.
Miyashita was more dedicated and sincere to wheelchair rugby than anyone else, but in the current Bulls team, there was no one to compete with and push each other to improve, and after simmering for a while, he had become a lone wolf. In a match against the formidable "Sharkhead," the Bulls took the lead early on thanks to the efforts of Miyashita and others, but were defeated by a large margin by Sharkhead's ace, Soichi Taniguchi (played by Kanata Hosoda), who came on as a substitute.
The dejected Bulls players are met with harsh words from the Sharks' head coach, Akiyasu Kunimi (played by Ken Yasuda), but Gotetsu smiles and declares, "I'm going to make the Bulls the best in Japan."
Many viewers were reminded of Tsutsumi's portrayal of Tetsuya Ishigami, the "genius" physicist known as a "genius" by those around him, in the film "The Devotion of Suspect X," released 18 years ago, which won numerous awards. Some pointed out the similarity between Ishigami and Gotetsu when Gotetsu uttered the line, "It's not beautiful." Furthermore, some viewers recalled Osuke Nakahara, the "science-minded man" played by Tsutsumi in the TV drama "Yamato Nadeshiko."
