pjbooks Chapter 203: Countdown to the Bar Exam and Komekado's Appearance
Chapter 203: Countdown to the Bar Exam and Komekado's Appearance
Chapter 203: Countdown to the Bar Exam and Komekado's Appearance
Kitahara Shin returned to his apartment.
To him, casually defeating an arrogant young man at the kendo dojo was just a routine equipment test in his daily life. He had no idea that the brat he casually beat was the son of a member of parliament, let alone what chain reaction this would trigger in the future.
He is now focusing all his energy on his upcoming work and exams.
The next day, at Kitahara's office.
Ota Shoichi walked into the office carrying a thick stack of documents.
"President, 'Kikujiro's Summer' is doing very well at the box office this weekend, and the theaters have proactively increased the number of screenings. In addition, as you instructed, we have sent a copy of the film to the Cannes Film Festival in France, and we are currently waiting for the organizing committee's notification of its selection."
Kitahara Shin nodded, his gaze falling on another proposal on the table.
Preparations for *Legal High* are complete. The production team has built a 1:1 scale replica of Komikado's luxurious villa and courtroom set at Fuji TV's studio. As an episodic drama focusing on courtroom debates, the filming schedule is relatively manageable. Filming for the first three episodes has already wrapped.
Everything is ready, and the first episode can be officially released at any time.
After finishing his business with the film crew, Kitahara Shin went straight into the private study room next door.
This is the study room specially set up for him by the production team of the program "Kitahara Shin Can Do Anything". The large desk is piled with "The Complete Book of Six Laws" and past judicial examination papers.
At this moment, three top lawyers, who had been hired at high salaries, were sitting opposite each other, staring in disbelief at the mock exam papers they had just finished grading.
A bespectacled, senior lawyer wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
"Mr. Kitahara—your analysis of civil and commercial law cases was almost perfect. The legal provisions you cited were exactly the same, and your logical deductions were so rigorous that it was as if they were copied directly from the Supreme Court's judgments."
The other lawyer also swallowed hard.
"This is incredible. How do you manage to memorize millions of words of legal text while juggling such a demanding entertainment career every day?"
Kitahara Shin smiled and casually flipped open a thick dictionary of case law.
"Read more, memorize more, and you'll naturally remember the patterns."
Others thought he was a once-in-a-millennium brain genius, but in reality, the system's equipment panel was quietly floating in Kitahara Shin's eyes.
He used his mind to select the [Screenwriter's Plain Glasses] and dragged it directly into his equipment inventory.
This special tool, normally used for quickly reviewing large numbers of scripts, comes with the passive effects of photographic memory and superhuman text extraction. Those dry, tedious, and obscure legal provisions become like automatically highlighted key codes in his vision. A single scan is enough to create an absolutely clear memory bank in his brain.
Currently, he has completed more than half of his bar exam preparation. With the terrifying physical abilities boosted by his purple gear, he doesn't feel tired even when working non-stop.
Kitahara Shin glanced at the calendar on the wall.
In Japan's old system, the final round of the National Judicial Examination was always held in late October each year. From the time he announced his challenge on television at the end of August until late October, it perfectly matched the "two-month" deadline he set.
Kitahara Shin: "Help me confirm the exam venue information for late October. For the next two weeks, we don't need to do the theory papers anymore; we'll focus on intensive practice for courtroom debate and oral answering techniques."
The three lawyers looked at each other and nodded repeatedly.
When they first took on this job, they all thought Kitahara Shin was just creating a buzz to promote his new drama. Who would have thought that this big star was actually serious about getting back the certificate with the lowest pass rate in all of Japan within two months?
This is practically leaving no way out for law students across Japan.
Kitahara Shin closed the dictionary and stood up.
His theoretical knowledge is sufficient, not only to pass the exam, but also to perfectly embody the role.
It's time for television viewers to experience what a real "malicious lawyer" is like.
That afternoon, Fuji TV officially released its viewership forecast to the public.
The highly anticipated legal comedy "Legal High" will officially premiere this Friday night during prime time.
With the release of the trailer for "Legal High," the public reaction has been overwhelming.
The audience and media quickly calmed down from their initial shock. Many began to analyze in newspaper columns and forums that Kitahara Shin's boast of passing the National Judicial Examination in two months was far too high-profile and impatient.
From a rational perspective, most people feel this is simply impossible. A growing number believe it's all a huge publicity stunt for the new drama. This seemingly absurd act has lowered his standing among some casual observers and traditional conservatives.
In this nationwide debate, the lawyer Yoshioka, who previously helped Akasaka Real Estate win the forced demolition lawsuit, jumped out at the right time.
Yoshioka is now a big star on television.
Although he was universally disliked by ordinary people for his staunch support of capitalists and was constantly criticized, he was incredibly successful in his own business empire.
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Because he could help capitalists win lawsuits without any scruples, more and more wealthy people and conglomerates saw his "ability" and entrusted him with lucrative and difficult cases.
Major television stations have also recognized his controversial appeal and frequently offer him high salaries to appear on their shows as a guest commentator.
In an evening news interview program, Yoshioka, dressed in a suit and tie, sat in the guest seat and began to publicly critique Kitahara Nobu.
Yoshioka: "It's obvious that Mr. Kitahara's so-called research challenge is nothing more than a publicity stunt to promote his new drama. This is common in the entertainment industry, but it has absolutely no credibility in the serious legal field."
The host then jokingly asked him to explain the requirements for the bar exam.
Yoshioka leaned back in his chair and spoke eloquently to the camera.
"People may not have a concept of how difficult the National Judicial Examination is. It is the most prestigious exam in Japan, with a pass rate of only two to three percent each year. Countless top students from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo and Waseda University study full-time for five or ten years but fail, and end up working as ordinary legal counsel in companies."
He paused for a moment, his tone revealing a clear sense of superiority.
"When I was preparing for the exam, I only slept four hours a day and endured it for four whole years, wearing out dozens of legal codes before I finally qualified. How can an actor who didn't even go to university, and who has to film on set every day, pass the exam in just two months?"
He straightened his tie and made his conclusion without mincing words.
"This is simply an insult to all of us legal professionals and to all the students who stay up all night studying. Just treat it as a joke."
Fuji TV, the filming location for "Legal High".
The production model of this drama is completely different from the dramas that Kitahara Shin previously directed. In the past, at least four episodes of finished products had to be stockpiled before the drama would be broadcast, but this time, the production team adopted an extremely extreme "shoot and broadcast at the same time" model.
The biggest advantage of doing this is that you can adjust the script lines at any time according to the social hot topics and public opinion trends of the week, and make crazy jokes in the show.
Inside the photography studio.
Kitahara Shin, dressed in Komikado's signature flamboyant suit and sporting a side-parted hairstyle, practically poked the nose of the extra opposite him with his finger. In an extremely irritating tone and at an astonishingly rapid-fire pace, he unleashed a two-page-long string of lines filled with blatant, illogical robbery. The entire room fell silent, the only sound the echo of his barely audible breaths.
"Cut! That's perfect!" the director shouted excitedly.
A short break.
Matsu Takako walked over to Kitahara Shin with the script in her hand, looking at him with some concern.
"President Kitahara, are you sure you don't need to pay attention to the recent public opinion and rumors? Do you really think you can pass the national bar exam in late October?"
Kitahara Shin put down his water glass and smiled.
"You don't believe I can do it?"
Matsu Takako pursed her lips and adopted the same single-minded tone as the female lead, Mayuzumi Machiko, in the drama.
Matsu Takako: "I think you're oversimplifying things. You're underestimating the results of other people's hard work. You definitely can't do it."
Looking at her like this, Kitahara Shin found it quite amusing.
The women around him see him from completely different perspectives. Nanako Matsushima thinks he is omnipotent and can provide absolute security; Rie Miyazawa, though she doesn't say it, also has absolute blind faith in him.
However, after getting to know him, Matsu Takako found that he was not as mature and composed as she had imagined, and she always maintained a skeptical attitude towards him.
Kitahara Shin stroked his chin.
"Shall we make a bet?"
Matsu Takako was somewhat puzzled.
"What kind of bet?"
Kitahara Shin: "Didn't I buy a house next to yours as an investment? We're neighbors. But I haven't had time to go live there lately, and it's probably covered in dust. If I pass the bar exam, I hope you can come and clean it for me once a week when you have time after work. Let's use that as a bet."
Matsu Takako blinked.
"Is it that simple? What if you lose?"
Kitahara Shin: "If I lose, whatever role you want to try in the future, or whatever you want to do, even if it seems like a stretch, I will fully sponsor you and help you achieve it."
After hearing this, Matsu Takako's expression became somewhat strange.
"It feels like the promises you make to those new actors at the company. They sound great, but they don't seem very reliable."
Kitahara Shin stood up and straightened his suit jacket.
"You'll see if I'm just making empty promises once the results come out."
The break time is over.
The two returned to the camera. The moment the script supervisor slammed the clapperboard, Kitahara Shin seemed to switch personalities instantly, exuding an aura of extreme selfishness, sharp tongue, and arrogance from Komikado.
In the next scene, Takako Matsu's character, Machiko Mayuzumi, is rendered speechless by his various fallacies and heresies, and even has to cooperate by making various frustrating and comical reactions.
Matsu Takako gritted her teeth, enduring his barrage of lines, and couldn't help but feel uneasy. This guy was definitely settling a personal score because of the bet they made earlier!
But it is precisely this collision of slightly genuine emotions that makes the chemistry between the two in front of the camera so amazing.
Behind the monitor, the director and several producers nodded in approval.
Privately, everyone was discussing how the clash between Kitahara Shin and Matsu Takako—a "sharp-tongued psychopath" and a "hot-blooded idiot"—created a lot of dramatic tension, even showing signs of surpassing his previous collaborations with Miyazawa Rie and Matsushima Nanako.
Friday evening arrived in the blink of an eye.
Fuji Television's prime-time slot saw the official premiere of the first episode of "Legal High".
Because of the recent surge in news reports about rights protection, public attention to topics such as "lawyers," "courts," and "justice versus money" has reached an unprecedented peak. This new series, marketed as a "legal comedy," accurately addresses these current social pain points.
Many middle-aged and elderly men and office workers who don't usually follow celebrities or watch prime-time idol dramas turned on their remotes early tonight.
Of course, in Japan at that time, finding someone who didn't know Kitahara Shin at all was as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.
Even if most people say they hate hype, their bodies still honestly sit in front of the TV.
The main feature started promptly at 9:00 PM.
The first episode has a very fast pace, without the slow build-up and dragging feel of traditional Japanese dramas.
The story opens with the appearance of Machiko Mayuzumi, a rookie lawyer played by Takako Matsu.
She took on the case of the murder of a gas station owner. The suspect was a seemingly honest young migrant worker who was tortured by the police into signing a confession.
Machiko Dai is full of passion and firmly believes that the young man is innocent. In court, she tries to move the judge with "justice" and "conscience".
As expected, she was thoroughly outmaneuvered by the prosecution and lost the case.
The boss of the law firm where Mayuzumi works, who is also the nemesis of the show—the lawyer Miki, played by veteran actor Teruyuki Kagawa—directly made her drop the appeal.
Miki's performance in the drama is extremely domineering, perfectly capturing the oppressive aura of a leader of a large law firm.
Desperate, Mayuzumi Machiko, with the secret guidance of others, sets out to find a legendary lawyer who is said to have a 100% win rate but is extremely morally corrupt.
Immediately afterwards, Shin Kitahara, who plays Kensuke Komikado, made his official appearance.
The moment the camera cut to Komikado, countless viewers across Japan spat out the water they had just drunk.
On screen, Kitahara Shin completely abandoned his previous image as a sentimental, aloof, or perfect idol. He sported an extremely slicked-back, even somewhat comical, side-parted hairstyle and wore a flamboyantly colored custom-made suit. In a luxurious European-style villa, he was playing the violin with an extremely exaggerated posture, but the sound he produced was like sawing wood.
Takako Matsu plays Machiko Mayuzumi, who comes to the door seeking help.
The two clashed for the first time in the spacious living room.
Kitahara Shin sat upright on the sofa, his expression extremely arrogant. He made no attempt to hide his desire for money, holding up three fingers and rattling off his exorbitant lawyer fees at breakneck speed.
Komekado: "Thirty million yen. Not a penny less, and I won't even glance at your file. Justice? Can justice buy this villa? Can it buy the Romanée-Conti in my wine cellar? If you don't have the money, go back to your rural hometown and farm, you morning drama heroine!"
Takako Matsu portrayed the frustration of being trembling with anger yet utterly helpless with remarkable vividness. She gritted her teeth and cursed the other person as a vampire.
The two actors' scenes together were full of sparks. Kitahara Shin spoke at an extremely fast pace, delivering a dense and utterly absurd dialogue. Coupled with his occasional exaggerated facial expressions and highly provocative physical gestures, he perfectly portrayed the image of a lawyer who was "shameless to the core."
Matsu Takako completely caught up with this aura, and the two of them, one advancing and the other retreating, created a comedic effect that was simply off the charts.
What followed completely overturned everyone's expectations.
After taking on the case, Komekado didn't bother to find any "truth".
He instigated Mayuzumi Machiko to bribe witnesses, used the media to sensationalize the scandal of police coercion, and even set up verbal traps in court to provoke the investigating detectives in public, causing them to lose control of their emotions in court, thereby completely overturning the prosecution's chain of evidence.
In the end, Komikado won.
The young migrant worker was acquitted.
But at the end, when the young man walked out of the detention center, he gave Mayuzumi Machiko a chilling and eerie smile, and even muttered a chilling remark to himself.
Machiko Dai fell into deep self-doubt and stormed into Komikado's office to confront him.
Machiko Mayuzumi: "Did we just release a real murderer back into society? What is the truth?!"
Komekado sat in his chair, not even raising his head, and simply answered indifferently.
"Don't be so arrogant, Dai. We're not gods, we're just lawyers. We can only strive for the best interests of our clients within the rules of the law. As for the truth, go find the police, go find God, that's not our business."
The first episode ended abruptly with Joe Hisaishi's cheerful ending theme song.
Viewers in front of their televisions were stunned for a long time.
Inside an ordinary apartment in Tokyo.
The classic Sato family of three sat on the sofa, the living room unusually quiet.
Takeru Satoh, a junior high school freshman, was still holding a wooden practice sword he'd brought back from the kendo dojo. His eyes were glued to the TV screen, which was now playing GG (Goodbye, Grievance), and his face was flushed with excitement.
Takeru Satoh: "That was so cool! Mr. Kitahara was absolutely amazing! The feeling of leaving someone speechless after being insulted is incredible!"
He has now become a die-hard fan of Kitahara Shin. Having witnessed Kitahara Shin's godlike swordsmanship at the dojo, he now sees Kitahara Shin as radiating an aura no matter what he does.
Sato's father turned his head, looked at his son who was full of admiration, and couldn't help but tease him.
"You little rascal, didn't you used to complain all the time about him taking away your Kamen Rider's airtime? Why aren't you watching Kamen Rider anymore?"
Takeru Satoh waved the wooden sword in his hand with a disdainful look.
"Kamen Rider is just for kids. Lawyer Komikado is the real powerhouse! All that fake justice is useless; winning is the only true victory!"
Sato's mother was tidying up the coffee table when she heard the conversation between the father and son and couldn't help but smile.
"But to be honest, this drama is completely different from those previous dramas. The male protagonists in the past were all good people, always shouting that they wanted to help others. This lawyer Komekado—although he has a sharp tongue and does things by any means necessary, I don't know why, but watching him scold those high and mighty police officers and prosecutors so harshly really makes me feel very satisfied."
Sato's father nodded, expressing his strong agreement.
"That's reality. There aren't that many truly innocent good people and bad people in society. This character may be a jerk, but he lives life with clarity, which I envy."
Meanwhile, inside a private room at a high-class izakaya in Shinjuku.
Boss Oshima and Team Leader Takayama sat facing each other, several plates of snacks laid out on the table. The television in the corner of the private room had just finished playing the first episode of "Legal High".
The boss of the island picked up his glass and drank it all in one gulp, letting out a loud exclamation.
"That's satisfying! That's fucking satisfying! I've been watching TV for so many years, and this is the first time I've seen a lawyer I like so much. Those politicians and lawyers who put on airs on TV every day do more dirty things in private than we do, yet they still pretend to be righteous. This Komikado is so real!"
He picked up a piece of sashimi, popped it into his mouth, and turned to look at the mountain.
"Takayama, the Kitahara brother you introduced is a sensible man. He understands the underlying logic of this world."
Team Leader Takayama nodded silently, recalling Kitahara Shin's confident and strategic demeanor a few days earlier when Kitahara Shin advised him to transform into a security company.
"He not only understands these things, but he can also manipulate them with ease. You'll never lose out by following someone like him."
On the other side...
Toru Ijuin, a seasoned expert on niche films, was sitting in his cluttered bedroom filled with videotapes and books.
In front of him was an open notebook, filled with notes he had taken down while watching the show.
As a self-righteous film critic who always only watches profound art films and looks down on commercial soap operas, he originally didn't plan to watch "Legal High" today. But because of the impact of "Kikujiro's Summer," he eventually pressed the remote control anyway.
After watching the first episode, Toru Ijuin sat in a chair, rubbing his chin as he fell into deep thought.
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This show has an extremely exaggerated style, full of cartoonish facial expressions and nonsensical humor, which is completely inconsistent with his usual preference for calm and restrained film aesthetics. If it were any other show, he would probably turn off the TV and start cursing after watching for about ten minutes.
But now, he finds himself eagerly anticipating the next episode.
Ijuin Toru picked up his pen and drew a heavy line in his notebook.
"The pacing is terrifying. Beneath the comedic facade lies an extremely brutal deconstruction of the entire modern judicial system. It uses the most superficial means to explore the deepest philosophical questions—the contradiction between procedural justice and substantive justice."
He flipped to the latest issue of a television magazine on his desk. In the credits for "Legal High," the words "Screenwriter: Shin Kitahara" weren't prominently featured, but they seemed particularly jarring to him.
Recently, Kitahara Shin has been the subject of much discussion. He's been dubbed a "miracle of box office success," a "madman who challenged the National Judicial Examination," and a "ratings king." Amidst these dazzling accolades, his role as the creator of this intricately layered script has been largely overlooked by the public.
Ijuin Toru sighed.
"A monster. This is definitely a monster."
He had to admit that he was completely captivated by Kitahara Shin's talent. No matter what style of work Kitahara Shin produced, he would study it as soon as possible.
Early the next morning.
The ratings and public feedback for the first episode of "Legal High" were like a bombshell, instantly dominating the headlines of major news outlets.
In this social climate of intense urgency, Kensuke Komikado, a "scumbag lawyer" who talks big and will stop at nothing to win, is not only not hated by the audience, but instead sparks a nationwide frenzy.
The Yomiuri Shimbun's entertainment section headline boldly proclaimed: "A revolutionary legal masterpiece! Nobu Kitahara redefines the image of a lawyer on screen!"
A columnist for Nikkan Sports gave it high praise: "When we feel anger towards those like Yoshioka who commit evil under the guise of law in reality, Kitahara Shin gives us an extremely satisfying answer on screen. Komikado, though greedy and vicious, never pretends to be righteous. That's the highest form of irony."
On the streets, in cafes, and on trams, you could hear ordinary people discussing last night's plot. Those who initially thought Kitahara Nobu's bar exam was just a pointless gimmick had subtly changed their attitudes after watching the first episode.
People began to think that someone who could write such lines and act in such a state might actually have an extraordinary understanding of the law.
The first episode not only achieved huge success in ratings, but also gave Kitahara Shin's seemingly crazy "bar exam challenge" a powerful boost in public opinion.
All controversies and doubts became the best catalyst in the face of the absolute quality of the series.