Ryuusei No Kizuna (流星の絆 )

Ryuusei no Kizuna (流星の絆 a.k.a. Ties of Shooting Stars) is a story of three siblings whose parents were murdered and promised that they would capture the culprit and kill the person when they grow up. As they try to solve the puzzle about their parents, they became con artists. As con artists, they discover things that some are unknown to them and gets to meet the culprit face to face. The story is adapted from a novel written by a famous mystery writer named Higashino Keigo. The story is very entertaining because of the comic part, but it is addicting because of the mystery that keeps one at the edge of one's seat and the drama involved.


Main Characters:

Ariake Kouichi is the eldest of the three Ariake siblings. He works for a restaurant and went to a culinary school but he then quit school because he found it a waste of time. Among the three, he is the brain and the creator of scenarios for their targets. He also seem to be the most serious one. He is ridiculed by his  younger brother for not having a girl in his life. He, like his younger brother, is very protective of their sister. When something bad happens to any of his siblings, especially to Shii, he would seem to be the most affected as if the issue's recipient is him. He is also very diligent in achieving the set goals, and would go to any length to achieve it such as purchasing study materials for siblings' roles, car theft, and others. He also has a ridiculous or childish-side, this is revealed when he had "Ariake 3" T-shirts and stickers made. It is also seen that a girl named Sagi likes him even though he is often called "Party-pooper" by her. Ariake Kouichi is played by Ninomiya Kazunari while Saito Ryusei plays the young Kouichi.

Ariake Taisuke is a video shop attendant (but I am not quite certain if the shop only sells adult DVDs or not). He is very playful and mischievous. He often addresses himself as stupid but, on the contrary, whenever he plays a role in Kouichi's scenario, he plays it very convincingly. An example is when he played Kasuragi, a jeweler. His brother brought him to the pier to test his abilities after given the study materials and impressively passed. At leisure, he would go to a cabaret to spend his money over women. In the story, he is the sole witness of the culprit's face when this person ran out of the house through the back door. Like his older brother, he is very protective of Shizuna. Ariake Taisuke is played by Nishikido Ryo and Kakazu Issei plays the young Taisuke.

 Ariake Shizuna is the youngest sibling. Initially, she worked for a well-known firm but left because of her boss who is bullying her. Then later, she became a victim of a scam that robbed her ¥300,000. To get her money back, the Ariake siblings started to become con-artists and the first target was the host that the lady, who stole Shii's money, visits. In the story, Shizuna is not really related to Taisuke and Kouichi because she is her mother's daughter from an old relationship; however, they still treat her as their true sister because Shizuna was far too young to remember it. She loves to play with her siblings and sticks with them at times. Shizuna was also the reason why her brothers were able to continue living. Her brothers wanted to protect her so much that they were forced to mature for her. And this love was reciprocated by her, as well. In the story, she falls for one of their targets and, coincidentally, this person is the son of their enemy. She tried her best to muster all the energy she has to do her mission even if it will hurt the person she loves for the sake of getting the justice they have wanted for 14 years. Ariake Shizuna is played by Toda Erika while Kumada Sea plays the young Shizuna.

SYNOPSIS:

The story begins when the siblings sneak out of the house to watch the Leonid Meteor Shower. Their parents forbade them because it was raining but because they didn't want to regret not seeing the meteor shower, they sneaked out. After they watched the meteor shower, they went home only to find that their parents have been murdered. When the police came to investigate, it seemed that nothing was missing but the culprit left something. It was a vinyl umbrella. Unfortunately, the fingerprints have been wiped. Without clues and only a drawn image of the culprit, they were left with nothing but each other. Before they were taken to the facility, they vowed saying, "When we grow up… We’ll kill him together". Fourteen years later, they are still searching for the culprit. After one incident, they turned into con-artists that led to them to meet the culprit face to face and unravel various truths along the way. With many new facts discovered, a shocking realization and revelation surfaced. Now, the decision on what to do and how to face this facts will be up to them. A surprising ending and an unpredictable story due to the many twists and turns, this series is, indeed, entertaining and worth watching.

CAST:

Ninomiya Kazunari as Ariake Kouichi
Nishikido Ryo as Ariake Taisuke
Toda Erika as Ariake Shizuna

Saito Ryusei as young Koichi 
Kakazu Issei as young Taisuke
Kumada Sea (熊田聖亜) as young Shizuna

Jun Kaname as Togami Yukinari
Toshinori Oumi as Hayashi George
Osamu Shitara (設楽統) as Hagimura Shinji
Akira Emoto as Togami Masayuki
Ryo as Ariake Toko
Susumu Terajima as Ariake Yukihiro
Tomokazu Miura as Kashiwabara Yasutaka
Kenta Kiritani as Takayama Hisanobu
Mika Nakashima as A Sagi

Links:

Official Website click here
Wikipedia page click here
DramaWiki page click here
Mysoju (Watch Ryuusei no Kizuna online) click here 
Drama Crazy (Watch Ryuusei no Kizuna online) click here
Download Ryuusei no Kizuna click here

Images:

 

Note: these images are those that I have gathered online. These aren't used for profit but for entertainment purposes only. Thank you to those who posted these photos.... I don't own any of these photos...