Team Batista 2: General Rouge no Gaisen takes place in the Tojo University Hospital just like Team Batista no Eiko. That means we encounter some familiar faces, mostly Kohei Taguchi and of course Keisuke Shiratori. But apart from that the show stands alone and you can watch it without having watched Season 1. There are a few references to the Batista Incident especially in the later episodes, which is nice for people who watched Team Batista no Eiko.
The story differs from the first one as there is no official at the beginning. There are few suspicions and as Shiratori is the man he is wants to find out what is going on.
At first I was biased about it since I liked the first one very much (and it had Yuu Shirota which is always a plus) but it grew on me. The setting this time is in the Emergency Center where we get a new story and another part of the puzzle in every episode. Though the further we get in the story the fewer the unrelated storylines get. Everything has something to do with the case as we approach the end of the series.
The characters are more straight forward in their motivation then the ones in Team Batista no Eiko but that doesn’t mean it makes the mystery less hard to figure out. I like that we see how the characters Shiratori and Taguchi have grown and how their relationship has changed into a friendship and mutual respect. As they are not officially a team they look for each other to find out what is going on. While this was really nice to watch, I didn’t like it that much that we meet old friends of Shiratori, which seemed to me as if it was created so that Shiratori had an emotional relation to the case and therefore also had a reason for his investigation. And the other one was only there so he could get the missing information he needed. I don’t like those artificially created bonds.
A personal highlight for me was Shigeyuki Totsugi, whom I know from The Quiz Show where he played the producer Kengo Yamanobe. I liked him in here even better then as Kengo. Actually I thought the performance of the whole cast was great.
In conclusion I think it is a good show and if you liked the first show or even if you haven’t seen Team Batista no Eiko but like mystery or medical shows then you should watch it.

On a side not: Adachi Osamu better known as Eiji Kikumaru from The Prince of Tennis (movie and musicals) is also in this drama.

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