‘Legal High’ Starts Streaming on FOD — Fans React to Discovering Ai Yoshikawa’s Child Actor Role

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The story

With the drama “Legal High” now streaming on Fuji TV’s “FOD” service, discussion on 5ch’s Geinou/Sports News+ board turned to praise for the show itself, starring Masato Sakai and Yui Aragaki, as well as the discovery that popular actress Ai Yoshikawa had appeared as a child actor. Yoshikawa went on to appear in acclaimed works like “Gonzo,” “Antarctica: A Chef’s Tale,” and “Suzuki Sensei,” before later breaking through as the lead in an NHK morning drama. The thread drew a wide range of reactions looking back on the show, including comments from people who signed up for the ¥100 first-month campaign, complaints about the FOD app running slowly, and regret that a sequel was never made.

September 1, 2026

“It’s streaming now so I watched it again for the first time in a while — genuinely still great.”

“Nice one, Fuji TV!”

Source: news.livedoor.com / Original article here

What people said

4AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:49
I wish it were on Amazon Prime
24AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:00
Re: #4
Same, Netflix would've worked too
6AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:49
Ai Yoshikawa's in it too, you know (´・ω・`)
8AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:50
Shame there's no season 3
16AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:55
Re: #8
Is it because Taguchi was in it?
12AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:52
Ai Yoshikawa shows up in it too, back when she was a child actor
14AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:53
Re: #12
That role was really great, wasn't it
She was basically the definition of a child prodigy actor
13AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:52
Sakai and Gakki were great, but would I actually pay to watch it again? That's the question
17AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:56
Fuji TV's old dramas were great, but paying for them now is a different story
18AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:57
This is the legendary drama that cemented Yui Aragaki's popularity with male fans
20AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:57
Only rich people subscribe to such a niche service
23AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:59
Re: #20
It was ¥100 last month
21AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:58
Didn't know anyone ('yashi' — old-school 2ch slang for 'guy') actually subscribed to FOD
22AnonymousSep 4, 2026 17:59
I signed up for FOD right when it was ¥100/month, same as Amazon Prime, so I might watch it before it runs out
I was in it for Galileo, but once they recast the partner role it got kind of meh
26AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:02
This kind of vibe is unbearably cringe, I dropped it after episode 1
27AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:02
Karin Ono was in it too?
Wonder if that was before or after Antarctica: A Chef's Tale
51AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:19
Re: #27
Also, in order:

Gonzo (2008)
Antarctica: A Chef's Tale (2009)
Suzuki Sensei (2011)
Legal High Special (2013)
That's the sequence, and besides those she's kept appearing in pretty famous dramas and movies every year since her child-actor debut
95AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:54
Re: #51
Oh, the kid from 'Is There Love There?'
99AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:59
Re: #51
Oh, that's her all grown up
I've seen every episode but never noticed
Guess I'll rewatch
28AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:03
I remember it was still watchable on Amazon Prime for a while even after Taguchi got arrested
29AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:03
There were a ton of wooden-acting actors playing the rival lawyers, which just made Masato Sakai stand out more and Gakki's cuteness really pop.
31AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:06
So the ¥100 first-month campaign was running until September 2nd
You could've told me sooner
32AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:06
There are quite a few people who reluctantly signed up for FOD this year just to watch F1
33AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:06
Karin Ono was in Antarctica: A Chef's Tale too, right?
That movie got re-released recently and she made a surprise appearance at an event for it
58AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:26
Re: #33
That brings back memories — I watched Antarctica: A Chef's Tale on opening day at a Shinjuku theater hosting an event, right after pulling an all-nighter for work
Couldn't catch the stage greeting though
Wasn't expecting much, but the movie was so good I ended up wishing I'd seen the event afterward
Glad I got to see footage of it recently lol
38AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:12
Signed up thinking I could watch Legal High for ¥100, but FOD is a pain to use
On top of that, it just spins and spins at night and won't play at all
No other service does this
This is exactly why Fuji TV gets mocked
44AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:15
Re: #38
U-NEXT buffers a lot too
41AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:14
I've got discs I rented and painstakingly burned back in the day
Wonder if my player still works
45AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:16
Re: #41
You should just convert them all to mp4
55AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:24
FOD recently started streaming 'No Money!' too, so I was tempted to subscribe
56AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:25
Re: #55
And it was ¥100 just a few days ago
57AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:26
This drama should've gotten a follow-up, but Fuji never managed it — typical incompetence
65AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:33
Re: #57
But that's how we got Confidence Man JP instead
You could say they made money off the box office and by selling the overseas remake rights
And it let them make the anime Great Pretender too
60AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:29
Masato Sakai's intensity in this show was incredible
The chemical plant episode was the best
62AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:31
Re: #60
The part where he rile up the old man, I could watch that on repeat
68AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:34
I want to watch it, but where's part 2?
70AnonymousSep 4, 2026 18:35
Re: #68
All the specials are up too

Background and Discussion Points

FOD often runs limited-time campaigns, such as a ¥100 first month, when it begins streaming existing titles, and it seems many people in this thread signed up specifically because of that. The main focus wasn’t so much the show’s content as the discovery that Ai Yoshikawa had appeared in it as a child actor — replies went on to trace her subsequent roles in acclaimed works like “Gonzo,” “Antarctica: A Chef’s Tale,” and “Suzuki Sensei,” turning the thread into a rediscovery of her career before she broke through in an NHK morning drama. At the same time, several commenters flagged the FOD app’s sluggish performance, making complaints about the viewing experience more prominent than complaints about the show itself — a notable feature of the thread. There were also plenty of comments looking back on the series itself, including reassessments of Masato Sakai and Yui Aragaki’s performances at the time and speculation on why a sequel was never made, giving the thread more depth than a simple nostalgia trip.

※This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary from the 5ch (Geinou/Sports News+) thread “Drama “Legal High” Starts Streaming on Fuji TV’s “FOD” — The Popular Morning-Drama Heroine Who Actually Appeared as a ‘Junior High Student’ Before Her Breakthrough.”

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