The Japanese remake of Extraordinary Attorney Woo has its first episode in the books, and the audience is split down the middle. Extraordinary Attorney Minami premiered on Kansai TV and Fuji TV on October 19, with Ashida Mana stepping into the role Park Eun-bin made famous — and the conversation since has been less about the episode itself than about how it measures up to the original.
The praise starts with how faithfully the remake recreates its heroine. Stills released before the premiere showcased Ashida Mana capturing Woo Young-woo's short haircut, her rhythmic finger-tapping habit, her distinctive speech patterns and her gaze direction, earning the casting early approval. Takahashi Fumiya, who plays the counterpart of Lee Jun-ho, has likewise received praise for his high synchronization with the original character.
There is also a neat parallel working in the remake's favor: Ashida Mana, like Park Eun-bin before her, has been beloved in her home country since her childhood acting days, and both built their reputations into reliable leading actors before taking on the role. For many viewers, that symmetry made her feel like the natural Japanese counterpart to Woo Young-woo.
The pushback arrived just as quickly. Although only the first episode has aired, some viewers expressed disappointment with the acting, measuring it against the original performances that defined the character. Others aimed at the remake itself, criticizing it as a direct copy rather than an adaptation — faithfulness, in their reading, is the problem rather than the achievement.
The comparison was always going to be unavoidable. ENA's Extraordinary Attorney Woo peaked at a 17 percent nationwide rating (Nielsen Korea) when it concluded in August 2022 and placed repeatedly in Netflix's Global Top 10 for non-English titles, and after the remake's premiere, interest in the Japanese version surged in South Korea, with viewers comparing the differences between the two versions for added enjoyment. For anyone who wants to make that comparison themselves, the original Extraordinary Attorney Woo is streaming on Netflix.
Those differences are deliberate and small. The heroine's name changes from Woo Young-woo to Minami Minami, and her beloved kimbap becomes onigiri, with a faithfully mirrored line: "Onigiri is always eaten with salt flavor. Salt flavor is reassuring." The signature greeting, "Woo to the Young to the Woo," becomes "Minamida to Minami."
Even Woo Young-woo's struggle with revolving doors has been reworked into a fear of riding escalators — a change that fits Japan, where most buildings replaced revolving doors with automatic doors after a 2004 child fatality at Roppongi Hills Mori Tower in Tokyo.
One episode in, the verdict on the remake is really a verdict on what a remake should be. Extraordinary Attorney Minami has a full season ahead to answer it.
Source: OSEN via The Chosun Daily
