Growing up, I was a fan of detective stories. I used to read the Boxcar Children series, which involved a family of 4 formally orphaned siblings that solved mysteries together. When my mom found out that I enjoyed reading mysteries, she went out to buy a whole bunch of the Hardy Boys series (about 35 of them from Costco). Unfortunately for her, I never found them interesting, so I stopped reading the first book after the first couple of pages. I believe they're collecting dust somewhere down in my basement...
So why Japanese detective dramas? I watched my first detective drama when I was in high school. The series, Trick, was pretty clever, as the main characters go around solving mysteries. That led to me watching a whole whack of detective dramas afterwards! Now, let's get started! Once again, all my pictures and synopsis are from drama-wiki (wiki.d-addicts.com)
At number 5: Trick/Trick 2/Trick 3
Starring: Nakama Yukie and Abe Hiroshi
Synopsis: Although 23 year old Yamada Naoko is a "super" magician, she is continously fired and constantly hounded by her landlady for the rent being late. After being fired once again, her boss shows her an ad of a physics professor, a non-believer of all things magical, offering money to anyone who can prove to him that magic is real. Desperately needing the money, Naoko accepts the challenge, which is how she comes to meet Professor Ueda. Falling prey to her simple magic tricks, Ueda is impressed, and enlists Naoko to help him uncover the tricks behind a local cult. Their hilarious antics, along with those of police officer Yabe, leads them onto further mysteries, all with tricks needing to be solved in sort of an "X-Files" meets "Scooby-Doo"...
Rationale: This was the drama series I was talking about in the intro. I watched the first season of Trick when I was in high school. All I can say is that it's a HILARIOUS series, besides all the mystery behind it. Nakama and Abe have great chemistry as the magician and professor respectively. Most of the cases dealt with "supernatural" forces, but for the most part, it was due to some kind of magician trick. Now you may wonder why I would rank my first drama so low, well it was due to the fact that the story line was made in the early 2000s, so it felt "old" to me; I couldn't really relate to it.
Just a position shy from a medal: Control ~Hanzai Shinri Sousa~ (Criminal... profiling? I don't know... )
Starring: Matsushita Nao and Fujiki Naohito
Synopsis: Segawa Rio, a quick-acting detective, gets transferred to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police’s Violent Crimes Division after she got shot during her previous case. She is made to work together with Nagumo Jun, a level-headed but eccentric psychology professor whose skills at behavioral analysis are the key to tracking down the criminals. There's also Teranishi Kei, a shy young detective who's had a crush on Segawa since their days at the academy...
Rationale: Matsushita played the role of the detective while Fujiki was the psychology professor. I enjoyed watching this show since they described various psychology aspects that I previously learnt in class. (ie: Bystander Effect, Cognitive Dissonance, etc). The cases though, didn't seem as intricate as other detective/mystery dramas. This didn't mean that it was a crappy story line, just not as interesting as the others on my list!
Bronze: MR. BRAIN
Starring: Kimura Takuya and Ayase Haruka
Synopsis: Tsukumo Ryusuke is a quirky, yet brilliant neuroscientist working for the National Research Institute of Police Science. Wielding a unique perspective and psychology, Tsukumo tackles the nation's most baffling crimes and scandals, going head-to-head with the most brilliant and twisted criminal minds. But his eccentricities and poor social timing can also aggravate people and circumstances, further complicating matters.
Rationale: Tsukumo, played by Kimura, was a host before getting involved in a horrific accident that damaged his brain. However, the accident led to him using 100% of his brain, instead of the normal 10% that most people use (This is a false statement. You actually use all of your brain, all the time pretty much.) Since Tsukumo was using "100%" of his brain power, he was able to get a Bachelors and PhD in psychology in about 4 years time! Along with his assistant, Yuri (played by Ayase), they go and figure out crime scenes, which may lead to discoveries that the police did not find before. I found this series to be very entertaining, from Tsukumo's quirky remarks to interesting cases. My only issue with the drama was that it's too short! Only 8 episodes... =(
Silver: BOSS/BOSS 2
Synopsis: This series revolves around a group of peculiar detectives in a new division created to fight against an increase in atrocious crimes. Osawa Eriko is a beautiful career woman who has just returned from training in the U.S. and is appointed as the "boss" of this division. But despite her intelligence and capabilities, she can never understand a man's heart, so she remains unable to find a husband. In fact, her assignment in the U.S. was really a demotion after she ruined her career track over a man. So why was she chosen as the boss of the new division? Even though the detectives are talented, they all have some kind of issue or flaw, and they are considered to be the "problem children" of the police force. In the end, the division's true purpose is just to isolate these problematic detectives
Rationale: I had to put down all the detective's actor/actress' name since they all played a significant part in each episode! Great cast and great acting by all of the cast members. Amami plays the heroine, Osawa Eriko, who is witty and strong. In each episode, there would be character development as each detective learns how to work with each other and deal with their problems. Each case is interesting and kept me on my toes for most of the time. BOSS 2 is a continuation of the drama, but answered some questions that were left from the first season. Also, did I mention that the female cast was amazing? Amami, Toda and Kichise provided great eye candy! =D
Finally, in first place: Galileo
Starring: Fukuyama Masaharu and Shibasaki Kou
Synopsis: In "Galileo," Fukuyama Masaharu plays a genius physicist and university associate professor, Yukawa Manabu, who solves difficult mysteries. Affectionately known as Tantei Galileo ("Detective Galileo"), Yukawa is brilliant, an all-round sportsman, tall and handsome but eccentric. Yukawa's partner is a rookie cop, Utsumi Kaoru (Shibasaki Kou), a hot-blooded woman with a strong sense of justice.
Rationale: Pretty much a modern day version of Trick. So why does this drama grab first place while Trick was 5th? First of all, the cases were science based, which could be explained through physics. Yukawa (played by Fukuyama) would reluctantly offer his help to rookie cop Utsumi (Shibasaki), which he would figure out by scribbling down complex physics equations. Once he solves a case, he would conduct an experiment to demonstrate how the criminal act. He wasn't interested in the motive behind the crime, which was then up for Utsumi to figure out. Each episode had a clever case and interesting dialogue between Yukawa and Utsumi. There was also character development, in that Yukawa became less and less socially awkward and used his skills to help Utsumi figure out cases. There was also a special episode and a movie sequel to Galileo, which I would recommend as well. The special spoke about Yukawa's first case with another detective (who was a commissioner in the drama series). The movie, was perhaps my favorite after the drama series. It was an intense battle between a genius physician and mathematician. I had to say, that the movie really evoked the inner-nerd in me. =P
That's it for today! Tune in next time for my next set of reviews. I tried cutting down on spoilers this time around...
nice list , thank you very much !
ReplyDeleteThanks! Glad that it helped you ^_^
DeleteMy top three is the same as yours!! :) I like kindaichi as well !
ReplyDelete