The Nose Knows: Hiroshi Abe in “The Sniffer”

Just when I thought Detective J-dramas had run out of curious and unusual characteristics to adhere to their eccentric characters, here comes the new Hiroshi Abe/Teruyuki Kagawa drama “The Sniffer” and it is a very odd show indeed!

 The Sniffer tells the tale of a man named Tatsuro Komukai (Kagawa) who has just been assigned to a new division of the Police Force. Upon getting there, he is informed by his new boss Uwabe (Toru Nomaguchi) that he will be joining agents Kozo Hosoi (Toru Baba), Kurono (Takemori Senri) and Yuri Hayami (the svelte and sexy MaryJun Takahashi), whose main job will be to assist and look after a special “consultant” to the force.

This man’s name is Shinichiro Hanaoka and when Teruyuki meets him, he finds that this is a man whose sense of smell is so hyper-advanced that he can tell nearly everything about a person just from one whiff...once he is on the scene, all he has to do is remove his nose-plugs and inhale deeply- form the scents, he can if they are married, if they drink a lot, and in some circumstances, even if they are lying or not!

Having such a talent might make someone a one-person problem solver, but (as is usual for Hiroshi Abe roles) while Hanaoka is at the forefront when it comes to his nose-worthy CSI casework, he is utterly useless with human interactions and dealing with other people. And it’s here that Teruyuki and his cohorts come in, doing all the talking, smoothing over and doing all the “regular” stuff a detective has to do the wrap up the case! Together these four are an unstoppable team!

Watching this show, it occurred to me that this is in fact the second detective drama where the detective used their keen sense of smell to solve crimes, as Tabe Mikako did just the same in her fun comedy “Deka Wanko”. But where Tabe used her nose like a bloodhound, Abe uses it in an almost super-human way, when he takes his nose plugs out and inhales, the entire crime scene opens up to him, almost like a ghostly playback!

  Along the way we are also introduced to a few more intersting characters in Hanaoka’s life, including an attractive doctor named Yuki Suenaga who seems to interest Hanaoka and whom he talks to about his problems (hmm, shades of Kekkon Dekinai Otoko here?) played by the pretty Haruka Igawa...

...an equally pretty (if extremely uptight) ex-wife named Megumi Katayama (Yuka Itaya)...

...and a saucily sassy daughter named Misato( Kaho Mizutani) who insists on inviting herself to Hanaoka's pad, despite his complaints that he wants a private life alone...

Komukai, on the other hand, hasn’t a whole lot of women in his life, and in fact the only person he has is his sweetly doting mother (played with great fastidiousness by able Kazuko Yoshiyuki) who makes a point of pointing out his single-ness every morning, LOL!

Just like the Yo Yoshida drama COLD CASE, this crime drama is based on a show from another country, in this case the Ukraine. Is this becoming a new trend in J-drama detective shows? Whatever it is, it seems to work!

So far it’s a pretty interesting show, and watching Hiroshi Abe and Kagawa Teruyuki together again (they were great in Shinzanmono) is always a joy to behold!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com