(Dis)order In The Court: “Ichikei no Karasu”

Yutaka Takenouchi and Haru Kuroki

 Chizuru Sakama (Haru Kuroki) is a efficient if rigid young judge newly appointed to the first Criminal Court.  She meets her new team including head judge Komazawa (Fumiyo Kohinata) who take a bemused interest in the seemingly uptight Sakama.

Sakama’s belief that everything is easily black or white helps her make snap judgements and clear cases quickly, so it is with great consternation when she meets an outspoken teacher during a talk with kids who challenges her methods and says there is always room for grey areas.

Flustered at the arrogance of this individual, Sakama considers reporting him as an act of contempt (LOL), but she is further stunned when she learns that this guy is actually part of her TEAM!!!

His name is Michio Iruma (Yutaka Takenouchi), a thoughtful and pensive fellow who, unlike the fastidious Sakama,  isn’t so fast to judge the individuals in front of him in court. Listening to the testimony, he is known to take it upon himself to investigate claims and find out the truth of the matter in his own!

Of course, this enrages the new Sakama, who argues against Iruma’s involvement with the cases, but little by little she begins to see how his ways bring light to the murkier aspects of the crimes they are dealing with and allows them to make fair and precise judgments.

I have to say, after watching the first episode of Ichikei no Karasu, this seems TOTALLY like a clone of the Kimura Takuya series “HERO”, and in fact, Iruma’s entire character, his speech, methods and demeanor all channeling Kohei Kuryu’s eccentric and “out-of-box’ style of the law. They even mimic Kuryu’s odd shopping network addiction  with Iruma’s collection of curious case mementos!

As well, so far Haru Kuroki’s character of Chizuru Sakama seems to be a version of  Takako Matsu’s Amamiya or Keiko Kitagawa’s Asagi, the flustered and aggravated partner who eventually comes around to the Hero’s way of thinking….

PS: Is it just me, or doesn't the outside of the Court House look totally fake? It looks completely made out of Photoshop! LOL

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

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