If I Had A Nickel For Every Time Someone Tried To Cover Yuko Araki’s Mouth…

 …I would have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice!

First in Roppongi Class with Yurina Hirate and Ryoma Takeuchi....

And then in the recent Galileo Special Kindan no Majutsu with Yu Sawabe and Masatoshi Nakamura!

At THIS rate, it's looking like Yuko might have been a better choice for the upcoming Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai reboot since EVERY body seems to want to SHUT her UP! LOL

Keigo Higashino's Galileo: Kindan no Majutsu (Forbidden Magic)

Just wrapped up the 2022 Television Galileo SP  “Kindan no Majutsu" (Forbidden Magic), based on the fourth full-novel in the Inspector Galileo series and eighth overall. This story is the only one of the Galileo full novels not translated into English and therefore one of which I had not read and had no inkling of the plot beforehand!

“Forbidden Magic” wrests with the quote “He who controls Science Controls the World”, and how the advancement of scientific technology is always aligned with war, whether for good or bad.

The Tokyo Police are called in when a journalist is murdered in his office and footage of a terrible new weapon being tested is found on his computer. There appears to be some kind of long-range device capable of delivering huge blasts of destruction from afar and the video shows how, in the wrong hands, it can be used for murder.

Because of the technical aspect of the video footage, detectives Kusanagi (Kitamura Kazuki) and Makimura (Yuko Araki) visit the eccentric genius Manabu Yukawa (Masaharu Fukuyama) to see what he thinks and if he can shed some light on what they are seeing.

As usual the impersonal Yukawa is resistant to assisting the police in their work and reveals little about what he knows, but with a little sweet persuasion from Makimura, grudgingly agrees to watch the msyterious footage.

To say he is surprised by what he sees may be an understatement, but he keeps his thoughts to himself...even as his mind is formulating theories  of what may have caused it!

Asking to examine the site of the destruction, Yukawa becomes grimmer when he realizes to himself that the theoretical design of the weapon is one he knows…and that the culprit who manufactured it may be one of his old students!

The student in question is a guy named Shingo Koshiba (Nijiro Murakami), and at the time, he was one of Yukawa’s brightest students. A natural talent for science, he surprised Yukawa by suddenly changing his studies to the medical field. And shortly thereafter, has quit school completely and seemingly disappeared.

 

Manabu Yukawa and Tomoka Makimura investigate into the hidden paths that the missing student has taken, and after interviewing a girl named Kurasaka (Nana Mori) who worked alongside Koshiba at a factory, realize he has been wrestling with a troubled mind about past incidents involving his sister and a politician named Ohga Jinsaku (Kosuke Suzuki)…and that the plan may ultimately be to assassinate him!

With the police on one side determined to track down Koshiba, Yukawa  hopes to find Koshiba himself, steadfast in the belief that the genius student he once knew is still good and can be talked out of his horrible plans!

WELL, I enjoyed  Kindan no Majutsu, even though I msut admit the vibe mostly underwhelming. Unlike some of the other movies like Devotion of Suspect X or the recent Silent Parade which were real cinematic projects that felt huge, Kindan No Majutsu seemed like a regular episode of the TV series, not that that's a bad thing. There were still lots to love here!

Yuko Araki plays the part of Tomoka Makimura, another character created to fill the place of the Utsumi Kaoru role when Kou Shibasaki doesn’t appear, much like the Yuriko Yoshitaka character of Misa Kishitani. 

They do take the time to give her a bit of personality, like when she’s excited to meet the mysterious Inspector Galileo and does her makeup in the car

or the spirited arguments she has with Ohtagawa (Sawabe), but for the most part, she’s there to walk alongside Yukawa much as Utsumi did. 

I mentioned before how the Utsumi role can be a thankless one and I don't blame either Shibasaki or Yoshitaka for not wanting to return for EVERY Movie or Special, nonetheless I was glad to see Araki "assuming" the part, and would love to see her turn into a recurring character further down the line!

As I've already posted, Shibasaki Kou DID return for the cinematic film "Silent Parade", and in fact, the Kindan no Majutsu broadcast was PEPPERED with advertisements hawking the upcoming movie!

When they inevitably make a movie or special out of Keigo Higashino's latest Inspector Galileo book "Invisible Helix", I'm very curious to see who will be co-starring in it alongside Fukuyama!

Crush of The Day (Again!): The Lovely Miss Yuko Araki

 Just wrapped up  the entertaining “Tanshin Hanabi” after a long while (watched the first episode some time back but decided to wait til its completion to continue), and though initially turned off by the drama’s infidelity-filled set-up, I sensed there was something more going on, and, sure enough, the drama soon changed from a story of a married guy hooking up with a childhood crush to a much more intricate tale of lies, deception and seduction!

Once things picked up I was invested in the show, but by FAR the main allure of Tanshin Hanabi was the stellar performance by stunning Yuko Araki as Hana Takeda, the seeming “Femme Fatale” of the show, whom ensnares her men (and women) into falling for her with an entrancing and convincing “Damsel In Distress’ act.

But is it ALL an act? As we see this sultry and slinky women ingratiating herself into the life of her former childhood sweetheart’s life and threatening to destroy it with her whimsical ways, we see all the different facets or her personality that she hides, and begin realizing there may be more truth to her plight of helplessness than we initially think... 

Don’t know how much of a faithful fellow I would be in such a similar situation because OH BOY, Yuko pulls out all the STOPS with this one- presenting herself as both a luscious, tigress of a woman...and yet a fragile, clingy waif at the same time, a combination that would have just about anyone fall for her!

"Angels while they are asleep", a trope you can also apply here....

As you can see, Yuko just dazzled in every scene she was in and I had my hands full trying to screencap it all! Thus here you see the works of my feverish Yuko Araki-fueled mind!

This is the third time Yuko Araki has simply RUN AWAY with my heart- as you may recall, I fell hard for her in the delightful “Motokare Mania” and "Love Love Alien",  and my eyes have never been far off her since! From then I've enjoyed her appearances like the seductress Yuka Kusanagi in the awesome “Roppongi Class" and sweet and naive Nanaka Hiraki in "Million Yen Woman":

...but BOY HOWDY, her role as the vulnerable Hana Takeda is really one of her best!

PS: OOOOOH, poring over her dramawiki stats, looks like Yuko appeared in the recent GALILEO TV Special "Kindan No Majutsu" from 2022, a movie that I have acquired but have not watched yet! WOWOW, now I've GOTTA see it!!!

Kindan no Majutsu is based on a Keigo Higashino novel that unfortunately hasn't been translated into English, so this will be an exciting fresh dive where I know absolutely nothing about the premise! Can't wait to check it out and see just where Yuko Araki's character will fit within the hierarchy of this wonderful ongoing series!