Crosstail: Tantei Kyoushitsu

Story of a kind-hearted y0ung man named Tasuku Tobita (Ouji Suzuka) who has a tendency to worry too much about the well-being of others, even at the risk of his own peace of mind. He is still living with his Mother (Kaori Yamaguchi) and Father (Itao Itsuji) while he looks for a job, but things will be getting harder for him!

Tasuku's Father goes missing one day, leaving only a huge debt for he and his Mother to take care of. They move into a cheaper dwelling for the time being, but know Father must be found soon!

 Tasuku turns to a detective agency run by svelte Riko Shinkai (Dan Rei)  to find his missing father when the police offer no help. Unfortunately, the fee for hiring the agency is too high for the still-looking-for-a-job college graduate, and so he ultimately declines their services- but when he finds they have classes to become detectives themselves, and at a fraction of the cost, he immediately enrolls.

When he gets to the classroom where the detective lessons are to be taught, he meets a whole host of eccentric characters like the sincere Tomoka (Mayu Hotta, my primary reason for watching this one!)...

...the sly Atsuya (Takuya Kusukawa),

the bumbling senior Marukawa (Masayuki Ito)...

 and the outspoken Junko (Mariko Shinoda), all of whom have their own reasons for wanting to become detectives like him.

The class is taught by the strict and demanding Nanbu (Nobuhiko Takada) who insists on nothing more than military like attentiveness!

The newbies are soon put "out in the field", where they are tasked with learning to "shadow" a suspect. They are green but with cooperation between each other, manage to keep up somehow.

But it's here that Tasuku's natural compassion for others gets in the way. While following a suspect, he makes the choice to help an elderly woman instead, a big no-no for the course!!!

The two are severely reprimanded the next day for taking their eyes off the suspect, but Tasuku cannot help but be true to his feelings.

 Tasuku finds himself at odds with the teachings when they cut out the element of human kindness and caring in favor of results. Can Tasuku bend his beliefs and get in line to become a full-fledged detective?  Perhaps with the help of his fellow students, he can make it!

An OK show though I can’t tell if they’re going for seriousness or zaniness. Some parts seem lighthearted and wacky, while at the same time seem to be going for heartfelt reactions…. We'll see where this one goes… 

Omoto Jyanai

 
So I was watching an episode of the recent "My Love Who Came From the Stars", and at the end of each episode, they have short little interviews with the cast members and have them reflect on their roles and experience on the set.

So they're doing an interview with the team that make up the police investigators who have been following the murder case in which Tsubaki is involved with...

 ...and I'm shocked to see that, along with actor Itsuji Itao, they're interviewing a Karen Otomo.

O-TO-Mo???? I always thought her name was Karen O-MO-To!!! Whaaa?

Quickly rushing over to Asianwiki, I am floored to discover I have been calling her by the wrong name for over half a decade- ever since her appearance in Omukae Death!

Omoto, Otomo, geez, I msut have half a dozen posts calling her by the wrong name, LOL! I've just spent the last half hour scouring through my blog and correcting every mention of her as Omoto to Otomo!

Mushoboke (Prison-Dumb)

 Lighthearted feel-good comedy drama of an ex-Yakuza named Jinnai Sosuke (Yukiya Kitamura) who is being released after serving 14 years of prison time for an attempted murder.

His hard life long behind him and abandoned by his former colleagues, Sosuke is now an ordinary man trying to re-adjust to an uncaring society which he doesn’t understand and where he has no power. He has to deal with attitudes from the juvenile teenagers working the cashiers in the convenience stores and threats from would be tough guys in the streets.

Even worse, he has to deal with Hiro (Koutei), one of his former underlings now running a Youtube channel where he makes fun of his gangster past! 

Confronting the former kohat and his girlfriend Lisa (Rena Takeda), the entire alteracation is secretly recorded and uploaded to Hiro's channel... where Sosuke finds himself a viral sensation!

Back when he was in prison, his yakuza life was hammered out of him by a cold and stern guard (Itao Itsuji)  who whipped the young Sosuke into shape. And now, out of prison,  the guard STILL appears beside Sosuke in times of conflict and doubt, his personal, if imaginary, conscience!

And he’ll need all the help he can get!  As a man out of his time dealing with electronics, cell phones and social media as he tries to eke out a humble life, all he wants is for one day to see his estranged family again, and if he can stay on the straight and narrow, his dream may one day be in sight!

A zany drama with a wacky plot, Mushoboke has strangely enough a LOT of heart in it, making each episode make you feel good as Sosuke overcomes his hurdles, if only a little bit at a time….

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com