The Truth Is Out There: AARO: All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office

Tatsuya Fujiwara and Alice Hirose in AARO

YATTAAAAA! After MUCH fervent wishing and finger-crossing, my prayers have been ANSWERED as AARO: All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (Zen Ryouiki Ijou Kaiketsu Shitsu) has been PICKED UP and is being subtitled, and by NETFLIX, no less!!! Hallelujah!!!

On the streets of Shinjuku, Crime Investigators Aranami (Yusuke Santa-Maria), Ninomiya (Riko Narumi) and Kitano (Rio Komiya) are called to the scene of a bizarre and horrific sight: a body seemingly completely dissolved away, leaving only their worldly clothing, accessories…and blood behind!

This is the latest in a string of similar murders, and with all avenues being investigated coming to dead ends and without any other leads, the authorities consider the possibility of supernatural explanations, and thus a formal request is made to a govermnent department few know about except in hushed tones: Zenryoiki Ijou Kaiketsu Shitsu, the “All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office”, Zenketsu or AARO for short.  It is THEY who are used to investigate things of the paranormal and unexplainable!

Led by the mysterious Tamio Ukino (Fumiyo Kohinata), he calmly hears the details of the case from above, accepts the investigation request, and begins putting the team in motion…

Koyume Amano (Alice Hirose) is a former PR agent in the Metropolitan Force who has been suddenly and inexplicably transferred to the strange and unknown department in the bureau called AARO. Amano has no IDEA what this department does, and doesn't even know where to FIND it! Situated in a little known undisclosed area, she is led by a trusted courier (Takaya Sakoda) to its’ location, a small building just beyond the old temple grounds.

Not knowing WHAT to expect, Amano makes her way into the base, where she is introduced to the lead agent of the department: Miyabi Okitama (Tatsuya Fujiwara) a man with a taste for the macabre and unexplained. As Amano takes a seat, she is told the legacy of AARO, and finds it bursting with MUCH history!

The department has supposedly existed since olden times as a dedicated group of people set out to investigate, understand and create defenses against everything occult and supernatural. Spirits, Haints, Mononoke, Yokai, the list is endless, and they document it all!

Whenever the government has something that they just cannot explain with rational reasons, AARO is sent in to assess and identify the problem, and this time they are tackling the aforementioned Shinjuku “Spirited Away” case, named thusly since the bodies have all seems to have been swept up and taken away!

Looking over the recent and past cases, amateur online enthusiasts have cited the God “Hiruko” as the being responsible for the deaths, but Okitama has his own suspicions that it is another entity called Shadow Man, as several witnesses have been quoted as seeing a dark shape running past just before and after the incidents. 

THIS is the case that Amano has been placed into, and she can only wonder just WHY she of all people has been chosen for such a task! But we will learn that she may have a gift for the unexplained as well!

From that point on, the AARO team of Okitama and Amano are formally brought into the official task force with Aranami and Ninomiya,  set to investigate the so-called Spirited Away murders/disappearances, and right off the bat the two teams are clashing, with Aranami’s side stuck on the cold hard “facts", whereas Okitama and the AARO team consider things of a more fantastic nature!

Yet, together this bunch of eccentric and hardheaded people must learn to work together to find out just what has been happening to the disappearing bodies, and with that in mind, the AARO team dives in headfirst, determined to solve the case no matter what!

While all this carnage and mayhem is going on, a mysterious girl (Riko Fukumoto) looks on from behind the crowds….just who IS this girl, and what does she have to do with the cases?

 We’ll have to wait and see!
Aw MANNNN, I’m SO STOKED that AARO is being subbed at last, I was REALLY ready to give up on this season, as this was the SOLE drama of the Fall that I was even REMOTELY interested in, and when I woke up today and found that it had been picked up, that MADE MY DAY and I didn't WAIT to jump RIGHT in!!!
So far, it’s been as interesting and intriguing as I’d hoped- From the beginning I figured it as a kind of “X-Files” type of show with Fujiwara and Hirose in the Mulder and Scully roles, and while not exactly like that, it has largely been just what I expected!

Of course, one of the the MAIN reasons for my huge interest in this show is the ever-lovely Alice Hirose, as she is one of my FAVORITE actresses right now, and OH WOW, does she shine here! So pretty, svelte and dedicated, her character of Koyume Amano would do Gillian Anderson PROUD!

In a previous post, I had mentioned my worries that Alice would be relegated to “the sputtering and clueless sidekick” who’d be only there to gawk at the lead’s eccentric and unorthodox ways, and while there is a tiny amount of that (when she voices her deductions only for Fujiwara’s character to invalidate her in front of everyone, Gads I hate this trope)... 

...when it comes time to do some butt-kicking, Amano is as bad-ass and cool a character as ANYONE on the team, a gal who can hold her own, and one to be respected! 

with Mirai Shida

Takin' down the thugs and taking names!

Now THIS is the kind of character I LOVE to see her playing and I can't get enough!

AARO is currently up to Episode 4 in Japan and Netflix is up to episode 2, so the "catch-up" wait for subtitled episodes will be about 2 weeks apart. That's time I have no problem with and know will be well worth the wait!

Can't WAIT to see MORE!

PS: Ooohh, and if that wasn't enough, we've got another visit to that famous "Love Distance" Apartment Complex! You just NEVER KNOW when it will appear next!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Gals Galore in "Konkatsu Tantei"

A show from 2022 which I put on my "Plan To Watch" listing on MDL, however, it never got subbed, at least not that I saw. Only very recently did I visit a forum that showed Konkatsu Tantei HAD been picked up and fully subbed at some point, and I wasted no time grabbing it!

A fun, lighthearted comedy, Konkatsu Tantei tells the story of a self-professed "hard boiled" detective named Kurosagi  (Osamu Mukai) who goes through his life playing a hard-edged badass, especially in front of his impressionable kohai Yagami (Maeda Oshiro)

However, at night, eating his convenience store bentos alone, Kurosagi feels the void of not having a significant other to share things with. And when a bright billboard advertising a MARRIAGE MATCHING consulting company shines from across the way, he takes it as a sign that it's time to act!

Kurosagi is nervous about being in such a place and many times thinks of leaving. but before he can, he is met by the positive and energetic Madoka Kido (Riko Narumi), a gung-ho matchmaker who truly believes she can help anyone find their fateful marriage partner, and ASSURES him there is someone for HIM as well!!

 And so, despite his reservations, Kurosagi dives in headfirst, into the ups and downs of potential marriage matching with the guidance of his intrepid counselor Kido so he can meet the "one" and settle down!

A fairly basic plot but so much FUN and WOW, the guest stars appearing as Kurosagi's possible partners are ALL stunning beauties in their own right! Actresses like Akane Hotta (here as a shy and mousey type)-

Aimi Satsukawa, genki as ever

Maho Nonami 

Yui Ichikawa

...and even the bubbly Miwako Kakei among others, all of them seeking the man of their dreams!

Each of Kurosagi's attempts gets varied results and he usually ends up striking out for ONE reason or another, but Kido is always there to encourage and support him! In FACT, we soon quickly realize that SHE might be better than ANY of the actual clients she's matching him with!

Kurosagi's personal life outside of the marriage matchmaking game is filled with beauties as well, with women like his former partner's surly daughter Shinna (played by the pretty Natsumi Okamoto) who drops in to bug him.

...or even the bartender Kurano who works at the bar Kurosagi frequents (and who seems to have a fixation on him as well), played by Manami Hashimoto:

Seems like this guy is just SURROUNDED by babes of ALL walks of life! If ONLY he could get lucky and actually end up MARRYING one of them!

Aw, this was one heckuva entertaining little drama and I'm glad I was finally able to see it!