MADDER: I’m The Culprit In That Case!

Mao Ioki in MADDER

Caught the first few episodes of the new drama Madder: Sono Jiken, Watashi ga Hannin desu (I’m The Culprit In That Case! ), A VERY fun and entertaining story of a young high school student named Akane Nakano (Mao Ioki) attending Seiran Academy, a school for the exceptionally gifted, where she is a genius among geniuses. 

Like many geniuses, however, she is bored with schools and scores and societal status, looking at everyone and everything with an apathetic eye. That is, until one morning when she comes across the scene of a murder near the school campus. 

This is a grisly serial murder, the fifth in a series, and while looking on, Akane sees someone suspicious among the crowd of gawkers, an unscrupulous guy in a maintenance outfit, who seems to be taking an unusually keen interest in the investigation! "Hm, seems shady", she thinks.

She might have forgotten about him in time, but when she sees him doing maintenance at her school (after yet another mind-numbingly dull day), she takes a renewed interest in him and follows him to his workshop. 

His name is Kurokawa (Ryuta Yamamura) and, speaking frankly, she confronts him and tells him that she saw him at her school… and at the scene of the morning murder. 

Looking her over, he chides her, saying “Shouldn’t you be more concerned about school?”, but when she confesses boredom and apathy with school, he says, “perhaps the killer was like you- bored with the mundane and desperate to experience something new. He says that you cannot see things the same after killing someone, that carrying the burden of a crime changes your entire outlook of life. 

Listening to this man talk, Akane realizes he has described her life to a T. And later, forlornly walking home, she has an epiphany to shake up her monochrome life and experience this colorful new world that Kurokawa spoke of.

Thus when school opens the next morning and the students and faculty discover that SOMEONE has vandalized the  school statue and SMASHED to BITS, we know instantly that the culprit is HER! 

In such a way begins Akane's new life of crime!

Eager to feel the thrill of the chase, Akane is delighted when her entire class of geniuses consider this vandalism a challenge to the school and team up help catch the criminal! 

There is: 

Hiroto Miyauchi (Eiku Yamashita) Mathematics Gold Olympiad,

 Eto Arata (Kouhei Higuchi) , Quiz Champion

 Mayu Shinozaki (Riru Yoshina) , Linguistics Expert 

Minato Yorihara (Hibiki Mizuno),  Astronomy Olympiad 

Yuka Ono (Kanon) , Pianist with Perfect Pitch

 and Try-hard Kitakyushuu Speech Champion Rin Hojo (Tsugumi)! 

Are THESE to be Akane's Intellectual Adversaries? She can't wait!

Akane’s excitement, however. is short lived when she finds that despite their brains, these kids just can’t keep up with her devious deceptions-misdiagnosing trails, arguing amongst themselves,  harebrained procedures, she finds that to keep the game going, she has to actually go out of her way to HELP them decipher the clues to her own crime! 

Meanwhile there’s all sorts of other shenanigans going on in school with corrupt principals and shady teachers- and of course there’s a real serial killer on the loose in town just waiting for his next victim, while the police investigators (Rina Takeda, Shojo Hama) assigned to the case seem to have no clue how to even start! 

Looks like Akane will have her hands FULL if she plans to continue this new occupation of juggling full-time student…and part-time criminal! 

As you all know, I’m not a fan of the “Troubled Student” dramas and usually shy away from those focused on the kids, but MADDER’s set-up sounded so fun, and indeed, it’s been a real hoot to watch! First time seeing actress Mao Ioki whose deadpan delivery of the perpetually bored Akane Nakano steals every scene! 

Drama stats tell me she’s from one of those AKB type acts-Nogizaka46 to be exact- which makes me wonder if we’re seeing the beginning so the next wave of talent! Going to have to keep track of these actors and actresses!

Your Monthly Keiko For June 2025

A svelte Keiko for June 2025, and things are ALL coming up Keiko!

We are at the halfway point of Keiko’s riveting suspense drama “Anata wo Ubatta Sono Hi kara”, and things are ratcheting up as young young Mimi (Kasumi Isshiki), enters her teenage years and is beginning to wonder about her Father and her past which her Mom seems unable to talk about.

She's lived a carefree and happy life so far, but Hiromi knows that she cannot keep the truth of the situation from her forever....

There’s also the twist of Hiromi (Keiko) taking the ultimate undercover job, working right under Yuki Asahi (Nao Omori), the man she despises, when she applies for and gets hired as a member of his new marketing team!

Like her earlier attempt to get close to him  by joining the cooking class,  she works her way into his business to get to know the REAL man. As she delves deeper, it seems there are many things about the food poisoning incident which claimed her daughter that have been kept secret…and are now about to come to light.

Our investigative journalist Azuma Sawa (Sawa Niimura) is still after the truth and is slowly making headway by interviewing other ex-members of the company, including Mochizuki (Michitaka Tsutsui).

And then there’s Ririko (Yuna Taira), the eldest daughter of Yuki Asahi. For me, she’s the REAL wild card here because you have no IDEA what her intentions are!

 Even from the beginning she was clashing with her father and it was hard to tell if she even cared when her little sister disappeared. And as she's gotten older, her actions have only become more devious, making me (and everyone around her)  curious as HELL what she's up to!

Ony time will tell, and as we enter the second half of the show, Anata wo Ubatta Sono Hi kara remains my favorite show of the season! 

The Keiko Kitagawa Jubilee continues!!!

A Sculpture Mystery Solved

 Got the identification of yet another classic J-drama Deja-Vu hot spot solved, and through the most intersting of ways! Redditor spellbunny was in Japan, walking around Shinjuku when they came upon a sculpture that they INSTANTLY recognized- It was the sculpture where hapless otaku Tsuyoshi (Atsushi Ito) meets up with his dream date Saori (Misaki Ito) in the TV adaptation of the classic Densha Otoko story!

Posting “Any Densha Otoko fans recognize this spot? I was wandering around Shinjuku and randomly found this spot and was AMAZED!!!” Spellbunny’s thread was filled with other excited Densha Otoko fans who also immediately recognized the sculpture as that pivotal place in the drama!

Below: Atsushi Ito and Misaki Ito in Densha Otoko at the sculpture

Well, as for me, I ALSO immediately recognized the statue...but not because of Densha Otoko (which at the time  I admit that I had not seen!), but through two OTHER dramas that it appeared in: the popular NHK asadora Churasan with Ryoko Kuninaka...

...and the wacky Yume Wo Kanaeru Zo with Asami Mizukawa!

Some of you may even remember me posting about it waaaaay back in 2010, where I wondered if it was some "famous statue or something", LOL!  I had no idea, but I wouldn’t find out what the sculpture was until some 15 years later!!

It was in spellbunny’s reddit thread that redditor RedditEduUndergrad2  finally identified the piece and place for us, linking the googlemaps coordinates to the Shinjuku Monolith Building and leading us to that corner with that sculpture! WOW! 

Continuing on, RedditEduUndergrad2 continued:

“The area around Tocho/Tokyo Metroplitan Govt Building is a very popular area to film. Probably because of it's proximity to the Shinjuku train station making it easy for staff to get to and the number of hotels for stars and guests. The area directly around Tocho also has a very wide path with long streets and not a lot of foot traffic most of the time.”

And that’s how a random reddit comment uncovered another J-drama Deja-Vu mystery location for me!! The things you can learn via the jdrama community continues!