Kizoku Tantei Review

Title: Kizoku Tantei

AKA: Noble Detective

Genre: Detective, Mystery, Comedy

Episodes: 11

Broadcast period: 2017-Apr to 2017-Jun

Theme song: I’ll be there by Arashi

Cast: Aiba Masaki, Takei Emi, Namase Katsuhisa, Kinami Haruka and Okayama Amane.

Takatou Aika (Takei Emi) is a young detective, working at her master Kitami Kirikos (Igawa Haruka) detective agency. She hasn’t had a breakthrough even though she spends most of her time focusing on cases and her work - she rarely gets a deduction right.

Everything changes when she one-day encounters “The Noble Detective” (Aiba Masaki). Nothing is known about his except that he identifies himself as such, and that he is an aristocrat with a lot of money. All his deductions and investigations are carried out by his staff, and he spends most of his time entertaining young women involved in the cases.

Completely befuddled by his way of “being a detective”, Aika decides to prove to him what a real detective is, and competes with his in solving cases. Soon she realizes that The Noble Detective has some past with his master, and she starts to investigate him, but the further she goes, the less she is sure…

When I watched the first episode I wasn’t hooked at all, then when I continued I found the first drama ever that I couldn’t guess the ending off till the very last episode. That not only made me intrigued, but also looking forward to every week to see if the things I had guessed were right.

The acting in this drama was good, and the storyline is weird, though it grows on you quite fast. I must say that I didn’t expect to enjoy it that much, and for the first time ever I hadn’t noticed the small hints that were given throughout the series. When the last episode came out, I was surprised that I hadn’t connected the dots. And this made me realize how nice it must be not to be able to guess the ending. (Ha ha ha)

All in all, a weird yet good drama, with good acting, and they managed to ‘fool’ me, so a “well done detective drama”.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

Himura Hideo no Suiri Review

Title: Himura Hideo no Suiri
AKA: Rinshou Hanzai Gakusha, Criminologist Himura and Mystery Writer Arisugawa
Genre: Mystery
Episodes: 10
Broadcast Period: Jan-2016 to Mar-2016
Cast: Saito Takumi, Kubota Masataka, Yuka, Yamamoto Mizuki, Makita Sports, Hasegawa Kyoko, Namase Katsuhisa

Criminologist Himura Hideo (Saito Takumi) gets so much pleasure out of being in crime scenes that he's even confessed to having wanted to kill someone. Constantly seeking out the ultimate crime, he is indeed a man with quite a few issues. Mystery writer Arisugawa Arisu (Kubota Masataka), on the other hand, keeps a close eye on Himura's investigations and writes about them, but at times completely misses the point. Not at all the type of guy you'd call dependable, Arisugawa nonetheless professes to be the protector of the clumsy Himura. Although these two men appear like they have no business being in crime scenes, they mitigate each other's shortcomings and use their compelling logic to unravel the elaborately woven tricks left behind by the criminals. It's almost as if Himura and Arisugawa use incredible magical powers to tease out unimaginable truths!

Yes, a quite interesting plot, that made me hooked to the drama from the beginning. Every week I looked forward to an episode with a new mysterious case to solve. As a mystery/thriller fan myself, I wouldn’t say that this drama is the ultimate drama of that genre, sometimes I wondered if it was on purpose they drifted from the genre, or they just failed to get it right. In any case, I liked that there was a bit slice of life in it, and especially the bromance (I’m a sucker for bromance in any way). They're great actors in my opinion. The reason why I continued watching was because of the acting. The interaction between the two leads are really enjoyable. This was a good drama, but what made this so watchable was the acting.

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts

Bunjis verdict
It’s been a while since I watched a real Japanese crime drama, so I was excited to watch this. I didn’t really know of the story before watching this, which makes it even more thrilling to watch, but unfortunately I recognized the story it is based on very quickly: Sherlock Holmes. To be fair they did change a lot and didn’t add the modern version stories of the 19 century classics which is kind of fresh, and they didn’t try to hide the fact that they were basing it off the classic, but still they should have stayed like that, instead of ending it like the original. Then again, this might only bug me since I am a fan of the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle book series. The actors playing Hideo and Alice are the perfect actors for the roles, and I do understand why they were cast for these roles to play – even if the ‘hair-in-the-eyes’-look made me annoyed/confused and attracted at the same time. I am a fan of Kubota Masataka and this portrayal was point on~! All in all, a good drama with great acting, but just too much of the Sherlock Holmes ‘imitation’.

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

Platina Data Movie Review

Title: Platina Data

AKA: Platinum Data

Genre: Suspense, Mystery, Sci-fi

Origin: Japan

Relese date: March 16, 2013

Cast: Ninomiya Kazunari, Toyokawa Etsushi, Suzuki Honami, Anne and Namase Katsuhisa.

When a serial of child murdering hits Tokyo, the NPA (National Police Academy) decides to call in the SARI (Special Analysis Research Institute), who say they have found their perpetrator. The man in charge, Kagura Ryuhei (Ninomiya Kazunari) is the system development manager, and he introduced the NPA to the ‘DNA investigation system’ test case no. 1, where the found DNA had lead them to not only know about the person but also how he looks. After he is caught, the police officer Detective Asama (Tokoyama Etsushi) notices that there had been obtained illegal DNA from a patient, which had lead them to the perpetrator. He confronts Kagura, who tells him that soon enough all DNA would be obtained legally from all Japan, and made onto a main DNA hard drive.

Three months later, a sibling pair gets killed in the SARI, who had also been involved in the making of the DNA system, and being caught on camera, Kagura had been last seen with the sibling pair. After the DNA is obtained, Kagura himself goes to check it out, and finds that the DNA matches with him. In shock of the result Kagura starts running, but the SARI has cameras all over Japan, and he becomes the prime suspect in the case, making him on top of the list.

Running for his life, he meets his assistant who tells him that she believes him, also she confines in him that the victims were making a side project called MOGUL, which she believes is the reason for their deaths. Now Kagura has to find out what MOGUL is, and make sure he isn’t caught in the progress…

My first reason for watching this was of course Nino, and ten minutes into it I didn’t like it. After a little while I started getting interested in it, like it made me wonder and then I was caught. It is an action packed movie with lots of good sides to it, but I have to admit, I really am not a fan of action/chased movies. Not because they are bad, but just simply because I need more conversation. I need logic and hell I need depth. They did try to give me that here, but it just somehow seemed forced. I like the backstory, but I kind of got confused by the absurdity of the ending. Japanese really know how to freak you out. That said, there isn’t much bad about it, it really is a movie in it grand self. Recommendable.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

Kaiji 2 Movie Review

Title: Kaiji 2: Jinsei gyakuten gêmu.
AKA: Kaiji: The Ultimate Gamblr
Genre: Suspense
Origin: Japan
Release date: 2011-Nov-05
Cast: Fujiwara Tatsuya, Yoshitaka Yuriko, Namase Katsuhisa and Kagawa Teruyki.

Even though he managed to pay all his debt, Ito Kaiji (Fujiwara Tatsuya) ends back underground after falling into debt again. With the help of fellow underground workers, he earns enough money to get back over ground for 14 days, where he plans to earn 200 million to get his and the rest 25 workers freedom back.

Here he meets and old ‘friend’, who cheats him off money, but leaves an invitation to a casino. The casino has crazy minimum bets, and the machines are x100 pr. Bet. But the one that catches Kaijis eye is the biggest of them all: the x1000 machine “Swamp”, meaning every ball is worth x1000 than usual. Unfortunately he realizes that they are rigged, but decides to join up with Ishidas daughter Yumi (Yoshitaka Yuriko), a fired employee of Teai, Sakazaki Kotaro (Katsuhisa Namase) and his old ‘friend’ Tonegawa Yukio (Kagawa Teruyuki), to take on the monster machine Swamp…

Honestly, it’s pretty good. Didn’t really expect enjoying it as much as I did; I was nervous and excited some of the time. I remember watching the first one and liking it, but it wasn’t really that thrilling, okay yeah the bridge scene is insanely tense, but else, not really. I honestly felt on edge most of the time, though it wasn’t all that ‘tricky’, it had moments of brilliance. And I think what I loved most about it was Kaijis character: most humanlike ever! Kind a cool how Fujiwara can change from crazy to sad and then pathetic, then all happy, and lastly crazy once again.. Endless circle!

It’s very Japanese with the moral talk and the ‘gambarre’ moments, but well, not too much…

Pretty enjoyable :)

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

Jenji's verdict
I think I might like the first one better than this one. Even though the first one was more complicated I think, it still had more action, more going on. And it was more exciting for me. Here it was a bit too much of him taking on a whole lot of dept as if it didnt even matter anymore. I was getting annoyed instead of him lol, feeling for him, taking all that responsibility for other people and risking it all and then losing time after time. I felt almost worse than he looked. More than getting angry I was getting annoyed. But again seeing him in all these different roles it really shows what a good actor he is. And if you have watched the first then this one is really recommended to watch too anyway. 

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts