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jdrama: Meitantei no Okite eps 1-8
Mar. 4th, 2010 06:11 pmThis series is, in short, a marvelously funny meta about the structure and clichés of mystery novels. Each episode is structured around a common mystery plotline, with the leads, aware of their roles in a detective novel, laying out the expectations of the genre as they go along. When the story is not cooperating to allow the mystery to be solved in the normal course of things, “reality” is bent, restructured, begged and blackmailed into cooperating and providing a dramatic ending.
Tenkaichi* is the brilliant private detective fond of attention, suits, bowler hats, and his bicycle. Okawara is the experienced police detective who resents the “amateur” always butting in, and comes up with absurd theories that are always wrong. Fujii is the newly minted detective who is as thrilled to learn that she must set aside logic and common sense to obey the dictates of fiction as she is to learn that she is the Designated Love Interest. Given that Tenkaichi is an egotistical gloryhound who goes into a sulk and refuses to do anything if he feels he isn’t being given the proper attention, you can’t blame her for not being thrilled that fiction dictates she must fall in love with him.
Okawara, naturally, is secretly the most intelligent, reasonable of the three, but between reigning in Fujii’s tendency to try to solve the case quickly and undramatically, pandering Tenkaichi’s ego so that he’ll detect instead of pout in a corner, and making to the story goes the way it’s supposed to, he never gets a break.
I’m not sure how much this would appeal to people who don’t like mysteries and/or deconstruction of genre tropes would like this, but I like both, and love it. Sadly, subs are on hiatus with two episodes left, but the episodes are wholly self-contained, so at least there’s no agony of a cliffhanger.
*Matsuda Shota playing very much against type.
Tenkaichi* is the brilliant private detective fond of attention, suits, bowler hats, and his bicycle. Okawara is the experienced police detective who resents the “amateur” always butting in, and comes up with absurd theories that are always wrong. Fujii is the newly minted detective who is as thrilled to learn that she must set aside logic and common sense to obey the dictates of fiction as she is to learn that she is the Designated Love Interest. Given that Tenkaichi is an egotistical gloryhound who goes into a sulk and refuses to do anything if he feels he isn’t being given the proper attention, you can’t blame her for not being thrilled that fiction dictates she must fall in love with him.
Okawara, naturally, is secretly the most intelligent, reasonable of the three, but between reigning in Fujii’s tendency to try to solve the case quickly and undramatically, pandering Tenkaichi’s ego so that he’ll detect instead of pout in a corner, and making to the story goes the way it’s supposed to, he never gets a break.
I’m not sure how much this would appeal to people who don’t like mysteries and/or deconstruction of genre tropes would like this, but I like both, and love it. Sadly, subs are on hiatus with two episodes left, but the episodes are wholly self-contained, so at least there’s no agony of a cliffhanger.
*Matsuda Shota playing very much against type.