If you're not aware of the Kindaichi series, it basically started out as a mystery manga featuring the titular character as the grandson of a famous detective. There has been countless drama seasons, specials, and movies starring a load of different actors playing the goofy young detective. The original live action drama spawned two seasons and starred Domoto Tsuyoshi, who was probably the best Kindaichi of them all. After that, Matsumoto Jun and Kamenashi Kazuya took their turns and even Yamapi got involved when he played the famous grandpa in a drama special. Lately however, its mainly been Yamada Ryosuke in the spotlight. I would say that he is probably the second best Kindaichi I've seen next to Domoto. Its pretty much become his signature character as an actor.
There were two specials starring Yamada as Kindaichi, both of which I watched: Kindaichi Case Files Gate of Jail Private School Murders and The Files of Young Kindaichi - Lost in Kowloon.
Those specials were pretty impressive with the cases and the cast did a great job at their characters. They did throw in some random foreign actors but it was all good since I pretty much knew all of them. I was pretty surprised that they got Eric Tsang to star in the Kowloon SP because I've mostly watched him in variety shows and super funny Hong Kong gangster movies.
Onto the actual drama series, I was super excited when it was announced. I love me some good mystery cases and a whole drama season of them is sure to keep me satisfied. I've watched the two episodes that have aired and am pretty impressed.
Yamada Ryosuke plays Hajime Kindaichi, a high school student who puts his IQ of 180 to use on mystery cases that happen around him. He's a little bit lazy and a little lecherous, but he is a loyal friend who will get fight for the truth. His childhood friend and neighbour is Miyuki Nanase, played by Kawaguchi Haruna. Her and Hajime have a love that hasn't been acknowledged yet by both of them and they usually just go about the series as super close friends with some romantic moments.
Each mystery in Kindaichi is usually a whodunnit mystery with more than one person being killed each case. The culprits always end up being sympathetic and never purely evil.
The first episode of Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo N (neo) was over an hour long and featured Kamiki Ryunosuke playing an award winning high school film director. There is a curse on the film he directed in that whoever was involved in it will be murdered.
As soon as I saw Kamiki on screen I practically screamed. There was absolutely no news about his cameo and it was a big surprise. I've been loving Kamiki recently after strangely falling in love with him in the middle of the last SPEC movie. It's weird because he has been in the entire series but I just started to crazily like him in the last movie. Anyhow, its pretty funny that he is playing a film director in this cameo just like he did in the critically acclaimed The Kirishima Thing. He does fit the part perfectly though. It was also super cute seeing his reunion with Yamada Ryosuke after having starred in Tantei Gakuen Q together along with Shida Mirai. I started that drama but dropped it soon after because it was a little too weird for me to watch children detectives run around. 
Yamada Ryosuke was captivating as usual with his cool detective phrases. His acting has really gone up a notch and his interactions with Kawaguchi's character are just so cute to watch. I love their pairing and I hope there will be some romantic moments. I predict that the preview for episode 3 will be a troll but I'm still hoping for a kiss someday down the road. The chemistry between Hajime and Miyuki is just sizzling and that's all due to their respective actors.
Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo N (neo) airs every Saturday so be sure to check it out!
I like kindaichi too, the movies was so good. I'm glad the chemistry between yamada and haruna are improving, because fans hated their pairing at first right?, but I have to say my favorite character would be Saki played by Arioka Daiki, he is too cute, me and my friends watched both kindaichi coz of him initially. We haven't gone around watching the series yet, but was Saki(daiki) still there? You didn't say in your review...I'd watch if he's there. :-)
ReplyDeleteI always liked Yamada and Haruna together and I only just realized fans hated it after reading a few comments lol! I love Saki! He's such a goofy and fun character. I forgot to talk about him but YES he is in the drama! If you look at the second picture of this post you can see like 2/3 of his face in the back lol! You should watch it for sure :D
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