Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo N (Mini Review)

I know the summer J-dorama season ended around 3 months and I'm sorry about how late this review is but school and blogger's block got in the way. Anyhow, I was super pleased at the amount of good dramas I saw. Most of the ones on my watchlist were detective dramas and the new Kindaichi series definitely exceeded my expectations and topped the list :D The main reason for that was the casting and I'm really glad we finally got a full on drama after all those exciting specials. 

Synopsis

I expect most people to already know what Kindaichi is about but if you don't, here's a synopsis. It's a little short but its the best I could find (sry too lazy to write one myself):

High school student Kindaichi Hajime solves a variety of difficult cases that he gets entangled in with the deductive powers inherited from his grandfather, the famous detective Kindaichi Kosuke.

Cast & Characters

Yamada Ryosuke plays Kindaichi Hajime. I really consider Yamada to be one of the best Kindaichi actors since Domoto Tsuyoshi back in 1995 when the drama adaptation just came out. Since then there haven’t been any Kindaichi series or specials that have interested me. I started to stop paying attention to Kindaichi until the first couple of specials starring Yamada came out. Aside from his dashing looks, his portrayal of the funny and goofy (with a side of perverted) Kindaichi Hajime totally won me over. The typical corny catchphrases that I would just roll my eyes at actually became my favourite part of each episode because Yamada would say it with such epicness. Also the editing was pretty superb during those scenes with the camera always dramatically zooming into Yamada’s face at lightning speed. If you want to get into Kindaichi but you’re scared at all the seasons and specials, I would really recommend you watch Yamada Ryosuke’s versions first if you don’t want to sit through the quality of 1995 (which I totally understand).

Kawaguchi Haruna plays Nanase Miyuki. Nanase is Kindaichi’s childhood friends and it’s pretty obvious that she is in love with him. They both like each other back but their feelings are never fully expressed. (Literally though, the manga has been ongoing for more than 10 years now and they still haven’t gotten together). Anyhow, there seems to be a lot of people against Kawaguchi playing Nanase and it seems like it particularly has something to do with Yamada Ryosuke. I’m not too sure about what all that is other than the fact that I completely disagree with them. If you’re a die hard Hey! Say! Jump! fan or a Kawaguchi Haruna fan and knows whats up, please do let me into the loop and tell me why people are so against her lol. As for Kawaguchi’s performance, it’s satisfactory in a good way. She’s not the greatest of actresses in terms of performance but the role suits her so that it kind of balances it out. I actually really like her because she has that cool attitude and boyish style in real life that really translates into Miyuki in the show.

Since this is a mini review, I won't go into depth for the other characters since none of them had that big of a role. Arioka Daiki is always likeable as the goofy Saki. He plays an excellent side character that is a great comic relief as well as a perfect wingman to Kindaichi. Narimiya Hiroki seems to be amazing at whatever character he plays. I couldn't even hate him despite his evil character because of how good looking he was! Darn those good-looking but evil villains!

Review & Thoughts

If you've watched countless detective dramas like I have, then you know that the cases eventually get really predictable and boring. Although Kindaichi Neo was short in length, the episodes were of higher quality than most. That's saying a lot, because other than the fact that Kindaichi is about a high-school boy solving mysteries, there really isn't anything special about the drama. Nowadays, detective dramas are always changing it up by either having a math genius as the lead or by having a lead who can see dead victims. Those are interesting to watch because they change up the game and give a refreshing approach to solving mysteries. In Kindaichi Neo's case, it was the uniqueness of the individual mysteries that really pulled me in. Sure the suspects are sometimes predictable, but the stories behind the motives and the trick murders add a new level to the cases.

Apart from the countless murders every episode, Kindaichi is actually a really funny drama. I love how the beginning and end of each mystery is always filled with funny interactions from the different characters. The interactions between perverted Hajime and upright Miyuki is just comedic gold! The amazing chemistry between the cast and the quality of the mysteries definitely make up for the lack of character development (which unfortunately is also found in most J-doramas)