Fragile (2016)

Japanese medical dramas are often an indictment of the country's health care system and in this particular case, Fragile does not veer away from the norm. It's not about medical marvels or unusual cases, it doesn't focus on one person's acquired skill or acuity but instead prefers to emphasize the need for data collection and analysis. It does take a page off the Doctor X playbook in terms of throwing shade at the apparent incompetence...

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Tenshi to Akuma (2015)

In Tenshi to Akuma, a female cop and a private lawyer, working under the auspices of the prosecutor's office, make up an ad hoc division of the police charged with reviewing unsolved cases. They go over the facts and sift through witness testimony in order to identify and facilitate the filing of criminal charges against the actual felon who has, for a time, eluded apprehension. Makita Hikari (Gouriki Ayame) is a rookie officer, who...

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Dias Police: Ihou Keisatsu (2016)

Dias Police conjures up Tokyo as a city teeming with illegal immigrants, living on the fringes of society under the protection and guidance of an underground government. By procuring the services of such government, undocumented aliens, political refugees and criminal fugitives alike get a new lease in life, finding for themselves a safe haven on foreign soil. They coexist and thrive in one district, following certain rules of conduct, forming...

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Strawberry Night SP (2010)

Strawberry Night is the first book in Honda Tetsuya's popular detective series which features a hardboiled female detective, constantly at odds with the rigid, patriarchal system of her chosen profession. Adapted into a standalone special in 2010, this 2-hr feature provided audiences a taste of the kind of brutal and gruesome cases that comprise the author's brand of macabre fiction and similarly introduced a dark and complex heroine in Lieutenant...

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Dokushin Kizoku (2013)

Dokushin Kizoku is a romantic comedy series that is more like an homage to classical Hollywood films than an earnest depiction of contemporary single life. It has elements of the quiet, pristine romances prevalent in the Golden Age of cinema, at times, being out of touch with present day reality, often caught up in scenarios that would have otherwise been tolerable if this were made in a different century.  It starts off with three single...

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Stranger Bakemono ga Jiken wo Abaku (2016)

Television shows that feature supernatural creatures embroiled in crime investigation are nothing new. They tend to resurface intermittently considering that the combination of two genres provide some gothic flavor to a show that would otherwise just be another crime procedural. Forever Knight and Moonlight had the undead making use of their abilities to fight crime while the Korean series Vampire Prosecutor featured another...

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Koi (2013)

This TBS drama special based on Koike Mariko's award-winning novel has two things going for it. First, it has the notoriety of a bestseller that has for its subject, a crime of passion, and second, it has a strong and recognizable cast of actors able to render this tawdry affair into an unforgettable piece of melodrama in spite of being a crime-exploitation. As a period piece, the special leverages a soundtrack designed to capture a decade...

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