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"Just as the world contains both light and darkness, humans are divided by good and evil. Thus, humans created a system to punish the sinful, but are only those who are punished guilty?"
Despite starting with such a ponderous speech and despite the title usually calling to mind something more macabre or malicious, Monsters is the sort of Japanese detective drama that is created for family viewing - hence, neither is there much detective work nor is there much in the way of monsters. It is, however, very entertaining and forgettable.
Katori Shingo (SMAP) pairs up with Yamashita Tomohisa (ex-NEWS) for a quirky police drama that solves its cases with good ol' Japanese deductive reasoning rather than solid evidence that can actually stand up in court. Katori plays the bizarre Hiratsuka Heihachi who is clearly too smart for everyone else. He would be sociopathic if he didn't take so much joy in pulling everyone's strings.
Playing his much more normal and very put-upon partner is Yamashita at his prettiest. It's been a while (since Nobuta wo Produce to be exact) since Yamapi played such a puppy dog role, all eagerness and naivety and adorabletail-wagging whinging. Much like how he amazed everyone with Akira in Nobuta, he makes Saionji a necessary highlight of years of playing uptight-wooden-dead-fish-eyed-main-characters, like Aizawa for example.
The tone the drama hits is comical, even more so than the quirky BOSS, which at least made an effort to use a bit of science and ensemble work. The rest of regular supporting cast plays it with convinced campiness but never to the point of cheesiness. Having just watched Strawberry Night recently, it's hilarious seeing Endo Kenichi repeat his fierce squad leader role but this time with intentionally comical results.
The actual detective business is bad, but not terrible. As is often the case with these things, the pilot was the best-written episode. There are a lot of issues with the reasoning of successive episodes, but at least the journey to getting there is fun.
Despite starting with such a ponderous speech and despite the title usually calling to mind something more macabre or malicious, Monsters is the sort of Japanese detective drama that is created for family viewing - hence, neither is there much detective work nor is there much in the way of monsters. It is, however, very entertaining and forgettable.
Katori Shingo (SMAP) pairs up with Yamashita Tomohisa (ex-NEWS) for a quirky police drama that solves its cases with good ol' Japanese deductive reasoning rather than solid evidence that can actually stand up in court. Katori plays the bizarre Hiratsuka Heihachi who is clearly too smart for everyone else. He would be sociopathic if he didn't take so much joy in pulling everyone's strings.
Playing his much more normal and very put-upon partner is Yamashita at his prettiest. It's been a while (since Nobuta wo Produce to be exact) since Yamapi played such a puppy dog role, all eagerness and naivety and adorable
The tone the drama hits is comical, even more so than the quirky BOSS, which at least made an effort to use a bit of science and ensemble work. The rest of regular supporting cast plays it with convinced campiness but never to the point of cheesiness. Having just watched Strawberry Night recently, it's hilarious seeing Endo Kenichi repeat his fierce squad leader role but this time with intentionally comical results.
The actual detective business is bad, but not terrible. As is often the case with these things, the pilot was the best-written episode. There are a lot of issues with the reasoning of successive episodes, but at least the journey to getting there is fun.
