Ooooh boy! It's been AGES since I enjoyed a j-drama as much as I enjoyed this one! In fact, I think the previous one was Legal High 2 (which also starred Okada Masaki and Aragaki Yui, coincidentally). I think I might have a teeny (read huge) crush on Kakushidate Yakusuke (that's a mouthful), the character played by Okada in this drama.
Okitegami Kyoko no biboroku or The memorandum of Okitegami Kyoko as it is called in English tells the story of the unfortunate Kakushidate Yakusuke whose name is derived from "saiyaku" (meaning bad or worst). Yakusuke attributes his misfortune to his name and finds himself always the suspect in one case or another and fired from his job regularly. In one such case when he gets accused of stealing he calls for the "Forgetful Detective", Okitegami Kyoko, who can only retain her memory for one day, i.e. she forgets everything (including who she is) if she falls asleep. She navigates through her everyday life with important things and contacts written on her body in marker. The drama follows the adventures of these two as they get caught in different cases.
Although the drama itself is episodic, just like most detective/police-procedural J-drama, it is charming in its characters, music (OP, ED and the OSTs), the direction even with random words on colored backgrounds (just like the anime adaptation of the original author's other work the Monogatari Series). Frankly, when I heard this was an adaptation of a novel by the author of the Monogatari series, Nisio Isin, I did not have high expectations. Because despite hearing several good things about the Monogatari series, it held no appeal to me. But I digress. Coming back to Okitegami Kyoko, the premise of solving cases was what brought me to the show but I stayed for the charming characters.
The protagonist, Okitegami Kyoko, is a money loving mysterious woman who, for the first seven episodes, is defined by her forgetfulness, her fangirl-ing of her favorite mystery author Sunagawa-san and her incredible ability to solve cases in one day. For the first seven episodes we see the story through Yakusuke's eyes. His misery at being caught in trouble, his fascination with Kyoko's abilities (and Kyoko herself) and his best feature his incredibly kind nature. This character trait is what endeared me to him the most. I have read/watched too many shoujo/josei manga/anime where the lead male is mostly a douche, (but of course, he's a douche with a heart of gold!) that it is nice to see the nice guy as the lead for a change. Although at first glance he seems to resemble Nishikido Ryo's character Yamada Souta from Zenkai Girl, I felt that Souta was too much of a doormat. Yakusuke is a nice guy but he didn't come off as a doormat.
The eighth episode unexpectedly switches to Kyoko's perspective which provides a nice insight into the mind of the woman who wakes up everyday not knowing who she is. The conclusion of the drama does not tie all the loose ends as expected. It feels like only volume 1 of the novels was adapted. But the concluding episodes were pretty good and even brought a little romance into the story which was adorable and believable without deviating from the established character traits.
All in all, it was a fun and enjoyable ride. Both Okada Masaki and Aragaki Yui have done a good job and even the supporting cast were quirky and portrayed well enough for the small roles they had. The supporting cast were not given room for development, as expected, for a 10 episode series but were fun enough that I didn't mind it.
Honestly, it was a J-drama I enjoyed after a really long time. I am now looking forward to the next season. I hope I enjoy Higanbana as much as I did this one.
Ta-ta!
Okitegami Kyoko no biboroku or The memorandum of Okitegami Kyoko as it is called in English tells the story of the unfortunate Kakushidate Yakusuke whose name is derived from "saiyaku" (meaning bad or worst). Yakusuke attributes his misfortune to his name and finds himself always the suspect in one case or another and fired from his job regularly. In one such case when he gets accused of stealing he calls for the "Forgetful Detective", Okitegami Kyoko, who can only retain her memory for one day, i.e. she forgets everything (including who she is) if she falls asleep. She navigates through her everyday life with important things and contacts written on her body in marker. The drama follows the adventures of these two as they get caught in different cases.
Although the drama itself is episodic, just like most detective/police-procedural J-drama, it is charming in its characters, music (OP, ED and the OSTs), the direction even with random words on colored backgrounds (just like the anime adaptation of the original author's other work the Monogatari Series). Frankly, when I heard this was an adaptation of a novel by the author of the Monogatari series, Nisio Isin, I did not have high expectations. Because despite hearing several good things about the Monogatari series, it held no appeal to me. But I digress. Coming back to Okitegami Kyoko, the premise of solving cases was what brought me to the show but I stayed for the charming characters.
The protagonist, Okitegami Kyoko, is a money loving mysterious woman who, for the first seven episodes, is defined by her forgetfulness, her fangirl-ing of her favorite mystery author Sunagawa-san and her incredible ability to solve cases in one day. For the first seven episodes we see the story through Yakusuke's eyes. His misery at being caught in trouble, his fascination with Kyoko's abilities (and Kyoko herself) and his best feature his incredibly kind nature. This character trait is what endeared me to him the most. I have read/watched too many shoujo/josei manga/anime where the lead male is mostly a douche, (but of course, he's a douche with a heart of gold!) that it is nice to see the nice guy as the lead for a change. Although at first glance he seems to resemble Nishikido Ryo's character Yamada Souta from Zenkai Girl, I felt that Souta was too much of a doormat. Yakusuke is a nice guy but he didn't come off as a doormat.
The eighth episode unexpectedly switches to Kyoko's perspective which provides a nice insight into the mind of the woman who wakes up everyday not knowing who she is. The conclusion of the drama does not tie all the loose ends as expected. It feels like only volume 1 of the novels was adapted. But the concluding episodes were pretty good and even brought a little romance into the story which was adorable and believable without deviating from the established character traits.
All in all, it was a fun and enjoyable ride. Both Okada Masaki and Aragaki Yui have done a good job and even the supporting cast were quirky and portrayed well enough for the small roles they had. The supporting cast were not given room for development, as expected, for a 10 episode series but were fun enough that I didn't mind it.
Honestly, it was a J-drama I enjoyed after a really long time. I am now looking forward to the next season. I hope I enjoy Higanbana as much as I did this one.
Ta-ta!
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