Brief Story Line
Story focused on a 17 year old high school student named Hajime Kindaichi (Shunsuke Michieda - 461 Days of Bento, My Love Mix-Up! TV series etc) who was very intelligent but lazy at school. He was very close to his childhood friend Nanase Miyuki (Moka Kamishiraishi - Soromon no gishô TV series etc) who had a crush on him. Together with another student named Ryuta Saki (Taisho Iwasaki - The High School Heroes TV series etc), they were involved in various murder mysteries that require the brilliance of Kindaichi to solve.
In the first case that happened at school, Kindaichi met with Inspector Kenmochi (Ikki Sawamura - Reunion, Grand Maison Tokyo TV series etc) who was the lead investigator and they developed a great relationship out of respect for each other.
Throughout the 10 episodes, there would be several cases that Kindaichi and his friends encountered and must be solved.
End of Brief Story Line
For quite some time now I have heard the name of young Kindaichi either through the internet or while passing through the manga section in a book store, but I have never read them at all and never got the chance to watch the anime either. So when this latest live adaptation was made available on Disney+, I decided it's about time to really give it a try. Since I was not familiar with the characters at all, I watched this series with the anticipation of a person trying out an interesting new thing.
The first episode was basically an introduction of the main and support characters. It was quite fun looking at the interaction among the high school students, and especially the one between Kindaichi and Miyuki. Inspector Kenmochi who was an integral character in Kindaichi's development was nicely played by Ikki Sawamura. Even though mostly the mysteries were always solved by Kindaichi, the inspector was not a total idiot and could still provide some insight (except for episode 8 where he tried to solve by himself).
Throughout the 10 episodes, there were 7 cases altogether, with few cases were solved in 2 episodes. For me personally, the 6th and 7th episodes were definitely my favorites as they were fast paced and require quick thinking, plus the Inspector was amazing in those episodes. I also liked the last 2 episodes where the case was complex. Oh btw, I felt that the series focused a lot on the how and the who, but not the why. So every time Kindaichi was able to identify the culprit, it always ended with the story revealing by the person. It actually reminded me a bit of the Japanese series Trick (which my wife loves) as it also emphasize on how the "trick" was done.
There were two cases here that might be a bit frightening for general audience as there was supernatural element involved, while the rest were more drama oriented. Because there were many cases in this season, plenty of guest stars appeared in the series. I think some of them should be familiar faces to fans of Japanese series (my wife would probably know more than me). After reading about Hajime Kindaichi on the internet, I understand the reason why he always referred his grandfather in every episode as he was supposedly the grandson of a well known detective named Kosuke Kindaichi. But those who have read the manga and watched the previous adaptations surely know about this already.
Overall I thought this was a pretty interesting series. I felt the lead star Sunshuke Michieda was good enough in portraying Kindaichi. The mysteries were intriguing with few more complex than others. But even though I had fun watching this, I still liked another Japanese manga adaptation mystery series more. Perhaps because in this series, there was no large story arc as we were just shown how good Kindaichi in solving one mystery after another, without anything to really connect the episodes. I am not sure if there would be a second season or it is just a one off, since the previous 4 live adaptations were all portrayed by different actors. But I am still thankful that this was available to stream so I got the chance to watch the series and finally know about Kindaichi.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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