Brief Story Line
Hayase Riku (Kenichi Matsuyama - Death Note, 1 Litre of Tears TV series etc) was a pattisier whose wife had been missing for 2.5 years and had to raise his young son together with his mother (Mieko Harada - Viral Hit TV series etc). When the body of his wife was found dead, police detective Gidou (Ryohei Suzuki - City Hunter, Segodon TV series etc) was assigned to investigate the case. Unfortunately for Hayase, the police suspected him for the murder.
With the unexpected help from Kogo Ichika (Erika Toda - Scarlet TV series, Motherhood etc), Hayase had no choice but to follow her advice by performing an uncommon procedure called "reboot" and later do the investigation himself. It would appear that Hayase's wife's job was not what he expected as she was working for a dirty businessman named Goroku (Yukiya Kitamura - Unsung Heroes TV series, Kyrie etc) who was supported by many people including henchman Fuyuhashi (Ren Nagase - Tokyo Tower TV series, Drawing Closer etc). Meanwhile Gidou was also suspected of being corrupt police and investigated by Inspector Makita (Hideaki Ito - Last Samurai Standing TV series, Previously Saved Version etc).
So what would happen to Hayase and how would the story conclude? You could find out in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
I am really glad that I gave this series a try cause this was way better than expected. At first I thought that this would be a slow burn drama mystery series. And to be honest I was not really clear either where the story was heading and what the main focus was. But mid way through the first episode, I finally understood the main plot (especially after we were explained what "reboot" was), and things became really exciting from that moment onwards. However what I did not foresee was the multiple shocking twists that were revealed in almost every episode with a lot of suspense throughout the whole series. It got me really hooked and could not stop watching.
The series itself consisted of 10 episodes with most of them having duration of 46/47 minutes except for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd which were more than 1 hour. It was actually a bit unusual for Japanese series to be released full episodes in 1 go cause they normally had 1 episode per week. I checked on the internet and found that in Japan the series was aired on TBS station from mid January to end of March 2026. For me though, it was a good thing Netflix made all available in one day cause it meant I could binge watch it without having to wait for few weeks. Anyway, the series did not seem to be based on any manga or anime so it was purely the creativity of the screenwriter Kuroiwa Sutamu (Tokyo MER: The Movie, all 5 Kingdom movies etc) which I thought was awesome.
The cast in general did decent job with the one that caught my attention Ryohei Suzuki whom I was pretty familiar with and performed amazingly here. In addition to the above, the series had an ensemble cast including some in support roles such as Meisa Kuroki (Lupin III, Ninkyo Helper TV series etc) as Gidou's wife Mayu, Rinka Ueno (Red Bridge etc) as Fuyuhashi's trusted friend Machi, Sayaka Yamaguchi (Tokyo Water Police TV series etc) as Hayase's missing wife Natsumi, Aju Makita (House of Ninjas TV series, Look Back etc) as Gidou's junior detective Adachi and plenty others. I also thought one of the support cast Yoshi Sakou (Gannibal TV series etc) was really fitting as sleazy dirty lawyer Kaieda.
Although the plot twists were quite abundant here, not all of them might be surprising to everyone. That major twist revealed roughly after three quarters of the series was a big shock for me but I am pretty sure that my wife would have caught on to it way before. Meanwhile the rest were pretty well kept though I was able to guess some of them earlier. Of all the episodes, my most favorite was the 8th which I felt was intelligently done. The finale was satisfying, but I actually thought they would do it differently on the main characters. Nevertheless it was still OK for me.
Overall this to me was an entertaining mystery series full of plot twists that would satisfy audience who love such genre. Its strength was not on the action sequence (which was just so so to my opinion) but more towards the ability to keep things interesting and suspenseful till the end. So if you are fans of series with such attributes, then I think you would enjoy this like I did. However if you prefer lots of action and not too comfortable with a little bit of sci-fi element (which btw reminded me of the very popular 1990s action movie by John Woo) then this might not be to your liking. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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