Drama: Pure! ~ One-day idol director's case book ~
Romanji: ピュア！～一日アイドル署長の事件簿～
Characters: Hamabe Minami, Higashide Masahiro
Pure is a police mystery drama where two unlikely pair solves crime scene puzzles that if you've watched too many crime dramas the mystery would look like a child's play to you. It's very predictable and it seems it was written for a kid who would not try to think about it critically. But the Pure is not trying to be another SPEC or Sherlock type of series, it's a comedy where you should not take the plot seriously.
Kurobara Junko (Hamabe Minami) is an unpopular idol. She always pretends to be innocent, but the truth is she's an absurd girl and envious of other popular idol. She has a knack for finding other people's dirty little secrets which she uses to put stain on other idol's reputations. Getting rid of other idols means less competition. She then volunteers as one-day police commissioner to increase her popularity, but ends up discovering a dead body.
She uses this opportunity to become more popular. She thought that maybe people will see her as a hero if she solved the crime. Due to her obsession with vilifying her rival idols, she gained critical thinking that would help solve a crime. With the help detective Todo Shusaku (Higashide Masahiro), another incompetent person for the job, both of them find clues and try to find the serial killer.
I would say the humor is good in this one. There are times I find myself laughing at the main character's sarcasm and their foolishness. The witty banter also added up to the chemistry between both these characters, it's very entertaining.
The acting and the whole drama's setting is a typical Jdrama comedy. The characters are very comical to the point of being caricature-like, it's like they come straight from the manga. I'm not sure if this drama is also based on a manga though like most Japanese dramas. It's cringe yes, but if you are used Jdramas comedy and you already know the entertainment value you'll get then it's the good type of cringe.
Both actors established themselves as comedic actors, Hamabe Minami with her Jabami Yumeko(Kakegurui) and Masahiro Higashide with the success of Confidence Man. They are both very good in this drama. Their comedic facial expression is spot on. Higashide is also very good playing sarcastic characters while Hamabe with her "he he he laughter" is adorably funny in her new role. This new quirky duo share great chemistry on screen, it's so good that it's the only thing that will stand out in this drama, like put them in whatever type of plot, I'll watch.
The genres in Japanese drama are very diverse, it's not as simple as if you like Japanese drama then you'll love all the aspects of Japanese drama. We all have different cringe tolerance and if you are not used to Japanese comedy it might be too cringe for you. And also, certain genres exist for certain audiences, so if we do apples to apples comparison, I think "Pure" will hold on its own, a good WTF-JAPAN-SERIOUSLY type of comedy.
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