Drama: Swindle Detective (English) / Heron Detective (literal title)
Romaji: Sagideka
Japanese: サギデカ
Director: Shinichi Nishitani, Naoki Murahashi
Writer: Naoko Adachi
Characters: Fumino Kimura, Mahiro Takasugi, Hidekazu Mashima, Hiroya Shimizu, Rika Adachi, Kenichi Endo, Pinko Izumi
Sagideka is a crime drama that deals with fraud cases and scams, so this time there would be no murder and violence around. But it doesn't mean it is less engaging and won't have enough motivation to make it character-driven enough for a crime drama genre. A well known Italian poet,
Dante Alighieri said in his poem "
the divine comedy", fraud is the worst form of sins, the ultimate evil. He even said that in lower depths of hell, you wouldn't find the ones who committed violent acts, but those who violated trust. Fraud can be worst than murder because it can bring emotional trauma to the victim, which some of them could commit suicide. White-collar crime is said to be worst as it violates god's greatest gift to humanity, which is love.
Episode one did a great job of showing the motivation of two of the main characters, Imamiya Karen, a detective who deals with fraud and scam cases and Kaji Hayato, the one who got arrested for voice phishing case. It's an intense episode for character introduction, but at the same time not giving the entire back story away. It made me intrigued and have something to look forward to for the next episodes.
Also, In this episode, we witness this poor grandma getting scammed twice. It was one heavy episode as it is infuriating to see this poor grandma kneeling in front of his son while saying sorry for being stupid. It's also frustrating at the same time when you realize how hard it is to convict them because of lack of evidence.
What I didn't like though is when they try to make us feel sorry for that kid scammer. They pulled a sad story about him like as if it will justify his actions and decisions. I appreciate Jdramas for being raw and not having typical black and white morality tropes. Nothing to be argued with that since our world is a big grey area, but I still believe there is pure positive and pure negative in our society, where "expressing love and kindness" is pure positive while violating trust for financial gain is pure negative. They can't shrug it off and portrayed him as a hero in the end. But after he got arrested, the character starts to wear two faces, so I'm not sure how it will end. I have no idea which side is he on really?
Another negative is the jarring special effects, but I guess that's understandable since Japanese dramas are not known for its good special effects.
I do love the acting, though. Kimura Fumino has become a great actress, and she's convincing in this drama. Thanks to her roles in police mystery dramas, those roles help her to refine herself as an actress. Compare to her girl next door roles before she does look like a different actress now. Masahiro Takasugi is doing a solid performance too. There is an excellent dynamics between him and Fumino, they are enemies, but they also understand where each other is coming from, and that kind of interaction is what makes me look forward to next episodes.
There's also a bit of romance here which involves her bike buddy, Takano Hideaki, played by Aoki Munetaka. The chemistry is already there in just one episode, and nothing to be surprised as both of them co-starred in other crime dramas before. I could sense a bad vibe about him, though. I already watched too many dramas that it's too obvious what are they trying to set up here.
Overall good first impression as the drama did hook me a bit and made me excited for the next episodes.
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