Couch Cruisin'

Hello everybody! Welcome to Sunday Drama, where we watch a dramatic series. This time, we are watching Detective v Detectives episodes 5 and 6. You guys, this show is a fantastic thriller. It kind of reminds me of Jack Ryan on Amazon. There is plenty of intrigue and intensity to keep your fists clutched and shoulders to your ears. Let’s get into it.

Episode 5

In the last episode, Rena caught killer and torturer Hiike. Hiike fell off of the balcony and is in serious condition. In this episode, he is lying in the hospital. Rena hears that he is awake. She wants to get intel about the Death God. She attempts to go seem him, even though the hospital is covered in policemen. She manages to make it to Hiike’s hospital room. Rena finds him dead from some sort of injection. The police believe that Rena is the culprit.

Most of the interesting stuff involves Kotoha. In episode 4, she finds a video of her sisters Ayane’s apartment. In the video, Rena is kneeling on the floor. In this episode, Ayane erased the incriminating videos, but Kotoha recovers them. In the new footage, Kotoha sees Rena apologizing to Kotoha, followed by all kinds of abuse at the hands of Kotoha’s sister and others. Disgusted at the footage, Kotoha decides to confront her sister. Ayane says that she needed to teach Rena a lesson. She’s lucky that Rena felt so guilty. Otherwise, Ayane, her husband, and their friends would’ve caught a beatdown. Kotoha leaves her crazy sister’s house and returns to the Suma Detective Agency to work with Rena.

Episode 6

This episode is so freaking good! At the beginning of episode 5, we see a battered women’s shelter. For some reason, four of the women “escape” through the forest and get into vans. The police are called to investigate. In this episode, Rena joins the investigation when she learns that the Death God is probably involved. Rena learns the name of one of the abusive husbands and goes to his house. When they arrive, police investigator Yuma Kubozuka is on the scene. Back during the Aribu episodes, Kubozuka was the only officer that thought something was fishy about Aribu. But, his superiors ignored him and even put him on vacation. In this episode, he warns Rena to lie low before she is arrested. When he leaves, Rena steals some mail. With it, she tracks down the abusive husband.

Eventually, the abusive husband leads her to a meeting. In this meeting are the husbands and boyfriends of the abused women who ran from the shelter. They are there to retrieve the women as if they are lost property. We learn that the criminal organization Nohozu is behind the kidnappings. Here’s what I think happened: They probably told the girls that the abusive men found them and that they needed to escape. More than likely, the organization used the Death God to find the girls. Then planted someone inside the facility to get the women out of the shelter.

At any rate, Rena is caught eavesdropping on the conversation. She tries to get away but fails. Kotoha knew that Rena was going to get into trouble so she called Kubozuka for help, but he’s too late. Kotoha couldn’t call the agency because she promised Rena she would not tell them her next step. They probably would’ve tried to stop her from making another reckless decision.

Wrapping It Up

Well, that’s it for Detective v. Detectives. This week, we’ll get into Dr. Stone episode 7 and Demon Slayer episode 20. On The Lost Otaku, I’ll bring you episodes 9 and 10 of To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts. I will see you later.

Hello everybody! Welcome back to Sunday Drama, where we watch episodes from a drama. This time, we are watching 2015’s Detective v Detectives. Episodes 3 and 4 have some unbelievable twists and turns. In these two episodes, secrets are revealed, villains are unmasked, and new secrets emerge. The information we get in these episodes is usually reserved for near the end of a season. Recall that Sakura is our main character Rena’s sister. A detective helped Sakura’s killer find Sakura, who’d left her home to escape a sadistic stalker. But thanks to the detective that Rena calls the “Death God”, Sakura is murdered. Let’s get into episode 3.

Episode 3

Episode 3 really takes us on a ride. We know that from the previous episode the killer Okao isn’t dead. We get this information from the DNA analyst in charge of collecting evidence from the crime scene of a kidnapped little girl. In this episode, Rena asks the analyst to gather any information she can about the investigation, then contact her if she gets something. The analyst agrees to do so.

Meanwhile, Khotoa is trying to find a way to connect with Rena. Suma, the head of Rena and Khotoa’s detective agency, tells Khotoa that she needs to open up to Rena because that’s the only way to gain her trust. Later that night Rena is about to go to Okao’s possible hideout. This is a tip that she receives from the DNA analyst. Prior to leaving, Khotoa confesses that she knew Sakura and that they were friends. She feels responsible for Sakura’s death because the pair were supposed to meet the day she disappeared. This is enough to gain Rena’s trust and the two set out for Okao’s alleged hideout.

When they arrive at the hideout, Rena tells Khotoa to stay in the car. Rena then proceeds to make all the noise there is to make. Rena lacks both noise and light discipline. She’s stomping around the hideout, shining a flashlight and creating a huge ruckus. If Okao is in this building, he’s well aware of Rena’s presence.

Well, Okao isn’t there. We know this because the DNA analyst is lurking in the shadows. The analyst says that Okao’s dead. She works for Abiru and this was a trap. There’s also a hired detective with the analyst. He’s captured Khotoa and nearly kills her. He’s also responsible for using a bulldozer to push Rena’s car into the river.

Episode 4

Rena manages to defeat the evil detective. She also saves the kidnapped girl and exposes Aribu as a criminal. But, everything is swept under the rug to save the police department the embarrassment of their utter incompetence during the kidnapping. Also, they consider Rena to be a criminal (can you believe it!). But they cannot arrest her without exposing their missteps. Aribu informs Rena that he is not the Death God she seeks.

The search for the Death God continues. This time, we investigate a kidnapper who sexually assaults young women. Rena finds him through a corrupt tech detective that steals money and receives pictures of the sexual assault from the assailant. It turns out that the bad guy visited the Suma agency, claiming that his sister went missing. Rena finds the assailant, kicks his butt, and rescues the young woman. In the guy’s apartment, she discovers a report. This report proves that this guy used the same detective as Okao.

Meanwhile, Khotoa is recovering from the injuries sustained during the Aribu situation. She’s back living with her sister and has not heard from Rena in the year since the incident. One day while cleaning her apartment, she discovers a video. The video contained her sister and her brother-in-law. There were also two friends in the apartment. They were all laughing, eating, and having a good time. Just then, the camera pans and there is a girl sitting on the floor. She looks as if she was beaten. I had to rewind it a few times because the girl looks like Rena. In fact, it is Rena. What is going on there?

Overall

What an intriguing show. Everywhere you look there’s deception. The DNA analyst was a surprise until she called Rena with that location. This latest surprise of Rena’s appearance in the video may be a step too far in the “surprise twist” department. We don’t want to go so deep in the weeds that we lose track of the main idea, finding the detective responsible for Sakura’s death. But, that depends entirely on where we go from here.

Wrapping It Up

Well, that’s it for Detective v Detective episodes 3 and 4. Next week it’s back to anime with Dr. Stone and Demon Slayer. I’m still watching Yu-No, but I think I’m going to do a wrap-up of the show at the end. I don’t quite understand where the show is going this late in the season, but it has a new theme and everything. Over on The Lost Otaku, I’ll bring you episode 6 of To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts. I will see you later!

Hello everybody! Welcome to Sunday Drama, where I discuss an episode from a drama. I cannot necessarily say Japanese drama since my next show will be American Horror Story: 1984. For now, we are discussing the Japanese drama Detective v Detectives. We are on episode 2, where we are turning up the intrigue. Before we get into episode 2, allow me to refresh your memory.

Justice

Rena Sasaki is a detective that investigates corrupt detectives for Suma Private Investigations in the Anti-detective Department. She joined the company via Suma Research, the PI school. Her aim is to learn about being a detective. It was a detective that led to the death of her little sister Sakura. Sakura’s stalker hired a detective to find her so that he can kill her. He threw her and then himself into a furnace, killing them both.

Rena works hard to catch corrupt detectives and try to learn about the circumstances that led to Sakura’s death. Suma throws a monkey wrench in Rena’s work when he hires Khotoa Minemori. Khotoa is the same age that Sakura would be if she lived. She’s extremely timid, not cut out for the dangerous detective work.

One of the leading detectives in the city is Aribu. He is out to kill Rena, primarily because she is messing with his business. He also seems to know about her sister. Is he the detective responsible for her death?

In A Car…In A River

Aribu visits the Suma agency to deliver a gift to Rena. Rena’s in Chinatown taking pictures of passersby. Khotoa accepts the gift on Rena’s behalf. She runs around the office, asking what she should do with it. Everyone ignores her. She checks the gift for bugs and finds nothing.

Rena calls her and Khota tells Rena about the gift. Rena tells her to come to Chinatown. Khotoa grabs the gift and heads to Chinatown. When she arrives, Khotoa gives Rena the gift. Rena tells her that there’s probably a GPS tracker inside. She instructs Khotoa to run as fast as she can for the train. Rena takes the car and the GPS to the docks. While there, a bulldozer pushes the car into the river, with Rena in it. Rena manages to escape. Upon arriving back to the apartment, she falls asleep. Aribu is frustrated because Rena is still alive.

Aribu’s desire to kill Rena feels bigger than business disruption. It may have to do with Sakura’s death. Or, it may be as cut and dry as her impact on his business. But, Aribu has the trust of the police. Hell, he pretty much has them wrapped around his little finger. Does Rena pose that much of a threat?

The Big Discovery

While all of that is happening, there is a kidnapping. The mayor’s daughter is taken right out of her driveway. They captured surveillance of the kidnapping, but the police did not see the culprit’s face. They also found the stolen car abandoned in another location. Aribu Investigations is hired to lead the recovery efforts. Of all the charlatans to hire, the police hire Aribu.

Back in the office, Rena receives a phone call from an unexpected person. It is the DNA analyst that worked on her sister’s case. When they meet, the analyst tells Rena that her sister’s killer is still alive, and likely the little girl’s abductor.

We also learn that Khotoa was Sakura’s classmate. This brings more questions. Why did Khotoa really join Suma? What is her relationship with Sakura?

Overall

I really like the pacing of this show. It’s slow enough to give us the details we need to follow the story, but it’s moving fast enough to keep us on the edge of our seats. Everyone is keeping secrets, and some people are flat out lying. It’s going to be interesting to see what Rena finds out next.

Wrapping It Up

Well, that’s it for Detective v Detectives. Next week, we will discuss episodes 3 and 4. We will also watch more Dr. Stone, Demon Slayer, and To The Abandoned Sacred Beasts. I will see you later!