ON Ijou Hanzai Sousakan Todo Hinako (2016) Drama Information and Episode 1

ON Ijou Hanzai Sousakan Todo Hinako (2016)

There is only one time that you will see me recap a drama; and that is Japanese dramas! No, they are never the popular ones! They are usually the ones that no one is talking and definitely no one is watching. It is my hope that interest in these dramas are stimulated by my enthusiasm in writing about them. ON Ijou Hanzai Sousakan Todo Hinako (On: Special Agent Todo Hinako) is definitely the one for this Summer season 2016. Read on.

Genre: Crime/Mystery/Investigative/Detective
Episodes: TBD
Broadcast network: Fuji TV / KTV
Began Airing July 12, 2016 on Tuesdays
Screenwriter: Furuya Kazunao (Sumika Sumire, Ouroboros, PRICELESS, Galileo, LIAR GAME)

Synopsis
Todo Hinako is a first-year detective who graduated from the police academy at the top of her class. She always carries with herself a bottle of shichimi chili peppers which was left by her late mother and sprinkles shichimi over everything she eats. Despite her a bit quirky/cheerful demeanor, she holds dark secrets locked deep within her heart… Hinako became a detective, because she wants to find the line between people who kill and those who don’t. Once her “crime-solving switch” is on, nothing can stop Hinako from tackling even the most bizarre crime cases. Armed with her overwhelming memory and unstoppable curiously, will Hinako be able to find answers to her question through seeking to solve various crimes? — Fuji TV

Cast
Haru as Todo Hinako
Yokoyama Yu as Shoji Yasuhisa
Kaname Jun as Kurashima Keiichiro
Takahashi Tsutomu as Kataoka Keizo
Saito Shinji as Miki Takeshi
Momose Saku as Shimizu Ryoshin
Sato Ryo as Tsukioka Maki
Hayashi Kento as Nakajima Tamotsu
Okunuki Kaoru as Todo Kaori
Mitsuishi Ken as Hayasaka Masaomi
Harada Mieko as Ishigami Taeko
Watabe Atsuro as Atsuta Iwao
Ito Mamiko as Sairenji Reika
Yamanaka Takashi as Saito Fumitaka (ep1)
Shimizu Yutaka as Miyahara Akio (ep1)
Miura Takahiro as Kobayashi Shota (ep1)
Shinoda Mariko as Suzuki Hitomi (ep1

Recap
Hinako Todo rookie detective of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department investigation, Section 1. Todo carries a can of shichimi which is a keepsake of her mother. Todo sprinkles the shichimi on everything. This does seem to be somewhat of an oddball trait of hers as shichimi is a seven-flavor chili pepper seasoning. Cannot imagine drinking coffee/cocoa or any beverage with this mixed in but Todo does this religiously.

One day, a man named Akio Miyahara (Yu Shimizu) has been found dead and the Investigation Section 1 is contacted. Hinako remembers the name instantly from an earlier arrest and that the man arrested had the same name. Atsuta Iwaootto (Watabe Watanabe) is surprised about this information and the fact that Todo has memorized the suspect list of unresolved cases and sexual offenses that occurred in the metropolitan area in the past 10 years.

Yasuhisa Shoji (Hiroshi Yokoyama), senior criminal detective as well as Kurashima Keiichiro (Jun Kaname) visit the crime scene along with Hinako. The victim, Akio Miyahara is found in the same, exact position and with the exact same wounds as the case three years ago in which a school girl was murder and that Miyahara was a person of interest to the police but was subsequently released because of lack of evidence. At Miyahara’s home, the police discover a smartphone on the scene which contains a video of Miyahara’s ghastly image as he is being attacked by someone that is not seen.

Later, it is discovered that another victim of Miyahara, Sanae Udagawa (Yumi Kashiwabara), that Todo and Shoji visit has committed suicide three months ago when they go to visit her home to speak more on her case; however, they meet with Nakajima, who works as a psychosomatic medicine physician (Kento Hayashi) as he tumbles down the stairs. The two detectives learned that Sanae’s suicide was caused by harassing phone calls and text messages from Miyahara. This began right before she was to marry after Miyahara saw her and her future husband together.

The detectives learn that the autopsy results are now available. According to Taeko Ishigami, medical examiner (Mieko Harada), she notices that the wounds on Miyahara are identical to the wounds on the high school girl’s body from the case three years ago; However, it is determined that the wounds are self-inflicted, something that Miyahara himself did to his own body! In other words, the death of Miyahara, is ruled a suicide. Minutes later, it is discovered that the same video that was found on Miyahara’s smartphone has now been uploaded to the internet. It is later discovered that an app on his phone has automatically uploaded the video.

The next day there is another murder reported of a woman’s body found in the park. The victim turns out to be Hitomi Suzuki (Mariko Shinoda), a Traffic Officer and close friend of Hinako. Just like the Miyahara incident, a video of Suzuki’s killing is also uploaded and the police determine it is the same app. In investigating the app, the police’s crime lab finds that the app was created by none other than the former fiance of suicide victim, Sanae, Fumitaka Saito (Takashi Yamanaka) who works at a development company. But Saito is brought into questioning, it admits that he created the app upon request by some unknown person that wanted to help him expose Miyahara’s wrongdoings using the software that he developed. He has no idea how it ended up on Suzuki’s phone. The mystery deepens.

Hinako returns to the murder scene of her friend where she once again meets Nakajima. Todo and Nakajima began a conversation where he talks about a case he once worked on, a case that involved an abandoned and abused child that committed a crime. Todo looks up the case at the police station and reviews the boy’s confession when he killed his mother with a bat. It is during this review that Hinako saw the boy, Sho Otomo (Takahiro Miura) and what happened to her friend Hitomi is similar. It is later revealed that Hitomi was wearing the same perfume as the slain mother of Otomo. She also noticed that both murder scenes contained naked light bulbs.

It is with these two factors that Hinako believes that an internal switch, if you will, triggered Otomo’s murderous intent that caused him to kill Suzuki. She confronts him at the restaurant that he is working which is also the last place that Suzuki was seen alive. At the same time, Shoji, who paid an informant for information, gets the same information about Sho Otomo. As Todo literally forces Sho’s ‘switch’ to turn on and he begins to attack her with an iron pipe, Shoji comes in and proceeds to beat the crap out of Sho minutes before the rest of the detectives show up to stop. However, after a few days, Otomo bruises his own head in the detention facilities, resulting in his death.

Thoughts
I’ve left a lot of details out purposely because this was a very interesting (as Todo likes to say) episode. There are two, no three people with some serious issues going on here: Todo herself. This girl dreams about the details of murders even before they happen. She literally puts herself into the shoes of the murderer at time. It is very weird to watch her facial features and the fact that none of this seems to bother her. Her reaction to her friend, Suzuki being killed is not what you would expect. I think as we get more and more into this drama, there is going to be a lot more revealed.

Shoji. I despise this character right now. There is something very unnerving about him. One of the things I dislike the most about him is his treatment of Todo. When he grabbed her and dragged her from the Suzuki’s murder scene, I was waiting for her to slap him or something but him being her senpai, she’s too respectable; however, when he grabbed her collar after the altercation with Sho, I really think there is a screw loose there; but why is the question.

Last but not least is Nakajima. Now, there is a strange man. There is something up with him! As a psycho-therapist, I wouldn’t be surprised if he is behind the scenes in all that is happening, we shall see. Overall, it was a great start to what is going to be a very interesting story. Dark? Hell yes!! Stay away if you don’t like dark. Romance? Not happening in this one, so don’t look for it!

Rating so far: Giving this one an 8.5/10. There is enough mystery going on that as well as the weekly cases but the delving into the psyche of a few characters will make this one interesting week to week.