I don’t wanna feel Blue anymore...
It’s been a year since the drama aired but I finally felt it was time. Partially because there isn’t much video content now, partially because I forgot how much I hate EMMA but mostly because I am writing a fic where Shige is based on Aoyama and I thought I might as well.
If you’re a big fan of the show you might wanna skip this review but I bet by now you know I’m not here for blind admiration.
Every detective drama has to have a thing that sets sit apart from the others. Maybe the crimes are solved by kids, maybe the detective is a Lolita girl with super-smell or maybe she talks to ghosts. All of which are sadly real J-drama plots and very shallow ones too. What sets this drama apart is that it is based on something more solid - Adler’s psychology or more precisely a book based on Adler’s psychology.
I’ve been interested in psychology since very young age but I never got to learn about Adler. So I read about him a bit and the dude was really woke for his time. He advocated for a more egalitarian society, better mental healthcare, more rights for women. He made a huge contribution to psychology and his works were largely absorbed into it.
“Kirawareru Yuuki” was only loosely adapted from Adler’s many ideas, but it has a unique relevance in Japan where you are expected to submit to a strict societal order, never stand out too much and always be polite. Ando is an anti-hero of the Japanese traditional culture. Or she is supposed to be.
So, what I’m saying is, I like the idea of using a popular medium such as a drama to educate people but the execution of that idea is frankly underwhelming. The plot is very typical of any Japanese detective drama and is often loosely tied to the Adlerian principles. You have to take pity of the 8th department for having to solve a myriad of hate and revenge crimes committed for petty reasons. But that isn’t what bothers me the most. I could easily overlook the massive plotholes if the characters compensated for them. Alas, they didn’t.
Ando Ranko is a brilliant detective and a resident bitch. “So what?” one might say. “She is a “strong female character”. And when I started to watch the drama I told myself that if Ando was a male character, she would be perceived differently. Take Lightman from Lie to me. He’s an absolute pain in the ass and yet he’s a brilliant scientist and analyst and that’s what really matters. However, unlike Lightman, she completely lacks any charm. Sure, she is smart, tough, and gives no fucks. However, that’s literally all she is. Ando has about as much emotions as a Terminator. She doesn’t laugh or cry. The only times she displays a controlled smile is when she meets her brother or steals cake from children.
Adler said you need to have courage to be hated but Ando seemed to understand it as making it her mission to be as unpleasant as possible and make everyone hate her. She ignores orders, looks down on everyone and is constantly unnecessarily rude. And that would be fine if it was for the sake of investigation only but she treats all of her colleagues the same way. Her biggest pleasure is solving crime and giving incredibly patronizing speeches to the culprits. I patiently waited and hoped there would be a reveal, something that would make her more human but it never came.
Aoyama is a puppy in human form whose whole purpose is to help the viewers learn about Adler and make Ando look cool. Aoyama is pretty much useless right until the end where he absorbs Adler’s way. And you’d hope for some character development but instead he is just gradually possessed by Ando Ranko and speaks with her words. He also gets stabbed and nearly dies but jumps back into the case right after he regains consciousness because wounds are overrated and so are phone calls. But in the end he is awkwardly charming and feels like a real person rather than a stock character.
And then there’s Daimonji-sensei who is a talking book in a suit. I really hoped he was the villain, some Adler-hooked psycho who kidnapped Ando to turn her into an experiment. Instead, he is an absolute failure - not telling Ando anything about her father’s investigation and not realizing the killer was working in his office the whole time. The only thing he succeeds in is successfully making himself the lead suspect.
Another thing I wanted to touch upon here is the relationship between the two leads. When I first started watching J-dramas I was puzzled at the fact that unless a drama was specifically romantic, there was hardly a romantic storyline. Which felt odd as we are all brainwashed by the Western media that two attractive people working together have a 99% chance to kiss at the end of the plotline. I celebrated this new realization. That was until I realized that J-dramas do not destroy a trope. Instead, they have their own trope which is the female lead who is obsessed with her work and is painfully oblivious to the mild interest of her male colleague who awkwardly tries to get her attention to no avail. I haven’t even watched that many dramas but even if you take NEWS dramas alone you can see this pattern (ie Deka Wanko, Resident, Hokaben).
Overall, I think the drama is pretty average. But it made me think about many things and write this longass post and to me that means it was worth it.