Skip to main content

"Unnatural" Is A J-Drama That Manages To Make Crime Drama, Not So Intense


When it comes to crime dramas--I think South Korean and Taiwanese Chinese ones provide the best suspense. This is coming from someone who can't stand realistic torture scenes! I watched Crisis: Special Security Squad and it was good. Vivant was also interesting. I may have not enjoyed this as much as South Korean or Taiwanese Chinese crime dramas--it still deserves some praise. 

The drama doesn't take things too far like Copycat Killer -- the Taiwanese adaptation of a Japanese crime novel. I enjoyed Copycat Killer for balancing gore (and not prolonging torture scenes or not focusing on them) and the GOOD WRITING. Unnatural also goes with a mysterious serial killer who goes by the Goldfish. Finding corpses with a goldfish mark in the mouth hints that it wasn't an accident. Instead, they're on the hunt for a serial killer while working on ongoing cases. The J-Drama goes for 10 episodes -- a tad bit longer than overbudgeted K-Dramas. 

The main character Mikoto Misumi (Satori Ishihara) works at Unnatural Death Investigation. One of the characters, Kai Nakado (Arata Iura) is cold and distant because of his late girlfriend's death. It was also nice to see Ryo Ryusei make some short appearances every now and then as Nagumo Kibayashi. I want to pretend that Daigo Kiryu from Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger was helping people even outside spandex. As the series goes on, some mysteries slowly unravel while the team focuses on helping others. 

I'd say the lack of gore might be a good experience for other people. Sure, the crime drama is usually the type to hit gore by the buckets. It's safe to assume that the TBS Drama Production wanted to tone things down. It might be surprising because Japanese Anime can be downright brutal. In this case, the toning down may have worked like a charm. Violence or gore just for the sake of either is just plain bad writing. It shows that one can have a crime drama without being downright brutal. It can be a worthy addition if one's seen K-Dramas like Police University and Pride and Prejudice

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

"Light The Night's" Finale (Spoilers Ahead)

  SpikyTV I guess the series just kept us guessing, right? I finally got the chance to finish it after some busy nights. I was right that the killer was HANA (Esther Liu) BUT there's a twist - it was more of voluntary manslaughter than murder. Manslaughter is when one kills out of the heat of passion and that's what Hana did twice in the story. Hana had one against a client who used her and another against Sue after some unfortunate insanity attack. Hana ends up planning to hand herself over but her lover commits murder (towards a character named Chiang An) to protect her.  The whole psychological thriller for me just didn't match up to what I wanted. I guess I was too used to how Victim's Game rolled out. I was expecting some real murder scheme. Instead, it was the anti-climatic manslaughter where Hana decides to hand herself to the authorities after what she did. I really still think that the finale wasn't worth too much of the wait. I was expecting something gran

I Just Finished "My Golden Life"

I finally finished My Golden Life which I was hesitant to watch. 52 one-hour long episodes? I was thinking it was easier to watch the Wuxia series that had 40+ minutes per episode such as Princess Weiyang which was quite long. A lot of episodes of My Golden Life would have a few minutes more depending on the coverage of the episode. So, I'm done and I never thought I'd actually finish it since I'm way too used to short K-Dramas. This one was rather long but it was rather entertaining in many ways. I was thinking about how Shin Hye Sun actually did well with on-screen partner Park Si Hoo. Sometimes, I'd like to joke about how they had a chemistry that looked good and felt good. Looked good? Both aren't attractive and I often joke how Hye Sun's face feels melted or how she was rightfully matched with Lee Jong Suk in Hymn of Death . Hye Sun isn't pretty but she really makes up with her good acting and likability. The same goes for Si Hoo with how he acts out hi

Just Finished "My Glamorous Imperial Concubine" (Some Spoilers)

  This is another Wuxia series finished. I was having some expectations broken. The show can be full of spoilers when discussed even further. In fact, some characters are walking spoilers. If you're not ready to be spoiled - DON'T READ. If not, you can read further. I feel the show had some plot twists and turns. Besides, maybe some of the villains in this show weren't as evil as you think.  Emperor Liancheng is an antagonist but dies before the show can end. Liancheng may have some idiotic obsession with Ma Fuya. It becomes even worse when Liancheng's younger sister Liansi and his younger brother Lianxi get involved. Liansi develops a crush on Meng Qiyou and even gets pregnant in the process. It seems that Ma Fuya was pregnant with Liancheng's baby but ends up in Qiyou's household after Liancheng dies. Liancheng dies doing a selfless act to save Ma Fuya. The obsessive empress Ma Xiangyun commits suicide to kill Emperor Liancheng. Emperor Liancheng's quite a