X Years after Kindaichi, Jijitsu is still hitotsu desu.
This is a review of 99.9 Keiji Senmon Bengoshi. At this point, I've only watched until Episode 5.
I feel so proud of Matsujun. He's done so many movies, dramas, music and a whole lot of those! After how many years after portraying Kindaichi, here he is, still fighting for the truth.
Yes, the whole point of 99.9 is amazing. A 99.9% conviction rate in Japan is actually pretty scary and we salute those 0.01% who seek the truth and help defendants from false accusations. The whole truth-seeking adventure with the team is one journey to watch.
Miyama is the hero, the brilliant truth-seeking person behind the team's success. Sasuga desu ne. He takes the courage to go against the tide and search for the truth. Even if he is at the defendant's side, his aim was never to defend the accused, but to reveal the truth - because "there is only one truth" as he says. Jijitsu wa hitotsu desu kara. One of his motivators was his father's case. Perhaps, why he wanted to become a lawyer- to seek the truth he wasn't able to find when his father's case happened. Finally, when the case was solved and the truth revealed, it was too late. His dad lived his life in prison, as a criminal, and the culprit escaped and died as well. Miyama's tragedy is sadly ironic. Here he is, in search for the truth in criminal cases, but he was too late to solve his own father's case - the one that mattered to him the most. "Tragic" hero.
Sada - the senpai everybody loves to bully because he's just so annoyingly selfish, but fun. A comedic side to the drama (aside from Miyama's constant puns) Even though he's always on a friendly fight with Miyama, they get along pretty well because of their common interest - a love for puns.
Akashi, ikimasu! Another comedic note. What a fun person to watch. He really drops down to the ground to beg. Such determination to seek the truth and to pass the board exams. Hope he does next time.
Let me talk about Ozaki Maiko, that one character that struck me the most. She's brilliant. Her role is just flying with colors. We all know the drill (if you've seen the dorama, that is). She used to be a judge and even though she is aware of the 99.9% conviction rate and how she lived that as a judge handling cases, she is very much convinced that she is upholding the truth- that there might be some truth to the 99.9% conviction rate, that's because these criminals are really the one to blame. Not until she joined the Madarame law firm as a lawyer and worked with Miyama's team in search for the truth in all these cases. Convinced that her friend's case is a useless journey, she goes to find a way to lighten the sentence of her friend's father, because in the perspective of a judge, she is confident that her friend's father will be charged guilty. When she tags along with Miyama's team, she realizes everything- not all preliminary reports are true, not all data presented at court are real, which means, the judge is deceived to charge a faulty sentence - which in itself, is not the justice she thinks she's trying to serve. She realizes all of these in her time as lawyer. This just proves that even if you reach the highest status, you don't know everything there is to know. Only when she became a lawyer did she realize that she has been fooled by the prosecution thus proving the 99.9% conviction rate myth. She wouldn't have known if she never became a lawyer. Really, you have to get in the shoes of somebody else to understand their situation and to learn many things.
Fumino wasn't just a replacement to Eikura Nana, Ozaki Maiko had depth, perspective and so much color and I'm looking forward to seeing her discover more truth.
Update as of July 10, 2018:
I'M DEFINITELY GOING TO MISS THIS HUHU AND EIKURA NANA'S CAMEO WAS GREAT I'M SO GLAD SHE DIDN'T GET LEFT BEHIND
Seems like it's really the end. Sayonara Madarame Law firm! Bye Miyama and team! Will definitely miss all the fun