DoS Deka Review
Listen, there's two things I love more than life itself: Arashi and Kanjani8. So when I saw an actress that acted with Nino and Sakurai AND one of my Kanjani8 boys in a drama together I couldn't help but pick this one up. It seemed like a match made it heaven....which is also why I finished this show in one day. Let's begin, shall we?
Synopsis: An uber-sadistic femae detective and her nice-guy cop - an unbeatable partnership?! A delightful police comedy is born!
She has no loyalty to her organization and doesn't follow any rules. She's a detective who enjoys seeing people's troubled faces. Her name is Kuroi Maya. She chose to become a detective because she thought she could torment bad people all she wants. With her sharp intuition, she finds the suspects quicker than anybody else. Beautiful but also a pain in the neck, she unleashes her sadistic ways to round up the bad people from society. This is a story about a never-before-seen uber-sadistic detective.
Her unlucky partner? Daikanyama Shunsuke, an officer who works in a police box. Caught inbetween a strong-willed mother and younger sister, he is constantly being pushed around at home. Shunsuke and Maya have their chance encounter at a crime scene and the two end up as buddies.
Soooo, to be completely honest, this is the first time that I'm reading the synopsis for this show. I saw Ohkura and Tabe in a drama, got the basic sense that it was a police drama with a sadist detective and lept onto. Whoops?
Important Characters:
Kuroi Maya - that super sadistic girl everyone's been talking about
Daikanyama Shunsuke - DAIKAN-SAMAAAAAAAAA
Breaking it Down: I think it can easily be stated that I'm a girl that doesn't like shows with a formula. It's one of the reasons why I didn't like Nazotoki at all and I prefer shows like Ouroboros that flow and tell a story throughout the entire show. DoS Deka combines strong story telling, like in Ouroboros, with a formula each episode and makes it work.
Each episode of DoS Deka has elements that show up in each episode: the introduction of the crime, interviewing suspects, Kuroi needing to spin to figure out the crime, paying for information, etc, etc.. But, unlike Nazotoki, each element does have to hit an exact point in the episode. Each element is included at a different time, giving each episode a fresh, new feel despite using the same plot elements over and over again. It keeps the viewer from getting bored from the constant rise, wash, and repeat you get from strictly formula based shows.
One thing I will say is that the show does get predictable the more you watch it. The writers want you to know that Kuroi is a genius detective and, even from watching a few episodes, you can tell that the person she interviews and chases tends to be the person arrested at the very end. For that reason, you can tell who is behind the crime without having to go very far into the episode.
But, if the show is predictable, why watch? For me, it was the characters that were involved. I enjoyed the dynamic of Kuroi and Daikan-sama as it progressed throughout the show. I'm a stickler for character development and, depite the two leads only having a small amount of character development over the 11 episode series, the friendship that budded between the two was wonderful to witness. From the beginning, Daikan-sama was frightened and bullied by Kuroi's sadistic tendies but grew into a confident partner for her who....well, still followed at her beck and call.
As for Kuroi, we never learn too much about her backstory. We know her father is the number two in the police and she, apparently, lives alone, but not much else about her civilian life is known. I was half expecting that the police chief, another sadistic woman in the series, would be revealed to be her mother but we never received any information. Like Daikan-sama, her character doesn't go through a large change in the series. Instead, we do get a peak into her softer side, hidden deep under that sadistic shell. Her smiles start to look less evil towards Daikan-sama towards the end of the show and more caring, like a sister and brother.
Of course, being a police drama, it suffers from the biggest cliche of all: corrupt police officers. At least one episode in the show goes into a corrupt officer and how they are using the system for their own twisted brand of justice. That sole episode brought DoS Deka down from the higher rating I wanted to give the show.
Score: 3.5/5
Final Thoughts: DoS Deka manages to bring life into police dramas usually riddled with formula after formula. What the show lacks in character development, it makes up for in loveable characters, especially side characters, that makes it worth watching through until the very end.