Socho Shihatsu no Sappukei (2022)

Two dramas for the price of one

First, ignore the mdl summary; bears little resemblance with what’s actually on the show. The only things that got right are the fact that it deals with five different stories and that each one contains a “mystery” to solve.

Second and most important, there’s a HUGE disconnect between episodes 1 and 6 and episodes 2 to 5; which made it hard for me to really like this drama at first.

Basically, episode 1 (and its conclusion in episode 6) is about two classmates who never interacted before but find themselves sharing the same empty train; both are able to see past each other's mask and end up teaming up to solve the heinous crime against one of their classmates. This episode goes dark so I expected the same for the rest of the show, as a result I spent every minute of episode 2 waiting for something sinister to happen, but it's just the story of three childhood friends who meet to discuss the design for their class t-shirt. That’s all. There’s a little “mystery” going on but it’s very much an ordinary story, there’s some teenage angst but it has this warm, comforting vibe overall. Episodes 3 through 5 follow this same pattern:

-ep 3 is about two boys and their unrequired crushes

-ep 4 two estranged siblings manage to reconnect with a little the help from one of the fluffiest cats ever

-ep 5 is about two girls (the class president and the class outcast) finding common ground in the last day of their high school life.

In short, episodes 1 and 6 fall very much in the investigation/crime genre, while episodes 2 to 5 are very much slice of life/ coming of age stories.

At first I really struggled with this drama but then I re-watched it and liked it better the second time around, maybe because I knew what to expect so I was able to appreciate each of the stories more.

Finally, the outro of each episode deserves a special mention, as it shows behind the scenes with the actors posing for the cameras or just goofing around on set, which was super cute ^^

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Simple production, simple mysteries, interesting relationships

A show full of promising young actors. Generally, the show had such a way with making you care for characters in under 20 minutes -- and mind you, these are characters you only see in a single episode. The mysteries were simple but fascinating. The relationships, I think, were the stars in this. With the short amount of time per episode, we see fleshed out characters who find meaningful connections with one another -- and not a lot of dramas are able to do that. While some dramas struggle to make you care for characters after 10 episodes, the writers for this drama do not have the same dilemma.

I also have the biggest soft spot for episodes 3 and 5 if only for how queer they were. There weren't any direct confessions of love or anything like that, but it was pretty evident -- from the framing and the tension -- that Terawaki/Itori and Kusama/Susukido are meant to be couples, at least in my opinion. Plus their stories were just very, very cute too. Basically, they took the Rocker Boy/Awkward Boy and Class Prez/Weird Girl dynamics and put them into tender little stories.

The main story was also very interesting and parts of the ending were quite unexpected, for me. And though what's to come for Katogi and Sappukei's relationship is up in the air, what we were given made me hopeful for them. Overall, a very solid miniseries.

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