Monsters

MONSTERS is a Japanese crime series that aired on TBS from October 21st to December 9th 2012. The series consists of 8 episodes with an average duration of 45 minutes.

Story: Kosuke Saionji is designated to the best investigation team and is close to fulfilling his dream but he ends up assigned to Heihachi Hiratsuka, a top class detective who was working alone, he needs to take care of because of Hiratsuka's loud and impolite personality and his possible secrets in solving crimes. Every episode follows another crime and the investigation led by Hiratsuka.

Cast: The very first thing I need to say about this series is that it seems to be satirical. Everything is just a little overdone from acting to the way the cases are shown. In its own genre mixing up comedy and crime it is not bad but if it was a real crime drama it would lack some seriousness. This shows extremely well in the eccentric character of Heihachi Hiratsuka played by Shingo Katori. His acting in the eccentric way is good as well as some of the serious parts are great, too. As an actor I don't remember being familiar with Katori but I enjoyed his acting in this drama.
Tomohisa Yamashita as Kosuke Saionji is the helpless subordinate type of character and I honestly don't think this drama shows the strong side of his acting but it is a different side of what I've seen in most dramas he was starring in (that I watched so far of course).
Other characters were rarely in the focus as this drama just evolves around these two but other actors in this drama include Kenichi Endo, Tomoya Warabino, Daisuke Kikuta, Tatsuya Hino, Tomoya Shiroishi, Yasukage Hinaka and Makoto Otake.
 
Soundtrack: I totally loved the soundtrack and the music played in the episodes. I can't really explain why but I think it did highlight the atmosphere very well.


In total I rated this drama as 8/10 as it is not a full crime drama but includes comedy so the eccentric and over-the-top parts were intended to be that way. The crimes in each episode were interesting but sometimes it was a little obvious what might have happened. I would recommend this if you like the type of satirical crime dramas but if you only watch this for Tomohisa Yamashita you might be disappointed as this is not his best drama.