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Cos I need to post this somewhere...
Revisiting the Kindaichi drama franchise.... I have to say that I do still have some preferences. And not so surprisingly, it doesn't change much. And one can basically sum it all based on the 'era' of the series. Like my fav Kindachi is in this order (most fav to least): Domoto Tsuyoshi > Yamada Ryosuke > Matsumoto Jun > Kamenashi Kazuya. That said, each series had its good parts and not so great.
Kindaichi 1st Gen - Domoto Tsuyoshi
(+) Point:
- Perfect Kindaichi
- Extra: Tsuyoshi's Hajime is scared of ghosts and practically anything remotely scary.
- Perfect Nanase.
- Perfect Kenmochi
- Only appearance of the Gentleman Thief.
- First appearance of Itsuki and Reika.
- Perfect OST by Mitake Akira.
(-) Point:
- Only appearance of Akechi but he's very out of character.
- Makabe had more appearance even in cases that don't originally have him.
- Makabe's lil bro was basically Saki Ryuji if he had been born a Makabe.
- Very reduced appearance of Saki.
- Detective Mukai end up taking many of the role of other minor detectives that originally appear in manga.
Of all the 4 versions of the Kindaichi life action series, this first one was my top favourite. Tsuyoshi was almost exactly like manga Hajime, in terms of appearance (not exactly but he does bring out the whole looks dumb most of the time before changing once he's up to solving mysteries). His Hajime was as goofy and lovable as manga!Hajime too, what's not to like about him? Tomosaka Rie's a perfect match to Tsuyoshi's Hajime and was as close as possible to the characterism of manga!Miyuki. Her character also as reliable and can stand as her own without having to rely on Hajime too much. We also got to see her solve a case in Hajime's place (with a bit of his help) as she said his catchphrase once she gain the resolve to see the case resolution till the end.
We got a pretty okay Makabe in this early two season. He's still bratty and arrogant and whiny but it's not really done like some gag which was pretty frequent in manga. Then again, that's probably because most of Saki Ryuta's traits were transferred to Makabe so his character had more role than just being a prick. Heck, Makabe's image in this season was more Saki-like than Saki. Half the time his extra appearance were due to him taking the function originally taken by Miyuki or Saki in manga. Though unfortunately for that, it reduces the appearance of the actual Saki character as some of his role in a case was transferred to Makabe and one other original character.
That said, Kenmochi in this early season was my far my most favourite. Well, compared to every other latter version of him he's the closest to his manga interpretation in both personality and appearance. Sadly, I can't say the same about Superintendent Akechi. While this earlier adaptation was the only one to actually have Akechi featured in it, he's mostly portrayed as an overly arrogant officer who's only concern is to defeat Hajime in the deduction game while occassionally misses some important clues. And being very disrespectful of the local police. His character also deviates from manga!Akechi. Yet, after reading the Yuki Yasha chapter, early Akechi did seem a bit too boastful. So the drama characterism was not that far off. His character only started being redeemed near the end of Kindaichi the Killer arc. Also due to this particular changes in his character, the parts that originally had Akechi helping Kindaichi end up being transferred to Kenmochi.
This first series had a great OST done by composer Mitake Akira. His OST was really perfect and Dangerous Mallets really hits you really and add that mysterious feel that was very Kindachi-esque.
Kindaichi 2nd Gen - Matsumoto Jun
Pros:
- Third season covered some of the best cases from manga involving Takato.
- Best Takato/Puppeteer from Hell
- Only appearance of Hajime's mum
- Second and last appearance of Reika
- Extra: MatsuJun's Hajime was scared of dogs.
Cons:
- No Akechi. His character was merged into Kenmochi's character.
- No Makabe.
- I just don't like this season's Miyuki.
- OST by Hiromori Doi.
This season was the first to feature Takato Youichi as a recurring antagonist character. Takato here looked unassuming yet turned out to be a very malicious person. While MatsuJun's Hajime was not so bad compared to Tsuyoshi's portrayal, it somewhat removed a lot of manga!Hajime's original character. Rather than his usual goofy and slightly pervy persona that often cause people to think that he was really an idiot, Matsujun portayed Kindaichi to be more of a chronic daydreamer. That said, I don't really like Miyuki in this season. Somehow she was much more of a damsel of distress in this compared to all the other Miyuki. Though to be fair I'm not sure if I disliked how she was writen in here or that Anne Suzuki just rubbed me wrong.
This season had a different composer helming the series. While in general the ost itself wasn't THAT bad, I was really attached to some of the leit motive in many of Mitake's Kindaichi Ost from previous seasons. So I can't help having a biased opinion of this season.
Kindaichi 3rd Gen - Kamenashi Kazuya
Pros:
- I like the case. Especially sjnce the vampire legend had been one of my fav.
Cons:
- OOC Kindaichi.
- OOC Miyuki.
- OOC Kenmochi.
- dumb gags
This SP was the only one that had Kame playing as Hajime and I wished that this SP had been written better. Considering that the original case was set after the time Hajime had gone on his solo trip, I wished that the SP didn't change that premise and just have the case unfold like in the original manga. But we didn't get that.
Like what happen in season 3, since we had a new cast playing the main characters we also inevitably had to see the character relationship being reset again. But unlike in season 3, everyone had their character traits rewritten to the point that they were basically unrecognisable from the original series. Hajime in this SP didn't start to want to solve crimes until the case started and was written to be very reluctant to even be associated with Kindaichi Kousuke. Somehow Kame's portrayal of Hajime made it seem as if he was born of mixed parentage or had lived abroad prior. Kame's Hajime appeared to not be fluent in Japanese, used some bad pickup lines on random girls and often skip school to spent time in arcades. While Hajime does occasionally skips school as he liked, the way Kame played him was a bit jarring. To be honest, I had to wonder if the drastic change in Hajime's writing was due to Kame's image at the time as part of KAT-TUN. His Hajime was also the only one to have had his hair dyed brown/bleached.
Likewise, the same can be said about the SP's version of Miyuki and Kenmochi-ossan. Ueno Juri's Miyuki gave no indication that she was part of the drama and/or the mystery club. Instead, there was more focus on her being active in PE class or being athletic. Again, as with Kame's Hajime I wonder if the writing had been influenced by Juri's earlier works that may involve with her being sporty. Only saving grace of her Miyuki was her convincing Hajime to try using his inherited gift from his grandfather to solve the vampire mystery. Words failed me on what to say regarding Kenmochi. The character in the SP was like a caricature of policeman trope character that was only bearing the Kenmochi name.
Tl;dr, there's too much deviation of the characters/story from the original makes the SP more like an different series rather than a Kindaichi casefile story. It might as well be an AU. Have to say that Kame's Hajime was my least favourite Hajime. Though to be fair, I kinda wished that Kame had a chance to expand his version of Hajime since there's a lot of questions unexplained in his version, due to plenty of changes made on the characters back stories. After all, this vampire legend case was not really suitable to be made as a starting point of a story. It'd be better had this was part of the latter cases for a new season of Kindaichi with Kame as the main lead instead of a standalone SP.
Kindaichi 4th Gen - Yamada Ryosuke
Pros:
- Second best Kindachi. While he might be a bit too cute (the rest of the trio too), his Hajime was quite as close to manga as Tsuyoshi's Hajime was.
- Extra: Yama-chan's Hajime was scared of heights as well as ghosts. He also loves Daruma Manju
- Second best Miyuki.
- Only appearance of Saki Ryuji
- Makabe was less annoying and more a fan of of the occult.
- Lee Byron/Bailong. While originally his character was exclusive to the Kowloon case, his character was merged with Akechi's and replaced Akechi's role during the Gokumon case. He's as close as having Akechi back into the series with the original Akechi's personality. His part in the Gankutsuo case tho, was transferred to Kenmochi.
- I liked Narimiya's Takato too, though I still prefer the Takato from the third season.
- Poirot is here!
- Mitake Akira returns to make the OST for the series!
Cons:
- No Akechi. His character (and plotline) was merged into Lee Byron/Bailong or tranferred to Kenmochi. I swear it's like ppl had some grudge on him. Or is there some kinda copyright dispute thing that not allowing them to have Akechi?
- Chubby Kenmochi-ossan. He's not really that bad tbh but I'm just not really vibe with him. And Occhan was one of fav detective character in the series.
- No Fumi. Her parts in cases that involved her in manga were transferred to other characters like Makabe.
Revisiting the Kindaichi drama franchise.... I have to say that I do still have some preferences. And not so surprisingly, it doesn't change much. And one can basically sum it all based on the 'era' of the series. Like my fav Kindachi is in this order (most fav to least): Domoto Tsuyoshi > Yamada Ryosuke > Matsumoto Jun > Kamenashi Kazuya. That said, each series had its good parts and not so great.
Kindaichi 1st Gen - Domoto Tsuyoshi
(+) Point:
- Perfect Kindaichi
- Extra: Tsuyoshi's Hajime is scared of ghosts and practically anything remotely scary.
- Perfect Nanase.
- Perfect Kenmochi
- Only appearance of the Gentleman Thief.
- First appearance of Itsuki and Reika.
- Perfect OST by Mitake Akira.
(-) Point:
- Only appearance of Akechi but he's very out of character.
- Makabe had more appearance even in cases that don't originally have him.
- Makabe's lil bro was basically Saki Ryuji if he had been born a Makabe.
- Very reduced appearance of Saki.
- Detective Mukai end up taking many of the role of other minor detectives that originally appear in manga.
Of all the 4 versions of the Kindaichi life action series, this first one was my top favourite. Tsuyoshi was almost exactly like manga Hajime, in terms of appearance (not exactly but he does bring out the whole looks dumb most of the time before changing once he's up to solving mysteries). His Hajime was as goofy and lovable as manga!Hajime too, what's not to like about him? Tomosaka Rie's a perfect match to Tsuyoshi's Hajime and was as close as possible to the characterism of manga!Miyuki. Her character also as reliable and can stand as her own without having to rely on Hajime too much. We also got to see her solve a case in Hajime's place (with a bit of his help) as she said his catchphrase once she gain the resolve to see the case resolution till the end.
We got a pretty okay Makabe in this early two season. He's still bratty and arrogant and whiny but it's not really done like some gag which was pretty frequent in manga. Then again, that's probably because most of Saki Ryuta's traits were transferred to Makabe so his character had more role than just being a prick. Heck, Makabe's image in this season was more Saki-like than Saki. Half the time his extra appearance were due to him taking the function originally taken by Miyuki or Saki in manga. Though unfortunately for that, it reduces the appearance of the actual Saki character as some of his role in a case was transferred to Makabe and one other original character.
That said, Kenmochi in this early season was my far my most favourite. Well, compared to every other latter version of him he's the closest to his manga interpretation in both personality and appearance. Sadly, I can't say the same about Superintendent Akechi. While this earlier adaptation was the only one to actually have Akechi featured in it, he's mostly portrayed as an overly arrogant officer who's only concern is to defeat Hajime in the deduction game while occassionally misses some important clues. And being very disrespectful of the local police. His character also deviates from manga!Akechi. Yet, after reading the Yuki Yasha chapter, early Akechi did seem a bit too boastful. So the drama characterism was not that far off. His character only started being redeemed near the end of Kindaichi the Killer arc. Also due to this particular changes in his character, the parts that originally had Akechi helping Kindaichi end up being transferred to Kenmochi.
This first series had a great OST done by composer Mitake Akira. His OST was really perfect and Dangerous Mallets really hits you really and add that mysterious feel that was very Kindachi-esque.
Kindaichi 2nd Gen - Matsumoto Jun
Pros:
- Third season covered some of the best cases from manga involving Takato.
- Best Takato/Puppeteer from Hell
- Only appearance of Hajime's mum
- Second and last appearance of Reika
- Extra: MatsuJun's Hajime was scared of dogs.
Cons:
- No Akechi. His character was merged into Kenmochi's character.
- No Makabe.
- I just don't like this season's Miyuki.
- OST by Hiromori Doi.
This season was the first to feature Takato Youichi as a recurring antagonist character. Takato here looked unassuming yet turned out to be a very malicious person. While MatsuJun's Hajime was not so bad compared to Tsuyoshi's portrayal, it somewhat removed a lot of manga!Hajime's original character. Rather than his usual goofy and slightly pervy persona that often cause people to think that he was really an idiot, Matsujun portayed Kindaichi to be more of a chronic daydreamer. That said, I don't really like Miyuki in this season. Somehow she was much more of a damsel of distress in this compared to all the other Miyuki. Though to be fair I'm not sure if I disliked how she was writen in here or that Anne Suzuki just rubbed me wrong.
This season had a different composer helming the series. While in general the ost itself wasn't THAT bad, I was really attached to some of the leit motive in many of Mitake's Kindaichi Ost from previous seasons. So I can't help having a biased opinion of this season.
Kindaichi 3rd Gen - Kamenashi Kazuya
Pros:
- I like the case. Especially sjnce the vampire legend had been one of my fav.
Cons:
- OOC Kindaichi.
- OOC Miyuki.
- OOC Kenmochi.
- dumb gags
This SP was the only one that had Kame playing as Hajime and I wished that this SP had been written better. Considering that the original case was set after the time Hajime had gone on his solo trip, I wished that the SP didn't change that premise and just have the case unfold like in the original manga. But we didn't get that.
Like what happen in season 3, since we had a new cast playing the main characters we also inevitably had to see the character relationship being reset again. But unlike in season 3, everyone had their character traits rewritten to the point that they were basically unrecognisable from the original series. Hajime in this SP didn't start to want to solve crimes until the case started and was written to be very reluctant to even be associated with Kindaichi Kousuke. Somehow Kame's portrayal of Hajime made it seem as if he was born of mixed parentage or had lived abroad prior. Kame's Hajime appeared to not be fluent in Japanese, used some bad pickup lines on random girls and often skip school to spent time in arcades. While Hajime does occasionally skips school as he liked, the way Kame played him was a bit jarring. To be honest, I had to wonder if the drastic change in Hajime's writing was due to Kame's image at the time as part of KAT-TUN. His Hajime was also the only one to have had his hair dyed brown/bleached.
Likewise, the same can be said about the SP's version of Miyuki and Kenmochi-ossan. Ueno Juri's Miyuki gave no indication that she was part of the drama and/or the mystery club. Instead, there was more focus on her being active in PE class or being athletic. Again, as with Kame's Hajime I wonder if the writing had been influenced by Juri's earlier works that may involve with her being sporty. Only saving grace of her Miyuki was her convincing Hajime to try using his inherited gift from his grandfather to solve the vampire mystery. Words failed me on what to say regarding Kenmochi. The character in the SP was like a caricature of policeman trope character that was only bearing the Kenmochi name.
Tl;dr, there's too much deviation of the characters/story from the original makes the SP more like an different series rather than a Kindaichi casefile story. It might as well be an AU. Have to say that Kame's Hajime was my least favourite Hajime. Though to be fair, I kinda wished that Kame had a chance to expand his version of Hajime since there's a lot of questions unexplained in his version, due to plenty of changes made on the characters back stories. After all, this vampire legend case was not really suitable to be made as a starting point of a story. It'd be better had this was part of the latter cases for a new season of Kindaichi with Kame as the main lead instead of a standalone SP.
Kindaichi 4th Gen - Yamada Ryosuke
Pros:
- Second best Kindachi. While he might be a bit too cute (the rest of the trio too), his Hajime was quite as close to manga as Tsuyoshi's Hajime was.
- Extra: Yama-chan's Hajime was scared of heights as well as ghosts. He also loves Daruma Manju
- Second best Miyuki.
- Only appearance of Saki Ryuji
- Makabe was less annoying and more a fan of of the occult.
- Lee Byron/Bailong. While originally his character was exclusive to the Kowloon case, his character was merged with Akechi's and replaced Akechi's role during the Gokumon case. He's as close as having Akechi back into the series with the original Akechi's personality. His part in the Gankutsuo case tho, was transferred to Kenmochi.
- I liked Narimiya's Takato too, though I still prefer the Takato from the third season.
- Poirot is here!
- Mitake Akira returns to make the OST for the series!
Cons:
- No Akechi. His character (and plotline) was merged into Lee Byron/Bailong or tranferred to Kenmochi. I swear it's like ppl had some grudge on him. Or is there some kinda copyright dispute thing that not allowing them to have Akechi?
- Chubby Kenmochi-ossan. He's not really that bad tbh but I'm just not really vibe with him. And Occhan was one of fav detective character in the series.
- No Fumi. Her parts in cases that involved her in manga were transferred to other characters like Makabe.
