ATARU (Eps 1-7) - First Impression

 

 
Here we have the main character, Ataru or also known as Chokozai (Nakai Masahiro), who has savant syndrome (similar to autism). With this syndrome, he is able to memorize and look at the small details that an average human could not discover easily.  He then tags along with two detectives, Sawa Shunichi (Kitamura Kazuki) and Ebina Maiko (Kuriyama Chiaki), and helps them solve murder cases using his ability that exceeds any other normal human.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police hires Ebina to mostly use her as a promotional tool. Since, she is beautiful and she looks great on their posters, videos, and other promotional materials. However, she gets really annoyed at her male co-workers who views her only just some poster girl. They believe that she is not capable of doing any real detective work. This makes her work even harder and she makes sure that there are no cases that goes unsolved. Also, her partner in crime, Sawa who respects Ebina and helps her out in solving these cases. Ebina first meets Ataru while investigating a case. At first, she thought of him as a weird person, but he is able to point out things such as substances, what kind of weapon objects were used, and among other things as a clue to help Ebina on her investigation. Apparently, Chokozai doesn't say much of where he comes from and why his here. So, she lets him stay at her place where her father and younger brother also resides there.

I love her curry cellphone accessory, it's cute

Ebina tries her best to take care of Chokozai and keep him out of trouble. But taking care of Chokozai is high maintenance. He has a fixed schedule to eat, sleep, shower, and watch synchronization swimming detective show. Otherwise, if his needs are not met, he goes into a tantrum. He only eats, mustard, ketchup, hotdog and soup curry. And, every time Ebina tries to make him eat something different, he refuses it. However, she does gets accustomed to Chokozai's habits, so she learns a few tricks to get him to eat something different.

But the trio forms a team and continue to solve various murder cases. At the same time, trying to figure out who is Chokozai. 

Impression: 
Episodic mysteries are usually a hit or a miss for me, but what keeps me entertained are the character's chemistry with one another and their antics. It's a serious drama, but it also has a few comedic moments including some gags here and there. As well as some of the character's unpredictable moments. It sort of reminds me of something that SPEC does, but it's not over the top, it's more settle.   

I rarely watch Nakai in his dramas. But here, he does a convincingly good job as an autism character. He definitely made me believe that he was a completely different person. It almost made me forgot that he is just an average guy who is boy band called Smap.

Obviously, Chokozai is a mysterious character. We don't know much about his past, who he is and why his in Japan. All we know is that Chocozai came from overseas, and some US agent drops him off at an airport in Japan and lets him wonder off. But the US agents are also keeping a close tab on him from afar. Is he some sort of experiment? I'm not sure. What's also mysterious is that why is that Chocozai has a keen interest in solving these murder cases? However, another mysterious part is about Ebina's mother's death. The police claim that cause of her mother's death is suicide. However, I think there's something more to this story. I have a feeling that her father and younger brother knows something more of her death than what Ebina knows. It just a hunch, but we'll see how it goes. As the story progresses, I hope that it has an interesting and worthwhile conclusion.

At first I thought I was imagining things, but I see small glimpses of Toma and Sebumi from SPEC in the background of various episodes.