Currently watching: Keiji 100kg

What with work, subbing and catching up with seven episodes of Mythbusters, I haven’t been watching much Japanese drama this week. I did take a look at Keiji 100kg. I almost decided to sub this one, but I saw it was set in Kyoto, and Kyoto-ben (the local dialect) just baffles me.

This is a light-hearted cop drama where the main character is a newly-promoted detective. He’s also overweight, and most people seem to find this surprising. He helps to solve murders that take place around Kyoto’s maze-like streets.

Two episodes in and it’s okay. The crimes are nothing too devious, and the solutions are fairly clever. Ishizuka Hidehiko is fun to watch in the lead role and most of the appeal of the show relies on him. He has to walk the line between adorable fat man and ace detective.

It’s not bad. Even surprisingly good, considering some of the dramas this season, but surely this series demonstrates that the genre of “detective with a funny quirk” has run out of ideas. Hasn’t it?