Title: Ataru
English Title: Ataru
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Year: 2012
Episode: 11
Cast:
- 中居正広 Nakai Masahiro
- 栗山千明 Kuriyama Chiaki
- 北村一輝 Kitamura Kazuki
- 田中哲司 Tanaka Tetsushi
- 村上弘明 Murakami Hiroaki
- 利重剛 Riju Go
- 玉森裕太 Tamamori Yuta
- 千原せいじ Chihara Seiji
- 庄野崎謙 Shonozaki Ken
- 中村昌也 Nakamura Masaya
- 中村靖日 Nakamura Yasuhi
SYNOPSIS
Inoguchi Ataru has savant syndrome; he has extraordinary abilities and he is exceptionally smart. After arriving in Japan, he wanders around Tokyo and meets a rookie police officer.
Ebina Maiko grows increasingly frustrated at work because her colleagues keep dismissing incidents as 'trash heaps', a term used for cases that cannot be classified as a crime. She files her resignation and attempts to investigate incidents on her own.
Ataru introduces himself as 'Chokozai' to Maiko at a crime scene and he blurts out a series of words that Maiko cannot understand. Maiko notes down the strange words and conducts research. She is taken aback when she discovers that these words provide the key to solving the case.
REVIEW
Inoguchi Ataru is particularly interesting because of his extraordinary abilities and his strange behavior. I really like how the drama presented Ataru as a realistic character. Ataru was trained to memorize endless information for around 25 years, which he uses to help Ebina Maiko and Sawa Shunichi as they do their investigations. Ataru is not an active member of the police force because it is improbable that he can actually be one considering his developmental issues.
I like how the issues regarding training a savant like Ataru was raised in the drama. Ataru may be doing a good job in solving crimes, but is it something that he should do because he has special abilities like an eidetic memory or photographic memory? How do people know if he is investigating cases because he was programmed to do so, or because the work comforts him and makes him feel at ease?
I'm also somewhat conflicted with 'trash heaps', a term used for cases that cannot be classified as a crime. Given that there are a lot of incidents going on at a time and the police has limited resources, it makes sense to focus on investigating some incidents and dropping some cases. However, as was presented in the drama, there are instances wherein the police mistakenly drop cases and unknowingly let criminals go free.
I think Nakai Masahiro portrayed the character Ataru quite well. I honestly didn't think he was a good actor so I was pleasantly surprised when I watched the drama as he far exceeded my admittedly low expectations of him.
The cases presented in Ataru are quite interesting but I'm afraid I was a little detached from everything while I was watching the drama. It can't be helped as the clues are quite difficult to catch and most of the time, it seems as if only Ataru really knows what's going on.
Related:
Ataru (2013)
Ataru: The First Love & The Last Kill
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Ataru
