This is the story of Ririko Takemura played by Yuriko Yoshitaka. She is a young prosecutor that has started out on a new career two years previously, at the Yokohama District Public Prosecutor’s Office. She is a career woman, 29-years-old and single, and due to her inexperience is still struggling with her work. However, this series is all about how she grows into a formidable prosecutor and a very secure and confident woman.
Cast
Yuriko Yoshitaka as Ririko Takemura (prosecutor)
Ken Yasuda as Tsutomu Aihara (assistant to the prosecutor)
Shohei Miura as Hitoshi Otsuka
Alice Hirose as Haruko Takemura
Kinari Hirano as Hideki Kimura
The Story
Actually, there is not much to say about the storyline; it is a standard law-style series where we get to follow a lone female professional in an all men’s department and how she handles her need to prove herself beyond her fellow man.
This is a series about women, strong women that stand out at the same time is it set in Japan, where society and culture are different from the Western world. Here, she is told by her assistant. Time after time, not to become emotional and not to befriend her clients.
Ririko obviously listens but does not heed the advice, and in her first case of the series goes out to prove her client’s guilt through hard-earned evidence. The evidence was key since her manager told her that evidence-based cases are the reason why there is a 99.99 percent record of success.
In all this melodrama of finding her voice and place in her office and in the legal structure, she obviously finds herself in a personal conundrum too. She has a boyfriend for four years, but there is a very dashing and intelligent prosecutor in her office in the form of Shohei Miura, played by Otsuka.
My View
The series has a central theme but no cohesive subplot to keep you rooted to the screen. The characters are nearly two-dimensional, where some of them have standard statements and buzzwords, and you get to anticipate when they will be used. This is a 1970’s style law series using old clichés in a modern surrounding, and using a female lead to be “socially correct.”
Each episode is about a new case to solve, much like Law and Order, and you get to see how Ririko grows into a strong, confident, and professional prosecutor. The bottom line is a missed opportunity for a rare series to make a go at projecting the power of professional women in Japanese society. It is, however, an interesting series if you like the “puzzle solution” type episodes.
