Drama Review: Higashino Keigo Mysteries

Many people know Higashino Keigo to be the author of the Detective Galileo novels. He has also written more stories in the mystery genre. Higashino Keigo Mysteries is a collection of short stories with each episode exploring a different murder with different characters.

I was slightly put off by the series, because it seemed like it would be dense. After watching it, I think dense is not the right word. It has a lot of material for just one episode, but I think  it leaves the viewer thinking in the end. In each episode, it explores a different murder and the motive behind it. Some were victims and some were cold-hearted perpetrators. In a way, it explored as many different facets of the human heart as possible. Some characters had ambiguous natures like the case with the girl with multiple personalities. It is ambiguous whether she chose to play the role of a multiple personality disorder or whether she fell victim to the disorder. Either way, it shattered the faith of the lawyer who was in charge of her case. Some cases had happier endings whereas most of them leave you feeling uneasy.

I liked that each episode showed the different aspects of human nature. The first episode for me left the strongest impression. A coach had an affair with his student while his wife was pregnant with his child. Though it can be argued that the coach's student should not have engaged in the affair in the first place, the coach was also at fault for continuing the relationship. In the end, the coach was found guilty for murdering his student, but the greatest catch in the story was that it was all set up by his student. I think the scariest part is the student herself. She is the embodiment of obsession transforming into hate. A lot of the actors used in the drama were famous and popular actors I recognized such as Miura Haruma. They did a good job in portraying different roles from old to young.

Unlike the Galileo series, the point of these stories is not really to uncover how the perpetrator accomplished the murder. It didn't really matter how the victims died because the most crucial part is why they died. Some were killed out of revenge. Some perpetrators had really twisted reasons for manipulating their victims. Like in one episode, the story was disguised as murder committed out of jealousy when it was in fact something entirely different. It was creepy, but perfect for a murder case. I recommend this drama for people who want to try something new and out of their comfort zone.