Absolute Zero ~ Research of the unsolved cases EP1

"Absolute Zero" - I think that's enough to call this drama. Well, in case you are interested, the full name is
"『絶対零度～未解決事件特命捜査～』" 
And in English?
"Absolute Zero ~ Research of the unsolved cases ~"

Hey, it's actually not that bad huh? Anyway, I'll call it Absolute Zero from now on :)

Speaking of these detective type of drama there has been plenty. From what I could recall there would be at a minimum of one detective drama pretty much every season. And this season we have Absolute Zero which describes the story of a group of police investigators delving into the unsolved cases in the past.

Not sure whether this is the first time Uedo Aya play as the main actor? I havn't seen her much before - except in the time of "Konkatsu!" with Nakai Masahiro. Even then she didn't quite gave me the wow factor...maybe coz of the character.

But this time I think she plays quite well as Sakuragi Izumi, a 25 year old Police Sergeant who is mainly responsible for keeping memo during investigations. Sakuragi started off as a rookie and I believe she will grow as the storyline progresses. At least in EP1 she is still quite a rookie - and Uedo Aya played the ignorant part well. She makes mistakes like all of us do but quickly learns from it and most importantly, she has the perseverance to dig down to the bottom of a case.

She also has some interesting team members -

• Fukazawa Yuuki - who think she should just keep quiet and keep to her own notes XD

• Tsukamoto Keigo - who likes to plagiarize other people's work to gain all the merits, and a guy who likes to flirt around.
  
  
• Takamine Ryoko - seemingly cold outside but actually do help out when needed. She doesn't mind about gaining merits - a contrast to that of Tsukamoto
  
  
• And Sakuragi's top boss Nagashima Hideo - a very nice senpai who looks after Sakuragi well by giving her puzzles to solve all the time XD

Oh and not to mention those two in the labs who does analyses, the whole team is quite a combination. And that's what makes this a fun to watch.

OK enough about the characters, let's talk a bit about the storyline.

The story is actually quite sad, definitely not one you would watch for laughters. EP1 talks about a robbery done by 3 OLs 10 years ago, but all 3 OLs being chased after all disappeared just like vanishing into air. It's been 10 years and the case is not closed as no one can find the 3 OLs.

I find the way of interlacing the scenes 10 years ago (crime scenes of the 3 OLs) with that of today (investigations done by the Sakuragi team) a bit confusing. Although the way camera scenes taken for 10 years ago do look a bit old fashioned on purpose, but it can still be confusing especially in the beginning when no background information was given.

About mid way through when audiences have certain understanding to the story then it's much easier to settle into the interlacing concept. That's when the storyline becomes more enjoyable.

The story itself is quite intriguing and can easily attract the audience trying to find out the truth, although there are still illogical bugs here and there but every drama pretty much will have some. Again I must stress you only start to enjoy the story once you have certain understanding of the storyline - i.e. about one third way through.

Hopefully the interesting plot will continue on as we get to know more with these characters :)