Asian Drama

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department creates a new division which consists of 5 female detectives. The new division is called Higanbana which is a flower with a poison root. The 5 female detective have their own specialties and sensitivities. The women try to solve a murder that took place at the wedding of a female doctor.

Detective Nagisa Kinomiya is a member of Higanbana. She has the special ability of sensing a criminal’s murderous intent and ill will.

Sugisaki Momoko used to be a nursery school teacher. Her difficulty smiling leads to communication problems with parents and her contract is terminated in one year. Momoko is picked up by ‘Little Snow’, a home care service for sick children, and makes a fresh start there as a caregiver. When a child has a fever, the caregiver would visit the home and care for the child in place of the parents who simply cannot take time off from work. Momoko encounters all sorts of families at the places she is sent to. With the support of her colleagues and the occasional help of her best friend, Yumika, she starts to face work, romance, family and friendship.

Episodes: 10

Hakamada Yukio is a competent, mysterious lawyer who only handles settlement cases because of past experiences. Although his scathing words get on clients’ nerves, his primary consideration is their welfare. His philosophy that “love is something that can never be bought with money. But if a client is able to have genuine resolve, I’ll certainly get the compensation and give the push for a fresh start” is the basis for the problems that he solves one after another.

Haruki Hanyu, who worked as a prosecutor, changes sides and becomes an attorney. He opens his law office "NEXUS". In court, pursues solutions where the plaintiff and defendant can come to a mutual understanding. This differs completely from Kensuke Komikado, who believes only the winner is right. At work, Haruki Hanyu has confrontation a with Machiko Mayuzumi, but still holds personal feelings for.

The new season begins with a special case that leads the duo to the Consulate-General of Japan in Hong Kong. It’s the first time for ‘Aibou’ to expand its setting to a foreign location since they went to London in the second season. Mizutani commented that it perfectly suits inspector Sugishita Ukyo, since Hong Kong used to be a British colony and Ukyo is interested in everything British. His new partner is called ‘Kai Toru’. He’s played by Narimiya Hiroki and is going to breath new life into the series. More details about him can be found here and here, but we will have to wait until the first episode to find out how they end up as partners.

“A completely undetectable poison that kills 24 hours after consumed.” It is the rumour that has spread on the internet of a lethal drug that makes the perfect crime possible. It has even become a topic at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Special Crimes Unit which Sasamoto Naomi has been transferred to. The background of Professor Matsui Toichi who invented this poison at an East European university is obscure. What is known of him is a fuzzy picture on the internet and the digits inscribed on the back of his hand. Matsui has disappeared but starts to appear before people who are trapped by their problems and hands them the poison. “You are free to use it as you will,” he would tell them. Meanwhile, magazine journalist Akimoto Shunji who is engaged to Koide Reika, the daughter of the president of his company, learns of this poison too. He has a problem. It is the existence of Otsu Mayumi, a former high school classmate with whom he has been carrying on a relationship for half a year. She poses an obstacle to his marriage to Reika. And so, he attempts to broach a breakup with her, but is told that she is two months pregnant. On the way home, a troubled Akimoto is hailed by Matsui who passes him a small bottle with the poison. Later, Akimoto is invited to a meal at a posh restaurant by Reika’s father and forced to vow marriage to Reika. He puts a drop of the poison in Mayumi’s cup in order to protect his bright future even as he struggles with himself. Mayumi unsuspectingly brings that cup to her lips... On the morning two days after the incident, her dead body is found at an unexpected place.

Adapted from 1981 novel "Doku" by Akagawa Jirō.

Episodes: 13

Duration: 40 min.

Aired On: Thursday

Ratings: 7.0