If you grew up with your nose buried in Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books, then you’ll like this Japanese series. However, if you have I❤️Benedict Cumberbatch tattooed on your buttocks, then this Japanese version will disappoint you.

Neither the Viki nor Asianwiki write-ups for CHaMWA mentions Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. But anybody who’s read these mysteries will easily spot the similarities between the criminologist Himura and that greatest detective of all time, Sherlock Holmes.

Himura, like Sherlock, worked as a consulting detective for the police. He has a good friend Arisugawa, like Watson, who accompanies and writes about his feats. Like Sherlock, Himura was an introverted thinker gifted with superlative observation skills and uncanny ability of putting all puzzling pieces together to create a big picture and solve the mystery. And like Sherlock’s landlady and housekeeper Mrs. Hudson, Himura and Arisugawa had a kindly old lady looking after them.

There’s even a signature catchphrase!

Thank goodness, Himura didn’t outright copy Sherlock and say, “Elementary, my dear Arisugawa.” But each time he solved a crime, he would declare, “This is… not beautiful.”

This remark could be interpreted in various ways.

For instance, Hiruma could mean that the execution of the crime was unsophisticated and that the overall scheme as petty. He could also mean that the villain was contemptible and his behavior was sordid. But he could simply mean that the whole affair was a blight on humanity. There’s a deliberate vagueness to his statement “This is not beautiful.”

In my opinion, however, a beautiful crime from Himura’s perspective was one that he personally couldn’t solve. A FLAWLESS crime. If he could solve the mystery, then the villain must have made a careless mistake or possessed a fatal flaw. When Himura imagined himself in the shoes of the felon, he could work out the complex motives and devices, and spot the flaw.  Thus, the crime wasn’t beautiful when the crime was solvable.

Unfortunately, the mysteries in these first two episodes were something of an anti-climax to me. In the first episode, the villain was pretty obvious — or the game was over, lol — before the finale even rolled in. The plot was cliched. (Tell me if you figured it out, too.)

In the second episode, I realized that it was the director’s STYLE OF storytelling that gave away the answer. There was nothing subtle about the director’s choice of camera shots and dialogue sequence. They were all hints. So pay attention when director takes an extreme close up of an object or reiterates certain words in dialogues. Those are telltale signs that you’re viewing and hearing relevant clues.

However, two things in these two episodes intrigued me enough to continue watching the series. One was a glimpse of the destructive side of the Himura. He had a recurring nightmare of chasing and stabbing a defenseless individual in the woods. He would wake up to examine his hands, half-expecting to see blood dripping from his palms. Similar to Sherlock, Himura was battling his own demons.

The other one was the hint of a future Moriarty-like arch-nemesis. The female leader of a cult was serving time in jail and being questioned about her members’ activities. Her steely resolve would be a good match for Himura’s icy intellect. In other versions of Sherlock Holmes, the character Moriarty was always a male figure so this should be interesting….

As for the love angle, I’m crossing my fingers that this jdrama won’t turn into another kdrama Ghost Detective where the love story was foisted on the male lead to create interest. Sure, I can see a love triangle forming between Hiruma, the female police officer, and his female student. But I think his relationship with his friend, Arisugawa, should be at the forefront of this jdramas instead of the romance with the ladies. But please, don’t call it a bromance!

Re. the performance of the actor Takumi Saito who played Hiruma, this for me was the main disappointment.

I thought Saito’s portrayal of the character Himura came across as less charismatic and less compelling than Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock. During the scenes when Himura was supposed to blow away the spectators with his brilliant deduction, he didn’t convince me. To me, instead of a manic genius, he appeared more like a stinky raving lunatic hobo. 😆

Maybe I formed this impression from that brown trenchcoat he wore over his lanky frame in both episodes; it looked like a makeshift tent flapping in the wind. Maybe it was his uncombed hair that skewed my perception; it covered his eyes so I couldn’t see intensity coming from them. Or maybe his inconsistent acting threw me off. Sometimes he reminded me of a lethargic, absent-minded professor. Sometimes he was energetic like a bloodhound on the trail. In a crowd of people, he blended well and my eyes didn’t gravitate toward him as THE central figure of the story unless the camera focused on him.

Moreover, I thought his body language of rubbing his lower lip with a finger to denote deep reflection lacked originality.

I don’t know if the intention was to “sexualize” his character but to me, this mannerism is is clichéd as rubbing the chin, scratching the head, massaging the temples and sitting on your haunches ala Rodin’s Le Penseur. 

I snorted whenever the camera did a CLOSE-UP shot of Himura rubbing his lip. Sigh. The director might as well have placed neon sign above Himura’s head to say, “Warning! Big ideas in action.”

That’s why, to me,  Cumberbatch’s portrayal of a genius detective is more compelling and convincing. The camera only has to focus on the actor standing still and stimming his fingers, and the viewers immediately GET that his brain is running like a hamster in an exercise wheel. The camera doesn’t even have to do a close-up of his face, like with Saito; a medium range/waist shot will do. Cumberbatch has a commanding stage presence as Sherlock that Saito missed.

Similarly, I find the acting of Masataka Kubota, the actor portraying the sidekick Arisugawa, to be underwhelming. A mystery writer, Arisugawa, tagged along Himura and recorded his exploits. He was meant to be a foil to Himura or a steadying hand to guide Himura’s absent-minded professor mien. But in Episode 1 and 2, he acted more like a schoolboy fanning after his idol, than an adult professional.

But I did like the scenes a) when Arisugawa showed his awareness of Himura’s dark side, like reminding his friend not to show people his smirk when contemplating on a crime or b) when he lies in silence, pretending to be asleep as his friend wakes up from a night terror.

In sum, if you’re used to watching BBC’s Sherlock and are looking for another clever crime drama with fancy editing and stellar acting, then this CHaMWA won’t cut it.

But if you’re simply TRAINING your eyes to spot the clues and HONING your mind to make critical connections, then this series is a good enough starter-pack like those Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books we used to read in primary grades. I don’t mind completing the series. As people often say, going back to the basics strengthens the foundation.