Ataru SP (J-Drama) (2013) (2 Sub | 2 RAW)

Part I: Ebina Maiko (Kuriyama Chiaki), who has not been able to abandon cases because of the death of her mother (Okunuki Kaoru) 16 years ago, resigned from the police force after her encounters with Chokozai (Nakai Masahiro) made her resolve “not to let discarded cases get buried”. She sets up the detective agency ‘Dumping Ground’ to investigate cases that the police have given up on. After Chokozai left for New York, Maiko tries to make the apartment her office. However, it is also the living quarters of her former boss Sawa Shunichi (Kitamura Kazuki) of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Maiko finally gets her way following much wrangling, but her commissioned cases all end in failure and no income. She is now searching for Gregory the cat, at the request of Fujitaka Nasuko (Nakagawa Shoko) and wistfully thinks that if she had Chokozai’s ability, she would have been able to solve them quickly. At that moment, a wealthy-looking woman called Anan Keiko (Natori Yuko) appears for a consultation with Maiko. Her 3-year-old son Kota has gone missing and she worries that he might have been kidnapped. Sawa happens to be present too and he asserts that this should be given over to the police but the woman is loathe to do so. Maiko starts to conduct the investigation on her own. Then Sawa’s team gets involved too and the case has an unexpected outcome … …

Part II: After Chokozai returned to New York, Maiko resigns from the police and marks her first step as a ‘Dumping Ground’ detective. One night, she witnesses a man and woman having an argument. In a fluster, she breaks it up but the man is stabbed by the woman right before her eyes. When Maiko speaks to Sawa, the man and women are identified as Minami Tamotsu (Ide Takuya) and Shimokawa Yumi (Taketomi Seika). However, the two of them do not know each other. What is going on?! The next day, the body of a man whose wrists have been impaled by a knife is discovered in the metropolis and Sawa’s team starts investigating it as a murder case. They suspect the murdered man Shima Akihide (Nagai Tsutomu) of stalking Sasai Junko (Satsukawa Aimi) and when they are examining her house, the detective of the jurisdiction in charge of the assault case that Maiko got in the way of. The detective, who has confiscated Junko’s computer, says the online game ‘Senki Hote’ is behind the assault and that an email with the tipoff that “Tamotsu is the item robber” had been sent to Junko’s computer by Yumi. Sawa and Maiko have doubts that the two seemingly unrelated cases are connected. Then Chokozai appears before them. Learning that Sawa is investigating the case of the man with the impaled wrists, Chokozai had come back to Japan with Inoue Larry (Murakami Hiroaki) on short notice. According to Chokozai, this case seems to closely resemble the 1996 ‘Crucifix Murders’ that shocked the entire America. As if corroborating that, a second case occurs. The victim is a university professor called Horikawa Tsutomu (Kano Ken) and he had also been stalking his assistant Uchida Tomoko (Watanabe Mai). After that, the police check up on heavy gamers of ‘Senki Hote’ but make no progress in the investigation. Then a man calling himself the third victim takes refuge at the First Investigative Division. He is Chokozai’s estranged younger brother, Inoguchi Tasuku (Okada Masaki). Even though he gives testimony, saying that he was attacked by someone for stalking Yumi, the assailant in the assault case, he appears to be hiding something. Sawa and Maiko suspect that Tasuku is involved in this sequence of events. The two brothers are reunited for the first time in a long while but the atmosphere between them is delicate. Tasuku for some reason envies Chokozai and hates their parents (Ichimura Masachika, Hara Hideko). The Ataru Trio is formed with Sawa and Maiko again to take on this complicated case, but Chokozai’s strongest enemy stands in their way. She is Alessandro Carolina Madoka (Horikita Maki) who goes by the name Madoka. A Brazilian of Japanese descent. At the age of 3, she sustained brain injuries in an accident. Because of that, she received training at the FBI’s Savant Programme Branch (SPB) just as Chokozai had and possesses the same special ability … …