The Crooked Hinge

潮風にゆれる髪も大好きだったけど、

ただ何となくそうよ何となく髪を短くしたのよ

あなたのせいじゃないわ

少しだけセシルの気持ちがわかったの

「セシルカット」（戸川純）

I did love how my hair dance in the sea breeze,

But for some reason, just for no reason, I cut my hair short

It isn't because of you

But I think I understand how Cecile must've felt a little

"Cecil Cut" (Togawa Jun)

Trick was a surprise hit TV drama franchise which ran from 2000 until 2014. The quirky show took on the form of a classic mystery show featuring a detecting duo of a magician and a physicist solving impossible crimes and 'supernatural' phenomena in remote villages and communities, but it was in fact a playground for everyone involved: each story was packed full with visual jokes, wordplay, parody references; the characters were all over-the-top with outrageous character tics (it was obvious every actor was just having the time of their lives hamming every line up) and even the camera would go for the weirdest angles just to surprise the viewer. The show started out as a late-night low-key TV drama, but grew out to a major franchise with four theatrical releases, and the two leads, Nakama Yukie and Abe Hiroshi are now two of the biggest acting names in Japan.

A spin-off series starring supporting character Yabe Kenzou was produced in 2010 to coincide with the release of the third theatrical film Trick 3: Psychic Battle Royale. Yabe is an incompetent police detective (wearing a very obvious wig) who'd rather not exert himself protecing the people, and he often spends his time (secretly) looking for ways to grow his hair back. He worked wonderfully as the butt of the jokes in Trick, as the useless cop who sometimes worked against, and sometimes with the two leads while they were trying to solve the case. Even in his own series, Yabe managed to do no detecting himself, as other characters usually solved his problems for him, but through miraculous luck Yabe always got the credit for all those cases, making him one of the more infamous detectives of the Metropolitan Police Department. A second spin-off series was broadcast in 2013, about six months before the final Trick film.

As Trick - Last Stage marked the end of the franchise in 2014, you can imagine how surprised I was to learn that a new Yabe Kenzou spin-off serie would be released in 2017! Keibuho Yabe Kenzou ~Jinkou Zunou VS Jinkou Zumou~ ("Lieutenant Yabe Kenzou ~ Artificial Brain VS Artificial Hair~") is a mini-series produced for online streaming, and burdens our fake-haired detective with a final assignment. Professor Deep Manabu is the creator of the highly efficient crime-fighting AI "God Eye Joe", which has been able to solve cases even faster than the FBI and Scotland Yard. Deep Manabu and God Eye Joe now intend to show the Japanese police force who is superior, and the case chosen for that end is that of the Dark Gyouji: A mysterious serial killer called the Dark Gyouji (as they're dressed as a sumo referee) is on the loose in the country, but they were last spotted near a secluded hot spring resort. Deep Manabu and God Eye Joe head for the place in order to solve the crime, but the Japanese police force can't just sit and watch, so they send Yabe Kenzou to solve the case for them. A landslide shuts the place off from the outside world, locking everyone in together with the Dark Gyouji. Can Yabe and his artificial hair beat the artificial brain?

So it was over three years since the last Trick production, but on the whole, this mini-series was exactly what'd the viewers have come to expect from the franchise in terms of presention. The familiar musical cues, the quick camera-work is all there, as well as the crazy characters, their snappy dialogue filled with wordplay and of course many references to earlier works. While the two leads of the main Trick series don't appear in person, there are some references to them, enforcing the idea that this is part of the main franchise. The three year blank did not change the feel of the series, luckily.

The main Trick series was always busy parodying the mystery fiction as written by Yokomizo Seishi, with serial murders taking place in secluded communities like cults or out-of-the-way villages. It fitted perfectly with the quirky comedy, as it allowed for characters with weird customs etcetera. The two original Yabe Kenzou series on the other hand were a parody on police series and took place in the metropolis that is Tokyo. Yabe would be facing international terrorists, spies and other big criminals, as opposed to the faux psychics that occupied the main Trick series. Keibuho Yabe Kenzou ~Jinkou Zunou VS Jinkou Zumou~'s setting of a secluded hot spring inn and a serial killer dressed like a sumo referee therefore fits the main series better than the Yabe Kenzou spin-off series in my mind, but oh well.

But despite the classic setting I have to say that story-wise, ~Jinkou Zunou VS Jinkou Zumou~ was disappointing. While Trick always did take on a parody-form, the titular "tricks" used in the mystery plots were actually always interesting, leading to engaging detective stories. The mystery plot of ~Jinkou Zunou VS Jinkou Zumou~ on the other hand is almost horribly simple. I'm afraid that this is because of the format. ~Jinkou Zunou VS Jinkou Zumou~ is a five-part streaming series, with each episode about fifteen minutes long. This means the total series is only slightly longer than any given single episode of the main Trick series or previous Yabe Kenzou spin-off series. Stories in Trick were usually two- or three-parters, so comparing them in terms of complexity might not be fair, but even the episodes in the previous two Yabe Kenzou series had more engaging mystery plots than ~Jinkou Zunou VS Jinkou Zumou~, and they were shorter! The problem is that because of the five-part set-up, each part needs to have its own mini-storyline that builds up to a climax. But they simply stretched a very basic mystery plot out, adding in uninspired 'cliffhangers' for each part and called it a day. The result: a story that overstays its welcome. The hinting is also quite horrible, and not at all like anything we'd seen earlier in the series.

What made the original Trick franchise so entertaining was that while everything involved was just fooling around in order to make it a great parody, the core was always built around solid mystery plots. If the parody elements had been taken away, you'd still have a solid mystery story. That was also true (up to an extent) for the prevous two Yabe Kenzou spin-off series, even if they focused more on parodying the police procedural. Keibuho Yabe Kenzou ~Jinkou Zunou VS Jinkou Zumou~ however has little to offer besides the comedy-coat, as the mystery plot is probably the worst of the whole series. So while I did laugh while watching the show, I don't know whether it was really worth it to produce such a series three years after the great ending that was Trick - Last Stage. If it had been a companion series to something else, okay, perhaps I could've appreciated it better, but as it is now, we just got a mediocre addition after the fact that adds nothing of unique interest.

Original Japanese title(s): 『警部補 矢部謙三〜人工頭脳VS人工頭毛〜』