Forgetting things that only occured yesterday? Sounds like me on a normal day...
I don't read NisiOisin (Nishio Ishin)'s work regularly actually, but the Okitegami Kyouko series, also known as the Forgetful Detective series, has always been one that managed to linger somewhere in my mind. The series has been running since 2014 and while I knew a new volume was occasionally released, I hadn't quite realized there were already twelve volumes out now until I took a look at the Wikipedia page to prepare for the review. I knew it was about a detective who would forget everything at the end of each day, which sounded like a concept that could lead to original situations, but I never tried the books, nor the manga. And in a move that's actually not that rare for me, I know ended up trying the series through the drama adaptation. Which was surprisingly broadcast only a year after the series started. While the title of this series is taken from the first volume, the drama is based on stories from multiple volumes in the series and includes an original series finale. There are also few characters created especially for this series to fill out the main cast, like Kyouko's landlord/broker and two sidekicks.
So I knew nothing about the original novel series, but I ended up enjoying Okitegami Kyouko no Bibouroku a lot, even if the detective plots remain fairly simple over the course of the series. It's definitely the type of series where you just have to have fun watching the weird characters interact, from the forgetful Kyouko who writes notes on her limbs and turns out to be a surprisingly cheapskate to the always unlucky Yakusuke and the weird trio at the cafe Sandglass which serves as the series' headquarters. The series betrays its origins as a light novel series with its weirdly named characters (a staple of NisiOisin's work) and very slow hinting at something big in Kyouko's life which caused her to lose her memories, but the latter is obviously not the real driving force of the whole novel series (which is still running) so nothing truly important is learned at the end of this adaptation, and you'd best just expect a case-of-the-week set-up.
As a mystery series, Okitegami Kyouko no Bibouroku has fairly simple plots, which one could partially explain because Kyouko isn't suited to handle cases that would take too much time: she'd be reset at the end of the day, and as a principle, she does not write down any notes for herself save for some bare essentials like her own name, meaning she can't bring her progress in a case to the following day. The opening episode for example is about the theft of the micro-SD card under impossible circumstances, as nobody could've gotten the card out of the office, yet it can't be found. The trick used by the thief is fairly simple, though I like how the idea makes good use of the medium, and while the core idea is simple, the story is made more interesting by adding a second "crime" by the thief who wants to use Kyouko's special condition agains her: the reasoning surrounding this second crime is unique and memorable. The second episode also makes interesting use of Kyouko's amnesia to give a unique twist to a story that on its own would be pretty simple as a mystery story: a swimming coach is accused of murdering a former rival, but the man swears he has an alibi for the time of the murder, because he was having a coffee with Kyouko that day. She of course can't remember a thing of her encounter with this man, so they have to find another way to prove his innocence.
I think the most interesting episodes were the third and eighth episode, as they worked the best as standalone mystery stories. In the third episode, Yakusuke's been working as a museum guard, and to his great surprise, Kyouko's been visiting every day too (as she forgets every day she's been to the exposition already). One day, he strikes up a conversation with her about the painting she's always admiring, and she confides to him she's most of all impressed by the value of the work. Yakusuke decides to come to the museum on his day off as a visitor to talk to Kyouko again, but for some reason she doesn't seem impressed by the painting today, which utterly baffles Yakusuke. Later, Yakusuke and a rather angry elderly man damage the painting in a struggle, but to Yakusuke's surprise the news is kept silent, further fueling his doubts about the painting. Kyouko is hired to figure out what's wrong with the painting and why her impression of it changed so much in one day. The solution is so simple, yet nicely hidden through the misdirection and it looks great on the screen! The eight episode is about a "soft" locked room: a woman's found dead inside the fitting room of a boutique, her head hit with a hanger. Witnesses in the store saw the woman entering the shop and going into the fitting room, but none of them noticed anything out of the ordinary until Yakusuke accidentally discovered her body when he tripped in front of the fitting rooms. Due to the cramped space of a fitting room, it doesn't seem likely the killer could've gotten inside the fitting room together with the victim to club her with the hanger, so how was this "locked room murder under observation" (with the door being a simple curtain) committed? The core idea probably sounds familiar, but the way it was adapted to the context of a dressing room of a boutique was good, with a slight cultural-specific touch to it. It wouldn't work like that in many countries, but most definitely in Japan, making this a nice variation on the idea.
The drama has great presentation by the way! The series has a slight Sherlock-feel to it because it often "labels" things on the screen for the viewer to read, but also builds on it, using this on-screen text also like thought balloons are used in comics. It has a very comic-like feel throughout, with collage-esque crime scene recontructions. But while Gakki is also absolutely adorable as Kyouko in this series, and it's not like the wig looks absoutely awful, her hair does stand out. I kinda wish that Gakki'd dyed her hair in a not-so-bright color, or that the team hadn't gone with the setting of the unusual hair color in the first place. I'm one of those who doesn't think that an adaptation needs to stick to the source material that closely if it works out better in a different manner/can give an original touch to the adaptation, and ultimately, it's not like her hair color really matters in this series.
So despite the fairly simple plots, I did enjoy Okitegami Kyouko no Bibouroku, as it's a series that has both style and a funny cast that make the series fun to watch even when the mystery stories can't always keep up with them. I'm kinda interested in the novel series too now, though it'll be hard to figure out where to start as I know parts of the earlier volumes now, even if they have been changed partially for this drama series. Will have to figure out whether I really want to re-read familiar plots again or not before I get to the new stuf.
