The Files of Young Kindaichi – Review

Hajime Kindaichi is a high school detective who first appeared in Weekly Shōnen Magazine in October 1992. Since then, the manga has gone on to have more than 100 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling series of all time. In the latest television adaptation, Naniwa Danshi heartthrob Shunsuke Michieda takes on the title role with his signature cute and colorful charm.

Sawamura Ikki also stars as police detective Kenmochi while Kamishiraishi Moka is Miyuki, Kindaichi’s love interest, and Iwasaki Taisho (of the Johnnys’ Jr group Tokyo B Shonen) as his best friend Saki – who right there capturing every case Kindaichi investigates on camera.

As someone who’d never heard of the property before, Shunsuke Michieda was the main reason I checked out The Files of Young Kindaichi – and I wasn’t disappointed. The ten-episode series mixes cute and colorful crimes and silly suspense. The first episode opens with a murder student/friend of the series’ main characters. More murders follow, pushing the cute but sometimes clueless Kindaichi into the role of a detective, which is sort of his family business, as Kindaichi’s grandfather, Kosuke (the original manga character) is world-famous for solving mysteries.