Hakozume jdorama review

I had no expectations for Hakozume. I decided to give it a try since Toda Erika is in it. The first episode starts of with 20 year old rookie police officer played by Nagano Mei (who I always confuse for Nonen Rena for some reason) stumbling after a suspect before Toda Erika steps in to save the day.

The rest of the episode a flashback about Nagano Mei who wants to quit her job because it is too much for her but of course doesn't manage to. The first episode did not make an impression on me but I decided to push through and found myself enjoying Hakozume more and more.

Hakozume is a character driven police comedy from the female perspective and from working in the police box. Police boxes are a great Japanese idea because they are usually close to train stations and are a great place to ask for directions, pre google maps.

Hakozume is a fun look at what most police officers deal with in Japan, namely domestic disturbances, traffic violations fraud etc instead of murders which 99% of police jdoramas are about. Spoiler alert but there is no corrupt superiors at the top which is so refreshing and I love how they make fun of detectives.

Merebu from Yuusha Yoshihiko is the boss of the box and prefers to do as little work as possible while having an abundance of qualifications.

The characters really grew on me and many times while watching I thought the writing was really good. Looks like Haozume was based on a manga. Not every police show has to be about saving the world and its fun looking at everyday police stuff like everyone sleeping in the station during an investigation.

Highly recommended and very watchable. Big thanks to Irozuku fansubs for subbing and you can get the hardsubs from their website.