Starring:
Fukuyama Masaharu as Yukawa Manabu
Shibasaki Kou as Utsumi Kaoru
Watanabe Ikkei as Kuribayashi Hiromi
Maya Miki as Jonouchi Sakurako
Shinagawa Hiroshi as Yuge Shiro
Kitamura Kazuki as Kusanagi Shunpei
Hayashi Tsuyoshi as Murase Kensuke
Aoi as Taniguchi Saeko
Fukui Hiroaki as Kobuchizawa Takashi
Takayama Miyako as Watanabe Miyuki
Ito Takahiro as Mori Eita

Galileo is a Japanese drama that aired in the fall of 2007. It was broadcasted by Fuji TV on Monday nights and ran 10 episodes long. Galileo was the most anticipated drama for the fall season and secured averages ratings of 22%. The drama was based on the novels Tantei Galileo and Yochimu. The theme song was KISS Shite by KOH+, a collaboration consisting of the two leads, Fukuyama Masaharu and Shibasaki Kou.

Yukawa Manabu is a physic professor at a Teito University. He is very logical and relies on science to solve any problems he may have. Opposite of him is Utsumi Kaoru, a rookie detective who is quick to believe in the impossible. A seasoned detective, Kusanagi Shunpei, is being transferred to the central police station; he is known for being the ‘mystery hunter’ and solving all sorts of strange cases. He tells Utsumi a secret: he has always had help on these cases from an old college buddy of his, Yukawa. Because of this, she starts going to Yukawa for help. Though he may initially resist, the interesting, and often seeming impossible, circumstances interest him and he lends a helping hand. And maybe his assistant and students are sometimes annoyed by his lack of attention to school things, but once his becomes interesting in a subject, he must see it out until the end.

Unlike most mystery dramas, there is no overarching plot, so you can watch individual episodes and not miss anything (except for the last two episodes, a two-parter). If you’re a science geek, there’s no way you can miss this drama because it is pure physics fun (and out of all the sciences, physics is my personal favorite). Galileo can really appeal to almost anyone. People who enjoy mysterious will find all the cases interesting and different, even though every mystery involves a murder of some sort. People who like science and particularly physics will enjoy Yukawa-sensei’s experiments and his way of investigating. And for the rest who just want a good drama, the interaction between Yukawa-sensei and Utsumi is hilarious, as well as the possible…romance?? No one really knows…

Even though Galileo is pretty much stand-alone stories, you can see changes in the leads, and the way that Yukawa talks has such a dry sense of humor to it. Plus, Shibasaki Kou was really excellent in this role….don’t know who could have been better.

Oh, and another interesting thing about the show is all the guest stars. There were a bunch of big names including Horikita Maki, Fukada Kyoko, Honjou Manami, and Katori Shingo (from SMAP).

Basically Galileo is your usual cop show with some extra science twists. I personally really liked it, and it’s definitely an interesting watch. There’s a reason that the ratings were so high, you know.

Buy the boxset: Japan Version

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 6th, 2008 at 3:24 pm and is filed under dramas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.