Keiji Zero first thoughts. Review is spoiler free.
At 51 years old, Kyoto detective, Rekihiko Tokiya, lost his memory and confidence after falling into a water storage while apprehending a murder suspect. After waking in a hospital, he discovers that he cannot remember anything past 31 years old when he first became a detective. While he resumes his duties, he gets paired with a rookie female investigator, Tomoka Saso, and deals with cases differently than before.
2019 has only begun but Japan’s already killing it with their dramas.
Before his memory loss, Tokiya is shown to be extremely confident and bold in his abilities. He’s one of the best detectives on the force. However, after losing his memory, he becomes a clean slate. It hints that at any age, anyone can start over. It also raises a point of memories and confidence being correlated.
As Tokiya takes on his first case after his memory loss, he’s unsure whether to follow his intuition and passive in his suggestions and opinions. This raises the suspicion of his partner, Tomoka Saso, who admired the person Tokiya once was. After witnessing his blunt and confident remarks one time, she grew fond of him.
Saso is Tokiya’s first co-worker to know about his memory loss. She successfully convinces him to keep his memory loss a secret as other colleagues will jump at the chance to kick Tokiya off the team.
Despite being a rookie, Saso is headstrong and diligent in her duties and isn’t afraid regardless of being in a male-dominated workspace. She gets harshly scolded by a male colleague when she spoke her thoughts on a case. Yet, she doesn’t step down nor does she snap back.
Tokiya and Saso work well together. While Tokiya became a bit scatterbrained, Saso takes the reins and pushes the case forward. Tokiya also acts impulsively which technically isn’t a bad trait.
Saso tends to be more on the careful and calculative side, making conclusions based on evidence. Tokiya tends to act on instinct and can’t give an exact reason to his thinking and feeling. This ultimately gives them a nice dynamic as partners in crime.
A Hidden Meaning?
While only two episodes are out, I have a feeling that by working together, Saso will outgrow her admiration for who Tokiya once was and become an independent detective with strong ambition. Additionally, she’ll learn to respect the new Tokiya.
Tokiya, on the other hand, will no longer desire the person he once was nor will he wish for his memories back. Ultimately, he learns to accept and respect his new self and become confident in his actions and thinking even though he’s no longer the top-notch detective. Though that’s hypothetically speaking if he doesn’t get his memories back.
This drama is about making new memories and learning to respect others and yourself which ultimately turns into rediscovering and building your own confidence. At any age, anyone can start over. Though, without Tokiya’s memory loss, he definitely wouldn’t become a new person and have to rebuild anything.
As confidence is built over time, it does go to show a correlation between one’s memories and one’s confidence.
evening tea musings 