‘Shiori to Shimiko no Kaiki Jikenbo’ - the coolest show you’ll never see

With the recent release of The Machine Girl and the name Noboru Iguchi being thrown around on mainstream sites like Cinematical, I think it’s a good time to write about one of his projects that didn’t get nearly enough attention when it should have. Based on a Daijiro Morohoshi manga, Shiori to Shimiko no Kaiki Jikenbo (roughly “The bizarre case files of Shiori and Shimiko") is a horror/comedy series which aired Saturday nights at 12:50 AM - 1:20 AM on NTV from January 5, 2008 - March 29, 2008. During its 13-episode run I watched it religiously via torrents (sorry, don’t sue me) and it was always the undisputed highlight of my week.

The show stars Atsuko Maeda of the 48-member Jpop group AKB48 as Shimiko and current Victor Koshien poster girl Nao Minamisawa as Shiori. Shimiko is a quiet, shy girl who moves to a new town to live with an uncle. One of the first people she meets is Shiori, a tomboyish, self-confident girl who never seems to be phased by any dangerous or strange situation she gets herself into. The show was fairly formulaic; normally something odd or supernatural would happen in the town and Shiori would gather her group of friends for a meeting about it in the school bathroom. Then Shiori and Shimiko would venture out to investigate the situation and interview people. Something would usually place Shimiko in mortal danger until Shiori popped back in at the last minute to solve the entire mystery, giving an enthusiastic speech and finishing off with her customary thumb + index finger point of success. There were obviously many exceptions to the formula, but that’s the basic idea.

As you’d expect from a major network, the production value is high all around (except maybe the cheesy CGI), and the occasional use of slightly wonky camera angles helps illustrate the show’s absurdity. Put simply, if Bryan Fuller and Takashi Miike did a show together it might turn out something like this. All the actors and guest stars are great, but Nao Minamisawa outshines them all. She’s amazingly funny and completely willing to act goofy for the sake of a gag. If she’s not on that Juri Ueno/Yu Aoi fame level within the next few years I’ll be surprised.

Unfortunately, this is a show that will probably never have a legitimate subtitled release in the states. Japanese TV dramas just don’t get R1 DVD releases; but as shows like “Shiori to Shimiko” and Takashi Miike’s Keitai Sousankan 7 continute getting more attention it may be something distributors will be forced to give some consideration to in the future. Until then you can do what I’m going to do and get the unsubbed box set at CDJapan.

Here’s the opening 4 minutes of the series:

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Tags: akb48, atsuko maeda, nao minamisawa, noboru iguchi