Untouchable: Yukie Nakama 2009 drama, synopsis and review

 After watching the first 4 episodes of Ghost Mama decided I needed to watch a better Yukie drama, picked Untouchable and think it was the right choice as this is one fine series.

When reporter Narumi Ryoko loses her job at a first-rate publisher and ends up at a trashy tabloid called "Shukan Untouchable." She now chases celebrity scandals and sensational stories, but she hasn't lost her sense of duty or her persistence. While investigating her stories, she tends to notice details that imply some hidden truth beneath the surface, leading her to probe deeper into dangerous secrets.... from Tokyograph

 Yukie plays the reporter Ryoko Narumi who two years before had worked at a leading magazine called National Journal but was dismissed and now has a job working at the third rate gossip mag called Shukan Untouchable. Though she was assigned for the most part to dig up dirt on celebrities it always led to more, they all had a really dark secret or something evil going on with them, mostly illegal activities. It was in a way a police drama but with Ryoko and her photographer Takafuji solving the crimes which gave it a nice twist but the police were always involved at the end as Ryoko's brother was a detective on the force and always ended up on the same cases she was trying to get a scoop for. Of course she and her editor wanted the scoops as the magazine was so lightly thought of and it seems as they always did get the big story, their sales each week kept getting higher but never enough to get the out of the tag as a third rate magazine which you here all the time throughout the series.

 There were many other reporters for the Untouchable mag but had their roles were much smaller than Ryoko and Takafuji, he had the 2nd biggest part in the show. But one other reporter had a slightly bigger role and that was with Misuzu who turned out to be Ryoko's rival, she once stole a story from her and also stole her ex-boyfriend Toyama who she worked with at her previous job. But the main storyline besides the uncovering of the shady cases of the celebrities was an unnamed secret organization which actually was headed by the Japanese Welfare Agency, a not for profit group which helped educate people all over the world including Ryoko as they had paid for her college education. But what were the motives behind this group was the question that stayed through the whole show, did they want justice? Did they hold grudges against the people they brought down? Why were they secretly involved with Ryoko's magazine? And who on the mag staff was secretly working for this group? These questions remained through the whole show and added a nice twist of mystery to it... what were the answers to these, well don't want to spoil it telling the answers to it but you really should watch this drama to find them out, will be well worth your time.

 This drama really focused on the media, not just the magazine but also the other mediums and showing us what kind of impact they have on our lifes and at what lengths those who want a story or justice will go through to get the truth. Kept this review a bit short, every episode has a separate case but the mystery of the secret group is there from the beginning and becomes the big storyline as the show goes on. After watching a few so-so Yukie dramas finally found a real winner as this is one excellent show, fast paced, interesting, bit lighthearted at times but almost always serious, highly recommend this show for any fans of Japanese dramas or any Yukie fan who hasn't seen this show yet, would rate this a 9/10. As mentioned not a real long review but the next 4 posts get into the series a bit more as there's Yukie screenshots from the first 4 episodes with a brief recap of each show so you can find out a bit more about this series.

Air Dates and info: Friday's at 9:00 from October 16 to December 18, 2009 on TV Asahi for a total of 9 episodes with a final rating average of 8.2%.

Cast:

Yukie Nakama as Ryoko Narumi
Tomohito Sato as Shunichi Takafuji
Jun Kaname as Shiro Toyama
Yukiyoshi Ozawa as Koji Narumi
Sei Ashina s Misuzu Makise
Tetsushi Tanaka as Hideaki Kashimura
Susumu Terajima as Eiichi Nagakura

Untouchable drama: episode 1 recap and Yukie Nakama screenshots

 Solid first episode as Ryoko(Yukie) is just starting out at the third rate gossip magazine Untouchable, she was late for her first day as enroute to her job she was at the scene of an accident where a railing above a river came undone leading to many injuries and one death. The company was one who had been targeted by the famous TV reporter Arisugawa and she had been leading a campaign to find out why the company's construction was so shoddy throughout the country leading to many injuries with 2 fatalities, she had somehow predicted these accidents too. This is also where we learn about the secret organiztion that is behind this story and all the others in future episodes, also where we learn they have a hand in how Ryoko's magazine is run as her article proving all the details of what actually happened was heavily edited leaving out so many of the key facts.
 Just a short recap as they all will be but here's plenty of Yukie screenshots from the show, she looks much better in this drama than in Ghost Mama, you can also follow the plot a little better with these pics.

Untouchable drama: episode 2 recap and Yukie Nakama screenshots

Anonymous was the sender of many secret illegal activities that they sent to the Untouchable magazine which is where they got their big scoop of the week, it was sent by the secret organization I keep mentioning but why send it to them? For such a rich and powerful group why can't they solve the problem with exposing by their own methods? That's one mystery which keeps this drama interesting and the letter this time from anonoymous led Ryoko(Yukie) to her next scoop which involved two famous writers who somehow released a book aon the same day and was identical to each other, who stole from who? As it turns out they both stole the story from a college student who was murdered shortly after, her boyfriend had exposed the secret but committed suicide shortly after or did he? And as it turns out the college student did not write the story, who did and why did each of the writers get a copy of it?
 Lot of good questions in each episode that by watching you'll be able to get the answers for them, hopefully these mini reviews and Yukie screenshots get you interested in watching this excellent drama.

Untouchable drama: episode 3 recap and Yukie Nakama screenshots

Moving on to episode 3 Ryoko(Yukie) investigates a shady plastic surgeon who has performed many operations of famous people, a list was sent to the Untouchable office with the names of those who've had cosmetic surgery but why? Many twists to this episode as the surgeon had bumbled a few operations which led to a death, the body was found at the bottom of a river only because someone had thrown mega amounts of money into the air which fell in the river leading to the discovery of the body. But of the twists why was a politician with dreams of being the next prime minister on the list and what connections did he have with the plastic surgeon? And what connections did our secret organiztion have with them if any and why were they interested in exposing them? This was also the show when Misuzu stole Ryoko's story on what happened, it got published but wasn't supposed to, it really drew the ire of the secret group with the posode ending with her apartmant trashed and many threats written on the wall.
 Wow, just so many mysteries in each show that keep each episode so fresh and interesting, only brief recaps as I try to keep these somewhat spoiler free but just enough info for you on the storlyines for each show, as usual many Yukie pics from this episode.