You'd be hard pressed to find another detective drama with such fine balance of humor, realism and thrill.
Won't lie, I went into Keiji Yugami because of my long lasting love for Tadanobu Asano and the fact that it has been quite some time since I watched a good mystery drama. The premise is pretty simple, an experienced out of the box old detective (Asano as Yugami)) gets paired with straight as arrow young blood (Kamiki as Hanyu) and they sets on solving cases. There's episodic cases with one case throughout the drama that gets solved. Average right? WRONG!
There's a twist in almost every cgaracter but most specifically Hanyu with his virginity fueled obsession with women and credit where it's due, Kamiki with this role just leaped a little far ahead of the rest of his generation in my eyes. Asano never dissapoints, subtle changes in his expresion changes the gear of the story. The rest of the cast especially their chief, badass Kanno, was also amazing and aptly written. The writing of the characters including the sides is pretty stable and consistant. Detailing of the each individual crimes and the overall plot on the other hand could use a little more finesse but I've seen so much worse.
The production is top notch. It looked like they have just the enough budget, a little more could've include badly incorporated fight scenes and a little less would've cost us the magnificent array of actors showed up each week. The setting in the husky sepia noir lighting with autumn is an immediate plus. Clap clap for the styling department, a lot can be said by the way a people dress and carry themselves, more so if it's a detective drama and they nailed it here eventhough it meant the character wearing same clothes througout the drama. See Kdramas, a very important lesson to learn here.
I've highlighted what I've felt like highlighting and the rest is up for you to decide. All I can say I've enjoyed this one and if ther's a sequel in the future, without a second doubt would watch.