トリック I, II, 劇場版, III, 新作スペシャル , 劇場版2

Spoilers ahead!



トリック I - 10 EP (2000)
トリック II - 12 EP (2002)
トリック 劇場版 (2002)
トリック III - 10 EP (2003)
トリック新作スペシャル (2005)
トリック 劇場版 2 (2006)

In celebration of the 10th anniversary since the debut of トリック, the production team is bringing us..
劇場版TRICK 霊能力者バトルロイヤル (May 2010)
トリック新作スペシャル2 (May 2010)

But sad to say, NOT TO SG THEATRES!! BOO HOOO~~~~



Trick is all about the combi duo of an intelligent but luck-forsaken magician and an incompetent university physics professor who goes about uncovering the tricks and scams behind the so-called psychics with "supernatural" powers or cults. (Read: Investigative Show)

Yes, its the typical guy+gal pairing of suspense shows, like Kurama-Muto of 33 Pun Tantei, Yukawa-Utsumi of Galileo, Tsukumo-Yuri of MR. BRAIN, Kindaichi-Nanase of Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo, Kudo-Mori of Meitantei Conan, etc etc. Or maybe most JDoramas.

The flow of each episode follows a template, i.e. Yamada gets fired from her job, reaches her rented apartment while trying to avoid the landlady whom she deferred a couple of months of rent from, opens the door to find Ueda in the room, Ueda starts narrating the client's story and tries to persuade her to help him but ends up extorting/forcing her, and off they go to wherever the case is based on.

In Season I, the story focuses on the circumstances behind Yamada's father's death. Senior Yamada, a well-known magician during his times, believes that there are no supernatural powers in the world and had attracted hatred from psychics he exposed and put to shame in TV shows. He entertained young Naoko with magic tricks which she would solve with her naturally sharp observation and thus honing her skills. Sadly, Senior Yamada died when Naoko was young and his last words were, "I was wrong, there are supernatural powers in this world"..

Seasons II & III do not really have an underlying story behind the cases, and so far, the love-hate relationship between Yamada and Ueda did not progress much,'cept during the SP and movie. Sad, to say, for the lack of romance but its rather interesting watching them quibble and haul insults at each other, which is probably the main factor of the show.

Animations were injected in Season III, making the show less serious. I mean, the lightbulbs are quite cute, but the human faced talking bugs? Yucks!


Yamada does a "Pika!" moment and ends up wondering why there's lightbulbs.

Also, whenever there's censored materials (e.g. Ueda's huge "down-under", Yabe's under-the-wig, miscellaneous asses and some mysterious objects), it was scribbled out so its always a scribble floating around substituting a mosiac mask and making the viewers curious over wats behind the scribble. OK at least I'm curious, at wat's under the wig!


Introducing the leads...

THE MAGICIAN



Nakama Yukie (yes. YET AGAIN!) plays Yamada Naoko, a flat-chested, skilled magician who bores the audience to sleep and thus is always hopping from troupes to troupes. As she is constantly out of job, she has to hide from her landlady all the time as she could not pay the dued rents for her rented apartment in a worn-down building.

Through the 6 years of Season I to トリック劇場版2, we can see the improvements in Nakama's acting. From the characteristic "TEHEHHEHEHE" laughter in Season I as Naoko does not really know how to protray her happiness; to her "NYA!!~" (in super act cute pattern) in Season III, which garnered her the Best Actress Award. (The "TEHEHHEHEHE" mostly disappeared, short of one or two guest appearances and was not as boisterous as before).


Kindaichi moment which started from Season II onwards

Season II onwards had Yamada stepping up to the front and solving most, if not all the cases, treating them all like a Kindaichi/Conan episode with her tagline.

Fashion-sensically she did not change much, with her cardigan/winter clothes, long dress and covered shoes + all her performance cheongsums and straight long hair, short of one episode in Season I where she actually wore pants.

トリック started off Nakama Yukie's career in comedies, carrying on to ごくせん and others. Despite her demure/strong outlook, she does not mind letting go of her image and be really funny at times.


THE PHYSICIST


Wolverine Ueda

Ueda Jiro (Abe Hiroshi) started off as an assistant professor in the university, with a cramped, messy, full of his photos office. He being a non-believer in anything that cannot be explained by scientific means, posted a challenge to psychics to make him believe that supernatural powers exists. Yamada, needing the money after being fired yet again from her job, signed up for the challenge and managed to impress Ueda with her simple magic tricks. And so even though Yamada tries to break the relationship with Ueda after every case, Ueda would appear at her apartment whenever he needs help.



Although Ueda is rather incompetent when placed with Yamada, he makes up for it with his learnt-from-kung-fu-movies kung fu to escape (even though at times he'll jus faint or throw Yamada to the wolves). He refers to Yamada as "YOU!", tends to faint whenever he was scared and often claims credit for Yamada's trick bustings.

There's a running gag about his huge anatomy from Season I. Every now and then, he would be featured pissing while impressing male on-lookers or being "excited" when he saw beautiful ladies. It is also one of the insults that Yamada would use to irritate him, which he would retort with "flat chest".

Through the seasons, he has written 4 books (どんと来い、超常現象 series & なぜベストを尽くさないのか) which he boasts of the 2,000 book sales nationwide and was promoted to a professor in Season II.

Season III onwards, there's another gag about him and the car door of his Mini, which would drop off when he alights and he would be lugging it around for fear of it being stolen (which I think the car would be so much easier to steal).


THE CALLIGRAPHER



Yamada's mum, Yamada Satomi (Nogiwa Yoko), is an established caligrapher who ran away from her mysterious island village (黒門島, more emphasis in Season I) and with Yamada, is said to inherit some mythical powers. Whether they really have supernatural powers or not, is yet to be proven.

Both of them possesses a kind of telepathy where they can feel how the other is feeling or have an omen, be it sick, scared, or happy, as can be seen from the nightmares and bad feelings that her mum gets when Yamada is in danger.


The mum taking command after her so-called Power of Words fell flat on the villagers.

Her mum is another funny character which brings life to the show especially from Season II. She has much better financial luck than Yamada, selling her charms "imbued" with "Power of Words" online and at the calligraphy school, which is probably a scam but nevertheless, attracted buyers nation-wide.


THE DETECTIVE



The useless tantei from the state police who always skips work to be relaxing at some onsen or resort, Yabe Kenzo (Namase Katsuhisa), is another important element in the series.

Being ultra-sensitive about his hair/wig, he often misunderstood words which sounds like or the same as hair/wig, e.g. kami for God and kami for hair, or getting questions about the origins of the wig; after which he would be protecting his crown with his hands, claiming that it grows from the head.


Yabe & otaku assistant

Yabe is always accompanied by an assistant, which he abuses with his fists for no reason. Season I & II had a blonde-dyed, gangster-like assistant who follows everything that Yabe says without questions but is equally incompetent. Season III had a guy from Tokyo University who is proud of his education, speaks non-stop and later on promoted to be Yabe's supervisor, thus passing the baton to an otaku guy who moes at Yamada whenever he sees her.

The production team created a spin-off DVD (広報人矢部謙三トリック劇場版２公開記念講演会) for Yabe to promote トリック 劇場版 2. In 2010, the 10th anniversary year, 警部補 矢部謙三, a spin-off drama, was aired, signifying トリック and Yabe's popularity.

The chemistry between Namase-san and Yukie is absolutely fantastic! From トリック to ごくせん and I believe there's others, they seem to be paired the most in JDoramas, even though not romantically. HAHA! Its a bit hard to imagine anyway.


新作スペシャル & トリック 劇場版

The SP and the movies follows typically the same format as the dorama, with a cult case awaiting Yamada & Ueda to solve.



Hiroki-kun was featured in an episode of トリックIII, which I actually din recognise with his longish hair.


Special mention: トリック 劇場版 2 (2006)



Oh! A collaberation from 2 favorite JDorama actresses! I'm ranking this as my favorite so far, due to my biasness!! HAHAHA~

Maki-chan plays a girl who disappeared mysteriously for 10 years while playing hide-and-seek with her childhood friend. The friend, upon receiving a message from his friend that was sent to repair some stuff on the island owned by Sachiko Kobako, who can access the other world via boxes, enlisted the help of Ueda to find her.

Nakama is probably the funniest in this movie, with her NYA!-ing and comical antics like: -


Stealing Maki-chan's food


Wearing a samurai armor while performing magic to fool Sachiko and gang.

Also, they added in some ridiculous animations with reference to One Piece..


Ueda does a gomu gomu, and obviously won with his longer limbs.

& Ring, which Nakama Yukie stars in for Ring Zero..


Yamada with her bad bed habits, crawls back to her blanket after being disturbed by Ueda.

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If you're not into investigative/psychic stuff and is not a super big fan of Nakama/Abe, watching トリック 劇場版 2 will probably be enough.