Unubore Deka – Handcuffs Over Diamond Rings

Unubore Deka is the story of a detective. A detective looking for love.

Dancing: all in a day's work for this detective.

The trouble is, he always seems to fall in love with the criminal mastermind behind the case he is trying to solve, who also always happens to be a beautiful, young, single woman.

And when I say “always,” I mean it. Unubore Deka has the most episodic, formulaic plot out of any drama I’ve ever seen (and that includes Gokusen!); every single episode unfolds pretty much identically:

Who could ever tire of such a face?

Unubore (played by the hilarious Nagase Tomoya) remains in denial until the end of the episode, avoiding the fact that all the clues point to his newest love interest being the culprit. At this point, he suits up, dances (yes, dances) his way over to the femme fatale, and gives her a proposition: she has the choice between a pair of handcuffs and an engagement ring.

And they all choose the handcuffs. Yeah, they’d rather go to jail than marry Unubore. Now, that’s rejection.

Bawling ensues.

Dangerous ladies lead to dangerous situations for Unubore's suit collection

However, despite every episode having the same plot, Unubore Deka never gets boring. Or repetitive. Instead, every episode builds off of the last one, and the show rapidly turns into a big, multilayered mockery of itself with little unexpected variations on things that happen earlier in the show (like the time Unubore’s dad gets in on the marriage proposal action). The audience is in on a big inside joke, and the joke is on Unubore.

Plus, if there’s anything we learned from My Boss My Hero, it’s that Nagase Tomoya contorting his face . . . NEVER. GETS. OLD.

Make Unubore Your First Kudokan Drama

Not sure what's going on here, but it's par for the course in Kudokan dramas.

Even before watching it, I knew Unubore Deka couldn’t go wrong: it’s the latest creation of comedic genius Kudo Kankuro, affectionately known as “Kudokan.” He’s behind an impressive list of great shows like Tiger & Dragon, Kisarazu Cat’s Eye, and Manhattan Love Story. He reuses much of the same cast (Unubore and his dad in particular are Tiger & Dragon repeats).  And, Kudokan’s fast-paced, wacky scripts leave you wanting nothing more than more Kudokan dramas (and more dancing Nagase . . . ).

Oh, and here’s your mini-Japanese lesson: The word “Unubore,” or 自惚れ means “conceited” in Japanese, making it slightly ridiculous that Unubore’s friends and family all call him by “Unubore” exclusively (he gets mad when they don’t).

Meta Unubore

Most of the humor in Unubore (other than dancing-related humor) comes from the highly meta-nature of the show. Unubore’s dad is an author, who writes a series of best-selling detective books. You can guess who they’re about. In fact, Unubore’s dad usually has more insight to the current case than Unubore himself does (at some point he even points out the pattern that anyone Unubore falls in love with turns out to be guilty).

Ikuta, starring as Unubore Deka in the drama-within-a-drama

But dad’s “Unubore Deka” book series gets turned into a TV drama in the show (also called “Unubore Deka”), and in the show-within-a-show, Ikuta Toma plays Unubore’s character. Ikuta is also friends with the “real” Unubore, and they are among a group of bargoing friends that call themselves the “Unubore 5,” ending up at bar “I am I” nightly, where they often watch “Unubore Deka” air on TV. The Unubore 5 also serve as a kind of Greek chorus to the rest of the events of the show, especially Unubore’s tales of love, throwing in a unison “Hey Hey Hey!” with matching hand gestures at just the right moment to punctuate or interrupt a story.

♪ Hey Hey Hey!! ♬ The Unubore 5 offer helpful commentary as always

If you’re still confused, don’t worry, there’s way more going on in this show than I’ve touched on here (for example, Unubore’s original love interest, Rie-chan, and her husband, who is a one-beer drunk and has the worst handwriting in all of Japan). See below for a diagram of the relationships going on in this drama (or lack of relationships, in the case of the giant heart in the upper left). In any case, go get your Unubore on. And then work your way through the rest of Kudokan’s masterpieces.

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