Kira Kira Hikaru (Shining Brightly) Series:

Another Fuji TV program that is definitely worth tuning in is Kirakira Hikaru (Shining Brightly, Tuesdays at 9 p.m.). It is a strange title for a story dealing with life in a coroner's office. It is also a taut, well-acted drama with plots filled with facts from the field of forensic medicine. Ah, Thomas Noguchi and Cyril Wecht would love this one. I rather enjoyed it myself.

The cast includes Kyoka Suzuki, Happy Birthday pair Eri Fukatsu and Toshiro Yanagiba, who also worked together on last year's Odoru Daisosasen, and Yasuko Matsuyuki, as a tough policewoman who solves her cases with the help of the dear doctors. Worth checking out. It could be one of the season's big hits.

STARRING: Fukatsu Eri, Yanagiba Toshiro, Matsuyuki Yasuko, Shinohara Ryoko, Azuma Mikihisa, Kobayashi Satomi, Suzuki Kyoka, Hayashi Yasufumi, Ishimaru Kenjiro, Nomura Yuuto
THEME SONG: "Nishi e Hagashi e" by Mr. Children
NETWORK: FUJI TV
DURATION: January 1998-March 1998. Part 2 aired in 1999. I believe there was a part 3.
REVIEWS:

I found it just about the worst series to air in the last decade.