Introducing Miss Sherlock
> Japanese actresses Yuko Takeuchi and Shihori Kanjiya portray the female versions of the iconic detective and his sidekick, Dr Watson, in a new HBO Asia series
HBO ASIA’S first Japanese-language drama series is a modern retelling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, with two actresses playing the central characters.
The eight-part, hourlong drama Miss Sherlock is produced by HBO Asia in collaboration with Hulu in Japan. It will premiere across 20 countries in April 2018.
The unique series is set in modern-day Tokyo, and both lead characters are Japanese women – ‘Watson’, or Dr Wato Tachibana (played by Shihori Kanjiya), is a surgeon recently returned from a volunteer doctors’ mission in Syria; and ‘Holmes’, or Sara Shelly Futaba (Yuko Takeuchi), is an investigation consultant to the police department who solves bizarre and difficult cases.
The pair solves mysteries using Futaba’s extraordinary observation and reasoning skills.
During HBO Asia’s 25th Anniversary celebrations in Singapore, the two actresses sat down for an interview with members of the media about the show with the help of an interpreter.
Takeuchi, 37, is a popular actress in Japan who had her big break with TV series Asuka. Her work on movies such as Yomigaeri won her many awards in Japan.
“When I got the offer to play [Futaba], I was very happy to receive such good news,” Takeuchi said.
While she is familiar with Doyle’s books, Takeuchi refrained from watching any other modern adaptations of this super sleuth’s tales in order to focus on this series.
Even though she had starred in a similar role on another detective series, Strawberry Nights, in which she played a policewoman investigating a gruesome murder, Takeuchi said she did not model her character in Miss Sherlock after anyone in particular.
She added that with two actresses playing the famous duo, she is confident that they can offer audiences something new, especially since female-led cop shows are a rarity.
“We hope that this is a starting point,” she said. “We hope it serves as a trigger for more dramas featuring allfemale leads.”
Takeuchi’s co-star Kanjiya, 32, is also a popular TV and movie actress, and the two have worked together on previous projects.
Kanjiya noted that they had played similar characters in a 2010 series called General Rouge.
She recalled: “There was a mystery [element], and I played a doctor similar to Dr Watson. Yuko played a detective who was not very good at her job.”
Kanjiya added that while Holmes’ methods of solving crimes are astounding, it is Watson’s reaction to them that reflects what the audience is thinking.
She took this into account when approaching how to play her character.
Kanjiya said that on Japanese TV channels, there are a lot of restrictions regarding graphic content, but since Miss Sherlock is an international collaboration, it allowed them to bring more realism to the production.
She hopes that this might spark some change in the industry.
Takeuchi added that their involvement with a HBO production has given them an international platform.
The fact that they are promoting the show outside Japan is a big deal in itself, as most Japanese productions cater to a limited market.
Despite the fictional detective’s continued popularity, how is it his oldfashioned methods still manage to appeal to audiences now used to seeing scientific methods and modern forensics in TV shows?
Takeuchi has an theory. “The [sense of] feeling and intuition cannot be mastered by technology yet,” she said.