Ryūsei no Kizuna

Ryūsei no Kizuna (流星の絆) is a detective novel by Keigo Higashino. It was serialized in Weekly Gendai from 16 September 2006 to 15 September 2007 and was published into one tankōbon volume by Kodansha on 5 March 2008. The novel was published in paperback format by Kodansha on 15 April 2011.

The novel was adapted into a Japanese television drama in 2008 starring Kazunari Ninomiya, Ryo Nishikido, and Erika Toda. With the opening theme "Beautiful days" by Arashi and the insert song "Orion" by Mika Nakashima, the drama series began on 17 October 2008.

Plot
During their childhood days, the Ariake siblings — Kōichi, Taisuke, and Shizuna lived peacefully with their parents who owned a western restaurant named after their family name that specializes in hayashi rice. One day in the night, the siblings ran away from home to watch a meteor, just to later find out that their parents were killed while they were gone. The case remained unsolved due to lack of evidence and witnesses; only Taisuke has barely seen a suspect, and a plastic umbrella with no print was apparently left by the killer. Leaving a great impact to the lives of the sibling, they made a promise to find the killer and kill him themselves.

14 years later, having grown up in an orphanage, the siblings are now scammers. When Shizuna approaches their target, restaurant manager Yukinari Togami, she discovers that Yukinari's restaurant serves hayashi rice with exactly the same taste as the one their family restaurant used to serve. After seeing Masayuki Togami, Yukinari's father and owner of the Togami restaurant chain, Taisuke determines that he is the suspect he saw on the night of their parents' murder. The siblings conclude that Masayuki killed their parents and stole their family recipe of hayashi rice, but they can only find circumstantial evidence. Eager for Masayuki to face justice before the case expires, the siblings plant evidence to frame Masayuki, leading the police to notice Masayuki as a suspect. During the process, Yukinari and Shizuna develop romantice feelings for each other, and Yukinari caught Shizuna planting a recipe book in the Togami residence. Yukinari decides to assist the Ariake siblings to find out if Masayuki is the real killer.

With Yukinari's help, Kōichi and Taisuke visit the Togami residence disguised as police officers investigating the Ariake murder, and inform Masayuki that his DNA is found on an item at the crime scene, making him an official suspect. Masayuki accidentally reveals that he is aware that the item at the crime scene refers to a plastic umbrella, causing Yukinari, Kōichi and Taisuke to believe that he is indeed the killer. However, Masayuki reveals that he was at the crime scene that evening to purchase the hayashi rice recipe from the Ariake couple, only to find they were already dead. In shock, he left the scene with the recipe and was seen by Taisuke. However, Masayuki mistakenly took the killer's umbrella home, so the umbrella at the scene indeed belongs to him. He calls the police to his home and offers the killer's umbrella for finger printing.

From the scratches on the handle of the killer's umbrella, Kōichi deduces that the real killer is actually Yasutaka Kashiwabara, the police officer in charge of the Ariake's murder. The scratches are the result of the killer swinging the umbrella like a golf club, which is a habit of Yasutaka. Yasutaka left his umbrella at the scene on the night of the murder, and when he came back as a police officer, he wiped prints on the umbrella at the scene, which actually belongs to Masayuki. Kōichi confronts Yasutaka, who admits to the crime and kills himself. Yasutaka left a suicide note, admitting to killing the Ariake couple and framing Masayuki (he had found the Ariake siblings were behind the framing and wanted to protect them from legal consequences). Kōichi and Taisuke decide to return their scam money and surrender to the police for their scams. Yukinari proposes to Shizuna.

Cast

 * Kazunari Ninomiya as Kōichi Ariake (有明 功一)
 * Ryusei Saito as young Koichi
 * Kōichi is the eldest of the Ariake sibling; he is 26 years old in the present time. He was the first one to discover his parents' dead bodies. Has great responsibility and dearly treasured his siblings. As the eldest son, he was expected to continue his father's restaurant, and has attended a cooking school, although according to him, it's "a waste of time." Kōichi is now working at "George Clooney," a curry house owned by his benefactor and lives there as well.


 * Ryo Nishikido as Taisuke Ariake (有明 泰輔)
 * Issei Kakazu as young Taisuke
 * Taisuke is the middle child and Kōichi's only blood-related brother; he is 24 years old in the present time. Taisuke is the only person who has barely seen a suspect. He is now working at adult DVD store "Tommy Lee George," owned by his benefactor as well. He is currently living at Shizuna's apartment.


 * Erika Toda as Shizuna Ariake (有明 静奈)
 * Sea Kumada as young Shizuna
 * Shizuna, or nicknamed "Shii" by her brothers, is the last child and the only daughter; she is 21 years old in the present time. Unknowingly to her, Shizuna has no blood relation to her brothers, but is an illegitimate child from her mother's previous affair with a man named "Yazaki."


 * Jun Kaname as Yukinari Togami (戸神 行成)
 * Yukinari is the only son and the heir of Togami western restaurant chain who is in attempt to recreate the original taste of hayashi rice. He is 29 years old.


 * Toshinori Omi as George Hayashi (林 譲二)
 * George is the benefactor and a father figure of the Ariake sibling; he owned the orphan facility where the siblings spent their childhood at, a curry house, and an adult DVD store.


 * Akira Emoto as Masayuki Togami (戸神 政行)
 * Yukinari's father and the owner of Togami western restaurant chain.


 * Ryo as Tōko Ariake (有明 塔子)
 * Mother of the Ariake siblings. She was a hostess and was pregnant with one of her customer Yazaki before she met her current husband.


 * Susumu Terajima as Yukihiro Ariake (有明 幸博)
 * Father of the Ariake siblings and owner of Ariake western restaurant. The store is popular for its hayashi rice that made with secret recipe.


 * Tomokazu Miura as Yasutaka Kashiwabara (柏原 康孝)
 * The police who is in charge of Ariake's murder case.


 * Osamu Shitara as Shinji Hagimura (萩村 信二)
 * Another police who is in charge of Ariake's murder case. When drunk, he acts like an onee.


 * Kenta Kiritani as Hisanobu Takayama (高山 久伸)
 * The boss at Shizuna's former office. He loves to put post-it notes on everything. He calls Shizuna "boring," but is actually has crush on her although his pride won't let him say it.


 * Mika Nakashima as Sagi (サギ)
 * A mysterious girl with no eyebrows who often shows up at George Clooney; nobody knows her name because she simply never introduces herself. She calls Kōichi "Axel" and is attracted to him. She acts as the comic relief of the series.

Guests

 * Taiyo Sugiura as Kazuya Saigō (ep 1,4)
 * Shoko Ikezu as Miwa Katsuragi (ep 1)
 * Tomiyuki Kunihiro as Nobuo Yazaki (ep 3,6)
 * Seminosuke Murasugi as Katsuo Tsukimura (ep 3-5,8)
 * Kazuaki Hankai as Teranishi (ep 3,6)
 * David Ito as Takehiro Sawai (ep 4)
 * Eri Tokunaga as Chiemi (ep 4)
 * Yumi Aso as Toko Yazaki (ep 5,6)
 * Aiko Morishita as Kimiko Togami (ep 5-10)
 * Shoichiro Tanigawa as a restaurant manager (ep 5)
 * Kiyohiko Ichihara as a shopkeeper (ep 5)
 * Akio Kaneda as chief clerk (ep 7)
 * Yusuke Shoji as Tsujimura (ep 7)

Staff

 * Script: Kankurō Kudō
 * Soundtrack: Shin Kōno (河野 伸)
 * Producer: Jun Nasuda (那須 田淳), Akira Isoyama (磯山 晶)
 * Director: Kaneko Fuminori (金子 文紀), Yasuharu Ishii (石井 康晴)

Episodes
It was broadcast in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico through TV Japan, US affiliate of NHK, every Saturday from 10 October 2009.