It has been announced that the final special episode of the popular detective drama "Aibou Season 23" (TV Asahi, Wednesday 9pm) titled "The Monster and the Holy Sword" will be broadcast in two parts on March 5th and 12th. It has also been announced that guests Katsuya Maikuma, Jin Katagiri, Yusuke Hirayama, and Reika Aiki will appear.
All four will be making their first appearance in "Aibō". Maikuma will play Ura Shinroku, an unidentified man who approaches Sugishita Ukyo (Mizutani Yutaka), Katagiri will play Ichioka Kou, an ambitious Tokyo governor, Hirayama will play Kihara Kenji, an eerie man who holds the key to the case, and Aiki will play Hashimoto Rinko, a Tokyo assembly member and the family member of a victim of a robbery involving illegal part-time work.
The final special episode begins with a large-scale investigation headquarters being set up to investigate an "anonymous, mobile crime group" whose damage is increasing year by year. Ukyo and Kameyama Kaoru (Terawaki Yasufumi) of the Special Task Force are called in to investigate as usual, and are assigned to a case that occurred in a residential area of Musashi Tamagawa City in Tokyo. Four break-ins and robberies have occurred in the area in the space of two months, but Ukyo feels something strange about the fourth case.
The victim was the home of Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly member, Michiko Hashimoto. The two perpetrators broke into the house just as Michiko's elementary school-aged daughter was returning home, but then for some reason, they remained inside the house until late at night, which was a mysterious move. Not only was there no sign of any money or valuables being searched for, but the perpetrators also spray-painted the interior of the house black, making this case clearly different from the other three cases.
Michiko was staying at a hotel in the city center that day and was safe, but it turns out that she is currently engaged in an investigation into the suspected illegal leakage of metropolitan tax money. The Special Investigation Unit is investigating whether the incident was staged by someone who wants to thwart Michiko's investigation, disguised as a robbery for a secret part-time job, in order to blackmail her, but a mysterious man and the ambitious governor of Tokyo stand in their way.
Manaki commented, "The term 'unlicensed part-time work' is a term that is often seen in the news, and I felt that it could happen to people around me, so I felt that this story was very timely. It gave me an opportunity to think again about politics and the country. I think that 'Aibou' fans have high expectations for the final episode, but it is a story that contains a strong message for those of us living in Japan today, so please look forward to it."
The final episode special will feature familiar faces such as Deputy Superintendent General of the Metropolitan Police Department, Kinugasa Toji (Sugimoto Tetta), Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office head Yashiro Miyako (Nakama Yukie), and Chief Inspector of the Police Affairs Department, Okawachi Haruki (Jinbo Satoshi). In addition, former prosecutor and reporter Kurosaki Kenta (Uchida Yuya) will make his first appearance since episode 5 of "season 19" (broadcast in November 2020).
