I’ve been watching a Japanese drama about forensic science called Voice.  It follows a group of medical students as they learn about the art of autopsy and determining a cause of death.  The poetic idea is that they pick up the thread of a dead person’s voice to hear the very last thing they wanted to say.

It’s a good show.  The acting is respectable and the stories are interesting.  One thing irks me, though–everyone seems to die for a really, really good reason.  One electrician died after breaking the fall of a boy committing suicide.  A husband accidentally electrocutes himself while trying to make french toast for his wife a la Kramer vs. Kramer.  Even a case that looks suspicious ends up being crush syndrome, deemed the only way to “die of compassion”.  There are no murders in Japan, it seems.

So imagine my excitement when episode four opens with a bona fide crime scene.  Bruises.  A fleeing suspect.  Marijuana.  Finally, some action!

My bad.  It’s a really long story(Japanese link) but he ended up killing himself via anaphylactic shock in order to protect his friends.  Of course.  Yet another good death.

I’ve been trying to figure out why, though four episodes, there has been such an angelic bent.  So far I have:

• It makes for good tv.  You get to cry but feel uplifted at the end.  See!  He really was a good guy!
• The show is more medical than police based.  There’s only one police officer with lines and he’s just there to set the scene before an autopsy.  Feel good story lines minimize arrests and virtually eliminate trials.
• It allows the students to be more touchy-feely and (in a general sense) emotional with affected families.  There is usually a scene where the noble cause of death is explained and the wife/mother/son is deeply moved.  They knew all along the deceased was a good guy and now science has proven it.

I think that there is an even more important reason, though.  Forensic pathology is not popular in Japanese medical schools.  According to the show only 10% of unnatural deaths in Japan are investigated by autopsy.  It’s not for a lack of want but rather a lack of doctors and facilities.  The show is trying to make the profession interesting and glamorous so more people enter the field.  This sort of thing has already happened in the US and is called, you guessed it, the CSI effect.

Finding out that a suspicious, shady person did in fact do the bad thing is interesting but may not encourage people to enter medical school.  Using the amazing powers of science and sleuthing to discover that this guy that looked bad is actually noble and just, and being one of the few people in the country with the skills to figure that out?  Sign me up.

All in all the show is great listening practice and I’m learning a ton.  I don’t know the next time “crush syndrome” is going to show up in my life but at least now I’m ready for it.