I stumbled on to this series simply by downloading from one of my favorite Asian movie websites.  Well I have to say for another of Japan’s shows that became a manga it is not bad.  As I said in the title SP was a big hit in its native country Japan.  Given Clint Eastwood’s very popular film “In the Line of Fire” SP might be appreciated with western audiences but of course we will never know.  I am not saying this is the end all be all of TV drama’s it certainly isn’t crap though.  If you like Asian TV or films you will probably like SP.

SP, also known as Security Police is based on the real life security police unit of Japan which is responsible for protecting domestic and foreign VIPs.  The series script was written by famed GO author Kazuki Kaneshiro and marks his first time writing for a television drama.  This drama centers on the newly recruited SP officer named Kaoru Inoue has such sharp senses that his able to conduct his duties by using some form of ESP to take down threats before they materialize.

The franchise consists of the TV series, two film adaptations of the series released in 2010 and 2011 with a manga adaptation.

Inoue is recruited by veteran SP officer Sōichirō Ogata after being impressed with his training under Section 4 of the SP division.  Inoue works with Eri Sasamoto, one of the few women serving in the division while another officer, Takafumi Yamamoto, who is the only known SP officer to have MMA experience with a preference to use the 7:3 hairstyle ratio (whatever that is) and of course there is the divorced Mitsuo Ishida who is the only known SP officer in the section who had been previously married.  The series shows these men and women working in unison to protect the VIPs assigned to them from being killed by assassins.

I think one of the things that factors into the deserved success of SP is that it that its makers limited the number of episodes even in the face of its native popularity.  In the west, a show that was as popular as SP would have been dragged out by the producers until it died a dog’s death—something I can’t stand.