Ryūsei no Kizuna

Ryūsei no Kizuna(流星の絆,lit.Meteor Bonds)is adetective novelbyKeigo Higashino. It was serialized inWeekly Gendaifrom 16 September 2006 to 15 September 2007 and was published into onetankōbonvolume byKodanshaon 5 March 2008. The novel was published inpaperbackformat by Kodansha on 15 April 2011.
The novel was adapted into aJapanese television dramain 2008 starringKazunari Ninomiya,Ryo Nishikido, andErika Toda. With the opening theme "Beautiful days" byArashiand the insert song "Orion" byMika Nakashima, the drama series began on 17 October 2008.
During their childhood days, the Ariake siblings — Kōichi, Taisuke, and Shizuna lived peacefully with their parents who owned awestern restaurantnamed after their family name that specializes inhayashi 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 caseexpires, 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.
It was broadcast in theUnited States,Canada, andPuerto RicothroughTV Japan, US affiliate ofNHK, every Saturday from 10 October 2009.