Kawai didn’t know what she wanted to do after graduating school, so she settled on taking civil service exams and letting that determine her occupation. The only exam she happened to pass, however, was the police officer one, and she’s been miserable ever since. Finally reaching her breaking point, she planned on submitting her resignation, but she’s now assigned a new instructor, and she happens to be pretty. Is it true that Chief Fuji was transferred because she supposedly abused a younger detective? All we got is hearsay, but in working for Fuji, Kawai decides to continue the cop life a bit longer.
Miko Yasu’s Police in a Pod is probably the perfect digital release. It’s an award-winning manga currently ongoing (17 volumes right now) with a fairly obscure focus: on cop life in Japan. This one focuses on two female police officers, one who never planned on being one but didn’t pass any other exam, and one who’s considered a top officer but maybe isn’t that well-liked in the office? It’s admittedly unclear what Fuji’s past is since the office is a mostly male environment, but the manga currently focuses on the day-to-day crimes and odd jobs these two happen to get themselves involved with.
And the range of what they deal with is truly wide. We get a whole chapter where obeying traffic laws is a focus to one where Kawai chases after a suspect (while people watch her chase after said suspect!) and she wonders if she can even stop him. In the first chapter the two end up bringing in a long-time shoplifter and then are tasked to educate young kids on being a police officer. You have a chapter where the officers can only respect the highly trained office dogs as they roam around the mountains to find an old man.
And then you have a chapter where the two bring in a runaway girl, which seems ordinary at first until the girl says she’s had a lot of sex, and soon enough, reveals the actual circumstances (her stepfather sexually abusing her). Thankfully, Fuji picked up that she was being assaulted and was able to help her out. So it’s clear the series will delve into all the aspects of working as an officer in Japan — the good but mostly bad. Mostly bad because even they know no one likes them.
But it’s hard to recommend reading this because for the most part the stories are very mundane, the dialogue isn’t always interesting, and the art is very unappealing. There are some hilarious moments but they’re fairly few and far between, and some character motions just don’t even look correct. The camaraderie that Kawai and Fuji have makes it important, but that’s not enough unless things change over time.
If you did need a manga devoted to police and is female-led, then Police in a Pod has some interesting moments. In general it’s a work that stands out due to its topic so that might be worth purchasing due to that. But it would have to shape up story-wise or provide more on Fuji’s past with the department (we’ve only gotten Kawai’s) to be a long-term read.