Heaven and Hell: Soul Exchange

Sunday Theatre hit 20.1 percent. Netflix still files it like a sleeper.

The English page is calm. A Tokyo detective, a soul switch, Haruka Ayase, Issey Takahashi, Tasuku Emoto. The Japanese run was not quiet. Model Press printed Video Research numbers the morning after the finale. Household 20.1 percent in Kanto. Personal 12.0. The first episode had opened at 16.8. The fifth dipped to 13.2. The last three minutes, the sidewalk-bridge reunion after a pay-phone call, peaked at 22.6. That was March 21, 2021. latestnetflix.com's take is that the same write-up said the finale led every Japanese serial that year.

TBS's export catalog dates the ten episodes from January 17 to March 21, 2021. One episode at 85 minutes, three at 75, six at 60. Yoshiko Morishita wrote it. Ayako Mochizuki is a young detective in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police violent-crimes unit, hungry for a collar. She almost arrests Haruto Hidaka, a startup founder who is also the killer she is chasing. Their souls switch first. The English synopsis on Netflix is shorter. "When her soul is mysteriously switched with that of a psychopathic serial killer, an ambitious Tokyo detective watches her fate take a turn.",

Oricon, November 5, 2020, called it Ayase's first Sunday Theatre lead and her first detective. Takahashi's first time in the slot. Ayase said she wanted a show people would wait for each week. Sports Hochi printed a second line from her. She was looking forward to playing two people, with some comedy inside the thriller. Takahashi said the piece had a comic face and a tragic one, and he would start by taking care of his skin. Tasuku Emoto is the housemate who does not pay rent. Kazuki Kitamura is the senior detective who will not let the case go.,

Japanese Wikipedia, citing the production, adds the Amami Oshima moon-and-sun legend as the swap motif. The pair fall from a pedestrian bridge on a new-moon night. Opening cue is Beethoven's "Fate." End theme is Aoi Teshima's "Tadaima." Directors are Yuichiro Hirakawa, Takahiro Aoyama, and Aya Matsuki. Trick consultant Jiro Ishii is on the staff list. Ayase had already been in Morishita hits such as JIN and Stepmom and Daughter Blues. Lead billing in this slot was the new part.

The older English gossip treated the show as a mid-tier curiosity with a 45-minute clock and a cult shrug. Sunday Theatre is TBS's flagship hour. A 20 household rating is a hit, not a footnote. Netflix kept the English title Heaven and Hell: Soul Exchange. The Japanese title is closer to two psychos. The rumor that the body-swap was a gimmick that sank the ratings does not survive the chart. Model Press even logged that character nicknames, not only the official hashtag, trended while the finale was on.,

TBS YouTube still has the pre-broadcast digest from January 9, 2021. Ayase in the detective's body, Takahashi in the founder's, then the reverse. That is the stunt people argued about in 2021. The number that closed the argument is 20.1.