Sexist in terms of the plot and the characterization of the FL? Or just the daily, constant sexism Reiko faces?…
Obviously, I am in no place to gauge feminism' successes but as with any socially progressive movements, e.g. the civil rights movement in the US, there will always be pushback. And institutions that are traditionally male dominated are always slow to change, either because of their bureaucratic nature or sheer malice. So, I'm not surprised that despite it being 2005 there is still so much sexism still. And again, this is an Asian country so there will even more resistance and slowness.
However, I don't know if it's fair to say that Reiko becoming a police officer because of her trauma is sexist. Male characters in fiction all over the world always have some sort of traumatic backstory for why they became soldiers or cops or superheroes, even if such characters and backstories are apparently not found in Japanese fiction. And regardless, I don't believe the *story* frames it as if a woman would join a police force only if there is some pain in her past. I mean, the novel explicitly mentions other female police officers (even if they're not in Homicide) and there's no mention of traumatic backstory that compels them...
As for the FL keeping quiet with all of her colleagues' comments, maybe the drama didn't do an effective job of communicating her emotional struggle over the harassment. The novel explicitly mentions how much anger she feels over the jibes she has to face daily because she is a woman. She doesn't keep silent because she agrees with them. She keeps silent because she knows that raising to the bait will not solve the problem, it will just cause more retaliation and make doing her job even harder. I'd argue that's more tragic than anything and says a lot about our society and how we treat female professionals. Moreover, she knows she is a good detective even if her male colleagues don't. That's why she doesn't even take most of the comments seriously. She tries to prove herself by solving cases, not responding to taunts and causing arguments.
As for the fanservice, the faux toughness, damsel in nature thing, and male gaze, that's what happens when most of the people behind the camera are male. It is 2021, we still see that sort of thing even in works claiming to be feminist. One step forward, two steps back. On the whole, this special is from 2010 - there are going to be a lot of mistakes that hopefully will be improved on in future instalments and other media. There are better depictions of female detectives in recent years; at the least, the Strawberry Night stories feature a lady detective, however problematically, in a time when they were rare in fiction.
Why is it called Younger Boyfriend if most of the characters in the episodes aren't or never end up dating lol? Also, at the end scenes where the MLs just look at the audience and say "I love you" is kinda weird from a parasocial viewpoint.
Nevertheless, I won't say this is a masterpiece but it is a fun watch. We usually never see younger man/older woman pairings in dramaland; moreover, some of the romantic stories and couples in this drama are really cute!
4 
Raw: https://nyaa.si/view/1372048
Raw: https://nyaa.si/view/1372048
Raw: https://nyaa.si/view/1372048
Raw: https://nyaa.si/view/1372048
However, I don't know if it's fair to say that Reiko becoming a police officer because of her trauma is sexist. Male characters in fiction all over the world always have some sort of traumatic backstory for why they became soldiers or cops or superheroes, even if such characters and backstories are apparently not found in Japanese fiction. And regardless, I don't believe the *story* frames it as if a woman would join a police force only if there is some pain in her past. I mean, the novel explicitly mentions other female police officers (even if they're not in Homicide) and there's no mention of traumatic backstory that compels them...
As for the FL keeping quiet with all of her colleagues' comments, maybe the drama didn't do an effective job of communicating her emotional struggle over the harassment. The novel explicitly mentions how much anger she feels over the jibes she has to face daily because she is a woman. She doesn't keep silent because she agrees with them. She keeps silent because she knows that raising to the bait will not solve the problem, it will just cause more retaliation and make doing her job even harder. I'd argue that's more tragic than anything and says a lot about our society and how we treat female professionals. Moreover, she knows she is a good detective even if her male colleagues don't. That's why she doesn't even take most of the comments seriously. She tries to prove herself by solving cases, not responding to taunts and causing arguments.
As for the fanservice, the faux toughness, damsel in nature thing, and male gaze, that's what happens when most of the people behind the camera are male. It is 2021, we still see that sort of thing even in works claiming to be feminist. One step forward, two steps back. On the whole, this special is from 2010 - there are going to be a lot of mistakes that hopefully will be improved on in future instalments and other media. There are better depictions of female detectives in recent years; at the least, the Strawberry Night stories feature a lady detective, however problematically, in a time when they were rare in fiction.
Nevertheless, I won't say this is a masterpiece but it is a fun watch. We usually never see younger man/older woman pairings in dramaland; moreover, some of the romantic stories and couples in this drama are really cute!