Manami Higa: "Honjitsu wa, Ohigara mo Yoku" drama episode one and two recaps

 Air Dates: January 14th to February 4, 2017- Saturdays at 10:00 pm on WOWOW

Director: Kiyoshi Sasabe Subs: subie06  Based on the novel by Maha Harada

Main Cast:

Manami Higa as Kotoha Ninomiya

Kyoko Hasegawa as Kumi Kuon

Dai Watanabe as Atsushi Imagawa

Mokomichi Hayami as Nikkaashi Wada

Renji Ishibashi as Jiro Oyamada

Kaoru Yachigusa as Kikuyo Ninomiya

Eiichiro Funakoshi as Atsuro Imagawa

Megumi Abe as Eri Imagawa

 The news just came out yesterday so there aren't too many details but there's going to be a third season of "Code Blue", one of my all time fave shows. Manami starred in the first two seasons which aired in 2008 and 2010, the main cast is expected to return for this third season. It's scheduled to start in July and Manami will be reprising her role of Nurse Saejima in the series, will keep all updated with any news of the drama.

 Been a while since I've viewed a regular Japanese drama, last few have been Idol based shows plus watched so many Korean dramas last year. So this being the first one in a while going to make it short and to the point. It was a short series consisting of only four episodes so will squeeze two recaps on to each of the posts. Not making it short because I didn't like the show, it was actually much better than I expected though the ending was a bit rushed.

 Manami has the lead role in the drama playing the character of Kotoha. When the series started she worked as a regular OL at the offices of Totaka Confectionary, by their name you know they make sweets. But right off the bat Kotoha gets transferred to the PR Strategy Office though she has no experience in that field. However her grandmother was a very popular poet many decades ago and think most thought she'd have the same literary skills.
 Kotoha didn't as she bombed quite badly at a company presentation. To top her day off her best friend since childhood, Atsushi, has told her he's getting married to a twenty year old woman he knew plus he revealed she's also pregnant. There was no serious relationship between the two but deep down Kotoha thought the two would get married some day, she's 27 and don't think she's ever had a love interest.
 Kotoha attends Atsushi's wedding, at the reception she hears an amazing speech by a woman she had never seen before. That woman is Kumi and the pair end up meeting after the festivities. Kumi tells her she's a speechwriter and one in popular demand as she's written many speeches for politicians over the years. Kotoha is so taken by Kumi's presence that she asks her to take her under her wing, Kumi agrees and Kotoha ends up quitting her job at Totoka.

 Kotoha's resignation didn't take place until she had another attempt to make a speech for the company president. Being around Kumi has already started to pay dividends for Kotoha as the president was overwhelmed with her speech and wanted to use some of it in a speech of his own. Now that Kotoha is free from a day job she's with Kumi full time, though her speech for the company president went well she still needs quite a bit of help.
 Kumi has worked closely with the elder politician Oyamada, she's now the head of his re-election campaign. Things are going well for this recap so far as we're now in the second episode. Kotoha is still quite green and Kumi doesn't give her many major tasks, mainly research and observing how she works. Oyamada is head of the Minshuto party, he'll easily be elected once again but the problem is that the party has no candidate for the 4th district.
 This is where Kotoha comes in as Oyamada wants her friend Atsushi to run in that district. His father was a very esteemed politician and had died of cancer a few years before. Kumi had been his speechwriter and had written a very famous speech of his though it was unknown to the public.It's going to take some effort to get Atsushi to run, he just got married plus he has very little interest in politics, will Kotoha be able to convince him to run?

 Atsushi was adamant about not running, he's had no experience in politics except for watching his father and he stuck to his guns about not running. That is until the very end of the episode when he's at a debate between Oyamada and the Prime Minister. Oyamada is a rare politician who stands up for the little people while the PM and his party are the complete opposites, their administration has also been quite corrupt.
 That debate swayed Atsushi to run, it's going to take a lot of effort as the election is just a month away plus his opponent is friends with the PM and should win the contest easily. That man is Kurokawa of the Shintento party and his aide/speechwriter is a younger man named Wada. We've seen him off and on since the beginning, though young he's very good at what he does. He's also met Kotoha a few times, at her speeches for the Totoka Company plus they seem to run into each other quite often.
 He's going to be a ruthless rival for Kotoha but he's also very respectful of others, he won't stoop to low tricks to outdo his opponent. Final time they ran into each other is after the debate, Kotoha didn't know it at the time but he reveals to her that he's the speechwriter for Kurokawa. Now instead of friends they could be enemies but he'll fight a fair fight, he thinks there's no way he can lose.

 That brings us to the end of the second episode and think combining two recaps into one worked out well, many new things I try don't. Personally though I prefer reading shorter recaps at other sites, too many reviewers tell you 100% of what happened, I just want to know the basics of a drama.
 A series about speechwriters may appear to be uninteresting but these two first shows were very solid and they zipped right by, with four episodes there's very little time for any filler. Manami has done a good job too plus she looks absolutely fantastic(as always). She's always been a good actress though not a great one, think she's stepped it up a notch in this series.
 Next post has the recaps for the last two episodes, they were fine but the ending in the finale went a bit too quick, that happens in a short series. Think most of the storylines were covered, left a few out which I'll get to in the next post as they're much more key in the upcoming shows. If there were any details left out you can view them in these screenshots as there's quite a few of them, should help you follow the story a bit better.