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Sunday, November 10, 2019

"Motokare Mania" drama: Episode three recap





 Air Dates: October 17th until ?? on Fuji-TV, Thursday nights at 10:00 pm
Episode three rating- 4.1%

Main Cast:

Yuko Araki as Yurika Nanba.... 27 year old woman who can't get over her ex-boyfriend
Kengo Kora as Makoto Saito.... the ex-boyfriend who disappeared for five years
Kenta Homano as Akio Yamashita.... businessman from Hokkaido who moved to Tokyo
Minami Tanaka as Mugi Kurusu.... radio announcer from Hokkaido
Yoshiko as Hiromi Suo.... nail stylist and Yurika's best friend
Shinya Kote as Ichiro Ando.... manager of Tilolien Real Estate
Kanro Morita as Masaru Osawa.... real estate agent at Tilolien
Mandy Sekiguchi as Tadafumi Shirai.... real estate agent at Tilolien
Sayaka Yamaguchi as Sakura Marunouchi.... Makoto's current roommate
Shuri as Chizuru Kaga.... young OL who has a crush on Akio

 Ratings for this series have dropped rather quickly and it's not like it started out with a high figure. Episode one had a 5.6% rating while the second show was close with 5.2% but as you can see above it really dropped with this episode. It airs on Thursday night's and the competition is rather though which is a main reason along with there being no superstars in the cast though many are rather popular. At the top is a short video of a press conference that was held for the drama, did a pair of posts with many pics from it but there was no video at the time.





 Should write these up quicker as I viewed this exactly a week ago and hope not too much was forgotten. These two recaps for today were both okay episodes but the pace has really slowed down and it's not as fun or quirky as it was in the first two shows. Yurika is still working at the Tilolien Real Estate offices but for how much longer? She was hired on a temp basis for one month, there's ten days to go on that contract and unless she can start selling houses or renting out apartments her contract won't be renewed.
 Naturally assigned to help her selling a home was her ex-boyfriend Makoto and still can't understand why someone with his background would just be a real estate agent. He does possess at least one college degree plus has worked in America, even through four shows not much of what he did for the past five years has been revealed. But Makoto does know how to sell a house, he's trying to help Yurika seal a deal on one that would land her a full time job at Tilolien. There's a young couple who do have their eyes set on the house they're selling, the wife is pregnant and to them the house would be perfect.
 To Yurika though the wife seemed just a bit disturbed about something, even though the couple is working on obtaining a loan it's not a sure thing they'll buy the house. Makoto gave Yurika a big piece of advice which was called 'Item Honing' which means to emphasize all of the assets a house will be for someone such as the couple she's working with. Upon a further visit to the house Yurika had discovered what the wife may have found unlikable about the house which was the backyard. It was overgrown with weeds and the general condition of it was less than desirable.






 Yurika does have a lot of pep though at times not much of a brain. She took it upon herself to fix up the small backyard but instead of using any landscape tools she got down on her hands and knees to pull up all of the yard's weeds. Yurika was a bit successful at her chore but she should have picked a better way to do the job as before long she ended up with heat stroke and passed out in the yard which you can see above. But luckily Makoto happened to make a visit to the house looking for her, obviously he still has feelings for his ex-girlfriend as he scooped her up and carried Yurika all the way to the hospital, only in dramas does that happen.
 But to the rescue was also her pair of male workers at the office who were Osawa and Shirai. While Yurika was recuperating in the hospital the pair went to the house and finished up the repair of the backyard. The following day the couple paid another visit to the house, the wife noticed how superb the backyard was now and they immediately signed the contract to buy the house. The couple were also very impressed with a map that Yurika had created for them which showed all of the neighborhood's stores, parks, schools and other things, that also helped to seal the deal.
 So it appears Yurika may become a full time employee at Tilolien though the official statement doesn't happen until the next show. But the main storyline with this show is the reunion after five years of Yurika and Makoto. Can't be easy working side by side with your ex-mate and it's especially difficult for Yurika. She knows that Makoto is living with a woman but doesn't know the true details of their relationship. The woman is eight years older than Makoto and somehow the pair are only roommates as it's a truly platonic relationship. What's so odd and a bit unbelievable is that they also share the same bed yet the pair have somehow remained platonic?!





 Have to wonder if it's in the cards for the two old lovebirds to become an item again. Since their breakup five years ago Yurika has never gotten Makoto out of her mind, hence the show's title "Motokare Mania". Where we stand now is that Yurika would definitely get back together with him but the problem is what about Makoto? He's kind of on the edge, he still has feelings for Yurika but doesn't appear Makoto wants to start a second relationship so quickly. The pair had a discussion one evening about that which you can view above, Yurika asked Makoto flat out is there a chance they can resume what they once had but for now he can't answer her with a yes or no.
 That top screenshot above is of Yurika with her 'different personalities. She 'consults' them when she needs advice, it's usually a highlight of a show but in this episode there was only one scene with them, in the next show there were zero. Makoto's current roommate who Yurika thought was also his girlfriend is named Sakura. She's a successful writer though the sales of her current series "Memories can't hurt Me" have been slipping. But at least she has a huge fan in Yurika who has read all ten books in the series, she had no idea that her favorite writer was living with Makoto.
 Yurika has briefly met Sakura once as she had been outside of Tilolien Real Estate to catch a glimpse of Yurika. But out of the blue Sakura asked Yurika out to a dinner after the above scene with Makoto took place. That's when Yurika learned the true identity of Sakura and how she was her favorite writer. However what Yurika didn't learn fully at their get together was that Sakura and Makoto were just roommates with zero romance. To me Sakura is a very attractive woman, must be hard for Makoto to sleep in the same bed with her keeping things platonic. Upon further reflection that's almost impossible to do, know I couldn't yet the drama world is so different than the regular one.






 At their get together Yurika also discovered that Sakura is also a 'ex-mania' person meaning she's someone who can't get over her ex. Sakura's books have been based on her breakup with a high school flame, much more about that in the next recap. We didn't see too much of the other characters this episode, that's a shame as Akio has been a bit of a highlight. He's a businessman who has recently moved to Tokyo from Hokkaido, the first apartment Yurika rented out was to him. Akio is also a 'ex-mania' person who can't get over his ex-girlfriend and seems these days he's developed quite the crush on Yurika but is keeping it to himself.
 Bottom screenshot above is of Akio's ex-girlfriend Mugi and once again we didn't see enough of her. She too has recently moved to Tokyo and is working as a radio host on Tokyo Bay Radio. Akio knew she may be coming to Tokyo but hasn't heard any word of it. Yurika has though as she spotted Mugi one day at a bookstore where she bought Sakura's new novel but for now hasn't told her Akio that she's bumped into her.
 Coming down to the end and it was a dramatic scene to cap things off. Once again Yurika has gone out with Makoto, about the fifth time in three episodes it's happened. He mainly wanted to clear the air about their previous encounter but also wanted to give Yurika her birthday present, that day falls on Halloween. To Yurika's dismay the present Makoto picked out special for her was a .... Radiometer! Makoto seemed a bit pleased about the present though Yurika had the opposite feeling as she was more than peeved Makoto would buy her such a gadget.
 Yurika told him flat out that she hated getting such a 'gift' and Makoto eventually had to admit it was a horrible selection. But to make it up to Yurika Makoto embraced is ex-girlfriend and for the first time in five years the pair kissed. To Yurika this may be the moment when the relationship is rekindled but not to Makoto. That's because out of nowhere came Yurika's best friend Hiromi who saw the pair in an embrace. When she asked does this mean the two are now going out again Makoto immediately said NO which infuriated Hiromi who started to pummel him. Meanwhile Yurika stood watching the scene with tears streaming out of her eyes which is how this show ended.





 After writing that up it wasn't that bad of an episode, forgot a lot of what took place waiting a week to pen this. Next show though kind of drags and that often happens in the middle episodes with these kind of rom-com series. This drama did start out funny and rather interesting but both of those good points are beginning to dwindle though I'll still finish this show. Recap for the fourth episode is the post just below this.
EDIT: Think I mentioned in the previous recap that there could soon be a post for Sayaka. It's no longer a maybe as you may notice the post above this one is of her and she's someone I do like quite a bit even though she's a tad older.



































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