"Shiyakusho" drama: Episode four recap

 Air Dates: October 16th until December 19, 2019 on TV-Tokyo  Wednesday nights at 12:12 am

Also goes by the title of 'Death Office', subs were done by HPriest

Main Cast: Will be tweaking some of the details as we go on and learn more about the characters. Of these five only Michiru doesn't work at the Death Office or at least for now. The four that do have mysterious pasts where it appears they killed someone, were they sentenced to work at the Death Office as a punishment?

Masahiro Matsuoka as Shimura.... main leader of the Death Office who is very stoic person who only goes by the book and has a dark past which we'll be seeing in drips and drabs

Yuina Kuroshima as Michiru Miki.... newly deceased young woman who claims she was killed but can't prove it, for some reason the Death Office is letting her hang around

Sho Kiyahara as Hayashi.... clerk at the Death Office who is a minor celeb as he was executed back in 2007 for a murder

Marika Matsumoto as Nishikawa.... clerk in the suicide division at the office, she too was condemned to death but why is unknown for now

Denden as Ishima.... older clerk in the murder division who also was condemned to death

Guest Stars for this episode:

Hana Toyoshima as Natsuka Date.... newly deceased young girl who was about twelve in age and ended up being the first person to make Shimura admit he was wrong

Tsubasa Yamai as Tomoya.... Natsuka's almost boyfriend

 It's not an essential thing to do but it would help to read the first trio of recaps if you haven't. All of the main stories are stand alone ones that don't continue into the next episode. But there is an underlying storyline about the staff and why they're working at the office. Only bits and pieces of why that's so have been revealed to date but it could turn into the major story soon.

The action takes place at the 'Death Office' where all of us go when we die(?), all of the 'customers' at the office have recently been killed. Customers is the term used for the deceased who are interviewed by the staff to determine their next stage of afterlife.... Heaven, Hell or Purgatory....

 There was just one major story devoted to a character in the first three shows. But this time we have two, one is about a young girl named Natsuka who appeared to be about twelve in age. On her first date ever she was in an accident and is now at the Death Office. The other story is about Michiru and will be ending off the post with it. She's been at the Death Office for close to seven weeks and she needs to decide within 24 hours on where she wants to spend her afterlife.

 Natsuka's family is on the verge of moving and she'll no longer be able to see her friends. There's one person who she may miss more than anyone else who was her classmate, a boy named Tomoya. Natsuka had never been on a date which for a twelve year old is normal. Before she moved Natsuka wanted to have one memory for her and Tomoya, that's of the two going on one date and she's the one who asked him out. The pair did have a fun time during the day, first off they went to the movies which did make Natsuka a bit uncomfortable as the couple in front of them began kissing. More than anything else during the date was that she wanted Tomoya to hold her hand, she gave small hints about her wish but Tomoya either didn't notice or didn't want to hold hands.
 But as mentioned the pair did have a fun time, besides the movies they went to an ice cream shop, strolled the streets sightseeing and ended up at a store where they purchased a pair of matching pens. Upon leaving the shop Natsuka had a hard time keeping up with Tomoya as she had worn some soft shoes, all of that walking had given her blisters. Tomoya noticed that and offered to go to a store to get her some bandages. Natsuka though said forget about them, what she'd rather have happen is for Tomoya to hold her hand. That startled him and he told Natsuka he'd be too embarrassed to do that around so many people. His rejection broke Natsuka's heart in two, before she could do anything her date ran off to get those bandages.

 A dejected Natsuka took a seat waiting for her first date to return, though naturally a bit down Natsuka did have a fun time on her date and to me it'd be unfair to blame Tomoya for anything. Most twelve year old boys are a bit frightened of being seen holding a girl's hand so have to understand his feelings too which Natsuka eventually did. While waiting for Tomoya the matching pen he purchased for Natsuka fell out of her hand and rolled into the busy street, that's something which has seemingly happened hundreds of times in dramas and films. And almost every time a huge delivery truck will be barreling down the road, that was the case once again as Natsuka was hit by one and tragically died while Tomoya looked on helplessly.
 There's little doubt that Natsuka's destination will be Heaven and all she has to do is fill out the application form. She did but had such a difficult time writing because of her injuries, she shook off Michiru who was there for the interview. Shimura is always a low key guy whose main mission was to help those newly dead out. But he does have a mean streak in him as some of his comments can be quite hard hitting. That was the case during Natsuka's interview as Shimura had said perhaps she wanted to die in front of Tomoya do get back at him for not holding her hand? He made a few other comments which were unnecessary, Michiru was in disbelief over what Shimura was telling the young girl who also was irate at Shimura's barbs.
 She went into high gear and really put the man in his place which really pleased Michiru. How dare Shimura say such comments about her and what happened on that date, to her everything he said was false and there's no way she wanted to die. Natsuka went on for a few moments berating Shimura and how he had everything wrong as that date had been the happiest day of her life up until the accident. The application to Heaven was accepted without a hitch, there's no waiting period as right after the interview Natsuka entered her final destination. But not before Shimura gave Natsuka her matching pen back, he had cleaned the blood off it and though he didn't say so he knew he was wrong with his comments to the girl yet he's not a man who knows how to apologize.

 This recap will probably turn out to be the longest one. But that above story was kind of a heart warming one and didn't want to fly over the details. The remaining recap will be about Michiru's fate and as you can see above her time at the Death Office is quickly winding down. You have 49 days to fill an application out for Heaven, she only has one day left and the penalty for not filling out the form will be a lifetime on the plains of the Underworld which isn't quite Hell but close. Michiru did know the day would eventually arrive, it's not that Heaven wasn't a place she didn't want to make her new home but to me enjoyed being around the staff of the Death Office so much.
 Kind of an easy decision for Shimura who handled the formalities for Michiru's application. She had no regrets save for the fact she led such a boring life, at twenty she had done very little plus had never had a boyfriend. Michiru was also ashamed at how she died which was from alcohol poisoning which took place on her 20th birthday. However deep down Michiru still felt she didn't consume all that much and that her best friend Aya may have spiked her wine. The application was accepted in record time and Michiru just needed to kill a few hours before Shimura escorted her to the Heaven's gate.

 With that little bit of time Michiru once again snuck into the Death Penalty Division room which contains the records for the entire staff. She wasn't allowed in there and had been caught in episode two by Shimura who told her the room was off limits. But Michiru needed a few answers about Shimura who she kind of liked and respected but then again he couldn't have been too good of a person for murdering his daughter. We kind of felt during MIchiru's time in that office that Shimura was aware of her being there but did nothing to stop her curiosity. Though a very solid spokesperson for the Death Office Shimura is a bit of a quiet person who was hiding a dark secret, many of the staff knew and it appeared he wanted Michiru to also find out so as not to think of him as a bad person.
 What Michiru found out was extremely shocking and a bit heartbreaking to her. When Shimura escorted her to the gates of Heaven they had a very brief conversation, it's when Michiru blurted out to him, 'You didn't kill your daughter but was framed for the murder!'. That surprised us and Shinmura never explained what happened on that fateful day, as a matter of fact by the end of the sixth episode we still don't know why he was framed for the murder. Well, the reason I was watching this show was for Yuina as Michiru, now that she's in Heaven will we see her again?

 Actually this recap was only one paragraph longer than the others, that first story did take up a good chunk of this episode. Above is one of the Death Office staff who is Hayashi, we know he killed someone many years ago and was executed for the crime but none of the details had been revealed. They will in the next recap as almost the entire fifth show was dedicated to him and that's the post following this one.