"Shiyakusho" drama: Episode one 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 Star for this episode:

Nao Oriyama as Taichi Kano.... recently deceased 14 year old who killed himself because of bullying and the fact his new father seems to despise him

 Here's an interesting drama which I recently discovered but did hear about it when it first started airing last October. For some reason didn't think much about it at the time which appears to have been a mistake as this is one fun, quirky and very interesting show. 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....

 That third screenshot down is of Nashiko and what a shame we only saw her for five seconds. Kind of explained above what Shiyakusho or the 'Death Office' is, will be using both terms in the recaps. In that bottom screenshot is Shimura on the right who appears to be the main leader in the office or at least for now we haven't met anyone above him. On the left is Yuina as Michiru and she's the main reason I decided to view this series but it seems to be so good may have watched it even if she wasn't in it. She has the biggest role through two episodes but before I talk about her will do the story of a fourteen year old boy Kano who was the major guest character for this show.
 The 'Death Office' is made up of many smaller divisions for the way a person died. Such as a natural death, suicide, murder, accidents and a few others. The suicide department has been overwhelmed lately and the main clerk Nishikawa can't keep up with the flow of newly dead people. There's a recent arrival who is the fourteen year old Kano so Shimura volunteered to help his mate out and would interview the young boy to see where he'll be heading to in his afterlife. Kano is a very quiet and timid boy, also not a very beefy one as he looks like someone who could be bullied easily.
 And in real life he was, so bad by a trio of classmates that he couldn't take it anymore and threw himself off his apartment's balcony. But watching that scene made me wonder if Kano really did want to kill himself, it appeared he may have been wavering at the thought of jumping and I thought he slipped off the balcony but that possible scenario was never mentioned. Kano was having a hard time filling out the interview form which all 'customers' need to do, with that form Shimura or any of the the staff can usually determine whether that person is going to Heaven or Hell.

 For those who committed suicide there is a third option where they may end up at which is Purgatory. A person who won't complete the form will head to the level for 49 days, then a decision will be made of their afterlife and it's usually not Heaven where they're sent to. Besides the bullying Kano's mother had also remarried a few months prior to a seemingly nice man but to Kano that man didn't want him around. Kano felt ignored by his new father and thought he was in the way which was also a reason for Kano killing himself. He had been stealing money from his new father who knew what was happening but never said a word to Kano about it. Kano had been giving that cash to the trio of bullies who wouldn't abuse him as badly if they were paid off.
 The leader of the trio is right above and his name was Ushio, as you can see he's now a dead person and to the bewilderment of Kano his new father had run over Ushio shortly after Kano killed himself. Learning that fact really affected how Kano looked at his 'alive life' and how he may have missed certain signs from his new father. We viewers saw a few flashbacks of this father who actually wanted to support his new son so badly but didn't know how to connect with him. The father knew about the bullying and wanted to step in but Kano's mother had said no. The more Kano looked back the more he realized that his new father was a decent man and he didn't give him half a chance, sadly he can't change anything as a rule at the Death Office is you can't go back to the world of living.
 That bully Ushio laughed at Kano once he heard he may be going to Purgatory, that won't happen to him gloated Ushio who knew he would be going to Heaven. 'Why?' would that happen Kano asked Shimura when Ushio is such a horrible person but though the lad thought Heaven would be his destination Shimura assured Kano that only Hell awaits such a devil of a person. So after meeting the person who was the most responsible for his death and knowing what kind of decent man his new father was Kano agreed to fill out his 'Heaven application' form out completely and hoped for the best. There is justice in that world as we did see Ushio be sent to Hell while the nice young lad Kano found a home in Heaven bringing his longish story to a close. Had to come back to add this in which is that Kano had kept a diary which was found by his parents, from that they learned what he thought about his new father and how he had been bullied endlessly by Ushio.

 A show is 32 minutes in length which means it's short enough where all of the recaps will just have three segments meaning this is the final one. So won't be talking about Yuina as Michiru that much in this first recap and that's her right above. Not sure what kind of role Michiru will be playing in this drama, she recently died so isn't a member of the Death Office staff or at least not through two episodes. But she does hang around with a few of the 'intake workers' and is learning so much about the rules and procedures of people who have died and where their afterlife will be. Most newly died people are dealt with quickly and though the staff tried to do that with Michiru it didn't work out well and maybe they have different plans for her.
 So it's obvious that Michiru has just died and as she says above she couldn't believe it. She didn't know the details of her death but assured Shimura that she was murdered. He didn't quite believe this newly dead person as you'll appear at the Death Office in the same shape as when you died. Usually a murder victim would have a stab or gun wound along with being bloody but Michiru looked completely unharmed. Ishima is an older worker who is the main interviewer for the 'Murder Department' and after talking with Michiru couldn't figure out how she died. Perhaps not knowing the reasons she's appeared at the office is why Shimura and the staff are allowing her to stay.
 The office is a bustling place and there's a tote board which keeps track of how many deaths there were that day, the total for this day had been 2,834 so are there many 'Death Offices' for each country? . Michiru did meet quite a few odd characters but one 'normal' person' she met was Hayashi whose face she recalled so well but couldn't figure out why. We'll learn why she knew his face in the next show but to end off this one Michiru had begun investigating the rest of the office which was quite huge. She stumbled upon a dark corridor where she discovered a room named 'Death Penalty Division', naturally being curious she entered. Along a wall was a huge bookcase which contained the life stories of the staff. Michiru found Shimura's volume which said something about him being condemned to death. Before she could read that much Shimura entered saying the room is off limits to non-staff and asked Michiru to leave which ended the first episode.

 That final scene will begin off the next show, an underlying storyline is why the staff were condemned to death but for the most part each episode contains a stand alone story. At first was going to do a pair of recaps but changed my mind and will have three so there's not a big gap between these posts. Will do those three recaps for today, next batch will also have three and the final one will contain four posts and so far I'm really getting into this drama.