"Shiyakusho" drama: Episode two 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:

Wakana Sakai as Izumi Ogino.... woman who had been trying for years to have a child, sadly the baby died a few days before it's birth

Toru Nomaguchi as Takahiro Ogino.... Izumi's understanding husband

 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....

You see can see above that Wakana was a special guest star and she's been a huge fave of mine for a decade. She didn't have any posts though but that's changed as she did have a pair done two days ago for a massive 2009 pictorial. After this post and before the recap for episode three is a post for an older photobook which should dazzle many of you and I certainly was....

 Before we get into this episode's main story will continue off from where episode one ended, this scene only lasted a little over a minute. As the first show was winding down Michiru had been roaming around the Death Office which is a huge place. She stumbled upon a room named 'Death Penalty Division' where she found a shelve lined with books of the staff. Michiru quickly glanced at the one for the young man Hayashi as she thought his face was familiar. It was as twelve years prior he had been sentenced to death for killing someone, who and why remains a mystery.
 Michiru also began to peruse Shimura's book but couldn't get far as he entered the room. But Michiru did notice that he too had been sentenced to death and we'll learn a tad more about that in the next recap. But Michiru wondered 'Is everyone working at the Death Office a killer?' and her guess was a correct one as they all are. With eight episodes to go we'll be learning a bit more as they go on about why they're working at the office plus who, why, how and everything about those killings is
revealed. Now on the main story and every person ends up at the Death Office, even one that hasn't been born yet and there's even a department for those kinds of deaths.

 Above is the happily married couple of Izumi and Takahiro who are so in love after being married for almost ten years but do have a problem. Izumi can't have children and she's been having infertility treatment for close to eight years. But not once has it worked and she's getting quite depressed about that as Izumi felt she's an inferior wife and woman. Nonsense said her devoted husband Takahiro, even if she can't bear children there's no one else in the world he wants to spend the rest of his life with and he seemed like such a decent guy. But Izumi was still so downcast about her situation and even a pregnant woman at work looked down on her for being childless.
 But a miracle did happen as after eight years Izumi has become pregnant and of course is overjoyed at the thought of being a mother. She'd make a darn good one too and throughout her pregnancy she did everything the doctors told her to do and it appeared it'd be a smooth delivery. The couple didn't know the gender of the baby so for now was calling it Ochibi-chan which means tiny tot. However that miracle turned to a tragedy about two weeks before the child was due. Izumi had been in a market when the pain in her stomach was too much to bear and she passed out.
 She was quickly rushed to the hospital and the doctors did everything in their power but sadly couldn't save the baby. Ochibi had been 38 weeks and two days along, that's close to nine months so you could figure out how close Izumi was to finally having a child. But more importantly for her husband was the life of Izumi who was doing well and needed an immediate operation. The staff at the Death Office knew what was going on(how?) and prayed for the operation to be a success. The prayers worked according to Michiru as Izumi pulled through, Shimura didn't think praying had any effect and to me he's correct as it was the skilled doctors who saved her life. Even an unborn baby ends up in the afterworld and of course not being born means they will go to Heaven which was Ochibi's final destination.

 That was definitely a sad event but at least Izumi did pull through, she still has Takahiro by her side and though crestfallen about the baby did accept it better than most women would. Now on the Michiru and the staff at the Death Office, that's her above and she's the one who asked everyone to pray for Izumi to survive the operation, surprisingly most joined her in a prayer. It didn't become an issue during this episode but it does it does play a major part in the next recap which is why is Michiru still at the Death Office? Usually the newly dead are assigned to the next level of their life which is Heaven, Hell or Purgatory, haven't heard any other place mentioned.
 Michiru almost seems like she's become the office cheerleader or supporter, why don't they just 'hire her'? One potential problem for Michiru is her relationship with Shimura who seemed like a nice man but as time goes on he has become a bit creepier, we've noticed that and so hasn't Michiru. She was furious with the office manager not joining them in praying for Izumi plus she's a bit scared of Shimura as why would such a mild mannered man has kill a person?
 Above talking with Michiru is Ishima, he's an older gent who is the main interviewer for the Murder Department. Through three shows he appears to be the best person at the office and Michiru tends to go to him for advice but she can't believe such a nice man could commit a murder. In the next recap we also learn who Ishima killed but not why, to this day he's rued whether he made the right decision killing that person. With that this post comes to it's end and if I could keep all recaps at this length I'd be such a happy person, kept it short yet didn't leave out any major details. Then again never like to explain every little detail which may spoil things a bit if you wish to view a series.

 Thanks if you read this entire post and remember that terrific Wakana PB follows this one. I've really been zooming through this drama as I've already viewed five episodes, may need to slow down to get these recaps done. The next show may be the best of them all and have a feeling every show will be just a bit better than the previous one, while the third show was the best of three the fourth was the best of four if that makes sense. Plenty of screenshots to help you follow the story a bit better and do have to day that Yuina looks so enticing in this show, whew....