"Actress" drama: Episode two of eight recap

 

 Air Dates: April 14th until June 2, 2023... Friday nights at 1:00 am on Lemino

Eight episodes that were ~32 minutes in length, suns done by WeStillSubbing

As was the case with the "Borderless" drama this was based on a novel by Teteuya Honda

Main Cast: There's no Wiki page nor did the Lemino site have any info on the characters and such. This is a sequel to the "Borderless" drama that aired in 2021 and takes place five years after that show took place. The setting in that previous drama was a small town in Saitama, now the action takes place in Tokyo. Four of the six main characters returned except for the sisters Haru and Kei, that was probably because Risa graduated but she still could have appeared in this drama. There being so little info out there about the series and characters so sure there will be a lot of editing to this above section, wrote most of this up after viewing the first two episodes and there are some characters we haven't seen much of yet. Kyoko, Hikaru, Yui and Seira were all in the previous drama.

Kyoko Saito(Hina) as Kiri Katayama.... In the other drama Kiri had been an aspiring novelist and still is at the age of 23. She did attend college and after became a writer/director/actress of stage plays. Besides that dream of being a writer Kiri also had some thoughts about being a detective as the other series revolved around a murder case which she helped solve. For the first two shows we didn't see Kiri in any present day setting as she's been missing for over four days, what we saw of her were flashback scenes from the last few months. Kiri is currently writing a web novel titled "Escape Beyond" which has been popular but there's been a huge downside. Which is that the credit is going to an actress named Kanna and Kiri is just going along with this charade as she had been in debt because of her producer running off with the money from her last production!

 Hikaru Morita(Keya) as Nao Mori.... Kiri's best friend in high school though the pair didn't meet until they were seniors. She's also 23 in age and in a shock Nao attended the police academy and did graduate eventually becoming a detective in the Violent Crimes unit. However three months before drama was taking place Nao quit the force and is working as an investigator for the Wada Tooru Detective Agency. Why she left the police force is still a mystery and at this new agency Nao is partnered up with Tomomi and the pair seem to be very close. Nao hasn't seen Kiri for over two months and is worried about her disappearance. 

Rei Ozono(Keya) as Tomomi Tagawa.... Also an investigator at the detective agency and as mentioned is partnered up with Nao. To date know zero about Tomomi's past but she is so gung-ho as a detective and is just so observant plus very deductive. She impresses Nao to no end who may think deep down why didn't Tomomi join the police force? Though she's never met Kiri she's the one who is mainly leading the case about her disappearance. Tomomi is friends with Kotone and how they met is also unknown.

 Yui Kobayashi(Keya) as Kotone Nakajima.... In the previous series her last name was Ichihara but in the five years since that ended Kotone married her childhood friend Kazushi and they have a three year old daughter. Kotone is still working at her father's coffee/tea shop called Cafe Dominant located in a small town in Saitama, the family lives in the back. As mentioned she does know Tomomi from years ago but how they ever hooked up is yet another unknown. Kotone only knew Kiri slightly but is aware of her disappearance and think she eventually joins the case to find her.

 Seira Hayakawa(Nogi) as Kanon Ichihara.... Kotone's sister who is three years younger and lives with her sister's family in the back of the cafe. Through two episodes we've only seen Kanon in one short scene so have no clue what is up with her, in the previous drama she was an aspiring musician who wanted to attend college in Tokyo, do know she currently has a broken leg.

Ririka Ito(Nogi) as Kanna Mase.... Perhaps the most key figure in this drama though she was murdered at the end of the first episode!!!! Kanna was a very popular actress and one with a swelled head though of course was always an Angel around her fans. Kanna was not a writer and didn't like books but was convinced by her manager to begin a web book called "Escape Beyond", three chapters have been released which have been extremely popular. But Kanna had no hand in writing this story as 100% of it was written by Kiri(!) and could that have played a part in her death? Also there's a copycat criminal who has done some of the violent happenings in the first three chapters such as killing cats. In the soon to be released fourth chapter there was a person killed, could this copycat criminal be following what took place in the story? If so how did he know of what would be taking place in the new chapter?

 The above six, soon to be seven, were from the three Sakamichi groups, there are more characters who are below. As mentioned there was no info anywhere on most of the cast save for the above seven so for now will just list the character's name and a bit of info, sure more will be added in.

Runa Hayashi as Rie.... Don't know her last name yet and we didn't see much of her until the second episode. Rie was Kanna's assistant and just may have seen her killer who could also also have been stalking her, will that put her life in danger too?

Kounoso.... Kanna's manager at the Delight Agency, seems like a decent man though he did rope in Kiri to write that web novel and he too is looking into her disappearance.

 Kuzushi Nakajima.... Kotone's husband for about four years and the pair had been childhood friends in that small town in Saitama, no idea what he does for a living yet and that's him in the middle.

Oki.... Publisher of Kanna's web novels and while we haven't seen much of him yet think this role may become larger, that's him on the right below.

Wada.... Owns the Wada Tooru Detective Agency where Nao and Tomomi work. He seems like a decent chap and his assistant is named Okura who is in the middle below.

 As mentioned more characters will be added in as we've heard of some other names but haven't met them yet. If you didn't view the "Borderless" drama or read the recaps have the links to that drama's final two episodes if you want to learn more on how that ended and about the returning characters.

Episode nine .... Episode ten

 Short promo video for the drama which is worth a view, don't think there are any videos for each episode. There could be but the Lemino YT channel isn't available in America.

 

 After writing up the recaps for the "My Perfect Stranger" series that lasted for sixteen episodes these recaps will seem like a walk in the park! This drama has eight episodes which are thirty or so minutes in length compared to the other drama whose shows were over an hour long! There was a gruesome scene to end the first episode and that's the screenshot above, the very popular actress Kanna has been stabbed to death! By who and why will be a mystery for a while and I have no clue to either question. Right above that is also a screenshot from the first episode. A dead cat had been found mutilated in a mail box and that wasn't the first time it had been done in that area of Tokyo. It was an incident from the web novel " Escape Beyond" and so wasn't Kanna's murder! Let's get to what took place in this second episode and the main question is if there is a copycat criminal doing acts that appeared in the web novel.

 Kanna's murder happened in the last twenty seconds of the first episode, we didn't see the killing and just the screenshot of her dead body. Kanna's body was discovered early in the morning, at that time her manager Kounosu had been talking to Nao and Tomomi about the whereabouts of Kiri, those are the top three screenshots. Sure you read the above recap so you know the pair of private investigators are doing an off-the-cuff search for Nao's friend Kiri who hasn't bene seen for five days. Kounosu too wants to know where Kiri is and he also has no clue to where she could have disappeared to. Could foul play have been involved and we'll soon learn why Kounoso was so interested in finding Kiri. While that chat was going on Kounoso received a call, one that naturally floored him as the news was that.... his very popular actress Kanna Mase had been found murdered!!!! He quickly shuffled Nao and Tomomi out of the Delight Agency and what an intense beginning to this episode.

 There won't be many screenshots of them but in the middle you will see one of the Wada Tooru Detective Agency where Nao and Tomomi work. In the middle is the office manager/accountant Okura who can be so annoying, on the right is the owner Wada who seems like a decent man. The two screenshots below that are of Kotone visiting the local hospital with her husband Kazushi. In the beginning of the first episode Kotone had received a very eerie call from an unnamed woman who mentioned Kiri's name several times and then hung up. That spooked Kotone to a degree and she contacted Kiri's one time best friend Nao after the call, that's what started the search for Kiri. The previous day an unnamed woman had been struck by a car outside of the house of one of Kazushi's friends, could this be the mysterious woman who called Kotone about Kiri? That's why the pair visited the hospital but the woman is unconscious and who knows when she'll wake up. But Kotone did learn something which was the woman's name, Mari Mizuta. That did bring a slight chuckle to Kotone and others as Mizuta can also mean water puddle.

 Kotone did contact Nao with that name of Mari Mizuta, as Nao says in the top screenshot she had a bad feeling about things but her and Tomomi now have their first clue in their hunt for Kiri. In the screenshot below that on the left is Kanna's manager Kounosu, on the right is the publisher of the "Escape Beyond" web novel Oki. In the middle is/was Kanna's assistant Rie who was the person who called the police about the murder. Naturally she's very shook up and Oki ended up giving her a ride home, he warned Rie that if this copycat criminal is following the "Escape Beyond" story then her life too may be in danger! Kanna had been killed during the night, no dates have been mentioned. That afternoon she and Rie had run into with a very avid fan of Kanna's and did he look crazed! Kanna had seen him before at events and this man who we've only seen for twenty seconds in two shows really gave her the creeps. It appears he may have followed Kanna and Rie home in his red sports car the day when Kanna was murdered. That screenshot of a wall with Kanna's photos on it was from this man's apartment but if you ask me don't think he had anything to do with her killing, least that's my early impression.

 The mission now for Nao and Tomomi is to dig up any info they can on this mysterious woman Mari Mizuta(water puddle!). Their first stop was a dress shop owned by the woman above whose name is Yasuko Yoshida though everyone calls her Poko. Nao had met her briefly at that dinner she went to with Kiri, Poko was in Kiri's play at the time. She's never heard of the name Mari Mizuta but did have some info about Kiri which may help their search. Kiri's assistant for her last stage play was a man named Abe, just before the play's run ended he took off with all of the money earned from it! That left Kiri with all of the bills to pay for salaries, rent, etc. which added up to be almost a million yen! That's Kiri telling Poko that in the above bottom screenshot, Kiri did pay off the debt but where did she get the cash? Poko did add in about how much Kiri despised the now dead actress Kanna but wasn't sure why. However the very deductive Tomomi has a theory and it does make sense. Could Kiri have been writing that web novel "Escape Beyond" as Nao did say the writing was similar to an old story that Kiri had written in high school. Tomomi has quickly deduced the real writer of the novel just may be Kiri but still needs more proof.

 Kotone never knew Kiri all that well unless they became friends after the "Borderless" drama ended, still don't know why Kotone knows Tomomi. But Kotone does seem to care about Kiri and think she'll soon be sucked into helping Nao and Tomomi much more on the case. Kotone was finally able to contact Kiri's mother in their small town in Saitama. However that phone call went nowhere as the mother showed quite a bit of hatred towards her daughter and why is yet another mystery. The mother hung up on Kotone who soon called Nao filling her in on what took place. Though Nao was Kiri's best friend in their senior year at high school she never once heard Kiri mention her family and Nao is beating her self up for not getting to know Kiri better.

Zoomed through this recap as there's less than four minutes to go in the episode. Tomomi was correct on her deduction about Kiri possibly being the ghost writer Kanna's "Escape Beyond web novel. The person that would know more was her manager Kounosu and along with Nao paid him a visit at the Delight Agency. Tomomi bluffed him by saying she knew where Kiri was but because of the possible danger after Kanna was murdered won't reveal her location. Kounosu bought the story and above you can see some of his story he told Nao and Tomomi. He had proposed to Kanna the idea of penning a web novel but she hates books but to Kounosu that won't matter! Being thought of as a writer would only increase Kanna's popularity, all she has to do is go along with the charade which she agreed to. Kounosu knew that Kiri was an excellent writer plus he knew about her debt from her assistant running off with her last play's money. So he roped Kiri in to write this web novel but she was paid rather well, because of that and how popular the novel became she kept her mouth shut. That mini story from Kounosu ended the episode and there's one more mystery that's added to the long list! But a few questions still haven't been answered such as where did Kiri disappear to five days ago? Plus was Kanna's murder another crime by this copycat culprit and if so how did he get the story to the fourth chapter as it wasn't coming out for a few days? Almost forgot to add in that Kounosu is at a loss, what can he do with the very popular web novel now that it's fake writer is dead? A good mystery story always leaves you hanging with many unanswered questions and so far this has been a decent watch through two episodes. Will be back by the weekend with the next pair of recaps.