Start Date: April 27, 2014 on TBS, airs at 9:00 pm
Main Cast:
Toshiaki Karasawa as Mitsuru Hosokawa, president of the Aoshima Company
Yosuke Eguchi as Kotaro Sasai, vice president of the Aoshima Company
Tsutomo Yamazaki as Takeshi Aoshima, chairman of the Aosima Company
Teruyuki Kagawa as Kiyofumi Morota, president of Japanix
Kanji Ishimaru as Fumio Mikami, head of the Aoshima HR department
Asuka Kudo as Kazuya Okihara, temp worker at Aoshima and potential star pitcher
Rei Dan as Arisa Nakamoto, Karasawa's secretary
Toru Tezuka as Masaomi Daido, new coach of the Aoshima baseball club
Not the usual kind of drama I end up watching but the main cast seems strong plus I've been watching too many non-serious dramas as of late so figured one like this is worth a try, so far so good through 2 episodes. Put the first 2 shows together as it was easier to review the shows that way but not sure if I'll keep doing it this way in the future.
The Aoshima Company is a medium sized one which makes precision tools, they've never been overly big or successful but has done quite well for many decades. The company has recently appointed a new president, Hosokawa, he hasn't been with the company too long but was very successful with a new product to the dismay of his fellow executives. Though his co-workers have been there much longer Hosokawa was named president when the founder of the company Aoshima has decided to go into semi-retirement. Shortly after that happened the economy took a turn for the worse and the Aoshima Company's fortunes have also taken a turn for the worse, now they must make some drastic changes to stay afloat.
To cut back on expenses or to lay off employees is the question for the president, one thing he's proposed to the board is to disband the company's baseball club which would save them 300 million yen and to show the bank they're trying to get a loan from they are making changes. The baseball team has been around for the entire life of the company and the former president is a huge baseball fan, disbanding the team is not going to be an easy task for Hosokawa and is rebuffed at first when he does try to do it. At one time the baseball club was the pride of Aoshima, they had won many city tournaments over the years but over the last decade their success has dwindled like the company's fortunes.
But there are many other issues besides just the baseball club that the company has to worry about, first off is the bank which they've always done business with wants to cancel the loans they've been getting, it's what's been keeping the company alive the last few years. The bank's loan officer seems to have some evil feelings for Aoshima though we don't know why yet, he's been doing everything he can do to make sure they don't get any more loans as he wants to see the company fail. We learn in episode 2 there is a major person behind him and that's Kagawa who is the president of Japanix, a rival company of Aoshima. He acts cordially towards Hosokawa and the rest of the Aoshima executives but behind the scenes he's working to eliminate the Aoshima company, first through trying to get the bank to cancel their loans and a few other things which will come out a little later in the next recap.
On to the baseball club, there is turmoil with them also as the manager has quit along with a few of their better players, all have defected to their rivals team. But it may work out better for the Aoshima club as they have obtained a new manager, one is really into sabermetrics and has studied the stats of the team for the last few years. Through the new manager the team has improved quite a bit though they're still losing games but they've had a chance to win all the games. However a big setback has happened as their ace pitcher has gone down with an injury, he's been the main reason the team has kept the games close, a few other players have tried to take his place but with no success as the team really needs an ace pitcher. And one they may get, Kudo is a temp worker in the shipping department and he was once an promising young pitcher for his high school team until some misfortune came his way which he wasn't entirely to blame but yet it stopped his pitching career. By the end of episode 2 it looks like the Aoshima team has persuaded Kudo to join them, he's said no to joining the team for most of the episode but finally by the end of the show it looks the team will once again have the pitcher they so desperately need.
That's enough of a summary for now, can't give away every major detail of what's happened so far but the next two posts have many screenshots form these 2 episodes so you can check them out for the things I've missed. Actually wrote 2/3 of this a week ago and was hoping that at least one more episode would be subbed to add on to this but it hasn't happened, so far these are the only 2 to be subbed so I'll be back with the next recap for this series once two more get subbed. I really enjoyed these first 2 shows, been watching too many dramas with idols in them lately so it's good to watch a more serious show like this, the cast is really top notch.
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