Shinigami-kun drama: episode 1 recap and screenshots

Start Date: April 18th on TV Asahi, air time is 11:15 pm

Main Cast:

Satoshi Ohno as Shinigami #413

Mirei Kiritani as Shinigami's supervisor, through 2 episodes she hasn't been called anything

Masaki Suda as Akuma

Yutaka Matsushige as The Chief

Episode guest stars: 

Sakurako Ohara as Fukuko

Riho Takada as Mami

Shu Watanabe as Naoyuki

 Don't think this drama season is going to be a strong one and the last few haven't but there's a few that have raised my interest and actually was thinking this could be the best of the weak bunch. Can't say I'm a fan of Arashi but their VS show is often an enjoyable watch, Ohno's dramas though have usually been solid watches, he doesn't take the easy way out and the series of his that I've seen have all been really good so thought this deserved a chance then. For the first episode until the last few minutes he was the only one of the main cast to make an appearance so this review will just be featuring him and the guest star Fukuko.

 A shinigami or at least #413 appear on Earth 3 days before a person is about to die to give them a warning on it and to give them time to clear any last affairs they may have or to use that time to do something they've always wanted to do.This episode a high school senior Fukuko has been told by #413 that she has only 3 days to live, naturally she doesn't believe him at first as I'm sure nobody would but gradually he proves that he is indeed a shinigami and that she now has less than 3 days to live. Fukuiko is not a popular girl at school but has been best friends with Mami who is quite an attractive girl and is the most popular in school, for some reason they've been best friends for  along tome.
 In reality though they're really not best friends as Mami has been using Fukuko over the years, Fukuko has realized this but being friendless she somehow puts up with it. As the story begins Mami has been in an accident and is in the hospital waiting for surgery as her face has been scarred and she has lost the sight in one eye. Fukuko is the only one from school who goes to visit Mami, she may have been popular but it was only mainly because of her looks, once the boys at school have learned what happened to her they want nothing to do with her even though Fukuko has pleaded with them to see her.

 The main question though is what is going to become of Fukuko who has less than 3 days to live, it would make no sense for her to tell anyone as who would believe her? Up until now Fukuko has never had a boyfriend and even worse than that she's never been on a date, #413 suggests that would be an excellent thing to try to do in her remaining time so she could leave the Earth in a happy state. There has been one boy who she's had a bit of a crush on named Naoyuki but before she could get to know him better Mami sort of stole him away from Fukuko, that wasn't the first time something like that has happened. Fukuko gets in touch with Naoyuki and they do hang out a bit together but it's mainly because he wanted to learn of what happened to Mami and to have Fukuko help him by her a present but like her classmates he doesn't want to visit Mami in the hospital.
 So sadly much of Fukuko's remaining time is spent alone except for the shinigami who does spend a lot of time with her, they actually in this short span of time do become friends and he ends up being the only one who she's ever been able to confide to. With less than a day to live Fukuko visits Mami one last time and for the first time actually tells Mami what she really thinks of her and how much she's hurt her over the years which leaves Mami in tears for as no one has ever told her these things, their last time together wasn't a pleasant encounter.

 It looked like Fukuko's one wish to finally go on a date will not happen but her and #413 spend an enjoyable afternoon on a rowboat at a park, for Fukuko it was such a fun time she said that it could count as an official date and she could die somewhat content though naturally dying is one thing she still doesn't want to happen. It does happen though but one good thing does come out of her tragic death which was she was able to help Mami out as Fukuko had signed up to donate her organs in case she died. And after her death Mami who had needed an eye fairly quickly was given Fukuko's eye though at the time she didn't know about her death plus the doctors were not allowed to tell Mami who had donated the eye.

 And there for the most part ends the first episode, bit sad at the end but overall it was a very solid watch, only complaint is that we didn't seen any of the other in the main cast until the very end and even then it was just briefly. Ohno did a really good job in this first episode and the young actress who played Fukuko also did a really solid job, had never seen her before this but perhaps she'll be one to check out in the future, to date she hasn't appeared in too many things though. Episode 2 though we do get to meet 2 more of the main cast and both have some solid roles which brought a lot to this series, thought the next episode was a bit better than this one. Next post has even more screenshots from this episode and hopefully will have a review of the second episode within the next day as I've just finished it and as I may have said was a bit better than this episode though this was a ver good watch.