Tsubasa Honda: "Koinaka" drama episode one recap and screenshots

 In general I'm fairly pleased with the way things have been going here on the blog. Viewership has really increased over the last year or so, have been doing many more different kinds of posts plus the females I post about has expanded greatly too which helps things from ever getting stale.
 However one thing that's not pleasing me is the lack of drama reviews like I used to do, am currently reviewing the "Bemars" drama but that's been the only one for the last few months. Actually I've watched a whole bunch of them this year but for some reason haven't gotten around to posting about them, have started posting about two Japanese and Korean series but they're still in the draft stage and unsure if they'll ever be finished. Reading my reviews may not seem it but they do take a long time to do, first you watch a 50 minute show while taking many screenshots plus even shorter recaps still take at least 30-40 minutes, then again I'm just slow at everything.
 Drama reviews are the least viewed posts here and I can understand why easily but there are some who come here for them plus I like writing them too so even if they're not overly popular have continued to do them or at least up until a little while ago. Starting now though will be doing a few more reviews, this one for sure you'll be seeing every week plus there's a few others that I'll be starting on soon so hopefully there's still a few drama fans out there. That doesn't mean any of the other kind of posting will slow down, hopefully what it means is that we'll soon be having more posts than ever, that is if I can ever get over my lazy tendencies.

 Start Date: Monday, July 20th on Fuji-TV at 9:00 pm

Main Cast:

Tsubasa Honda as Akari Serizawa

Sota Fukushi as Aoi Miura

Shuhei Nomura as Aoi Shota

Taiga as Kouhei Kanazawa

Sakurako Ohara as Nanami Miura

Mizuki Yamamoto as Mirei Tominaga

 Karen Otomo as Kokone Yamasiro

 Thanks if you read the above, while very few comment on any of the posts quite certain most of the viewers frequent here often and like to keep you updated on things, never hesitate to comment on things as most of the ones I do get are very good and useful.
 Being the first prime time drama review I've done in a while it may be  shorter than usual but for being a 57 minute episode not as much happened as you would think. The main story takes place in 2015 but most of the show looked back at the year of 2008 where the top three names on the cast list were seniors in high school. Easily 45 minutes were spent looking at their senior year and though it may have brought the episode down a bit guess in later episodes it'll help knowing the characters more.

 Let's see if I can write this in two or so paragraphs, besides being a while since a drama review am also beat tonight and still hungover(!!) from the weekend, hence this and the next post on this series will be the only two posts today.
 There's two males called Aoi in the show and they're both important characters so I'll refer to them bu their last names to make it simpler for you and also  myself. Akari and Miura are high school seniors in Toyama which is somewhat close to being the halfway point between Tokyo and Nagoya. The pair have been best friends for ever it seems, it's always been a platonic relationship but lately Miura has started to have romantic feelings for Akari but finds it impossible to tell her about them, she's a bit of a tomboy which may be leading him to think those feelings are one sided.
 One day another Aoi moves to Toyama from Tokyo, he'll be referred to as Shota. He's kind of a dour, quiet guy who doesn't associate with any other students but eventually him and Miura grow to be friends. That soon turns into a trio of best friends as Akari also quickly becomes his second best friend and they're always together wit seemingly no secrets between them.
 Miura wants to ask Akari to the special Summer fireworks show but just can't bring himself to ask her, but in the meantime one of the most popular guys in school does ask to the show. Miura tells her why would someone that popular want to go out with a tomboy like Akari and the first rift in their friendship forms as they don't speak to each other for a while. Eventually they do make up and Akari let him know that she refused the offer to attend the fireworks show with the other guy so perhaps they could go together.

 Think that short review isn't going to happen but not that far from finishing this. Things don't work out well for the show as Miura had something unexpected come up and Akari went to the show with Shota. Miura saw them together and thought something was going between them but there really wasn't, one of those classic misunderstandings which I think are going to be plentiful in this show.
 That means once again Akari and Miura aren't on speaking terms, once again too Miura is about to go and apologize to her. This time things don't work out as the next day at school he learns that Akari and her father have suddenly fled the city in the middle of the night. The father owned a small company which wasn't doing all that well and he was heavily in debt. Many bill collectors were coming around and there was no way for him to pay any of them so without any warning to anyone Akari and her father took the high road out of town, where they went was a mystery.

 Now it's present day as everyone should be around 25 by now. Miura's dream was to become an architect and he was able to fulfill it though he wasn't too successful yet and was working at a very small firm. He hadn't seen any of his classmates for seven years when one day out of the blue Shota shows up at his place of employment and says he would like to talk to Miura that night.
 Shota is studying to be a doctor and has almost finished his internship, his future is looking quite bright for him. Shota has brought Miura to a very classy restaurant as though not a full time doctor yet he's already started to lead that high class life. Miura is confused about why Shota has suddenly showed up after all these years when Shota tells him he has a big secret to tell him. And it's a big secret too as right at that very moment Akari enters the restaurant, first time Miura has seen her in seven years. Now Miura is really confused as Shota tells him that the two are.................

 Not sure why that was such a huge bombshell, as far as I know they're not engaged so why the pair had to tell Miura they were dating after all those years is a mystery at this point. And that scene concluded this first episode.
 Can't call it a must watch yet but do admit it was a solid watch, really didn't need to be a 57 minute show but can't say that it dragged too much. Has set itself up to be an interesting show to view, not always a big fan of these lovey dramas but think this may turn out to offer more than just a love story. Am about to watch the second episode and I'm really glad this series is being subbed, it's that kind of drama where I really need them. Of course Tsubasa is the main reason for watching this series and in the looks department she certainly doesn't disappoint, think it'd be impossible for her to ever to that.
 So will be back in a few days with a look at episode two and hopefully like I mentioned at the top there will be a few other dramas that will be reviewed soon too. This review turned out much longer than expected and certainly covered about 95% of what happened but if there's a few things that were omitted you can catch them in the next post as there's plenty more Tsubasa screenshots from the show.