Air Dates: July 12 to September 6, 2016 Tuesdays at 10:00 pm on Fuji-TV, rating: 7.98%
This drama also goes by the name "On: Special Agent Hinako Todo"
Main Cast:
Haru as Hinako Todo, rookie detective
Yu Yokoyama as Yasuhisa Shoji, senior detective
Atsuro Watabe as Iwao Atsuta, department's supervisor
Jun Kaname as Keiichiro Kurashima, detective
Kento Hayashi as Tamotsu Nakajima, doctor
Mieko Harada as Taeko Ishigami, medical examiner
Tsutomu Takahashi as Keizo Kataoka, detective
Saku Momose as Ryoshin Shimizu, detective
Ryo Sato as Maki Tsukioka, traffic officer
Shiji Saito as Takeshi Miki, investigator
Don't think there's going to be a recurring theme throughout the show but could be wrong on that. There were a lot of flashbacks to the first show and even though the crime was entirely different it did have the same gruesomeness as the ones in the first show. Actually the four murders that took place this show were an original idea, don't think I've seen a show or film like this one before.
This episode aired on July 19th, though it's Summer two frozen bodies have been found on a park bench in a remote section of Tokyo. Obviously they couldn't have been there long or else they would have melted but these two bodies were still solidly frozen. Cases like this one are sent to the elite investigation until at Tokyo Police Headquarters, the department where our heroine Hinako works.
Forgot to mention a fact in the first recap, that fact is Hinako has a huge fondness for shichimi which is a red pepper topping. She sprinkles it on everything she eats which draws quite a few odd looks from those around her. Hinako does it as a memorial to her mother who passed away shortly before she graduated from the police academy in Tokyo. Hinako had grown up in Nagayo where shichimi is quite popular, that city isn't too far from Nagasaki.
Back to the case and once again Hinako is included in the investigation. Her inclusion didn't make Shoji's day as he thinks she is just a thorough weird person for her interest in strange crimes. Mentioned in the first recap Shoji is a bit of a hothead and is known for being too violent towards criminals. Some of the details came out why he's like that, four years before his sister had been attacked by a pervert.
Shoji eventually apprehended the criminal and laid quite a beating on him, ever since then he's been quite a dour person. On his side though is Atsuta who is the department's chief, that man really sticks up for his detectives. There was no miracle in solving this case as it just took a lot of leg work and regular investigating.
The two frozen bodies had to be transported to the park, not an easy task. The force worked on finding where the unmarked truck found at the scene could have come from, it had to have come from a place where two adult bodies could have been hidden away in a frozen state. To get to their frozen state would have taken many months, perhaps even a year or more.
Hinako's talent for remembering crimes over the last decade didn't help much in this case but eventually the team whittled down the possibilities on where the bodies could have been hidden to one place. That place used to be a food shop which had suddenly closed up after being in business for decades. The shop had been owned by the Shimokawa family, the father had started the business many years ago and as they got older his two sons and daughter helped him run it.
In the back of the shop was a good sized freezer for the food, upon discovering it the investigative team came upon an unsettling sight. Seated at a table in the freezer were two people, the father and daughter. He had been frozen for a while but the daughter it was determined had only been frozen for about two months. About two years before the father had to retire due to his health, shortly after the family had closed the shop and the neighbors said they never saw the any of the family again.
Shoji has a contact who we've just seen briefly in the first two shows. It's an older man who looks homeless though that could just be a disguise, he's able to somehow get any kind of info for Shoji and this time the info leads us to the killer. Hinako meanwhile has grown closer to Doctor Nakajima, he gives her a psychologist's view of criminals and his views also helped solve the case a bit.
Hinako and Shoji aren't close at all as mentioned but the pair once again were the ones to take down the criminal. Shoji's info was that the elder Shimokawa had a mistress and also had a son with her but everything about him is unknown. The pair arrive at the house of the mistress, upon entering it they noticed how cold it was which sort of gave us an idea what to expect.
Sitting on the couch in a frozen state was the mistress, she couldn't have been dead too long as while the house was cold it certainly wasn't cold enough to keep her as frozen as she was. Hinako and Shoji split up to search the house, checking out the upstairs Shoji was jumped from behind and knocked out cold. Hinako was the one who had found the frozen woman on the couch, unknown to her at the time was the state of Shoji.
As Hinako was pondering what to do next a figure entered the room, a young man who happened to be the illegitimate son of Shimokawa and his mistress. The man goes by the name of Kenji, he's a bit bitter about life and it's easy to see why. His parents never got a birth certificate for him as Shimokawa wanted to hide his secret though the father did allow him to work in his shop, his other children knew who Kenji was but mainly ignored him.
Getting a bit longer than planned so will try to wrap it up quickly. Kenji is obviously a bit deranged, he froze the bodies because he wanted a family who would never leave him. However he didn't want his two brothers, they were found in the park before he had a chance to dispose of them properly. The father and daughter he kept in the freezer as they were to remain his family however it really wasn't the father and daughter.
The elder Shimokawa had abused his children, especially his daughter Yumi. The abuse was much worse than just beating her as he also had raped her on several occasions. The result of one of them was the birth of Kenji as Yumi wasn't his sister but his mother! May not sound it but the scene was much creepier viewing than writing about it.
Now that Kenji's family is gone he wants another one, he selects Hinako to become his wife. He douses her with water which seemingly was an act that made no sense. But it did as Kenji brought out an extinguisher and was about to spray Hinako, with her wet the spray would have frozen her. But to the rescue once again was Shoji who finally recovered from getting hit over the head and raced downstairs to save Hinako.
Shoji isn't a huge guy but he does pack a powerful punch as Kenji soon learns as Shoji once again starts pummeling on a criminal. Kenji appeared as though he was going to kill himself but Shoji stopped that with his punches, coming oh so close again to be charged with police brutality.
Once again the arrest brought us to a show's conclusion, that final scene was quite a long one. Usually don't like long ones but in this case it was fine as it was rather intense and as mentioned Kenji was more than a tad creepy. Once again Atsuta bailed out Shoji but you wonder how many times the chief can keep doing that. The final minute is when Hinako learns a bit about Shoji's past as she had noticed a scar on his arm, sure more about his past will come out in the future episodes,
Unsure when the next recap will be but hopefully soon as this is the best J-drama I've viewed in a while, easily the best one this year so far and that's with only watching two episodes. Kind of hard juggling four dramas at once which is what's happening so may have a plan, then again I always change them too quickly. Have five episodes of the Korean drama "W" to watch, think I'll view and recap them. Then after that will come back to this series and watch the remaining seven episodes, this appears to be the kind of drama which works better watching all of the shows in a row.
Doing it that way sounds best as I'll be down to just watching two series, the Fall season will be starting soon so want to get a few of these out of the way as there are two Japanese dramas that I plan on watching. Many more screenshots here for you to enjoy though it may be hard to call murders and creepiness enjoyable but they should help you follow a bit better what happened in this episode. Also thanks to the commentor who liked the recap for the first episode and is also watching the show, good to see there's a few who read these recaps.
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