Start Date: July 13, 2016.... aired Wednesday nights at 24:10 on TBS
Main Cast:
Jurina Matsui as Yuka Minami
Shigeyuki Totsugi as Takeshi Wakamoto
Rina Kawaei as Erina Hayashi(died in ep. four)
Kaya Kiyohara as Koyume Minami
Riho Yoshioka as Kazue Hagninomo(died in ep. three)
Shono Hayama as Gen Haitani
Shono Hayama as Gen Haitani
Yurika Nakamura as Mari Ueno
Toshio Kakei as Taichiro Zaitsu
.... plus many others who have or will get killed off after one episode....
Jurina has been a member of SKE for eight years even though she won't be turning 20 until March. With all of these recent graduations wonder if that word has crept into her mind as her acting career seems to be going well. She's not the best actress I've seen by far but she does show quite a bit of potential, wondering if she's getting tired of being an Idol and would rather concentrate on being an actress. May have mentioned that before about her but I really like Jurina quite a bit, know she'll have a spot on my first 'Top Ten Fave Idol' list but unsure of her position. Enough of the usual blabbering and on with the recap.
Episode four had ended off with Yuka and Wakamoto in the village of Eguriba where supposedly the curse of death cash began. It's a small village, thirty years ago there were 55 residents of the village but now only one remains living as the others had perished in 'accidents'. The sole survivor knows better, they weren't accidents but all were killed by the death cash curse.
There was a woman who grew up in the village named Natsuko who was extremely popular and had her sights set on being an actress. She never had the chance to achieve that goal as she was married when she was 18 to the son of one of the village leaders. Natsuko felt trapped by the sudden marriage so she divorced and fled to Tokyo. There things didn't work out so well, as she ended up getting remarried and had two kids, she had a suicide pact with her abusive husband but ended up not doing the act.
Natsuko returned to the village with her two children but was now an outcast as she wasn't forgiven for fleeing to Tokyo. There were no jobs to be had so her and her two children were living in dire poverty. That sole village survivor tried to help her out with food and money but was stopped by the village leader. Eventually the poverty took such a toll of Natsuko and her children that they soon died of starvation, what a group of cruel villagers.
At the funeral the woman, don't remember her name, had tried to put a 10,000 yen note in Natsuko's coffin but was stopped once again by the village leader. That incident was what started the death cash curse as that note is now haunted and has somehow spawned off other cursed yen notes, always in denominations of 10,000. That woman's kindness is the reason she's still alive today as she tried to help Natsuko and had nothing to do with that cursed note with eventually killed all of the villagers.
The other main event(s) in the episode dealt with another of Yuka's college friends who was Haitani. He's a business whiz but lost money in the stock market on purpose due to the advice of his professor. At the end of the previous episode Haitani received a package of death cash and quite a sum it was. He's used it to reinvest in stocks and is now making a killing as he's now worth several million. Haintani is quite an arrogant bastard and has nothing but cruel things to say about people who are poor, because of his success in the stock market he now thinks the world revolves around him.
Yuka confronted him with questions regarding the money, for instance where did he get the cash to reinvest? Haintani was elusive with his answers and left Yuka wondering but he had a secret which he thought would save him. He converted all of the death cash into digital money, he thought if he spent it that way instead of with the physical bills he'd be safe.
That wasn't the case as death cash is death cash, doesn't matter what form it's in as the curse still lingers. Yuka finally discovered his secret and rushed over to his apartment with Wakamoto but not quite in time. As they entered his place Haitani was slowly being choked to death by the food he had ordered, that was the only solid thing which he had spent the death cash on. There was nothing the pair could do to save Haitani as they watched hordes of noodles and such enter his mouth at a rapid pace which quickly choked him.
That flashback where we learned about the origins of the death cash curse plus Haitani's rise and fall took up about 95% of the episode. Can't say they those took away from the other characters as there's hardly anybody left alive. However there was a brief scene at the closing which ran over the credits and it was with the a professor of the students who is Zaitsu. He was with the group on their camping trip when they found the death note and it appears he had something to do with them finding it. He has a chart in his apartment and is crossing out the faces of those dead on a picture they took on the trip, that ended the show as it left us wondering what role Zaitsu is playing in the deaths.
Another fine episode though not as compelling as the first four shows, that flashback scene may have been a few minutes too long. But that's the only minor complaint as to date this has been one of the finer dramas of the year. At the halfway point in this series as there's a total of ten episodes, next post has the recap for the sixth episode.
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