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Hajimemashite minna san....welcome to my site on my fave Japanese Pop Culture likes such as dramas, movies, magazine scans, promo events etc. Mainly concentrate on my faves...Risa Watanabe... Kyoko Saito... Yui Kobayashi....Miyuki Watanabe.... Nene Shida.... if you're a fan at all of any of them then you've come to the right place(!) but many others are featured here besides them. Do mainly quick reviews on things I've watched, try to make the reviews brief, quick to read through with not too many spoilers, just whether they're good or bad and why I thought so plus whether you may find them enjoyable. Many, many screenshots are included from everything I've watched plus any video trailers if they're available. Hope you find something that interests you, don't hesitate to comment, arigato gozaimasu!

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Tuesday, November 21, 2017

Hiragana-Keyakizaka46: "Re:Mind" drama episode's five and six recap



 Not sure if the title is accurate enough, for now will keep it that way as Hiragana does deserve to be in the title. The eleven members, the ones you see above, are the stars of this drama and there will be no Kanji members making an appearance. Glad for that as I'll bet not many of us know these members well enough and after viewing four episodes they're really likable gals. Here's the cast and will keep the beginning like this for a while, they all go by their real first names in the show.
  This is the order of the members in the opening credits, also the order they all woke up in.... you'll learn about that right off the bat. As a bonus also have the member's birthdates included with most members are being older than I had thought.

Mirei Sasaki....  December 17, 1999


 Sarina Ushio.... December 26, 1997


Mei Higashimura.... August 23, 1998


Ayaka Takamoto.... November 2, 1998


Kyoko Saito.... September 5, 1997


 Kumi Sasaki.... January 22, 1996


 Shiho Kato....February 2, 1998


Yuuka Kageyama.... May 8, 2001


Mao Iguchi.... November 10, 1995


Mana Takase.... September 20, 1998


 Memi Kakizaki.... December 2, 2001


 Above are the regular eleven Hiragana members but there needed to be a twelfth person. That ended up being a new second generation gal and her name is Miho Watanabe. There were auditions for the role and she came out on top. Through three shows we hadn't seen her but did in this episode and her DOB is February 24, 2000.
Update: We still haven't seen Miho live but there's been plenty of flashbacks with her and as it stands after the sixth episode she could be one of the main reasons for the student being trapped.


 Episode six aired last Thursday night so this post will get us up to date with the shows and all of it's happenings. It hasn't been officially said but these Idol dramas tend to be twelve shows, going to presume this one will be but then again perhaps there will be only ten. Not going to rehash too much of what's taken place up until now as this will be a long enough post without doing that so if you're new to this drama or have forgotten some details would suggest reading the previous recap.




 Episode five started off with a flashback showing us that Yuuka was a transfer student at the still unnamed school. But the main reason for the flashback was to give us a glimpse of their homeroom teacher as he'll soon be playing an important role in this show. Previous episode we were finally introduced to a new character, none of us know who he is as he's always worn a hood and the girls at first thought he may have been a prisoner too.
 That's not the case as they soon find out. The hooded man didn't come off as a violent person, all of the action that happened's is because of the girls trying to hurt him. Yuuka had attempted to overpower him at the end of the last show with a spoon(!), she was quickly subdued and shortly after that a bell started to chime with the lights going out.
 That brings us up to date, when the lights go out it's been been a sign that a student will disappear. That trend continues as when they come back on Yuuka is gone without a trace, there's never been a sound when a girl has gone missing even though their feet are shackled to the floor. The hooded man is still there, seems like he played no part in Yuuka's disappearance but none of the girls are 100% sure of that.




 We'll call Hooded Man HM for now but he will have an identity by the end of the fifth episode. HM went around the table pouring tea for the remaining seven girls, that's down from eleven as in order Mao, Mei, Sarina and Yuuka have gone missing. After pouring the tea HM had added a white powder to it and doesn't tell them what it is, he still hasn't spoken a word. Naturally most of the girls think it could be some sort of poison but it may not be.
 The Yanki gal Kyoko tried a sip, it was rather bitter tasting but was harmless. The seven students have been trying to piece together for a while why they were captured and brought to this room. No definite answer yet but most seem to be in agreement that the main reason is because all twelve were members of the 'White Justice' club. That was a small group which tried to correct some of the bad things in the world but it got out of hand and destroyed a few lives.
 The white powder put into their tea was a reminder of an act that the girls once did to a group of boys. They were from a rival school named Souou and it was a violent place. There was a group of four boys who tried to go out with some of the girls from our still unnamed school but were rebuffed. When that happened the boys, especially the blonde haired one, made life a bit difficult for the students and to put it bluntly these four boys are just bottom of the barrel people.




 An example of the girls initiating things is above as in the last show Kyoko had hidden a knife. As that above scene began she passed it over to Ayaka who was supposed to stab the man but got cold feet, it was quickly taken from her and Kyoko is lucky it wasn't used on her. Been wondering why the girls are trying to hurt HM, so far he hasn't done anything to hurt any of them and for now he's their only link to the outside world.
 There's no phone connection but Yuuka's smartphone has somehow been able to get get internet access, better not to ask why things happen. From what Mirei has brought up on the phone we get to see a brief history of those boys from the Souso school, they were coming down hard on some of the girls who then got back at these sleazebags. That white powder for the girl's tea was to remind them what they had once done to those four boys.
 Call me slow but just realized where the title of the drama came from, was I the last person on Earth to figure it out? The girls had slipped some powder into the boy's drinks, the drug put them to sleep. While they were snoozing two girls wrote on the boy's heads, the two were Miho and Mao. So far all of the acts that the club did were done by the girls who have disappeared.




 None of the seven girls present had done any acts against those four boys though Memi had invited them to a Karaoke club where the writing on the head incident happened. HM had thought Mana was the girl who had done the writing, he made her pen what had been written on a notepad but all that proved was that she was innocent. Shortly after that real life event the girls homeroom teacher Hayashi had heard of the girl's problems with the four boys, he took matter in his own hands and beat them up.
 Not a smart choice of action as Hayashi had been arrested for it and was then forced to resign from his teaching position. He was in his forties with a daughter at university so losing his job was a traumatic experience for him. Kyoko isn't the brightest of gals but she seems to ask the most intelligent questions. Above you can see her wondering if the predicament the girls are in could be related to Hayashi, wouldn't take long before she and the other six get an answer.
 Kumi has been the quietest of students until now but does liven up a bit in the next show. To end the fifth episode off HM slowly goes to the other end of the table where she's sitting. He walks slowly as his left leg is lame. He arrives at the other end of the table, as HM is standing behind Kumi he slowly begins to take his hood off which many of the girls have called a sack.




 An alarm once again went off with the lights also going out but for once when they came back on no student was missing. Instead the seven girls were all looking at their former homeroom teacher Hayashi! During the flashback scenes we saw of him Hayashi always seemed to be an excellent teacher and looked out for the gals which came back to haunt him as he was fired for protecting them.
 He was one of those 'touchy people', always had to put his hands on another person though all of it was done innocently. Not all shared that view though, Memi had written something about Hayashi being a pervert on the White Justice site as even the most quiet students remaining aren't as clean cut as they appear.
 Until the final two minutes the rest of this sixth episode was about the girls and Hayashi talking about the past and how their actions led them to being prisoners. One question he never answered though was about Miho and whether the two of them were working in unison. While Hayashi never mentioned her name he did say there was someone else behind what was going on, Hayashi admitted he's not the main boss in this operation.




 Hayashi has become quite bitter at life and who can blame him. He's been accused of being a pervert, a student beater and various other things. Along with those accusations he also lost his job and his wife left him, all those things happened because of the girl's White Justice website. Hayashi explained to them that they have no clue what the real outcomes were when they were trying to clean the world.
 Lot of his preaching was directed towards Kumi who never did anything physical but hid behind her words. It's fine she exposed a supermarket selling meat past it's expiration date but did Kumi know what happened after that? She didn't and Hayashi told her the supermarket had to close because of her cruel words, instead of going after the employee selling the meat she went on a rampage against the whole store.
 That led to it's closing and many people lost their jobs, aren't the girls aware of the consequences  their seemingly innocent accusations can cause? Being only seniors in high school they naturally have no clue how the world works and they're learning the hard way. Another incident was about a CEO who had been harassing an employee. After it was reported on the White Justice site the CEO's car had been doused with paint. The CEO thought the employee had done it for revenge and he ended up giving him a severe beating all because of what was written on the White Justice site.




 Kumi had written the article about the CEO but it was Mao and Miho who had doused the car with paint. Kumi keeps trying to pin the blame on others and some of the girls are getting irate at her for trying to pass the buck, Hayashi had directed most his questions towards Kumi and now we know why. This episode seemed to fly by as there weren't too many events, the talk about the White Justice site and it's actions took up 80% of this 22 minute show.
 Kumi wasn't a stand up person but a few other girls are like that too, so many of them are blaming Miho for the bad things that have happened. The girls did join White Justice for the right reasons as they wanted to make a difference in the world but as they admitted it really got out of hand. At first it was to help make parks and neighborhood look better, before they knew it boys were getting beaten, stores were closed and their teacher was fired.... certainly looks like events got out of hand!




 Don't worry Memi fans as she wasn't clubbed with that bat. As a matter of fact that incident led to a new discovery which was about Hayashi and his attack on the boys. He wasn't the one who gave them the beating as it was the other way around, that's why Hayashi's left leg is lame. But the police didn't believe his story, especially after reading what the White Justice club had written about him.
 We're now down to the last minute or so, think I've explained most details but know it'd be better to view this show instead of reading about it. On a wall was a deer's head and Hayashi had been staring at it off and on for a while. Mirei had noticed that and thought the head had some meaning. All of a sudden Hayashi had jumped out of his seat with the bat and it appeared as though he was going to club the deer's head.
 That never happened as the lights in the room went out, when they came back on a fifth person is missing and that's their teacher Hayashi! But there may be a clue in the disappearances as Mirei had noticed just before the lights went out the floor had opened up. She didn't see what happened after but it's safe to say he fell through the floor and bet that happened to the other four students. The episode ended there but as it did the room began to tremble violently....




 That comment about him being sucked through the floor probably did happen but none of the girls actually witnessed it, us as viewers never saw it. Shame I'm all caught up as this has been an enjoyable show, hope then there's twelve episodes and also hope that the rating have been decent as to me the Hiragana members seem to be better actresses than the Kanji members. Will be back in exactly two weeks for the next recap which will be for episodes seven and eight.






































3 comments:

  1. Those 4 boys may as well be the equivalent to vegetables when you're a lil kid. So teacher-man made Yuuka disappear because of a spoon but didn't make either Kyoko or Ayaka disappear for throwing a cup filled with coke sprinkled with coke and their attempt to get him with a butter knife, bias much. Swear it looked like he just put coke with coke in a teacup tho. I don't know if you really focus on this but the background music on ep 6 where Kumi gets questioned on 'Justice' sounds pre-tty cool, hope they put that on a CD or something.

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  2. Seems he was but unsure if Hayashi was responsible for Yuuka disappearing, he was behind her but how could be have opened the floor up? Guess the drink may have been cola though tea would have been more appropriate.
    Don't know why Idol dramas don't have more new music as it'd be a great way to promote their songs. If they had one new tune for each show then at the end of the drama's run there would be enough for an album.

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  3. Gotta keep the drinks classy. Initially thought the girls that disappeared until now were accomplices so when they disappeared it will cause more panic which will eventually lead the girls to spit out the truth of something that we the audience have yet to find out, but now that there are floors opening up, I'm stumped.
    That'll pretty cool, it'll be like a mini music video. Really want like a soundtrack for this drama(well mostly for the one I mentioned) didn't get one for Majisuka Gakuen(I think, haven't seen anything) which I thought was a shame because season 2 had some cool stuff in it like ep 1 when they find out about the rebellion then ya got ep 5 with Gekikara whoopin butts.

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