Nanase Nishino: "Denei Shojo: Video Girl Ai 2018" drama episodes five and six recap

 Air Dates: January 13, 2018 until ?? on TV Tokyo, Saturday nights at 12:20 am

Main Cast:

Nanase Nishino as Ai Amano

Shuhei Nomura as Sho Moteuchi

Marie Iitoyo as Nanami Shibahara

Hiroya Shimizu as Tomoaki Furuya
Karen Otomo as Rika Omiya
Jun Murukami as Shimizu

Shigeyuki Totsugi as Yota Moteuchi

 Pair of so-so episodes once again as this series has followed a pattern. The odd numbered episodes have been a bit sub par while the even number ones have been quite good. However with the semi cliffhanger we were left with at the end of the sixth show have a feeling the rest of the episodes should all be good.
 Did read many of the mangas though didn't finish the story so have no clue how it ended up. But a few moments before writing this a thought popped in my head on how this series may end. Sho and his two best friends have been working on an anime and he's used Ai as his subject. She only has a limited time on Earth, don't know if that means she disappears or goes back into the VHS tape. My theory is when it gets close to the time when her life will be ending Sho will somehow find a way to keep Ai living in his anime, not 100% positive it'll end like that but wouldn't be shocked if it did.

 The anime team of Sho, Tomoaki and Nanami had their project critiqued last episode by a producer named Shimizu. He wasn't too impressed with the anime and especially the script but when he saw the drawings his heart skipped a beat. They were of Ai who he recognized from 25 years ago, he may have been involved in her creation with Sho's uncle Yota who we haven't seen since the second show.
 Shimizu meets with the group to help them out with the anime but it's more about him seeing if Ai has come back to life after all these years. Ai had been told to remain in her room during the meeting but she disobeyed orders and popped in on the group. One look at Ai and Shimizu knew who she was and eventually cornered her alone. He asked her a few questions but since coming back to her human form Ai can remember little about her past, Shimizu didn't press her any further.
 One suggestion Shimizu made before his departure was that the anime needed some music and it should be original. None of the trio are musically inclined and were perplexed on what to do when Sho thought of his old friend who we finally met in the fourth episode. That was Rika who is a year younger than Sho, she has a crush on him and think he has a slight one on Rika though with Ai around there will be no possibility of a relationship.

 Rika had been in a band called Phase, she was the singer for them but the group had disbanded. The leader of the band who also wrote their tunes was Kaoru who is such a sleazy character. Rika hates the sight of him but he is very gifted writing music so she asks Kaoru to write the music for Sho's anime, he agrees as long as Rika will be his.... slave for a day! Actually the word sleazy may be too mild for Kaoru but the anime group knows nothing of his ways and are eager to meet him.
 Ai hears about the meeting and tags along, she's one difficult humanoid to get rid off but why would anyone want to do that? Kaoru immediately fell for Ai and agreed to write the music for the anime but under one condition.... he can go out on a date with Ai! The other four were against it but to Ai if having music for the anime will help out Sho then she'll do it and agrees to the date.
 It's the night before the 'big date', Sho pretends not to be worried or jealous though he is. Ai assures him that nothing will happen on the date but she's not aware of Kaoru's devious methods. Did mention that the odd numbered episodes are much slower with not as many happenings and we're right at the end of the fifth show. But a few seconds before that ending Ai was walking along a hallway and all of a sudden began blinking, is this a sign that her life is coming closer to an end?

 As you can see above it's the day Ai has to go on the date with Kaoru, it's also the sixth episode. First stop for the pair is a very popular pancake restaurant, still don't know why a video character needs to eat. Unknown at first to the couple was that Sho had been tailing them, he's waiting in line to enter the same restaurant. While biding his time in line he notices Rika hiding across the street in disguise, she also is following them as she's aware of the kind of person Kaoru is.
 Ai and Kaoru eventually leave the eatery, still on their tail are the pair of Sho and Rika. But as they rounded a corner they bumped into Ai and Kaoru who were waiting for them. They knew quite soon that they were being followed but Sho insisted that them running into each other was a coincidence as he was on a date with Rika. Not sure if he was believed but Ai and Kaoru continued on with their date while trying to ignore their pursuers.

 Though the four do hook up for a while it's not for too long as Ai and Kaoru eventually give them the slip and end up at a cinema. With no clue where the pair disappeared to Sho and Rika halfheartedly resume their date but Sho can't stop thinking of Ai and whether or not she's in trouble as Rika has told Sho a little bit about his evil ways. His dastardly ways are why the band Phase broke up as he was constantly trying to bed down Rika who always refused, that's why she can't stand the sight of him.
 The day is flying right by as it's now nighttime and after the movies Kaoru manages to persuade Ai to visit his apartment. Kaoru tells her it's just to finalize the music as he's using the image of Ai to write it. Think Ai knew something may be up his sleeve but she agrees and the pair end up at his place where he does prove to Ai that he wrote the music for the anime and she really enjoyed it.
 But as Rika had mentioned a few times Kaoru is such a devil which he ends up proving. He turns down the lights and closes the curtains, Ai seemed a bit oblivious to what he was doing but Kaoru said it was to make the music sound better(?). He prepares a drink for her and shortly after Ai begins to nod off, at first thought that Kaoru had spiked the drink but doing that shouldn't cause any damage to her.

 There's two screenshots above of Nanami and Tomoaki who we didn't see too much of in either episode. They too went out on a date though it was originally to work on their anime. Nanami had asked him back to his residence as her parents were out and Tomoaki suspiciously agreed to come over. After Nanami cooked him a dinner he said it was time to work a bit more on the anime, Nanami had other ideas though but we didn't see if the pair spent the night together.
 Back at Kaoru's place Ai is really struggling, she's in and out of consciousness and seeing that gives the devilish Kaoru many lurid ideas. As Ai is lying on the floor Kaoru is about to go down on her, as he's starting to do that Ai grabs a nearby vase and smashes it over his head which left Kaoru down and out. Ai is really in pain as her body is blinking more rapidly, she along with the viewers are wondering if she's about to disappear.
 We did see a few seconds of the VCR that is supplying Ai with life, it's also blinking rapidly and is the machine about to die out? Sho had been searching the area for Ai with no success, knowing what Kaoru is capable of he rushes to his apartment only to find a hurt Kaoru saying that Ai has disappeared. We did see a very brief scene of about five seconds which showed Ai unconscious on a street, a figure passed by, hoisted her on their shoulders and carried her away as that was the last we saw of Ai in this episode.
 At the show's conclusion Sho makes it home the following morning, as he expected Ai was not at his uncle's house. But Sho noticed the VCR blinking on and off, it was flashing the number '46' and is that how much time in hours Ai has left on Earth? With that the episode came to a close and it ended on a fairly decent cliffhanger.

 Up to now it's been a so-so drama but if the rest of the episodes are as good as the sixth show then this will end up being a winner. What had been lacking in the story was of Ai's reappearance in the real world and whether the VCR would have any affect on her life which is what's starting to happen. Not positive but think we're at the halfway point of this series which means six shows are left, let's see if my prediction on how the drama will end is going to happen.
 At the top of the post is a short promo video for episode five, the one for the sixth show is after these screenshots. Will be back in exactly two weeks with the recaps for episodes seven and eight. Been a while since I played any Nogi music but have been listening to the "Sorezore no Isu" album while I was writing this, after a long break it does make their songs sound so much better.