Nanase Nishino: "Denei Shojo: Video Girl Ai 2018" drama episode nine recap

 Air Dates: January 13 until March 31, 2018 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

 Above video is a short promo one for this episode. Been over a month since the last recap, the team(Skewed) doing the subs needed to take a break from them as there were a few other projects they were working on. But the final four episodes are now done and have all of them back to back to back to back. They're much shorter recaps than other dramas, could have combined two into one recap but bet a few of you enjoy reading shorter posts and don't blame you so let's get on with them.

 Haven't watched the final three episodes yet, will be watching one and then posting about it so have no clue what's going to happen in future shows. As mentioned it's been a while since the last recap so may help a bit to read the previous post or two for the drama. But briefly Ai(Nanase) is now working as an Idol for the anime artist Shimizu to the dismay of Sho. The VCR she popped out of is now going haywire, the controls on it are malfunctioning and Sho has no way of fixing it.
 What that malfunction did to Ai was to make her unconscious, that happened at the end of the sixth episode. That event happened at night on a deserted street, as Ai lay there she was picked up by an unknown stranger. We learned in episode eight that figure was Shimizu who is quite a shady and devious character. The worst thing of all was that Ai has lost her memory, she had no idea who Sho or his friends were.
 Sho had tried to bring back Ai back home with him in the last episode, she had no recollection of who he was and told Sho to take a hike. That brings us up to date and Sho is still working on getting Ai back. Don't know why it hasn't occurred to him to keep trying to fix the VCR, Sho hasn't tried at all nor has he contacted his uncle Yota to tell him of Ai's developments. Sho's best friend Tomoaki has been able to secure a part time job with Shimizu's company, he now has access to Ai on a daily basis but Tomoaki and Sho are not getting along well at all.

 Sho has tried a few times to make contact with Ai, he's tried sending her letters which have been shredded by Shimizu who also won't let him into his company's building. Meanwhile Ai has become quite a popular Idol, she has a photobook in the works along with her singing debut coming up. But she seems a little more down then she was in last episode, think Ai knows something is going on but without any memories she can't quite figure it out.
 Ai did find an old photo of her from 1992(!), that's the year she was 'created' by Sho's uncle Yota. Shimizu tells her to forget about the past but Ai didn't take the brushoff too well, she's losing confidence in her 'handler' but for now has no other options. After all, the main purpose of a Video Girl is to make their handler happy.
 Sho and Tomoaki finally had a man to man talk, may have been better for Sho if he didn't. Tomoaki wants to help his friend out but demands knowing the truth about Ai, when Sho told him that she appeared out of a VCR machine his friend became irate and split the scene. However Tomoaki did have a letter that Sho had sent Ai and had been able to hide it before Shimizu could shred it. He gave it to Ai which made her even more confused, seems the main reason is because some memories are slowly coming back.

 One pair who are having no problem getting along are Sho and Nanami, she had been loosely dating Tomoaki but think she's finally become fed up with him. Since Ai disappeared and lost her memory Sho had been so down in the dumps and who could blame him. But since Ai had left Nanami had been spending so much more time with Sho and the two have become quite close, if it wasn't for Ai think Sho would try dating Nanami which is what she's secretly been dreaming of.
 In the final scene the pair were at a cafe just enjoying each other's company. Above is Nanami looking through Sho's sketch book, where once he only drew pictures of Ai he's now been drawing sketches of Nanami and she kept her discovery a secret. But who should pass by the cafe then but Ai who saw them together, seems her memories are coming back fast as she looked a bit jealous of the two. Ai had snuck out of Shimizu's office, she's been growing tired of his lies and knows the truth is out there somewhere. With Ai watching the couple at the cafe from outside the ninth show finished.

 After watching the fast paced, interesting Sentai show 'Lupinranger' this is such a come(let)down. It's not a bad drama but on the other hand it's not an interesting one either, it's just drags too slowly at times. Still three episodes to go so let's hope that it ends on a high note, have those recaps after this one. You can tell how interesting a show is by the amount of screenshots I take, usually it's too many but that has not been the case for this series.