Nanase Nishino: "Denei Shojo: Video Girl Ai 2018" drama episode twelve 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. Finally made it to the end, will try to get through this quickly as reading four recaps in a row must get a bit tiring but at least none are too long. Though it's almost Ai's last day as a living being the show starts off with Tomoaki trying to reconnect with Nanami. They were a couple for a while and she as the one who had actually asked him out. But Tomoaki can be a bit dour and uncommunicative at times, two episodes Nanami ended their not so close relationship.

 More on them a bit later, Nanami is really down in the dumps as she thought Sho might have asked her out but with Ai back on the scene that'll never happen. As you can see above Ai is down to one day as a living Video Girl, her and Sho spent the night talking as she didn't want to waste her final hours sleeping. The nighttime flew by, before they knew it morning had arrived and now it's just about twelve or so hours until Ai disappears.
 Sho suggests the pair spend the day together on a date, they've never been on one alone as their previous outings had been with Nanami and Tomoaki. But the day out was more than just being with each other, while they were gone from the house Nanami and Tomoaki arrived on the scene to prepare a small party dinner for the pair. After that was done they quickly left as they know Ai needed to spend her remaining time alone with Sho.
 He was shocked that there was a dinner prepared for them, he though his friends were just going to set up their new anime movie so Sho could show it to Ai. Before that viewing Ai found a note hidden among the plates, it was an apology letter from Nanami who admitted she was wrong with the things she told Ai and would miss her dearly. That brought a tear to Ai's eyes, Video Girls aren't supposed to have emotions but she must be the rare exception as she can love, feel sad, etc.

 Forgot to note what the exact title of the anime was but 'Ore' seems like the right name for it. It was created by the anime team of Sho and Tomoaki, the third member Nanami at first refused to help with the project but ended up doing a lot of the writing. The main character of Ore was based upon Sho, it was a movie that would remind everyone that Ai was once part of their lives. Ore was such a nice person in the movie who got along with everyone, one day Ore found an unhatched tamago(egg).
 Ore was going to sit with the egg until it hatched, sadly Ai never saw that scene as the movie ended. Unfortunately the team didn't have enough time to finish the movie for Ai's final day, Sho was a bit bummed out by that but not Ai. She was so pleased at what Sho and his friends did for her, once again tears were on the verge of streaming out.

The movie eventually was finished but not for a few more days. The egg in the movie was a symbol that was supposed to represent Ai, even after it hatched and was no more the chicken inside would carry on the egg's memory. That's what the film was going to do for Sho and his friends, seems there was no need to as who can forget someone like Ai?
 There was another brief scene with the elder Ai Amano, wish we saw more of her. Kind of wondering is she the wife or girlfriend of Sho's uncle Yota? That was never mentioned but would think one of the two as she was transformed from a Video Girl to a human 25 years ago. Getting close to the final major scene which of course was Ai's disappearance and it wasn't sad at all.
 After viewing the movie Ai and Sho continued talking for a bit, both admitted they loved each other. Ai could feel the end coming so she asked Sho for one final thing in her life, that's for her to be kissed. The pair were about to touch lips and unsure if they ever did, would say they didn't as I don't think real Idols are allowed to kiss even in a drama. Back to where we were, as their lips were about to smack together there was a bright light which blinded Sho.

 When Sho opened his eyes he found in the air in front of him blue particles, no doubt the remains of Ai. He sat there for a moment speechless, Sho wasn't crying nor was he that broken up as he knew her disappearance was going to happen and Sho was probably glad he at least met someone in his life like Ai. Very close to the end but there was nothing of significance after Ai disappeared, Sho is back to school and is in surprisingly good spirits. Same can be said for Nanami who is back to dating Tomoaki, the series ended very quietly with them in their classroom.
 Like I said the ending wasn't sad at all and perhaps a little inspiring as things somehow worked out the best for our three major human characters. Going in thought there was going to be a chance that Ai would remain alive, perhaps the machine that could turn Video Girls to human beings would be fixed but it obviously wasn't.

 The series ended on a high note but overall the drama was so up and down. Started out well but the middle episodes really dragged, to me ten episodes would have worked out better than twelve. Lot of flashbacks in those middle episodes, when that happens you know the staff is trying to stretch things out. Will give this a rating of 7.5/10, won't call it a must watch but it was enjoyable enough.
 In a few days will be doing two more posts for the characters of Ai and Nanami. Will discuss their characters a bit more plus will be having so, so many screenshots of them. Now that this is done won't be starting any new ones quite yet as I need to finish watching and recapping the 'Kakegurui' drama along with the Korean series "Wednesday 3:30 pm". Also will be continuing the weekly posts for the 'Lupinranger' Sentai drama which I'm really enjoying, those should keep me busy for a while.