Bungaku Shojo drama: Episode eight(final) recap

 Air Dates: September 9th to October 28, 2018 on MBS and TBS Sunday nights at 12:50 am

Director: Smith....  Episodes from J-Raw.... subber: miamaw

 Main Cast:

Aoi Morikawa as Kanako Tsukishiro.... 26 year old who is the new editor for Kagaya

Yuu Shirota as Saku Kagaya.... popular writer whose book sales have been rapidly decreasing

Masaki Nakao as Chihiro Mochizuki.... editor in Kanako's office, he has a huge crush on her

Rika Izumi as Mitsuki Ariake.... rival editor from Sekibun Publishing

Masahiko Kawahara as Ko Mishima.... editor in chief of Ryokusen where Kanako works

Yako Koga as Akari Mishima.... Ko's teen daughter and inspiring writer

Taikou Katoona as Maki Nanase.... office worker at Ryokusen

Keito Tsuna as Ryunosuke Kawabata.... office worker at Ryokusen

 Let's get right to the action for this final episode. We concluded the last show with Kanako and Saku talking after a failed interview had taken place with a reporter that Kanako had set up. The scene between the pair took place on a bridge, after a bit of arguing and such is when Saku revealed what happened in the past to his girlfriend Chiyoka and how she had died. Hopefully you read the above recap which explained all of the details between the couple.
 Saku never told Kanako what her name was but she knew who Chiyoka was as we had seen a flashback scene many episodes ago featuring Chiyoka and Kanako. Chiyoka was about five years older and had been trying to help Kanako write a story while the pair were sitting on a park bench. Chiyoka had been called away by her boyfriend, if Kanako had looked up she would have noticed that the man was Saku.
 Back to the present and after their spat on the bridge Kanako had fled in tears and was sitting by herself along a river. Mochizuki had heard what took place at the interview and had gone hunting for his massive crush. Though Tokyo is such a large city in dramas there's never a problem finding your love and eventually Mochizuki found Kanako sobbing near the river.
 'What are you doing here?' and 'Why are you so nice to me?' are the two questions Kanako had asked Mochizuki. Kanako must have a short memory as in the sixth episode Mochizuki confessed his love to Kanako. She had refused him but Mochizuki said he would never give up trying to win her adoration. Also on the scene was Mochizuki's friend from the office Maki, he suggested the trio leave to enjoy some spirits somewhere.

 That somewhere were the Ryokusen Publishing offices where the three worked. Kanako can't hold her alcohol too well as we've seen before but she's up for drinking the night away. Took her about two drinks to get a bit tipsy and she started to tell her two male friends her embarrassing secrets. As you can see above Kanako admits she's a 26 year old who has never had a boyfriend and is still a virgin, for Mochizuki those secrets seem to make him love her even more.
 After a bit more imbibing and the release of more of her secrets Kanako is in no shape to make it home so she's escorted there by Mochizuki. Apparently drinking went to his head too as he couldn't control himself anymore and jumped on top of Kanako as she laid in bed. Kanako didn't give any resistance and was this to be the first time for the 26 year old virgin? Once again the answer is no for her as Mochizuki comes to his senses and leaps off the bed, he just loves Kanako too much to take advantage of her.
 Mochizuki ends up departing shortly after that botched attempt but least now Kanako sort of knows how deeply Mochizuki cares for her. Meanwhile all is not going well for Saku who has a new editor in Mochizuki but his heart just isn't into writing these days. After a talk with his closest friend Mitsuki he's decided to take some time off from writing much to the surprise of everyone at Ryokusen Publishing.

 Mitsuki was a bit shocked too at Saku's idea of taking time away from his passion, she was even wondering if he wasn't planning on doing something stupid to himself. The news traveled like wildfire around the office about Saku taking a leave from his writing, naturally Kanako heard of his plans and without any thought rushed over to his house. The two seemingly just can't be together as a couple but both really do care about each other, Kanako still has such a crush on Saku plus he's still so intrigued by her.
 The two end up having one massive heart to heart talk with both of them spilling their guts. To this day Saku is still so upset and guilty about Chiyoka's death, that's one reason for him wanting to take time off from writing. But because of Kanako's encouragement Saku had also wanted to try his hand at penning another romance story. His heart though is devoid of love since Chiyoka passed away and he needs to be in love to write one of those stories.
 Kanako is so disappointed with Saku's decision to step away from writing and really reams him out for doing so. Her goal was to create a romance novel with Saku and now her dream was crushed though she wasn't too upset as if Saku's heart couldn't be in it then she wanted no part of his book. Perhaps that will be the inspiration for Kanako to finally write herself as that's been her dream for so long, now she has some love experience though it was mainly from being dumped. For now they departed as good friends and Kanako even gave Saku a nice smooch though we all know she's still heartbroken from him dumping her.
 In the last scene it's a year later and the staff at Ryokusen Publishing are reviewing stories for the newcomer story award. Under an alias Saku had submitted a story and a romance one at that, because of his style of writing the true writer was quickly figured out by the editor-in-chief Mishima. When Kanako saw the story she gasped, especially when she read the title which was "The Literary Virgin", that's what she often called herself. On that note the series came to an end, now Kanako is 27 and though she came close to landing two men she's still a 'Literary Virgin'.

 It was a satisfying ending and what it did was to set up the possibility of a second season, perhaps it'll be when Kanako is a thirty year old literary virgin(?). This was one of the better Japanese series I've viewed this year and perhaps even the best though still have a few that I need to get to. For a final grade will give it a rating of 8.8/10, that's a very high figure for a romance drama though it was done in such a different style than usual prime time shows.
 This was a late night drama and the past few years they've been so much better than the prime time shows as 80%+ have been clunkers. If you're an Aoi fan highly recommend this series and think she's become my current fave Japanese actress. Even if you're not up on her would definitely recommend this show which only consisted of eight episodes. Will take a few days off from drama viewing but the next recaps will be for the Korean series "The Ghost Detective", shows 1-8 have been recapped.