Maji de Koukai Shitemasu drama season one: episode four recap

 Air Dates: July 2 to July 30, 2017 on TBS/MBS, Sundays at 12:50 am for five episodes

The two main characters:

Marie Iitoyo as Marin Sakamoto...Kanto Maritime student who loves ships and the ocean

Rena Takeda as Tsubame Ishikawa.... Kanto Matitime student who doesn't like the sea

Rest of the cast:

Doro Sakurada as Yamato Yagi.... another Kanto student who has a crush on Tsubame

Yuhi as Arata Narumi.... Kobe Hainan student

Yuki Izawa as Kensuke Kogure.... the oldest trainee as he's 27 and married

Keito Ikemoto as Shotaro Yamada.... another Hainan student

Mikoto Hibi as Anju Ukawa.... another Hainan student and the rival of the above trainees

Keisuke Horibe as Kazuya Yokoyama... main trainer of the students

Yoichi Nukumizu as Yonosuke Hayashida.... captain of the Mikumaru ship

Mai Takahashi as Akane Fujiwara.... ship's assistant navigator and a trainer

 

 Another show where we got to meet the other main cast members a bit more and we began off with Kogure. At 27 years old he's the oldest student on the ship and is also married. He had graduated from a college two years before but working for a company wasn't for him so he left the job and enrolled at Hainan University to become a sailor. That above incident what the trainer Yokoyama was talking about was that Kogure went against the rules and was using his cellphone.
 He had contacted his wife though just by text, he read the message wrong as it appeared to Kogure that his wife wanted to leave him though we'll learn later on that's not the case. When one member of a group screws up then all of the members are also punished which is what almost happened here. The ship was scheduled to land in a port for a few hours and during that time the students were allowed to go on land for a brief excursion. But because of Kogure breaking the rules that wasn't going to happen but as you can see above that didn't faze Marin in the least.
 But someone was watching over this group who was the young assistant navigator Akane. She had been in the student's shoes at one time and knew how being penalized would make them so discouraged. So Akane managed to persuade Yokoyama and the ship's captain to allow the group of six to have their few hours on land and she made six new friends very quickly.

 The only semi drawback was the group had to wear their uniforms during their mini trip. Didn't bother Marin at all as she's proud to be a part of the Mikumura ship. Also it didn't bother the four males who were just glad to be on land but it really embarrassed Tsubame to no end. She dragged Marin along to a clothing store so she could find some decent attire to wear, as you can see above Marin wasn't pleased at all with her friend.
 And talk about coincidences, who should Tsubame meet at the small shop then none other than her ex-boyfriend Kaito! After failing the Kanto Maritime entrance exam he decided to become.... a male hostess! That really floored Tsubame to see what's happened to her old flame, also floored her when she saw Kaito with a real ugly woman he had to escort. Think that moment is what changed Tsubame as after that incident she's glad she lost her boyfriend and began caring about the ship so much more.

 We didn't learn much about what Yokoyama was referring to in that bottom screenshot but it's the main storyline for the final episode, you can also see a preview in the post's last screenshot. The students still have a few more hours on land though they're in a bit of a remote location so there's not many sights or stores to visit. The group of six certainly just hang around with each other as they all met up at a restaurant, never did see them socialize with any other students.
 Thanks to his new friends Kogure had been able to decipher what his wife's text message really meant. She didn't say she was leaving him as Kogure saw the number one in the message and presumed it meant one less person in the household. What it really meant was that there would be one more person in the household as Kogure's wife was pregnant so this journey to the restaurant was also a celebration.
 The group really couldn't get drunk though but they did order a few bottles of beer. The four guys thought that Marin and Tsubame were both under twenty which is the drinking age in Japan. They were half right as Marin was but Tsubame blurted out to the group that today was her 20th birthday as she chugged down a glass of beer, she also had a few more after that. The beer got to her head quickly as she heard a pair of drunken men putting down the students and said what a waste of tax dollars it was to train them to be sailors.

 Meeting up with her ex-boyfriend had really changed Tsubame's attitude about wanting to be a sailor. She's now proud that she's training to be one and Tsubame charged right up to the pair that were putting them down. Tsubame let them know in no uncertain terms that the beer they were getting drunk on was brought in by a ship as wasn't most of the items Japan imports. As I mentioned the beer really got to Tsubame's brain quickly as she continued berating the two men who eventually apologized, even the other customers gave her and the group an ovation at what she had said.
 The others in the group now have so much respect for Tsubame's new way of thinking and especially her roommate Marin. But Tsubame did admit that even though she's proud to be a student on the ship the maritime life still isn't one for her. She wasn't the only person to confess that fact as so didn't Yamato who still had a huge crush on her. It may have been the beer talking for the two but quickly the other four were able to persuade the pair to continue their training, they were so close to finishing their one month at sea.
 So it's back to the ship as the alcohol has worn off a bit as Tsubame and Yamato are now eager to complete the thirty days at sea. These stories take up up an entire episode as the group's mini trip on land was 95% of the show as this episode came to it's close. Will get into it more in the final recap but think this drama would have been so much better with episodes that ran about thirty minutes or so as one month at sea was covered in four shows.

 Writing these all up in a row but still think it'll take a shorter amount of time than writing up one recap of the 'Missing' drama. Just one more of these recaps to go and though a bit too fluffy will have to say I've enjoyed every episode, really hope the second season eventually gets subbed.