Air Dates: March 11th to the 15th on Netflix, March 18th to the 22nd on Hokkaido TB
Also goes by the name of 'Stay Tuned', the series had a total of five 43 minute episodes
Main Cast:
Kyoko Yoshine as Hanako Yukimaru... newbie reporter who constantly messes up
Hiroko Iijima as Hajime Yamane... another new reporter who is seemingly perfect but....
Atsuwo Ohuchi as Heizo Hasegawa... the supervisor of the TV newsroom
Kanako Miyashita as Maki Hanae... new news anchor in training
Takuro Osada as Hayato Kitagami... yet another newbie in the production department
Taisei Shima as Tetsutaro Fukube... new hire in the sales department
Hikaru Takihara as Seiichi Tachibana... new technician
Ayumu Saito as Mamoru Jogasaki... TV station main director
Kimiko Jitsukawa as Reiko Kurenai... veteran newscaster
Hitoshi Fujio as Yosuke Furuya... weatherman
Ken Yasuda as Katori... rival from the HGT station
Yo Oizumi as Kanbara... local farmer
Shinya Kawano as Ogura... director of the newsroom who never stops eating
.... and so many more with minor roles, hugest cast I've ever seen.
The main character throughout the series will be Hanako who is one of the six rookies at the station. They were supposed to be eased into their positions but it always hasn't worked out that way but five have been able to do a solid job even though they're inexperienced. That is except for Hanako who has screwed up almost every assignment to date but the news director Ogura saw some hidden talent in her which is why Hanako was hired. She is quite spunky and seems to have the ability to draw out the best in everyone, that's key as often they have to fix her mistakes.
Hanako does have the main role followed by another rookie who is Hajime. He sits next to her and can't understand how she was hired, he himself is already a polished reporter. But every show will focus on one of the lesser characters, in this show there's two of them. One is the veteran weatherman Furuya who we see in the middle screenshot above. Once again Hanako slipped up badly and happened to appear on screen as he was delivering his forecast.
Furuya loves the weather but doesn't have a sparkling screen presence, that is according to Hanako who pointed out one flaw that he had but in her own unique way. Furuya often says probably when he gives the forecast, to Hanako using that word may mean he's not quite sure if he's correct. That's also a feeling shared by others around the station but nobody had said a word about it until Hanako did, there will be a bit more on Furuya as the recap goes on.
Hanako has been my fave character to date, my second one has been another rookie that is Kitagami who we see in the above two screenshots. Four of the six newbies have been assigned to the news department while Kitagami is in the production department. They're responsible for making sure shows and commercials air on time, that there's no run overs and for the most part making sure telecasts run smoothly as they set up a schedule in advance.
In that bottom screenshot Kitagami is with Jogasaki who is the main person on the board of directors. He's a hands on person though and watches all of the telecasts plus is interested in the new blood who are the future of the station. Kitagami looks the oldest of the six and the whole station thinks he is yet he is the youngest which we learned in the next episode. He also seems to be the most calmest of the new hires, he's also the one person who can stand Hanako and her mistakes.
All new hires eventually have to prove themselves and Kitagami's time is about to come. The main production worker has the day off, Kitagami was picked to take his place and he has to make sure the programming from 3:00 until 7:00 pm goes off without a snag. It's usually an easy assignment but not for his first time running a telecast as there was a baseball game that began at 3:00 pm. It's a high school championship game so the viewership will be high but there should be no problems if the game ends by 4:45 pm or so which is expected.
Of course events can't go off without a hitch or there would be no suspense. The game ended up going to extra innings but luckily it ended in the tenth on a home run, the time was 4:50 pm so there should be time for a quick wrap up show. The news airs at 5:00 pm which is the lifeline for most local stations, will Kitagami cut to the news or stay with the game as the announcers are going to interview the winning team?
The huge decision fell only on Kitagami's shoulders and you can see what he chose above. Those two men behind him had been pressuring Kitagami to run the news but as the board director Jogasaki told him think of the viewers first and not the station personnel. That's what Kitagami did, he's staying with the game until 5:15 pm which means the news will be fifteen minutes shorter but he made the correct decision. Privately Kitagami thought so plus the newsroom directors were impressed with the decision, Kitagami is looking good in the eyes of everyone except for one person.
Not that she's mad at Kitagami but Hanako was going to have her first feature story run on the news. But with the fifteen minutes being cut there was no time for it, it was going to be a story on phone fraud and mainly how it affects senior citizens. Kitagami knew she had the story and also knew with his decision Hanako's story may not air, sadly for her it didn't. She really wasn't mad in the least at her friend Kitagami who put all personal feelings aside, Hanako was naturally disappointed but deep down knew what he did was right.
Didn't see enough of Maki this episode but she did have a fairly big part in the first episode. That's her reporting the news above and she may be the most talented of the six newcomers. The story she's reporting on is about a string of arson cases that's been plaguing Sapporo for a few weeks. There was another fire but it was on the weekend and the only available reporter in the newsroom was Hanako, reluctantly her supervisor Hasegawa sent her out to the scene of the latest crime.
But by then the arsonist was gone though a fire was still raging in a nearby trash barrel. Hanako's foul ups continued as she didn't charge her phone and was unable to take any footage of it. But coming to her rescue was Hajime who heard the news at the station and rushed over to give Hanako a hand as he knew she wouldn't be able to handle the story properly and he was right. A detective on the scene told the pair the suspect was holed up in a house nearby, he told Hanako and Hajime to dash over there if they wanted to be the first station on the story.
That detective wasn't sharp enough for Hajime who felt something was amiss in what they were told. He was correct as he saw the police go in the opposite direction, with Hanako they quickly hopped into a cab and trailed the police to a park. There they witnessed the pair of detectives chasing down the real suspect, for some reason they didn't want any news stations to know. Perhaps it was because they may have had the wrong suspect which wouldn't have been the first time on this case.
Luckily Hanako and Hajime arrived in time to film the arrest though that didn't come off cleanly. Hajime had dropped his camcorder and in the process sprained his ankle. It meant Hanako needed to use his phone to record the action, she did but flubbed up the recording as it was a bit blurry plus she yelled out the suspects's name which is taboo on TV. But the recording was good enough as HHTV was the only station at the arrest scene, for once Hanako got a bit of credit for her work though most of it should have and did go to Hajime.
Final segment here, though it was a longish recap it really didn't feel that way and perhaps it was because this has been such an enjoyable drama. Started off by talking about the weatherman Furuya and how his knowledge and love of the weather didn't translate well over to TV. But thanks to an off hand comment by Hanako his telecasts improved immensely, he took her advice and stopped using the word probably. Because of that the viewers are having confidence in his forecasts, that is all except for Hanako as you can see in the above screenshot.
Will end off by talking briefly about a farmer named Kanbara, the only minor continuing storyline revolves around him. He heads up the 'Sprout Mind' organization which is helping the many farmers in need as costs have risen drastically plus they haven't been able to keep up with all of the modern farming technology. Most of the funds from Kanbara's organization come from the government and he seems like one man who has dedicated his life to helping his fellow farmers as he too was one.
Hajime really wants to do a special story on Kanbara and his team who are helping out the farmers in Hokkaido. To date they've been very successful and many farms have been saved plus most are showing a profit. However Kanbara didn't want to give a TV interview, he did once for a newspaper which put him and his co-workers in a bad light. Once again though Hanako comes to the rescue in her own way, that way is because her family are farmers and Kanbara knows her grandmother. With an assurance from Hanako he agreed to do the interview with Hajime but that won't take place until the next episode as this one finally came to an end, lot happens in just 43 minutes.
Said at the top I have so many problems beginning these recaps, perhaps because I think they take too long to write up. They probably do but once I start on them the words start flowing out and actually prefer doing these drama recap posts over ones for Idols but you wouldn't know that by the post counts. Two shows down and three to go in this short series, have watched the third show which was another winner and that recap is the post below this one.
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