Air Dates: July 27th to September 14th on NHK
Shows were on 11:30 pm Saturday nights, 28 minutes an episode and subs by HPriest
Main Cast:
Yuki Sakurai as Mana Endo.... 30 year OL who stumbled into the world of Idol groups
Seminosuke Murasugi as Takafumi Shiiba.... Sunny Side Up group's manager
Yoshihiko Hosoda as Hiromu Azusawa.... Group's co-manager and a huge otaku
Yu Sawabe as Minoru Shogoin.... Police detective who interviews Yuki
Hideyuki Kasahara as Masaru Urita.... Group fan but overly obsessed with Hana
Sunny Side Up Idol group
Sei Shiraishi as Hana Kurimoto.... Untalented waana-be Idol who Yuki befriends
Ruka Matsuda as Karin Hara.... Group's leader
Akari Matsukawa as Shiori Mugita
Shuri Tanaka as Rinrei Nasu
Jun Amaki as Noriko Tomaji
Knew this would be a semi serious drama coming in with many lighthearted moments but they've been fewer than I thought and it's actually been quite an intense show at times. On to the recap and Sunny Side Up are still struggling to make it in the Idol world. Especially Hana who tries harder than any member but to date just doesn't have the form that a gal needs to be an Idol. She started her own mini web show to draw the group's fans in but at first that flopped badly.
Hana or shall I say Sei is an attractive female but they have her look so dumpy in this show plus her personality is just so drab. That's why her web show failed at first until Mana intervened with some helpful hints, she's Hana's biggest Oshi and wants nothing more than for her and the group to succeed. Thanks to a few tips Hana's show has slowly become more popular as she introduced a cooking segment to it and her innocent ways have suddenly become much more likable.
Mana has been spending all of her free time helping the Sunny Side Up members out but more so Hana. But that hasn't affected her job working at a huge insurance company as she's become a better worker than ever, seems most of the execs come to her for advice now to the dismay of her friends. But Mana can't reveal her secret life style to her two best and only friends yet, what would they think of a thirty year old OL who has suddenly become a J-Pop otaku? Mana's also been invited numerous times to company business dinners where she shocks everyone with her new ways, ways she's learned attending Sunny Side Up shows.Though as you can see above Mana doesn't consider herself to be an otaku but all of the group's other fanatics know better as don't us viewers.
Mai and Mio appear to be Mana's only true friends, that's the pair above as Mana accidentally ran into them one afternoon as she was heading to an outdoor Sunny Side Up show. Mana still couldn't reveal her secret life to her best mates so kept mum about the show and joined her friends for lunch. Mio, who is dressed in the white sweater, seems to have a more open mind about things and as you can see Mana came so close to asking her to attend the concert.
There's no way though she would ask Mai to join her at an Idol concert, she's dressed in the striped shirt. As they were having their lunch Mai went on a long tirade about the Idol world, especially those underground groups such as Sunny Side Up who Mai knows nothing about. That ranting went on for a while, too long for Mana who couldn't take her friend putting down such hard working gals. Mana finally revealed much of her secret life as she said she was a huge fan of Sunny Side Up and was no longer ashamed to admit it. Her two friends, especially Mai, sat there with their jaws drooping at Mana's confession as she quickly bit adieu to her friends and went to the show.
Should also add in before Mana confessed about being an Idol fanatic Hana had come up to the table. Mana was in a bit of a panic as she quickly shooed her away and for a change Hana took a hint correctly. It was the first outdoor show for Sunny Side Up who are becoming a tad more popular but still have a long ways to go, have no clue whether they eventually become a successful group before the series ends but there is one shocker about that in the next recap.
As you can see above Mai was so dazed about Mana's confession and wonder if she's going to be ending her friendship with Mana? That didn't happen in the next episode with Mio, as I said has more of an open mind about things and actually did attend a Sunny Side Up show. For the first time at this outdoor concert Mana revealed to the world who her Oshi member was as she proudly took off her jacket where she had a brand new Hana shirt. That's even after Mana said she would never wear a shirt as only otakus do but of course she naturally is one now.
Coming close to the end, remember an episode is only a little over 28 minutes long. The concert was a success for the group even though it wasn't a large crowd but was the biggest audience they had ever played in front of. That show took place in June 2018, as Mana narrates her tale it's the Summer of 2019 and she tells the detective Shogoin it's about to become the worst time of her life. But he wants to know what was going on with Urita who we didn't see in this episode, we don't in the next show either but he still will play a major part in the story.
Am flying through these recaps but don't think one major detail has been left out. Writing them up quickly as I was planning on having these done two days ago but took too long of a break as usual. My biggest fave in the series is Ruka who we don't see enough of. Really want to do another solo post for her and will try doing that soon, to me she's such an underrated looker. One more recap to go in this quartet of them which is the following post.
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