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 lawyer
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
On to the final recap and I enjoy these shorter series so much more than twenty episode Korean dramas which take a month to view versus this which only took a week. Was just a bit lazy on writing these posts up, actually watched the first seven shows fairly quickly but waited until I wrote up the last recap before viewing the finale. Another fine episode though the intensity level dropped quite a bit compared to the previous two shows but was correct on the prediction I made.
Did that in the last recap and predicted that Mana was covering up for Hana and it was actually her who had been kidnapped by Urita and not Mana. That means it wasn't Mana who pushed Urita off the balcony, the story Mana told the detective Shogoin in the previous was 100% correct except you just need to change the name from Mana to Hana. However as Hana's main Oshi Mana was willing to accept all of the blame and her story about pushing Urita off the balcony would have worked save for one detail.
That was of Mana being caught on CCTV at the time Hana had been held hostage, she had been wearing different clothes too. Mana had been heading to the Basement club to see Sunny Side Up perform but when she got there Hana was absent. No one knew where she was but Mana had a sinking feeling something was up with Urita, Azuki(Azusawa) was able to get his address and the pair dashed to his apartment. As you can see above they had a surprise waiting for them which was Urita's body lying on the ground.
To Mana there was only one person who could have done it, that was of course Hana as Mana zoomed up to his apartment where she found Hana cowering on the balcony. Azuki quickly arrived too and Mana thought of a plan to get Hana out of trouble. She switched clothes with Hana in case there were any witnesses and told Azuki to bring her to the club for the group's final performance. After the pair were safely gone Mana called up the police to report she had pushed Urita off the balcony by accident.
Mana had stretched out her story/confession long enough so Hana wouldn't be a suspect quite yet and the detective Shogoin knew what her ploy was. But there was no need for the police to head to the club as after Sunny Side Up's final performance Hana showed up at the station. At first thought Hana was going to let Mana take the rap for everything by the way she was talking, seems that Mana also had the same thought. But as you can see above Hana did tell the truth of what happened, it was her who had pushed Urita off his balcony. However no charge should stick as Hana had been kidnapped and abused, every act she did was in self defense.
With Hana's testimony Mana had been released and Hana's story soon became a national sensation. At one time she had been a despised Idol and you can learn why in the previous recaps but now she had the pity of most Idol fans. Eventually Hana was of course released and it was Urita who had been arrested, he was sent to prison though the sentence wasn't a long one. Because of that Hana ended up disappearing and we didn't see any more of her until the final seconds. Meanwhile things kind of went downhill for Mana as she was canned from her very good job at a huge insurance company.
She wasn't all that upset about it and told her best two mates the free time would give her a chance to do some other things. Personally thought it meant that Mana would try being an Idol too though that wasn't the case. As she was telling her friends the news of her firing Mana had invited them to the Basement club where she was going to have one final get together with her Otaku mates. Mana's friends naturally declined so Mana headed to the club where she had a warm surprise waiting.
To her bewilderment none of the Sunny Side Up members would be at this farewell party which didn't turn out to be a farewell one and we'll learn why at the end. Mana's surprise was that the group's final performance had been taped, that was such a pleasant surprise for Mana who had been at the police station when Sunny Side Up performed their final show. Though the group had become much more popular the show took place at the Basement club which was a very small venue.
It was quite an emotional farewell performance and it may have been a good thing that Mana wasn't at the show. All five of the members gave a heartwarming speech of what the group and fans meant to them, I almost had tears in my eyes too. But no Sunny Side Up fan had more tears in their eyes than Mana, especially when Hana gave her thank you speech but was surprised she never mentioned Mana and what she had done for her and the group.
Before I forget want to note that the five members of Sunny Side Up did the actual singing in the show though all are actresses. Had read that to be auditioned they had to be able to sing and dance, they did have a PV for one of their songs and did perform live which was a segment some episodes ago. In real life Jun used to be a member of an Idol group plus Ruka also had plans on becoming an Idol but instead turned to acting, thought her singing was superb in the show.
Now we're down to the very final minutes and it takes place one year later which would be June 2020. Four of the Sunny Side Up members have become successful, Rinrei is now a TV reporter, Karin has joined another Idol group which we knew was happening plus Shiori and Noriko formed their own duo Idol act. Meanwhile Mana is working part time for Shiiba who was Sunny Side Up's lawyer and also one for a few other Idol groups. But her other part time job was a very important one to her as it's working as a bartender at the Basement club! Yes, Mana was unable to shed her otaku ways and also helps out promoting new Idol groups. The other key fan of Sunny Side Up was Azuki and he's somehow got an important position as an IT consultant.
We never did learn about the backgrounds of the group's fans so perhaps he was doing a job like that all along. But as the series came to it's last two minutes Azuki was meeting with a new client who wanted help with her business, her name was Kyoko Matsuda. Azuki had heard the name but couldn't quite place it, he sent Mana a message about her though she too was stumped. But we all knew who she was as Kyoko was the girl Hana bullied in high school, Kyoko had slit her wrists but recovered though had spent two years at home afraid to go out.
In the closing seconds Mana was surprised to see a message from Hana and we didn't learn if the pair had reunited in that year span. But what was shocking to Mana was the girl Hana was sitting next to, it was Kyoko as the pair had somehow made up and once again became friends. With that another longish recap comes to it's end but more importantly so doesn't this drama.
Satisfying ending though not as intense as the shows leading into it. Wouldn't have really changed much though would have liked to see more of the Sunny Side Up members in this last show. Will give it a rating of 8.8/10 which is fairly good for me, I rarely go over nine. Would recommend it as it was very interesting and we did learn many things about the underground Idol world plus it was much more serious than I imagined it would be.
Have done a few posts for Sei who is a fine actress, also have had a few for Ruka who has become a huge fave of mine. But Yuki was the surprise in this show as she was simply superb as Mana and would like to see her get a few more starring roles but in quirky shows like this one. Up next is a mystery as I haven't given it much thought, for now am taking about a five week break from Korean dramas. Few Japanese series are beginning this week and also a few did last week, know two will be on tap to view but need to wait for those to be subbed so I'm still in a fog on what's up next.
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