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
Knew this was a serious drama coming in but didn't think it'd be as intense as it has been, what an episode this turned out to be and so many new things came to light. After those secrets of Hana bullying a classmate came out plus with many fans learning about how badly she used Mana as a cash machine Hana's days as an Idol seem to be coming to a close. As you can see in the above screenshot Sunny Side Up fans have taken to the web to really criticize Hana for her actions and for now she hasn't been performing with the group.
The date is now late May, Mana has been telling this story to the detective Shogoin on June 30th. If that doesn't make sense you need to read the previous recaps as this drama began in April 2018 and tells the story of what happened up until June 30th. What was also learned in the opening minutes was Hana's real name though I'll continue using Hana. It was Mika Tsukamoto and the main reason she changed it was because of what she did to a classmate. That person was Kyoko and we met her mother in the previous recap. In high school Hana had bullied Kyoko so badly that the girl ended up slitting her wrists, she recovered but for the past two years won't leave her house.
The reason for Hana's bullying was jealousy as Kyoko had gotten to know a pair of American exchange students well as she was quite good at speaking English. But Kyoko got to know the handsome male student much better which infuriated Hana who also had eyes for him. Hana ended up putting some doctored photos on some popular forums which really made Kyoko look like such a joke. It was obviously no laughing matter as the girl later tried to kill herself.
Once Mana learned all of Hana's sordid past and the fact she wasn't performing with Sunny Side Up she wanted to meet with Hana at least one more time. Naturally Hana didn't want to meet the woman she had used so badly but was forced into it by Karin who is the group's leader. It was a bit of an emotional encounter as Mana didn't want the meeting to be one where she berated Hana to no end but to clear the air and to find out what exactly did happen. Plus Mana had considered them to be friends, if so why had Hana used her like a cash machine?
The pair did clear that air during their mini apology session but not much was discussed. Hana, least for now, never explained fully why she did what she did to Mana nor did she give any details about the bullying of Kyoko. But Mana seemed to understand the actions of Hana even though they weren't explained, to Mana the two are quite similar. One main thing is the need for both of them to be liked by others, in Mana's case it was being a social media fanatic trying to get likes and followers. To Hana it was the same way way to an extent, she was popular in high school but once Kyoko tried to kill herself she lost all of her friends. Seems Hana is still so upset at what took place and didn't think her doctored photos would cause such an incident.
There had been a web site that was set up by a former fan berating Hana for her past. On that site was a picture of Hana with Kyoko and so many viewers left some some disturbing comments about Hana who in retrospect is really suffering from what she had did to Kyoko. Sunny Side Up's lawyer and huge fan Shiiba was able to get the site shut down, even the girl's mother wanted it taken down. So now that the site was gone the group waited over a month to see what the group's fan's reactions became of Hana. It's now mid June and to the members it seemed their fans have forgiven Hana or at least don't think as badly of her.
So now does that mean the group can start anew and continue their path to becoming popular Idols? To four of the five the answer was a resounding yes but to everyone's surprise their leader Karin had said she wanted to quit the group! That threw the other four for a loop as Karin confessed during their break a famous producer wanted her to join a new group. Karin had a long talk with her oshi Azuki prior to the group meeting and even he said the offer was too good to pass up. So with her mind mainly made up Karin asked the other members to forgive her and let her leave the group. The gals did but without Karin there is no Sunny Side Up so they began making plans for a farewell concert.
The date for the farewell performance was set for June 30th, that's the day Mana is relating the story to the detective Shogoin and will she be able to attend the show? The girl's and fan's spirits were surprisingly not too down about the group breaking up, Mana even wrote a little chant for the fans to sing during the final show. Even Hana kept her spirits up and though she had no plans for the future remained positive and was even thinking about creating another group.
Now is when the action gets so, so dark as after that above chat with Hana Mana headed home where soon after there was a knock at her apartment door. For some reason Mana answered it but it was no regular delivery man but instead Urita(!) who quickly drugged her, threw her in a cardboard box and dragged her away A while later Mana woke up in a room made up of.... egg cartons?! That meant there were literally thousands of them and there was no way for Mana to escape even though there was a door but alas there was no handle. Mana then noticed a camera in the corner, one that was watching her and the person doing so was making Sunny Side Up eggs. Shortly after the person finished cooking them they entered the room, who should it be but the crazed fan Urita who we hadn't seen in four episodes.
Urita was always so jealous of Mana's relationship with Hana, so much that Urita stopped going to the group's shows. That hurt Hana in the wallet quite bad as Urita used to spend so much money on her. This being close to the end of the episode there wasn't time enough for Urita to give a long spiel on how the world revolved around Hana though he started to. But with his attention unfocused Mana was able to push him out of the way and flee through the open door to safety. Not quite safety as Urita ended up catching up to Mana on the steps outside of his apartment, seemed he lived on about the fourth floor.
Mana was able to hold off Urita's attack and threw him to the balcony floor. Seemed Mana had time to escape this time but Urita quickly recovered and was about to once again come after Mana. This time she knew she had no alternative as Mana pounced on Urita driving him to the balcony's edge, as he stood teetering against the railing Mana pushed him over. When she looked down there was Urita sprawled on the ground four stories down, was he perhaps dead?
That took place on June 29th, it's now the 30th and Urita has revived from his fall. All of the above details were narrated by Mana and it appeared by her story that what she did was just self defense. That's what the detective Shogoin would have thought too if there wasn't some new evidence he discovered. We only saw two seconds of it but the detective had a photo, with the time stamp on it seems Mana's story wasn't the truth as the photo proved she was somewhere else when Urita was pushed off the balcony. With that cliff hanger this recap finally comes to it's close and it was easily the longest one of them all.
Whew, so much took place in the second half of the show and am really looking forward to the last recap but haven't watched the episode yet. Have no clue what's going to happen but will make a prediction. My guess is that the story Mana told was to cover up for Hana and perhaps it was her that pushed Urita off the balcony. Seems plausible and let's see if that's what really took place and the that final recap is the next post.
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