Air Dates: October 17th until ?? on Fuji-TV, Thursday nights at 10:00 pm
Episode two rating- 5.2%
Main Cast:
Yuko Araki as Yurika Nanba.... 27 year old woman who can't get over her ex-boyfriend
Kengo Kora as Makoto Saito.... the ex-boyfriend who disappeared for five years
Kenta Homano as Akio Yamashita.... businessman from Hokkaido who moved to Tokyo
Minami Tanaka as Mugi Kurusu.... radio announcer from Hokkaido
Yoshiko as Hiromi Suo.... nail stylist and Yurika's best friend
Shinya Kote as Ichiro Ando.... manager of Tilolien Real Estate
Kanro Morita as Masaru Osawa.... real estate agent at Tilolien
Mandy Sekiguchi as Tadafumi Shirai.... real estate agent at Tilolien
Sayaka Yamaguchi as Sakura Marunouchi.... Makoto's current roommate
Shuri as Chizuru Kaga.... young OL who has a crush on Akio
Mentioned in the first recap how there's no major stars in the show though most of the cast is quite good. One person is Sayaka Yamaguchi who we didn't see in the first show but think her role will be important from here on out. Even though she's now 39 in age Sayaka is still a very attractive woman, have seen her in eight dramas to date. She is an excellent actress but too often gets stuck playing a hard nosed woman such as her two seasons in the 'Zettai Reido' series.
We finally saw Minami this show too and like the above person her role won't be a huge one though will be a key part to the story. Both women were in the "Justice Monster" show which aired earlier this year. That appeared to be such a solid drama yet only two episodes were subbed, it's been so long now doubt if the remaining shows will be done. May as well talk about their characters to begin off with and then get into the rest of what took place.
A character we saw often in the first show was Akio who will be an important figure in things until the show's end. Minami plays Mugi in this show and as hard as it it to believe the pair went out for close to five years. Akio is a nice guy though not good looking in the least while Mugi could be considered a starlet. She's a very popular radio DJ in Sapporo and happened to meet Akio one night at a small restaurant, since that night the pair had been going out. Mugi is also the author of a very well known food blog in Hokkaido which Akio often made comments on.
Their relationship seemed to be going well until a month before this show began. Akio is a businessman and informed Mugi he had been transferred to Tokyo which upset her greatly as he had assured her he would never be transferred. Mugi broke up with Akio on the spot but think she may have some feelings still towards him which we may find out about soon. That's because at the end of the episode Mugi had informed a supervisor that she would be willing to go to Tokyo to work, there's already been a few billboards of her put up around the city. Mugi's total screen time was just five minutes but once she possibly hooks up with Akio again think we'll be seeing much more of her.
Sayaka in the show plays the character of Sakura who is living with the main male star Makoto. She appears to be at least five years older and the history of how the two paired up hasn't been revealed yet. We haven't seen too much of Sakura either but like Mugi she'll be playing an important role in the story. Sakura is a successful author of a series of books but her editor feels the quality of her stories is slipping. The main reason to the editor may be of her living with Makoto but she brushed that opinion aside though deep down she feels that observation was correct.
The series of books are titled "Memories Can't Hurt Me" which has had ten volumes to date and Sakura is currently working on her new one. What's a bit funny in an odd way is that the show's heroine Yurika is such a fan of the series and has read every book numerous times. She doesn't know yet that her old boyfriend is living with the author of the romance series but sure it'll be coming out soon, Sakura already knows of Makoto's old relationship with Yurika.
That bottom screenshot is of the character Chizuru. She plays a minor role in the show so we haven't seen much of her so far and probably never will. However Chizuru may play a key part in the life of Akio as she works at the same office as he does, for some reason she's developed a huge crush on him rather quickly but through two shows the pair have met only once.
In the first recap Akio had admitted to Yurika that he too was a 'mania person' but at the end of the show he took back that claim. But he is like Yurika as he does have a mania on his old girlfriend Mugi as he constantly checks her food blog and other media sites. Yurika of course is a 'Motokare mania person' which means she can't get over her ex-boyfriend Makoto even though they broke up five years ago. As you can see in the middle above screenshot the pair have created a club called the 'MKM Alliance' where they will help each other out with ridding themselves of the thoughts they have for their exes.
When either one began thinking of their former partner too heavily they were supposed to contact the other person and/or do things to get their ex-mate out of their mind. Akio took the alliance seriously and had been working hard to get Mugi out of his mind, didn't always work but he was trying. Can't say the same thing about Yurika who can never get Makoto out of her mind. Hard doing that when he works at the same small real estate office and soon their alliance was a thing of the past.
But for now what Yurika really needed to concentrate on was her new real estate job. She's on a one month trial basis and has only ten days left on it. Yurika has been very unsuccessful, she rented one apartment to Akio but that's been it to date. The office manager has informed Yurika she had better rent out a few places in the ten days or she'll have to be let go. Yurika created a flyer she distributed around a few neighborhoods to drum up business for herself which was a failure. Even Makoto had helped her out on the project but even so Yurika has rented out no new apartments. That'll be continued on into the next episode with just a few days left on her trial period.
Actually Yurika and Makoto's new girlfriend Sakura have met. Sakura was hanging outside the real estate office one day to catch a glimpse of Yurika, when she did she ran off but stumbled in a park where she was helped up by Yurika. She didn't get a good look at Sakura but recognized the scent on her coat and wondered why would Sakura's gal be spying on her? Though their alliance is now a thing of the past Yurika and Akio continued to hang out with each other, he may have some romantic feelings but it's been strictly platonic between the two.
You can see what Akio wants to do in an above screenshot, that's to meet Makoto to see what kind of person he is. And just by chance he wandered into the small restaurant the two were having dinner at, Akio immediately invited Makoto to join them. Akio was very impressed with Makoto who isn't the smartest of guys yet has such a likable personality and most people are attracted to him. That happened near the end of the show but wouldn't be surprised if the two become friends.
Of course Makoto has been living with Sakura but am a bit curious on what their relationship is really like. When they're together they don't appear all that close, they could be in a rut and Sakura has been using their current life in her new book. Took a ton of screenshots so figured this would be a long recap but we're at the end of this 44 minute episode. There's probably about eight shows left and there's going to be plenty to get to in the future. For instance will Yurika rent out enough apartments to keep her job? What's going to happen to Akio once he learns that Mugi will be joining him in Tokyo? Plus a few other possible storylines that were mentioned above and wish I could keep all recaps this brief with not leaving any major details out(or did I?).
Most lighthearted dramas like this one you know how it's going to end within twenty minutes of the first show. But this series seems to be much different and so much better for it as I don't have a clue what's going to happen. Are Yurika and Makoto going to get back together again or will she end up with Akio? But then again his ex-girlfriend Mugi is coming to Tokyo, will they be hooking up again? Nice not knowing where things will be headed and the next pair of recaps will be in two weeks that will be for the third and fourth episodes. Plenty of screenshots to help you follow the story.
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