"Janus no Kagami" drama: Episode seven recap

 Air Dates: This series aired twice, first on the FOD network Fridays at midnight from August 16th until October 4th, then Mondays at 12:55 am on Fuji-TV from October 21st until December 9th.

Eight episodes with a running time a little over twenty minutes, subs by aoinousagi

Above is the PV for the theme tune that's sung by Hinako, didn't know she could sing

Main Cast:

Hinako Sakurai as Hiromo Ozawa.... meek 17 year old student who lives with her grandmother....

and also as Yumi who is her split personality and the complete opposite of Hiromi

Jin Shirasu as Kenichi Shindo.... president of the high school student council

Akihisa Shiono as Tatsuya Tsutsumi.... mysterious young man who befriends Yumi

Sayuri Kokusho as Takako Ozawa.... Hiromi's very strict and violent grandmother

Maria Mori as Jun Abe.... Hiromi's best friend at school

Sawa Nimura as Ryouko Azuma.... leader of a gang who all despise Yumi

Masato Hagiwara as Kazunari Koumoto... owner of a jewelry store and Hiromi's father?

 At one time think there may have been ten or so blogs which reviewed Japanese dramas but seems these days the number has dwindled to two others besides myself. Korean dramas have definitely become more popular, I prefer most of them too but do get tired of watching such long series. However brought that up for I noticed the other two places and some that recap Korean shows can do them with very brief recaps where not every bit of info or happening needs to be explained. So going to try doing that for the remaining four recaps and the goal is to have no more than four paragraphs though many screenshots.

 Hope everyone reader is enjoying these briefer recaps, know I am immensely and think they're a better overall view of a drama than explaining every detail which can get boring. Now the question is can I do these brief posts for regular length dramas? Haven't viewed the final episode yet, am waiting until this recap is done and this was another intense show.

 We left off with that first screenshot which was of Koumoto lying in a pool of blood after being struck over the head with a tool by Yumi. The question was is the man dead and it didn't appear so but Yumi ended all doubt as she tipped a heavy shelf on top of her father. The news spread quickly about Koumoto's death as it was in the news the following morning. Above you can see Hiromi's grandmother telling her about it, naturally Hiromi didn't know the details of what happened though for a few seconds in the struggle with her father she was her normal self. The grandmother Takako was quite pleased with the news as she had always blamed Koumoto for her daughter's suicide.
 For many episodes now Hiromi's classmate Shindo has been doing some investigating on her split personality and is the only person to know that Hiromi and Yumi are the same person. Shindo confronted her and deep down really cares about Hiromi so much but has never revealed his feelings to her. He asked about the death of Koumoto and whether Hiromi had anything to do with it. Though Hiromi didn't see the actual killing she knew her alter ego Yumi was the one who committed the crime and up until the sixth show Hiromi never knew about having a split personality.

 Quite a bit happened in the final ten minutes and hope I can squeeze it all in. Hiromi told her friend Shindo that she had no choice and had to turn herself in for the murder. But Shindo knew it wasn't Hiromi who committed the deed, he told her he would talk to Yumi when she reappeared and to work something out with her. That Shindo did and Yumi did say she would vanish from Hiromi's life but needed to do one more thing, Shindo was a bit leery but agreed for Hiromi's sake. Later on that evening he met Yumi's only friend Tatsuya who really likes Yumi so much and doesn't believe what Shindo says about Yumi and Hiromi being the same person.
 Tatsuya eventually left his small quarters to hunt for Yumi and he did find her. But so didn't Yumi's arch enemy Ryouko who we've met on a few occasions. Yumi had set the girl and her friends up to be arrested for attempting to rob her father's jewelry store. Now Ryouko is out on bail and had one thought in her mind.... to kill Yumi! And when she saw her enemy on the street Ryouko rushed up to her with a knife but also at that same moment Tatsuya had been rushing up to Yumi. He knew what he was doing as Tatsuya jumped in front of Yumi so he was the person Ryouko stabbed, it looked worse than it was as Tatsuya was sent to a hospital and though still there is healing rather quickly.
 Shindo visited him and told Tatsuya that shortly after the incident Ryouko had been run over by a car and died, was Yumi a part of that accident? Shindo had an inkling that Yumi may go out with another murder and went to her house to see either her or Hiromi but she wasn't there. Instead the grandmother was and sent Shindo on his way as she can't stand men and especially one that may like her granddaughter. Shortly later Hiromi arrived at home to take a berating from her evil grandmother who for the fourth time in this series locked Hiromi in the back yard shed. There Hiromi looked in the 'magical mirror' where she talked to Yumi who does have a grand plan to end all things. She's told Hiromi that she'll be taking her body over full time for a while, her quest is to end the life of their grandmother once and for all and that'll be the main story for the final episode.

 Needed to have one extra paragraph as so much did happen and if I can keep recaps for regular dramas at five that'll be an achievement. Can't wait to view the final show and kind of wish there were a few extra episodes, that recap is the next post and I've mentioned many times it does help to look at the screenshots to see everything that took place.