Air Dates: February 20th to April 2, 2020 Thursdays at 11:00 pm on Abema-TV
English translation is roughly 'Only I am 17 years old'
Episodes are about 34 minutes in length, subtitles were done by Irozuku Subs
Link to the drama's Abema-TV site: https://abema.tv/video/title/90-1342
Main Cast: All are 24 in age as most of the action takes place in 2020 though there are many scenes from 2013 when they are seventeen, however Kota who should also be 24 years old is still seventeen...
Marie Iitoyo as Mei Konno... has recently returned to her hometown of Yagami after being fired from her temp job in Tokyo, she had such a crush on Kota when he passed away in 2013
Hayato Sano as Kota Sometani.... died on April 12, 2013 at the age of seventeen but has he just returned from the dead?
Kosei Yuki as Iori Ishikawa.... these top five characters were all high school friends who drifted apart after graduating, Iori is now a doctor at his father's hospital
Karen Otomo as Haruka Noda.... Mei's best friend and was supposed to attend a beauty school
Yutaro Watanabe as Ryuhei Yoshimura.... the fifth friend of the group who remained in Yagami and works at the train station
Kenta Hamano as Daiki Shindo... head priest at the local shrine
Yoshi as Naoki Shindo.... son of the priest who is in training at the shrine
Yoshihiko Hakada as Kazumi Akaike... the mayor, was he involved in Kota's death?
.... Kota!!!! He was still his seventeen year old self and you can imagine how much it shocked Mei. Instead of talking to the ghost/mirage/real person Mei fled in a hurry as Kota stood there wondering what had he done wrong? Nothing that he was aware for Kota just reappeared on Earth after seven years and had no clue it was the year 2020, he presumed he was still a senior in high school. When he went to the school everything looked the same, when Kota took a seat at his old desk in his deserted homeroom he realized something may be amiss.
He had found an old manga which he was a fan of but somehow it was up to volume 41, last thing he knew volume five had just come out. A boy then entered the room and asked Kota 'what are you doing at my desk?'. This boy's name is Naoki and is someone we may be seeing much more of. He knew much about Kota's past life and told him that he had died seven years ago! Kota was like Mei and in a panic, there's something in the world going on and he wanted the answers now as he rushed to his house. His old residence wasn't going to be there much longer as some workers were preparing to demolish it, at the scene Kota was informed his mother had moved away many years ago.
Naoki remained by his side and with no place for Kota to return to he brought him to the local shrine as Shindo's father was the local pastor. But the sightings of Kota weren't to be a secret for long as Mei had gone to the train station to tell Ryohei of what she saw. He was Kota's best friend in school and works at the train station, he naturally thought she was seeing things. Perhaps not as soon after Mei's best friend in school Haruka appeared at the station, first time they had seen each other since high school. She too had seen Kota when he was dashing to his house, now Ryohei is believing his friends and what in the world is going on????
Mei needed to come to the bottom of this mystery and traveled to the shrine, we didn't know why she picked that location but it was the right choice. That's because there Mei saw a man sweeping the grounds, when he turned around it was Kota and Mei wasn't as shocked this time around. But of course she was so bewildered, how could he reappear on Earth after being dead for seven years? Kota too had no clue what was going on but the local pastor had agreed to take care of him, have a feeling this pastor Shindo could play an important piece of the puzzle on how and why Kota has returned.
That night a 'welcome back' party was scheduled, though Haruka had already seen Kota she was still in utter disbelief. Of course so wasn't Kota's best friend Ryohei who had no idea why his friend had returned but was overjoyed to see him. The only one of the five who wasn't there was Iori, Haruka said after Kota's death be had become withdrawn and wouldn't talk to his old friends any longer. It's a bit strange though for the four during this 'celebration', Kota is still a seventeen year old boy while his old friends are all now 24 in age.
Haruka asked Kota about the day of his death, he was supposed to meet Mei under the cherry tree so why was he riding his bike along the hill's cliff and not the path leading to the tree? Kota had no clue but when he was informed about him dying by falling off the cliff he said that was wrong, he couldn't remember how he died but falling from a cliff wasn't the truth. After the mini party ended Kota walked Mei home though the pair had a hard time talking after all these years. Not just them but after Kota's death the four went their own ways, was he the glue that kept the group together?
Going to enjoy writing these recaps up, for some reason they're going so much quicker than usual plus can keep them somewhat brief without leaving any info out, helps when shows are 33+ minutes long. In the second to last screenshot above Haruka visited Iori at the local hospital which his father runs. Iori works there and had attended medical school but hadn't said a word to his old friends in seven years. What Haruka wanted to know was about the day of Kota's death. She was the only person who knew that Iori had intercepted Kota on his way to meeting Mei, what happened after that for Iori may have been the last person to see him alive, Iori wouldn't respond and walked away.
Besides hearing about the special cherry blossom tree being chopped down Mei had also traveled to Yagami to escape Tokyo for a while. She had been caught having an affair with a man who worked in the same office, was Mei in love with him? That's what the man Hirose wanted to know as he found out where Mei was and came to see her. She was shocked to see the man, Hirose said he was madly in love with Mei and was willing to leave his wife for her, we never did see a response from Mei so it should be resolved in the next show. But unknown to the pair listening nearby was Kota, the encounter had taken place near the special cherry blossom tree.
Kota and Mei were supposed to have a date that night, after hearing about her affair Kota left and seemed to be disappointed with what kind of person Mei had turned into. She eventually caught up with Kota at the the shrine, he let Mei know what his feelings were about the affair and the way her life was turning out. But of course Kota is still just seventeen in age, Mei is now 24 and has experienced things only an adult goes through. Mei was severely let down that Kota couldn't understand what she was going through and that age difference will be a key element to the story as this second episode came to it's conclusion.
Have seen Karen who plays Haruka in two other dramas and do like her, she won't be turning 21 for a few months so have to wait until there can be some solo posts for her. Karen knew Marie from a previous series as they both were in the "Video Girl: Ai 2018" drama and also were friends in that show. Halfway through this mini marathon as there's two more recaps for you to hopefully read.
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