"Boku dake ga 17 sai no sekai de" drama: Episode seven recap

 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 Mich/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 works at a beauty salon

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.... teen 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?

The drama is set in the city of Yagami in Nagano prefecture and the series was shot on location there. Every episode has been solid though the third show did drag a bit, this was another fine one but in a way was a bit disappointed. That's because the pair of Mei and Iori didn't continue their pursuit of the city's mayor Akaike who they know caused the death of Kota seven years ago. There was little doubt to them the mayor may have had a bit too much to drink on that fateful day which was a major reason he didn't report the accident to the police. Had Akaike notified them immediately Kota may have been saved, was just surprised the incident nor the mayor was brought up once in this show. But then again there is a good reason for that as is Kota's time on Earth about to expire?

 That's a mysterious man we just met once in this episode in the top screenshot, seems he may be the only person who knows how and why Kota came back to life after seven years. He's told Kota that when the final leaf falls from the special cherry blossom tree his current life will end, that won't be too far in the future. But what if the tree was saved(?) as it will be chopped down for that's where the new hospital was going. Iori's father owns and directs the hospital, Iori tried talking his father out of the plan to no avail. Meanwhile Mei has decided to remain in her hometown of Yagami after living in Tokyo for many years, she's planning on getting any kind of job plus is looking for a place to live.
 Think that's because Mei is expecting Kota to remain living forever, there is a seven year age difference between the two but as time goes on that may not matter too much. But Kota just can't bring himself to tell Mei of his impending doom nor any of his other friends though as we've seen Iori seems to have some inkling on what may happen. Knowing he's got just a short time to live Kota wants to go out in style, nothing flashy but spending his time left with his best group of friends.
 He brought his mates ice skating and it appeared to Kota that life couldn't get any better, they've become so close again it's like he was never gone for seven years. Kota also rented out a small cabin to spend the night, he didn't want to let go of his friends and when they wanted to return home he forced them to spend the night though naturally couldn't reveal why. Kota of course knew why as was this the last time he would ever see his friends again, especially the love of his life Mei?

 One other person who has known a few things about Kota's return from the dead is the son of the priest, Naoki. He's a seventeen year old high school student and that's him in the bottom screenshot as Kota is explaining to him that he's about to return to the land of the dead and what to tell Mei. Didn't make my own eyes water for coming up was a bit of a tear jerking scene and know others watching it left them with watery eyes.
 Mei's life also couldn't get any better with Kota back and deep down seems she's planning on having the rest of her life revolve around Kota. She came to visit him the following morning at the shrine but there was no Kota, however there was a pile of new pictures. They were taken by Kota on the group's outing, he left them for Mei as a remembrance of him and the final happy moments they shared together. Naoki was present and explained a little to Mei about how Kota was now gone forever though he didn't know all of the whats and whys on his reappearance and disappearance.
 Of course Mei was beside herself and couldn't utter a word. For about two minutes or so we just viewed Mei as she sat there stunned with tears rolling down her cheeks. For the past few years her life had been in shambles and it seemed her life was finally worth living again with Kota's return. Obviously that return was too short lived and this episode came to it's conclusion with Mei still sobbing as not all that much took place in this show. But wonder if that means the final episode will be jam packed with events? For instance what of the mayor and will he finally have to pay for causing Kota's death? Plus us viewers need to learn about why Kota returned to Earth for such a short time, to me it's because he had unfinished business with both Mei and the mayor.

 I usually don't watch slower paced dramas like this one but to me it's been a superb series. May not seem so as I've often mentioned how little happened in an episode or how slow it was. But all in all this has been a show that I've enjoyed quite a bit, would like to find a few more in this vein but not one that gets too sentimental and this show hasn't or at least not yet. Have one more recap to go which is the post below this one, haven't viewed the final episode yet but am looking forward to it.