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?
Another fine episode though it did drag a tad in the middle to stretch things out though the final third was quite interesting. Those top two screenshots are a flashback to 2013 on the day Kota died. Standing above his dead body was his friend Iori and did he have something to do with his death? That's what he blurted out at the end of the show but for now it's been widely presumed that Kota fell off a cliff riding his bike but when he returned to life he said that wasn't how he died though he can't recall how it happened.
More on that towards the end of the recap as most of the beginning dealt with Mei and what she was going to do with her life. Mei has no job to return to in Tokyo as she had been fired from her previous position for having an affair with a man named Hirose. It shocked Mei that he followed her all the way to Yagami, Hirose has said he will divorce his wife to be with her, if Mei wants to return with him to Tokyo he's leaving the following day and gave her a train ticket to go with him. Mei was truly torn up with what to do, there's really no life for her any more in Yagami but does she love Hirose enough to be with him permanently?
At first the answer to her was yes, it's true the reappearance of Kota has ignited her old feelings for him but she's now 24 and he's still a seventeen year old boy. Her best friend above who she's been staying with, Haruka, has tried to talk some sense into Mei in trying to convince her to stay. That talk got through to Mei but she's still on the fence on what to do, for now it appears she's going to leave Yagami to return to Tokyo with Hirose. This beginning of this recap may not sound all too interesting, as I said there was a long stretch that sort of dragged a bit, it was a 34 minute episode that should have been only 25 at the max.
Mei had all intentions of leaving Yagami with Hirose, she packed her bags and left a note to Haruka thanking her. But being a drama a character has to have hours to think about their place in the world(!) which is what Mei did as she took a long, long stroll on the beach. During this time Kota had recovered the final pics he took of the group of his high school friends, after developing them he tore off through the city to find Mei. Have to note in every Japanese drama the characters seem to be marathon runners as instead of taking a bus or taxi they run everywhere and can usually cover five miles in about two minutes, that's really been the case in this series.
Kota did find Mei who was still strolling on the beach. Of course he approached her but there was very little to say to each other. That was until Kota began skipping rocks across the bay, it was a game they used to play in high school and both were horrible at it. But somehow Kota managed to skip a rock five times across the water, to Mei is was a miracle or perhaps an omen as it may have made up her mind on whether to stay or return to Tokyo. That wavering mind wavered no longer as Kota handed Mei one of the pictures he just developed from their high school days, it brought back so many memories but before they could have a heart to heart talk Kota left the beach.
There was one final task for Mei to do, that was to go to the station to see Hirose. He was there waiting and when he saw Mei he presumed she was returning with him, that wasn't the case as Mei confessed her life is in such shambles that for now she doesn't want to be with anyone. Hirose took the news well and wished Mei success in the future as he boarded the train alone to Tokyo. Mei then returned back to Haruka's apartment to stay with her friend for how ever long, think all along Haruka knew her friend would remain in Yagami and mainly for Kota.
In those bottom two screenshots is Iori who we haven't seen too much of to date but have a strong feeling he's going to be a key part of the story. He's still a medial student but also works at the local hospital his father runs. Kota one day tried to see him at the hospital but Iori refused, he couldn't believe that a person could return to life yet he did see Kota run along the street one day. That brings up a question, why hasn't anyone else in the somewhat large city of Yagami noticed that Kota has returned from the dead?
Speaking of that there was one person who may have recognized Kota who was the mayor of Yagami, Akaike. He had visited the shrine where Kota was staying and saw him when Kota had been running to meet Mei. Akaike was taken back by what he saw and from what I've gathered he may have played a part in Kota's death. There's still five shows to go so there should be plenty of mysteries explained and it could turn into a mini detective show yet a very sad one.
Back to Iori and in the final few minutes we saw him alone at a bar. He was pounding the drinks back rapidly as it seems the reappearance of Kota has him frightened of what may be revealed. The bartender contacted Haruka to bring him home as Iori had passed out at the bar. When Haruka arrived she spoke to Iori for a few moments, as the episode came to it's conclusion Iori blurted out that he killed Kota to Haruka which of course stunned her. Don't think Iori was the person who killed Kota but do feel he had a part in his death.
Did drag a bit here and there but not like so many prime time dramas do. This aired on a cable network so they don't have to follow the 'rules' of stretching out a show that should be seven episodes into ten plus those are usually 10-12 minutes longer. But have enjoyed this drama up until now and have a feeling it's going to get much better as there's so many questions and mysteries that need to be answered. Final recap of this mini marathon is the post just below this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment