"Mr. Nietzsche in the Convenience Store" drama: Episode one recap

 Air Dates: January 21st to March 23, 2016 on YTV, Thursdays at 1:29 pm

 Each episode is about 23 minutes in length

Main Cast: Name of the convenience store is the Three Seven Temple Street Store.

Shotaro Mamiya as Tomoharu Nii.... new worker at the store who works overnight and by day is studying Buddhism, is a very stoic twenty something man

Kenji Urai as Matsukoma..... after being out of work for two years found a job at the store six months prior, works with Nii on the overnight shift

Rena Matsui as Kaede Shioyama.... is a nurse whose shift gets done after midnight so stops by the store every night, fell in love with Nii at first sight and grew up with Matsukoma

Jiro as Watari.... oldest clerk at the store and has the nickname of 'Lottery Senpai' as he often plays lottery games to get rich quick which has never panned out

Jiro Sato as Manager.... only goes by Manager and is quite the goofball

Rio Uchida as Moe Tatsuzaki.... clerk at the store

Ryo Matsuda as Takeshi Shibata..... clerk at the store

 Four years ago began viewing this funny and quite quirky drama. Watched the first three shows and posted mini recaps of them but mainly focusing on Rena who was such a massive fave of mine back then. But think the subbing team stopped after those three shows which is why I never finished, it eventually was completely subbed. So now am back to viewing it and it's a ten episode series, hope to recap the entire drama. Each show is a stand alone one as there's really no main storyline to the show save for Kaede's crush on Nii plus the odd events that happen overnight at the store. The recaps shouldn't be too long but will have plenty of screenshots, let's get on with the post.

 Seems the main character is Matsukoma as he was in every scene this first show but then again the show does revolve around Nii who is on the right in the above screenshot. It was his first night at the convenience store and what an odd person he was to Matsukoma. Nii is such a quiet and stoic person yet when he talks he doesn't mince his words, he says what's on his mind. During the day he's studying to be a Buddhist priest and is so different than other men in their young twenties.
 That second screenshot above shows a pic of the German philosopher Nietzsche and Matsukoma has given Nii that nickname though only says it to himself. Of course that nickname is also the title of the drama. This first show we really only met four of the main characters, the store's manager who just goes by the name of Manager only made a brief appearance plus we didn't meet two of the clerks. There was one other clerk who we did meet though, that's Watari who also works the overnight shift. Not sure of his age but he's got to be twenty years older than his co-workers, Matsukoma has given him the nickname of 'Lottery Senpai'.
 That's because Watari constantly plays any type of game hoping to strike it rich. To date he's never won much of anything but has three tickets that could be worth 300 million yen if they're winners and of course they won't be. Watari's dream is to buy a tank(!) so he can drive it around Tokyo. Matsukoma never tries to cause a fuss so just nodded at Watari's dream but not the new clerk Nii. He pointed out all of the obstacles Watari would face driving a tank around the city. When Nii talks he is such a stern and a matter of fact person, he rarely moves a muscle and also pointed out to Watari a tank would cost at least 700 million yen which popped his bubble. Plus Nii talks with such a monotone voice, usually not the type of person you see as a clerk in a store.

 Above is Rena who was the main reason I first began on this drama four years ago. She's still active as an actress but don't see her doing many other activities and I really miss posting about her. Every show she's in just one scene but as I recalled they were always the best ones such as in this show when we met her character of Kaede for the first time. She's a childhood friend of Matsukoma's and often stops to see him at the store when her shift ends. Kaede is a nurse but has such a flaky personality about her, the kind of person Nii may be looking for?
 Too early to tell but if Kaede had her way the pair would have been married that night! The first time Kaede laid eyes on Nii it was pure love and she was literally in seventh heaven at the store. Kaede began having fantasies on the spot about Nii and thought she was talking to herself when in fact she was screaming her fantasies out loud. Hard to say if she made a fool out of herself as there was no one else in the store save for Matsukoma and Nii who didn't seem to be disturbed over Kaede's
dream sequence.
 It appears it's not the first time a woman has swooned over Nii, he's not a bad looking guy but near the top of the list as far as oddballs go. After a few minutes Kaede calmed down and soon left the store, during this whole sequence she never uttered a word to Nii. But we'll be seeing Kaede visit the store in every future show just to have contact with Nii, have no clue if they'll become a couple before the series ends. Speaking of endings that's where we are in this recap.

 Future recaps should be this length or perhaps even shorter, episodes are 23 minutes long but two of them are for credits. This is a show where often there's long periods of no dialogue, a short recap may make it seem as though it's a boring show which it isn't as visuals play such an important element in the story. As I did say at the top there's really no ongoing storyline save for the possible romance for Kaede. Following this post are three more recaps, seeing as how they don't take too long to write up thought you wouldn't mind reading four in a row for a change.