"Mr. Nietzsche in the Convenience Store" drama: Episode five 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, still haven't met her

Ryo Matsuda as Takeshi Shibata..... clerk at the store, first met in episode three

Ryo Matsuda as Takeshi Shibata.... finally met in episode five and he's a new worker at the store, he appeared to come from a very wealthy family

 Six shows to go so will have a pair of 'trio recaps' for them, in other words that means three mini recaps for today. Mini as these posts are the shortest I've even written up for a drama but don't let their brevity fool you. This is actually a mighty fine show that is definitely quite funny and quirky, as I've mentioned before it's a drama that's better experienced viewing than reading about.

 Up to now there's been five clerks who work the overnight shift. Kurosa we've only seen in one show, the only female clerk Megumi has yet to make an appearance by the end of the sixth episode. As the screenshots show above the 'Three Seven' Temple street convenience store has hired a new clerk for the overnight shift, business is slow so they need four clerks?! He's a youngster whose name is Shibata and it appears working at the store is his first job ever. And what a crew of men to show the youngster the ropes as the trio is such an oddball group of characters and yet so different.
 Was surprised to learn that Watari's age is just 29, had thought he was close to forty. He spends all of his extra salary on lottery tickets and get rich schemes, to date none have paid off. So he relies on the store for his food, he'll make many mistakes creating dishes and they can't serve customers those creations so he has to eat his mistakes(!) and Watari will make plenty of them in a night. Actually Matsukoma is somewhat close to normal or at least acts that way on most occasions. At 24 in age he still can't find a regular job though he has a college degree, he is kind of daffy and is such a fanatic of models and animes, Shibata gets to know him the best of the three.
 For training to be a Monk Nii is one cruel person. As you can see above someone has dumped their trash at the store and it's happened a few times. He checked the bags and found the person's address and phone number. Nii wanted to find that person so badly as he wants to inflict such savage cruelty on them for dumping their trash. Just as Shibata was about to call that person there were some noises in the dumpster which is actually a mini warehouse as you can see below. The originator of those noises was none other than the nurse Kaede who has had such a crush on Nii since the first second she saw him.

 Kaede's screen time has been getting less and less in every episode, that's such a shame as she's the highlight of this show. She had been waiting in the dumpster for Nii in the hope he would throw the garbage on top of her!!!! Definitely some strange characters in this drama, don't know what Nii thinks of Kaede who has practically thrown herself at him, am hoping before the series ends he asks her out. As mentioned Matsukoma has had zero success at finding regular employment for close to two years, of all people to ask for advice he went to Watari. He's never has a full time job in his life yet he did seem to know some good advice for Matsukoma. Then again he gave him some truly off the wall suggestions so it's slowly appearing Matsukoma may be a lifer at the store.
 Also had said above that business wasn't doing that well at night yet there's now four clerks and often the Manager there during that shift. Couple episodes ago Manager attempted to introduce a new product to drum up business, that went over like a lead balloon. But have to give Manager an A for effort as once again he's got an idea for a product that will bring in the customers. That inane idea is to start selling.... Squid chocolate bars.
 Not true chocolate as there's only 1% in the bars which actually taste like the ink from a Squid! But Manager thought the taste would be so unique customers would be scrambling to buy the bars, he ended up ordering 2,000 of them which of course left his crew dazed. This was the longest scene of any episode as it went from the 15 to the 22 minute mark which ended the show. This scene was quite funny and perhaps viewing the screenshots would explain it better to you but what an outrageous idea from Manager to sell Squid bars! What really made this scene so hilarious were the three clerks you see on the left. Guess the director didn't want to have a second take as it was all they could not to burst out laughing at Manager's antics, Nii especially was close to breaking out in hysterics.

 Will explain about the Rolls Royce in the next recap along with some other things about the new clerk Shibata, all had thought he came from a wealthy family which isn't the case. Every episode has been a winner though had been hoping for a bit more interaction between the zany clerks and customers, two more mini recaps to go in this short marathon.