Sunday, May 10, 2020

"Mr. Nietzsche in the Convenience Store" drama: Episode three 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 Megumi Tatsuzaki.... clerk at the store

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






 Shortest episode of all as it just lasted twenty minutes and the last two showed an outtake from the first episode. Above is Matsukoma watching Nii from the break room and is tearing his hair out trying to figure out what Nii is saying. He's talking to a customer who Matsukoma thought was an American, he couldn't stand watching any longer without knowing what was going on so burst out of the room. It was no American but a man from Germany, Nii somehow speaks the language well and don't know how but he has many hidden talents.
 That man only had twenty yen left and had been wondering what could he buy with such a low sum, nothing as far as Nii and Matsukoma knew. Even though the German man Martin couldn't understand Japanese he knew right off the bat Matsukoma was such a goofball as he and Nii broke into a laughing fit over Nii's co-worker. We also learned early on that Matsukoma is into models and is such a Yo-Kai fan. When he asked Nii what his hobby was he replied music and could play the 'Wooden Fish', that must have something to do with his Buddhist training.
 There was quite a long scene between Matsukoma and Manager, Matsukoma had been out of work for six months and the only place that hired him was the convenience store. Matsukoma has graduated from college and daily looks for a regular job, that day he had got turned down for yet another office position. Manager told his clerk he hired him because he knew Matsukoma would never find a regular job and could depend on him to be there for years. Matsukoma was hurt with the truth and Manager tried to soften the blow but what he said was 100% accurate. Manager is such an odd person but so isn't Matsukoma who after telling Manager about his model building now has plans to apply to NASA!!!!






 In the first episode Watari, aka 'Lottery Senpai', had three tickets for the next lottery drawing that could be worth 300 million yen. The jackpot wasn't hit so now it's up to 600 million and Watari is dreaming of ways to spend his fortune. Nii pointed out that the odds of winning are close to nil, he doesn't mince his words talking to others and his monotone voice can be quite irritating. That truth hit home to Watari who said what's the sense of living, he wasn't going to kill himself but Nii told to visit him anyway in the future for life advice when he became a Monk.
 Kaede is still head over heels for Nii and has been visiting the store nightly. In order to see more of Nii she's been sending packages every night to her parents. Nothing important was in them but Kaede just wanted to be near Nii plus she would get a signed receipt from him! Matsukoma, Nii and Manager are truly off the wall but Kaede may top them all. She's praying Nii will see her address and come to her house at night, she keeps her door unlocked and is hoping Nii will crawl into bed with her which left her childhood friend Matsukoma in a daze.
 There were two clerks we hadn't met in the first pair of shows, we still haven't seen Megumi but we did see for the first time Kuroda. He had an incident with a customer who yelled at him, Kuroda wished him a good evening though didn't bow. Later in the break room he was pummeling a can to vent his anger, Kuroda wouldn't listen to a word Matsukoma or Manager said. But he did pay heed to Nii who advised him what to do with rude customers so they would return, Kuroda seems to idolize Nii as this third episode came to it's finale.




 Not much more to add in, this is another fine mini series that is much better to view than to read about. Have seen so many of these late night shows the past few years there may be none left I haven't watched. But will keep on looking as these are my fave types of dramas and there's one more recap to go in this small marathon.























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