Air Dates: July 15th until August 20th, five episodes at the time of this recap have aired. It's
on TV-Tokyo Wednesday nights at 12:58 am, subs have been done by 'Salaryman Subs'.
Main Cast: This is correct as there's only two characters and really it's mainly just Hinako who is on screen close to 100% of the time. When she interacts with her best friend it's always by video on their cellphones and it could be because of the virus.
Hinako Sakurai as Sayoko Oyumino.... 25 year old OL(supposedly) who is overly obsessed with taking baths! Seems she has only one friend in the world and spends all of her time alone which is fine by her as taking baths is more important than being around humans! The narration is also done by Sayoko as we rarely hear her talk out loud.
Sakurako Konishi as Aino Hiyama.... Sayoko's only friend and she's man crazy, though she has a boyfriend he ignores her and she's always on the hunt for another. The pair went to an unnamed college together.
Have the final two episodes today, haven't viewed the next show yet and hope to hold out until this recap is completed(did). These will be the final two drama recaps of the month and am wondering if this pair will be the last I do with the old version of Blogger? Once again a date has been set for the new 'mandatory' version which is next Tuesday, September 1st. Least I've been on a nice roll lately as there's been quite a few posts to keep you occupied. Usually take Tuesdays off and will be doing that next week so I can experiment with the new version if it is forced upon us. Will get into more details in the final post of August, on to this recap where it's a sweltering Summer day as the temperature is 38 F or 100 fahrenheit!
For the first time we witnessed Sayoko coming home from her OL job but still no details have been revealed about it, sun was still out so she doesn't work long hours. As mentioned it's a sweltering day and of course Sayoko is dreaming of a bath to cool down. But even she doesn't enjoy her baths as much when it's so hot and humid, when she opened the door to her bathroom she could barely see the tub due to the steam. She should take the advice of her best friend Aino who is cooling down by drinking much beer and sticking her head in the freezer, that was after taking a shower.
Taking a shower is still a no-no to Sayoko who insisted to Aino over the phone she would be taking her nightly bath but she's having a few second thoughts about it. In the bottom screenshot above is a postcard Sayoko just received in the post from her grandmother, she did talk about her hometown but never mentioned it's name. 'HELL' is what many of those characters spell out and Sayoko is a woman who is easily frightened. When she was a child her grandmother told her many horror stories which to this day gives her the shakes. 'Stop being a baby' was Aino's suggestion, horror stories are a part of the Japanese Summer for young children and Aino still enjoys them.
What makes these shows enjoyable is how Sayoko rises to the occasion with her unique ways of taking a bath. Even she realizes how difficult a soothing bath is to create in the Summer but to her that's a challenge, it's time for her to finally make her first perfect Summer bath! You'd think putting ice in the bath may make it more soothing but Sayoko always needs a hot bath. She's created a new mixture using lemons and of course her fave ingredient, baking soda.
As you can see Sayoko is still upset about that postcard she received from her grandmother but as we'll see at the end it wasn't a hellish card. Aino had suggested bringing a special 'horror recording' into the bath but Sayoko wasn't ready for that.... yet! Besides those two other ingredients mentioned above Sayoko also added in some fresh mint leaves, we learned they're a seasonal thing to add to baths and she had her own mini garden of the leaves. One final addition to the mix was a blue coloring to make the water to look coolish and to give it a ocean vibe.
Also to give the bath an ocean vibe was that Sayoko had a recording of seaside sounds which she played, we heard seagulls, waves crashing and the like. As is her norm when taking a bath Sayoko brought out a treat to eat during her hour(s) of relaxation, seems she takes baths for hours but wouldn't the water have cooled down by then? Of course for a Summer treat crushed ice was the dish which she added lemon to, Sayoko finds a way not to waste one thing.
After a while Sayoko did get a bit curious about the horror recording Aino suggested and decided to give it a listen. She went to the site and the pic for the recording was one of a well ala 'Ringu'. At first Sayoko was terrified beyond belief and she came close to drowning in the bath. Somehow upon listening to the horror story a tad more Sayoko began to enjoy it, wasn't too terrifying but just enough for her to realize what she may have been missing all of these years. Also that perhaps her grandfather's intentions hadn't been to scare the young Sayoko half to death.
The top screenshot shows the word Obon which is a ancient Japanese holiday to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. It's also a time for families to have a reunion, it's held in August and was going on when this episode aired. After listening to the semi-horror story Sayoko realized her grandmother had been telling her those stories to make her forget about the heat, Aino had told her that too but it took Sayoko a while to add two and two together. So for Sayoko her next course of action will be to reunite with her grandmother and to let her know how much those stories now mean to her. An episode is only 24+ minutes and shortly after that is when it came to it's conclusion.
All episodes have been an enjoyable watch, this one was of course but thought it could have been a tad better as I wish the eeriness level was higher. Perhaps during her bath there could have been a power outage which would have sent shivers through Sayoko's body. Also an appearance then by Aino would have topped it off as it would have sent her through the roof. But at 24 minutes a show there's only so much time, next recap is for the sixth and final show.
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