"CHEAT" drama: Episode five recap

 

 Air Dates: October 3rd to December 6, 2019   Thursday nights at midnight on N/YTV. There was a total of ten episodes plus a mini five minute 'special' following those shows.

Subs were done by ECOTV, also goes by the name of Trap the Con Man.

Link to the show's site: CHEAT YTV site

 Main Cast: All save for the bottom person are part of the 'CHEAT' team though that person was the one who had created it. The CHEAT team are the top four who get revenge for those who have been swindled.

Tsubasa Honda as Saki Hoshino/Momo Kisaragi.... Two names, Saki is her real one but in her spare time she moonlights as an Idol named Momo. Saki is the leader of the CHEAT team and also a bit of a hothead, she's tried to keep her Idoling passion a secret but it was discovered by Kamo who for now isn't saying anything.

Haruka Fukuhara as Mizuki Maruyama.... Genius hacker and the youngest of the team plus her attractiveness at times can be a bit too overwhelming!

Daichi Kaneko as Yuto Kamo.... Newest person of the team who joined in the first episode. He's an undercover police detective assigned to the team by Anzai, Kamo can be overly naive most of the time.

Shuhei Uesugi as Shun Negishi.... Master of the team at creating and installing surveillance equipment, was once a detective.

Shunsuke Kazama as Kazuki Anzai..... Created the CHEAT team and is Kamo's superior, seems to be quite a dark and ruthless man.

Guest Stars:

Hideyuki Kasahara as Yuichi Seno.... Operates the RAMI System company which deals with cryptocurrency but of course it's just a false front.

Links to the previous episodes:

Episode one recap

Episode two recap

Episode three recap

Episode four recap

 Know I'm a bit late for a date again(!) but the subs for this series weren't completed until July or so, just learned about that recently. This has been a serious series up until now but with some lighthearted moments thrown in, usually involving Kamo. But starting with this show it's become much more intense which has somehow made it a better show. Have viewed the sixth episode and there are a few questions that are lingering to me, perhaps too to those who may have viewed it. So some things have been left out doing these recaps but sure all will be aired up by the final show, a good mystery should leave you wondering and a few of he enigmas:

 - Who is really is Namioka that the CHEAT team brought down in the first episode? Every swindler nabbed since then has mentioned his name and it appears he may not have been sent to prison and is behind this rash of scammers. He'll be making a reappearance in the last two shows which may be such an thrilling climax.

 - If Namioka isn't his real name could it be one that Minoru Hoshino is using? That's Saki's father who was caught swindling 18 years prior and fled to Thailand but has returned to Japan. Could he be the true master mind behind these schemes the CHEAT team has solved or could be be on their side?

 - Who exactly is Anzai? He's the detective who formed the CHEAT team but it's never been explained why and are they working for him instead of spending time in prison? On one other note which I'll mention in the next recap is about Kamo. Have had my suspicions about for a few shows now and in the next episode I may be right about them, now finally on to the recap.

 At the top is Saki's father Hoshino and we finally learned a bit about him in the beginning of this fifth show. Back in 2001 he had been the director of the Tosuka Mall and to make life more easier for the shoppers he introduced an electronic money currency which is common these days but not eighteen years ago, this drama is set in 2019. What the customers had to do was to open an account at the mall and their crypto money would be good at any store, sounded good to so many who signed up and made some hefty deposits. And that money was never to be seen again by them as once the total got close to a billion yen(!) Hoshino took it all and fled Japan for Thailand where he lived for close to eighteen years. He's now returned and the police still on the case know about his return but nothing else as he remains at large and will end off with more of Hoshino.

 So naturally this case for the CHEAT team dealt with cryptocurrency which is much more common these days but it's also much more common to be swindled. One of those culprits is right above, that's Seno who runs the Japan division of RAMI System. It's also an American company and unsure whether Seno knew that or not. What he's been running is a combo of a currency scam but also one that dealt with a Ponzi scheme and it seems the amount of people in Japan who fall for these 'too good to be true' come ons is endless. The CHEAT team needs to get into action very quickly as this RAMI company already has 170,000 investors who need to start off with at least a 200,000 yen deposit, Seno is raking in the money faster than he can count it but he's never dealt with Saki and her crew.

 Seno is one shrewd guy but more than that he's quite cautious so it's going to be the hardest case to date for the team. First up trying to get close to Seno was Shun who is in the middle screenshot, right above that is Anzai explaining to Kamo what a Ponzi scheme is. Shun went undercover as a bank representative but that initial meeting was his only encounter with Seno who immediately checked with the bank to establish the identity which of course was a bogus one. Up next was Saki to get close to Seno, she met him but the outcome won't be known for a while. Right above is the detective Hasumi who I need to add into the cast list. His father was duped by Hoshino eighteen years before and lost his life savings, he wants to bring him down with such a vengeance which he had ben telling Saki.

 Third up to get close to Seno was Mizuki who went undercover as Kitano, she went to a night club he frequented to try to get into his 'stable of girls'. Sadly Kitano failed like Shun but did she ever look hotter than hot once again. Kitano had tried taping a conversation between her and Seno, though she's the master computer expert of CHEAT he managed to block her recording device and she was furious saying 'how did he do that?!'. In the first four cases Kamo had gone undercover, he's quite naive at times but usually he made a contribution in the solving the case. Not so in this one Saki said as she knew how shrewd Seno is and there's no way Kamo could be successful. So at first he kind of ran the operation from their HQ which is located behind a second story pool hall. However Saki's decision on that was before the two failures to get close to Seno and learn more about his schemes, as much as she hated to do it Kamo was pressed into action and to her surprise was quite successful.

 If Seno did have a weakness it was his ego and it was kind of easy to gain his trust by flattering him though it failed with Mizuki when she tried to join his 'harem'. As you can see above Kamo became the splitting image of Seno(!) and that immediately got Kamo close to him, he was undercover using the name of Kojima. He wanted to become part of Seno's group, not just as an investor but to work for him. That's fine replied Seno but he still needed to invest some dough into RAMI which is what Kojima did right on the spot buying ten shares for 200,000 yen. It was a very short meeting but after it to show his gratitude Kojima bought another twenty shares for 400,000 yen. To top it off he told Seno he would recommend his very wealthy troupe to invest, though Seno is usually overly cautious when $$ is mentioned he's a bit easier to deceive. Saki found that out and that's her above, doesn't she look out of this world! She was posing as Shinoda who is a diamond smuggler, she's convinced Seno that he shouldn't have all of his assets just in cash but to purchase her diamonds.

 Still can't understand exactly why it would help Seno to buy 120 million yen of diamonds, there were four in all plus Shinoda threw in a fifth one. Perhaps the reason may have been was to make him appear to be a bit cash strapped as his older RAMI investors are breathing down his back about getting a dividend, they even stormed his building demanding some cash. Which is what Seno has promised, that confrontation took place on a Friday and he swore that Sunday he would distribute 200 million yen to them which he at first was going to do. Seno wasn't going softhearted but Kojima's friends have all purchased a huge amount of shares in his Ponzi scheme, 800 million yen to be exact so he could afford to let a bit go and that cash would be coming to him on Saturday. Mizuki is CHEAT's computer expert, she has done many things such has create fake sites and other minor things but her abilities are so superb she should be doing more serious things, she finally did which brought down Seno.

 What she did was have the inept Kamo send a message to Seno that he wanted to be an investor. Mizuki knew he would screw it badly as it had to be written in English, needless to Kamo made a mess of the message which Mizuki was hoping(knew) would happen. Seno replied quite rapidly but in a devious way as it was with a program that sent a virus though Mizuki's computer which seemed to destroy it. Not so and Mizuki finally showed her talent as she had designed a program that would instead link that message back to Seno's computer, does sound a tad confusing. Mizuki was able to get all of Seno's passwords and such, he never knew what was about to hit him. What she proceeded to do was to clean out Seno's bank account, this was the day before he was to give his investors a small dividend. Seno had been planning on fleeing the country, he appeared to be wiped out but in a secret cache behind a bookcase was 120 million yen, just the amount Shinoda wanted for the diamonds.

 That amount of cash would be too much to leave the country with so he did attempt to purchase the diamonds which completely backfired. With Shinoda was the true RAMI leader, an American named Solis who wanted a hefty settlement for using his company's name, 120 million yen should cover the damages! It takes 35 minutes to solve a case but only 2-3 for the showdown with the swindler, Seno was quickly whisked off to the police station. There he too brought up Namioka's name to Anzai, he's been involved in every case and will be curious how the last two shows will be when he makes a reappearance. After nabbing Seno Saki headed back to his office for some more info, perhaps about her father or Namioka? We didn't learn that as when she entered the office who should be there but Kamo who was quite startled to see her, will talk more about it to begin off the next recap. There was an old photo on the wall of Saki's father Hoshino, Kamo told her he's the street vendor he talks to on occasion. She dashed off to the location where also heading there was Hasumi, for both it was a dead end as Hoshino had already fled giving his clothes to a street bum to steer everyone in the wrong direction. 

 Didn't bring up Saki's budding Idol career, she uses the name Momo. Her trio was supposed to have their first major performance at an Idol fest but she missed the show hunting for her father, tad more on that in the next post. I have this bad habit of taking long breaks writing recaps up, what happens is that I lose my train of thought and usually for the worst. Not that there was anything wrong with this one but they do come out a bit better when I write an entire post up in one sitting.