Hinatazaka46: "Koeharu!" drama, episode two recap

 

 Air Dates: April 28th until June 30, 2021  Wednesday nights at 1:00 am on NTV

Subs are a joint project of Broken Subs and Team Hinata.... 22 minutes an episode

Main Cast: Top seven are all Hina members, first six save for Chizue are all first year students at the Kirameki Voice Actor's School. Bottom person is another member but we don't see her as she does some narration and often for Meiko's thoughts. All save for Amasaki live at the school's Doremi dorm. After two shows don't know the details of all of the characters so will be updating this as time goes on.

Mirei Saski as Meiko Hinowa.... Quite a shy nineteen year old who is such a fanatic about the "Namidairo Senki" weekly manga series. She's such a fan of the series that she enrolled in the school when Meiko heard there would be an anime of it. It'll be a long shot for her to voice the role of Tya as Meiko is a bit inept at most things.

Akari Nibu as Mana Tendou.... Such an energetic student who is so talented at seemingly everything. She's become Meiko's best friend and it was revealed in the second show that Mana was a champion at Kendo until a tragic car accident.

Miho Watanabe as Amasaki Amane.... Went to high school with Meiko but Amasaki can't stand her and has bullied her for so long. Her father is quite wealthy, in high school she was the Queen of Snobs which has continued on to this school.

Miku Kanemura as Yukina Tsukikawa....

Hina Kawata as Tae Honda.... Simply idolizes Yukina.

Hinano Kamimura as Airi Kusuma....

Konoka Matsuda as Mari Koshino.... Haven't seen her in the first two episodes.

Ayaka Takamoto as Chizue Harukaze.... Doremi Dorm mother and still in VA training.

Aya Hirano as Iwao.... The student's main teacher and what a peppy woman! In real life Aya is known for being a singer and also a very busy voice actress.

Koichi Yamadera as Odawara Genmai.... Headmaster of Kirameki Voice Actor's School and also the creator of the Genmai training program.

Naoto Takenaka as Kinkakuji Enjo.... Older popular manga artist, writer of the 'Namidairo Senki' series published in the Weekly Hop magazine.

Sarina Ushio as the narrator.

 Glad I picked this drama over the Korean one I was going to do, those recaps take so long to write up and don't know how some people can review twenty or so series a year. But will have a Korean one coming up soon, the episodes are eighty minutes long(!) but there's only four shows so that's okay then. Was wavering on how many of these recaps to start off with, will have three for today. Then three more in about 2 1/2 weeks and end off with the final four. 

 Meiko is the main character and think she'll always have the most screen time. But in each show we will get to know one of the above students a bit better as they'll all take at least one turn in the spotlight though all of the roles are decent sized. For this show the energetic Mana is featured a bit more. She's Meiko's best friend but Mana also considers them to be 'rivals' too as both would like to have the role of Tya in the "Namidairo Seki" anime that's also their favorite manga.

 The story is still an ongoing one in the Weekly Hop magazine, the pair's other dorm mates really had no clue about the manga. Meiko is such a quiet young woman but when you start talking about her fave manga she becomes such a different person as she's so peppy and her voice is much stronger. That's Meiko in the bottom screenshot thinking about her new best friend Mana and how Meiko is really no competition for her. Mana can do everything perfectly, especially the training but even more than that is how athletic Mana is. Meiko is wondering how can she even think about beating Mana out for the role of Tya from their favorite manga but she needs to think about more than one role.

 Mentioned in the above cast list and in the first recap how energetic Mana is and such a friend to all. In the first half of this episode that peppiness went up a couple of notches and you could tell Mana was kind of forcing it where before she wasn't. She's received two phone calls which Mana promptly hung up but they did make her feel quite uneasy, the recap ends with what was going on. Meanwhile the training continues for the students, being a voice actress is much more than just having a solid voice. In the first show the girls were doing a lot of running and jumping, they'll keep doing that all series to build up their stamina. There's another training they'll be doing in the next episode, what the girls will be learning today is in some of the below screenshots.

 Above you can see the school's headmaster Genmai who I think is a decent guy and tries to help out all of the students. With him is the girls teacher Iwao and she really looks terrific in this show. The training they're giving the girls is called Paper Noise Countermeasure. What that means is when a voice actor turns the pages of the script they have to make sure the microphone doesn't pick that very silent sound up. Seems easier said than done but save for Amasaki all of the girls had troubles, especially Meiko as usual. Though they're now in college Amasaki still picks on Meiko but has to do it in a way where it's not so noticeable. Meiko has become best friends with the ultra talented Mana and Amasaki mentioned meanly to Meiko isn't it because she feels so sorry for her?

 Meiko shouldn't have listened to her enemy but she did and actually believed Amasaki. You can see right above what the outcome was as Meiko asked Mana if her being so inept was the reason they were friends? Mana insisted it wasn't but there was no getting through to Meiko as the other girls rushed up to quell the spat. Right then an older man arrived on the scene, the girls didn't know who he was but Mana did as she tore off in a panic. Her friends naturally thought the man was an old pervert but that wasn't to be. His name was Mutou and was a reporter, he had been calling Mana to interview her but she refused each time. Mutou revealed Mana's hidden secret which was that she was once the teen Kendo champion of Japan but had been injured, the reporter just wanted a follow up story.

 Guess it's understandable why Mana wanted to keep her past a secret, no one at the school knew of it except for the headmaster. The girls checked that story out on the internet and what Mutou said was true as Mana was so superb at Kendo. In her junior year in high school Mana went undefeated at the national championship and wonder if Kendo is a sport that has pro leagues or tournaments? Doesn't matter now for Mana as prior to her senior year she was in a car accident, she hurt her head bad enough where she had to retire from her true passion. But at least Mana was also at the top of her class so she really could do anything in the future. But after the accident she discovered the world of Manga and has become such a fan of them, that's the major reason for wanting to become a voice actress.

 Lot of the above is what Mana told the girls when she returned that evening, if anything their respect for her talents has even increased. Especially for Meiko who was just so down thinking that Mana only wanted to be friend out of pity which was completely untrue. So the pair are back to being best of buddies and even 'friendly rivals' again as both want to voice the character of Tya from their fave manga. That gushy yet inspiring scene brought us to the end of this show, recap for the third episode is he next post. Though only a 22 minute show that doesn't stop me from taking a massive amount of screenshots, as I've said before they do help you follow the action a bit better.