Hinatazaka46: "Koeharu!" drama, episode four 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 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. 

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 manga 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.... Her dream was to be a J-Pop Idol but failing all auditions thought going to a voice actress school would help her Idol career.

Hina Kawata as Tae Honda.... Simply idolizes Yukina. We never knew much about her until episode four and still don't but she was the first of the bunch to land an anime role.

Hinano Kamimura as Airi Kusuma.... In episode three has became a fashion model but will continue with her voice actress studies. She's such a quiet female and because Meiko is like that too Airi really looks up to her.

Ayaka Takamoto as Chizue Harukaze.... Doremi Dorm mother and still in VA training but does get an occasional voice acting job.

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.

 

Special guest appearance by Konoka Matsuda as Mari Koshino, a voice actress.

Previous recaps:

Episode one .... Episode two .... Episode three

***** Was originally going to have three recaps again for this enjoyable series. But that would mean another three gap between the posts. So will have a pair for today, another pair in about ten days and hopefully two weeks after that the final trio of recaps. 

May help to read those other recaps as they were done on May 23rd, bit of a simple drama but won't discuss too much of what's taken place and they're not long posts. But briefly this drama revolves around a group of girls attending the Kirameki Voice Actress School which is a two year program. Every Hina member gets a lot of screen time but the main star is Mirei as Meiko. She's quite a nice young woman who really had no plans for her future, when she should have been studying in high school she had been reading mangas instead.

 Her fave manga is 'Namidairo Senki' and when Meiko heard it was going to be turned into a anime she enrolled in the school so she could get the training she needed to audition for a role. She lives in a dorm with five others and to date Meiko's voice skills are the worst but the headmaster sees something in her that others don't. As mentioned all of the girls roles are biggish but in each show one will have the spotlight but in this episode it was a pair of members. One is Tae who is such a quiet student and is so attached to Yukina who has the other main role in this show. She's played by Miku and wish she was a bit older as she's one of the more attractive Idols around. In these screenshots you'll notice her uniform is slightly different than the other members and it's been that way since the first show.

 **** Before we start off with the regular recap want to talk about the time which is really flying by, especially in this episode. The drama began in April when the college year starts, halfway through this episode we're already up to September and by the final scene it's the end of the school year so time truly flew in this show.

 In the top screenshot is the girl's main teacher Iwao who was announcing there would be some auditions coming up. They'll be for a popular anime called 'Idolyun' and the two main stars of the anime are Maririn and Rubie. The show wants to introduce three new characters and also wants them to become an Idol group called Chocora Chocola. So besides voice acting it's important to have singing or dancing skills but if you show potential the producer may still take a chance on you. That third screenshot above is of the Doremi dorm mother Chizue, she'll be one of the featured members in the next recap. She's telling the girls even if they think won't pass the audition it's still so crucial to keep attending them to get your name known plus to pick up many pointers.

 Though a viewer doesn't see a voice actress it's still important to look good according to Yukina, that's her leading the pack in the bottom screenshot. We viewers didn't know much about her until this episode nor did her housemates seem to have known her that well either. Yukina certainly knows much about fashion and that's probably because of her attempts to become an Idol, her friends didn't know of Idol dreams until this show. While the other girls are recent high school graduates Yukina is two years older. The girls were also impressed when they saw Yukina helping out a little lost girl using sign language and what other talents does she have they wondered? Her comrade is someone else we didn't know so well coming into this show but there had been only three episodes before this one. Tae is extremely quiet and is so devoted to Yukina as she had been Tae's Senpai in high school, seems Tae may have followed her friend to school as she doesn't seem to have much interest in voice acting.

 Right above is Mari played by Konoka who I hoped would have a big role in this series but that wasn't the case. She plays Marinin in the popular "Idolyun" anime and was one of the judges at the audition. Later Chizue had told the girls she went to high school with Mari who was once such a nice person but success seems to have spoiled her as she did act like a prime donna towards Meiko. The screenshot above that shows Amasaki coming out of an audition for one of the roles in the "Idolyun" anime. She could be the most talented of the girls but is also a bit snobby and bet the producers saw through her as she didn't land a part. No one was guaranteed a role as many others were there but one girl from the Kirameki school did land a part and it was the girl on the left in that above screenshot.

 It came as as shock to everyone that of all people it was Tae who aced the audition and will be playing the part of Mii in the anime. But here's more than that as there will also be an offshoot Idol group created with the two other new characters. Surprisingly Tae wasn't overly enthused and it was because she expected her idol/senpai Yukina to grab that role. But this part is just more than voice acting as you needed to be a good singer plus be able to dance, unknown to all Tae was skilled at both. Though the girls are all friends they're also rivals and Yukina was quite upset at her friend getting a role over her. So much she wouldn't talk with Tae who had to move out of the dorm to live with her two new mates, name of that new Idol group she's in is called Chocora Chocola and it's pronounced/spelled the same way in Japanese. 

 

 Yukina went into a long funk after that and six months zoomed by. She wasn't attending classes on a regular basis and all her enthusiasm had left her, all because her friend got an anime role? But at that six month mark her dorm mates played the video from Tae's audition and it really put Yukina in her place. Though Tae had aced the audition she still told the producer she thought Yukina was more talented and would they consider giving her the part? Obviously they didn't but what Tae had done brought Yukina back to life and the following day with her house mates went to visit Tae at an event where they did make up in a unique way which was by sign language. 

 Oooops, zipped through that ending as I thought it was the sixth paragraph which is what I try to limit myself to, it was actually the fifth. Oh well, that's okay as no major details were left out and there's also plenty of screenshots to view. As mentioned in the beginning was going to have three recaps for today but there will only be two. That's the next post and better get in gear if I want to finish both of these, date in the 14th and was I successful?