Rika Izumi: Few recent tidbits plus.... "Takane no Hana-san" drama: Episode three recap

 

 As you can tell by the title this is kind of a different post where there will be some new happenings plus a full length drama recap. The 'Takane' drama began on April 10th, on the 25th did recaps for the first two episodes. On May 1st wrote up the post for the third show and was just waiting for the fourth show to be subbed and then to publish them. But here we are seven weeks later and no subs have been done after the third show so will have to abort doing any more recaps for it. That's too long of a gap between posts so while I will finish watching the series if the subs do get done there will be no more recaps but may have some screenshots in future posts. So at the bottom will have the post that was written up as there's no sense deleting it, kind of a fluffy drama but one I was enjoying and it was Rika's first time having a lead in a series.

 Seldom see Rika do gravure pics these days but I've never complained as her regular modeling pics look close to perfect to me and the word perfect certainly describes her. Have 37 new pics for today so this post is really being done about two weeks early as I'm sure there would have been enough new happenings for a post by the end of the month. On a more important note this is Rika's sixth post of the year so she's qualified for the yearly fave's list and no woman has had a better position average then her the past four years though has never been my overall #1 for a year. Since 2017 her positions have been third, fourth, sixth and fifth for an average position of 4.5.

 So while Rika has never been #1 on the yearly list she has an excellent chance of being my number one of all time. Have discussed doing that second all time list, first was done in 2018 so was planning on doing it next Spring as four years should be enough of a gap. This weekend will be having a post on what the top ten most popular posts were for the first half of the year. Am debating on whether to have one for who the most popular women were for the first half of the year. May or may not do that, if I do it could be this weekend too but we'll just see what happens. Rika is still a popular gal here but not to the extent she once was and there's little doubt it's because of the lack of gravure pics. She did have quite a few in 2017/2018 but even then she probably had twenty times more regular modeling pics.

 Let's get to the new pics and while I admit they're not as scorching as the above ones all are of course beyond superb. Been a busy stretch for Rika as this is her third post in eight weeks and models tend to be busier this time of the year for clothing line's Spring/Summer collections. There's probably more new activities then what's in this post but will hold off on those so her next one won't be too far off, first stupendous batch is this set from Apuweiser.

 There's only going to be three batches of pics for today but all are fairly large, second set is for the Stola Summer collection and they're my top new pics of the day.

 In May Rika celebrated her second anniversary as an Oggi model but for some odd reason there's been so few new pics at their site so won't have any for today. But do have a terrific set here from their July issue. There's ten pages and right after them is the recap for episode three of the "Takane no Hana-san" drama and explained why in the long intro. Rika will also be in a drama beginning in August so her acting career is going quite well. She'll also be the cover girl for the next issue of Biteki and you can view a short promo video for it here: Biteki video

 

 Air Dates: April 10th until May 29, 2021 on TV-Tokyo, Thursdays at midnight

Based on a manga by Koji Murota, subs were done by Ariel_Nugie

Main Cast: Most of the action takes place at the Mitsubachi Confectionary company in Tokyo. Wrote this up after viewing two shows, sure some of the info will need to be updated after a few more episodes. Small cast as there's only four major characters.

Rika Izumi as Hana Takamane.... 32 year old planning department manager at the company. Though a bit older Hana has never been in a relationship and deep down has the maturity of a young teen when it comes to males. For some odd reason she has a secret crush on her young worker Yowaki who is kind of inept and unknown to Hana he also has a crush on her.

Yuki Ogoe as Tsuyoshi Yowaki.... About seven years Hana's junior but could pass for a seventeen year old. He is gung-ho about his work but Yowaki comes up with the oddest promo ideas which leads to Hana constantly putting him down.

Kenta Izuka as Genki Sarada.... Has the nickname of Charada. He's Yowaki's best friend at the company and thinks most woman in the world would die to date him which is far from the truth. Compared to Yowaki he is an excellent worker.

Kanon as Ichigo.... At ~21 in age is the youngest in the planning office, she's like Sarada as Ichigo thinks men would die to go out with her. She is insanely jealous of Hana's looks and really wants to bring her boss down which she's attempted a few times and all have ended in failures. 

 Previous recaps

Episode one .... Episode two

 Added in the links to the first two recaps as I won't be rehashing too much of what's taken place. Very simple story line though as the planning manager for a major candy company, Hana, is somehow smitten with one of her younger workers. She's seemingly a perfect woman who is seven years older so what does she in such an inept yet nice man? This was kind of a silly episode and perhaps they all have been but hadn't noticed, have to admit though it's quite fluffy am enjoying this series so far.

 As you can see above it's Valentine's Day and nothing would warm Hana's heart more than making a delicious cake for her secret sweetheart Yowaki. Hana may be ultra attractive, extremely smart and likable but one thing she isn't is a chef as we saw in the previous episode. Her attempt at baking a cake was a flop but she didn't realize it, Hana had ended putting about ten times the amount of sugar needed as to her the more sugar the sweeter Yowaki will think she is! But an ongoing problem is that Hana has to keep her feelings towards Yowaki a secret, even he doesn't know about Hana's crush though he has a huge one on her too. So because of that problem what can Hana do, she just can't give the cake to Yowaki in front of her staff but before she could figure it out two incidents took place. 

 First dealt with the 'office Romeo' Sarada who came in with close to ten bags of sweets his 'admirers' had given him. Sarada does think too highly of himself but then again there are a lot of women who like him but we've never seen any. When he saw Hana with the box holding the cake Sarada naturally thought it was for him but of course he was nowhere near the truth. Sarada has always thought that Hana's secret crush was with him, we saw later on that he said to himself how Hana would make his perfect wife. So as Hana was standing there contemplating on what to do with the cake out of nowhere came a running Ichigo who was going to pretend to slip and knock the cake to the floor. That attempt failed as of all people Yowaki jumped in to catch Ichigo as they fell to the ground in an embrace. Once again Hana thought to herself ' Are these two dating?'.

 No, they're not a couple but Ichigo really wants Hana to believe they are. Learned in this show Ichigo isn't a member of Hana's planning department but works in General Affairs, she is a cute young gal who most men yearn to date. Save for Yowaki who does kind of ignore Ichigo which has really baffled her and is making her attempts to make Hana very jealous that much more difficult. As far as Hana's cake went she gave it to the staff and said it was a new product, if so back to the drawing board! None of the staff could eat more than one bite as the amount of sugar Hana put in was too overwhelming but actually it appeared Yowaki may have enjoyed it.

 Bottom two screenshots above are of Hana and Sarada who took a work trip to a farm in Shizuoka. The company is creating a new Wasabi bar and according to Hana they have the best Wasabi in Japan. However the farmer already was supplying another firm with his crops so didn't even want to talk with Hana who said she would return. But when the farmer saw the box of sweets she gave him was from Mitsubachi Confectionary it brought back some pleasant memories as he loved their candy when he was a child, the company has been around for a hundred years. So he chased Hana down and agreed to start supplying her with his Wasabi, really don't know what the exact point of this scene was. Sarada was with Hana so if he tried to hit on her would have made sense though he didn't. 

 Back to the company's office in Tokyo and the director of Mitsubachi Confectionary will be leaving. Probably for another job as he didn't look anywhere near retirement age. Of all people who work at the large office who should get selected to organize the going away party but.... Yowaki! Sure all of the other staff declined the offer but he seemed pretty gung-ho about the opportunity. It was a big responsibility and deep down Hana was dying to help her crush out, she even volunteered to in front of her team but Yowaki politely declined to the heartbreak of Hana. An episode is just 22 minutes in length, that scene was at the sixteen minute mark which meant not much time for a party.

 Yowaki means well but think he's led too much of a sheltered life and doesn't know the 'art of partying'. The staff was presuming the farewell event would be at a club, bar or restaurant but instead Yowaki had rented out a gymnasium! He thought the soon to be departed director wanted the employees to exercise more so Yowaki said why not have the party at a gym?! The party goers at first were a bit disappointed but that soon evaporated as Yowaki did plan things out well as there was plenty of food and beer. Plus many games he had set up to play and it ended up being a fun affair for the director and Yowaki's mates. Worked out a bit well for Hana too as so many of the men were fawning over Ichigo which didn't give her the chance to get closer to Yowaki and make Hana even more insanely jealous.

 At the get together Yowaki even consumed a few beers. It may have ben his first time drinking and he was the life of the party but he soon came tumbling down and eventually passed out. With only five minutes of screen time we didn't see much of the party though it did last a while. It began around noon time and as you can see in the bottom screenshot above it's now night, the party ended with Yowaki still sleeping off the effects of his first beers. Hana stuck around to make sure he got home safely but it was also a dream of Hana's to be alone with Yowaki but how she wished he was awake! The show ended with the pair heading for home though they'll go their own ways, if Hana was ever going to confess her love that was the perfect chance but she just doesn't know how to express something like that to Yowaki or really any man.

 You'd think shows that were half as long as a regular one, 22 minutes compared to 45, would make a recap half as short but that hasn't been the case. Will admit I do stretch these out a bit as if there were only four paragraphs it would bother me thinking I left many things out. As mentioned in the beginning it was a silly episode but one that was needed for me after just viewing two more episodes of 'Kimi no Sekai'. Following post is the recap for episode four.