"Toki wo Kakeru Band" drama: Episode three of ten recap

 

 Air Dates: August 19th to October 21, 2020 on FOD at midnight. It then aired on Fuji from October 19th until December 7, 2020 at 12:25 am. Title also means Time Bending Band

Subs were done by Nippon Golden/aoinousgai

Main Cast: Top three are the members of the rock trio Chahhan and would say all are twenty in age. Seems they've been together for a while and do have a contract with a small record company but fortune hadn't been smiling on them and the trio have been wavering about disbanding. That was until a man from 2019(?!) appeared suddenly one day and vowed he would make them stars! These first four shows began off in August 2006.

Sei Shiraishi as Yuki Ebana.... The group's guitarist and main singer, that's her second to the right above. Yuki is quite a strong willed woman who wants to make most of the band's decisions but is mellowing out slightly, her mother works at a Ramen shop owned by Toko's father.

Yuno Ohara as Toko Murakami.... Chahhan's drummer and as mentioned her father owns a Ramen cafe. She's the opposite of Yuki as Toko started off the series by being so meek but with the help of their 'new manager' is slowly changing that. She's on the right in the above pic.

Mijika Nagai as Shiori Kato.... The band's bassist and writes most of their songs. She's kind of a gloomy gal who often threatens to kill herself, though Shiori sounds serious she would never go through with it. She gets way too nervous playing live and has passed out twice at shows.

Shohei Miura as Ryo.... No last name for now and claims to come from the year 2019!? He was a record producer in that future year and so far we have no clue how he's gone back in time thirteen years. He quickly became the band's manager and vowed to make them superstars. We see a few glimpses now and again in the year 2019 where it appears Chahhan becoming successful was true, also seemed he was on his 'death bed' in that year.

Mizuki Itagaki as Seiichi Izumi.... Member of the rival band Three Dimension and there's a lot of references back to 1960's music. Seems like a decent guy and Toko has a crush on him though it appears Yuki may be his dream girl.

Hiroyuki Watanabe as Yuichi Yanagishita.... Executive at the small FMR company who has worked closely with the girls. But he's gotten frustrated at their lack of success, though he does like the band he's on the verge of dropping them from the company.

 Audio clip of the group's 'signature' song which is Orange: Orange

Links to the previous shows:

Episode one .... Episode two

 

 Did mention in the first recap that there's a lot of references to older bands and music. Each show's title shows an old album cover, first show it was "London Calling" and in epiosde two it was "Abbey Road". Plus the rivals of the Chahhan group are named Three Dimension which I think refers to the Byrds. For this episode couldn't figure out what the album cover was which is the first screenshot, however can't say I'm a huge fan of classic rock. For these first three episodes one of the Chahhan members was the focus of getting help from Ryo who somehow has traveled back in time from 2019 to 2006. This time around it's the bass player Shiroi who has the tendency of fainting at shows, it's held the band back and can Ryo help her overcome that problem?

 Of course he will but Ryo better do it quickly before Shiori gets dumped from Chahhan! Above is the group's representative for the FMR record company, he's Yanagishita who has really helped the girls out immensely but they're still an unknown band. In the last episode Shiori once again fainted and it was at an audition for a concert, that was the last straw for Yanagishita who wants to bring in a new bassist. 'No Way!' screamed the two other members Yuki and Toko, can't he give Shiori one more chance? Yanagishita really didn't want to but will give Shiori a bit of different training which may help her overcome that fainting problem, he wants her to join an Idol group! Naturally she's furious with that option but with no other solutions to her problem has reluctantly agreed.

 Shiny Live is the name of this trio who has one member on a hiatus and it's unsure if she'll be returning. The two other members are the peppy Airi and the gloomy leader Juri, Shiori is quite a gloomy girl too but the pair didn't get along that well. You can see above that Ryo is giving Shiori some encouragement and she may be the best musician in Chahhan, that's a huge step backwards for her joining an Idol group. Ryo will be by Shiori's side the entire time, he too is a peppy guy and while the band doesn't always like his 'help methods' they've certainly worked. Also in the mix will be the handler of Shiny Live who is their FMR rep Kuro, on to Shiori's new idoling career!

 Stage fright is Shiori's problem, she doesn't know why or how it began but playing in front of others is such a terrifying ordeal. Shiori has also always looked down on Idol groups as she thinks they have it quite easy and really don't need much talent. So she was in for massive surprise as Idols truly need to work hard at learning dance steps, interacting with the audience and many other things. This idea by Yanagishita was actually a brilliant maneuver as Shiori had to quickly learn a different way of presenting herself and in a bit of a surprise was kind of successful. As you can see above shortly after joining Shiny Live they had a mini concert, for the first time Shiori didn't faint at a show.

 Though she didn't want to admit it Shiori was enjoying the Idol life and seems like the group's small fan base was attracted to her quirky ways. But the bottom line is it's just training to stay on as the bassist for Chahhan, Shiori did admit to her mates Yuki and Toko that being an Idol was not nearly as easy as she presumed. But Yanagishita still needed to see more than just one mini street concert where Shiori didn't pass out, next up will be a bigger concert at an Idol festival but somehow the other two members Airi and Juri went to the wrong location, will Shiori have to do a solo show?!

 Luckily for Shiori her Chahhan mates were there, we didn't see them too often in this show but they were asked to perform until the other Shiny Live members showed up. Chahhan may have played their best show to date though we still only see them perform one song which is "Orange", for the first time at a concert Shiori overcame her stage fright and didn't pass out. Observing the show were the late in arriving Shiny Live gals, also in the audience was their third member Akira who has decided to remain with the group and Shiori's days as an Idol are now over. It's back to being Chahhan's bassist and in the next two episodes we didn't seen Shiori pass out once.

 An episode is only 21 minutes long which is why these are half the length of regular recaps. Sometimes it helps when a show is shorter as there's no filler and the action zooms right along. That's been the case in this drama though being shorter episodes means things don't always get explained well enough. Next post is the recap for the fourth episode, will have a pair about every five days.