"Takane no Hana-san" drama: Episode five recap

 

 Air Dates: April 10th until June 27, 2021 on TV-Tokyo, Thursdays at midnight

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

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 .... Episode three

 Once again have to say I'm so glad this series was finished and can't believe I almost didn't notice that. It wouldn't have hurt Rika's position on the yearly faves list if this wasn't subbed but now that I can finish the drama it will definitely help her immensely. In three weeks will be doing the one and only preliminary countdown for this year's list and for the first time Rika has a solid chance of being #1, she also has two dramas beginning later on this month.

 There's now an ongoing storyline which was introduced at the end of the previous episode and should be the main focus of at least the next two shows. Hana has been named the leader of the 'Cool Japan Okashi Project', Okashi means sweets and will refer to it as COP. She was told to get a partner for the project, of course she wanted to enlist her secret crush Yowaki but would romance and work mix? Not romance yet as Hana is just so petrified of the opposite sex, though she's such a beauty don't think she's ever even had a date. But after some thought Yowaki was chosen, he is a bit inept but is always so eager plus deep down to Hana this was her best chance at getting to know him better.

 First day on he project and already Yowaki is showing how inept he could be. He thought the 'Cool' meant something cold like a desert or such, 'NO!' screamed Hana, Cool is for the Japanese culture that foreigners enjoy so much. However it hasn't been revealed exactly who the company is or what audience they're targeting. That first session was going nowhere though Hana once again did lose herself daydreaming of being with Yowaki. But he did make the first suggestion which could have been good but didn't turn out that way or at least not yet. He's such a fan of mangas and animes which Americans and many others enjoy, why don't the pair take in an anime movie? Hana was shocked at that suggestion but as you can see above that's what she really thought.

 It was a while ago but can recall a scene in the first show with Hana in her apartment and it appeared she may have been either a manga or anime fan. But perhaps not as Hana just couldn't get into the movie and remembered zero about it. But there was a moment where her stomach began to growl, without looking she tried to grab some popcorn from the box only to instead grab Yowakis hand! Being in a movie theater nothing could be said but that incident sent Hana into another of her fantasies with Yowaki and they seem to be coming more frequently. To top it off Yowaki didn't get anything for the COP project from the movie as he was enjoying it too much!

 A slight disaster was on the horizon as when they left the theater Hana once again told Yowaki off and stormed home after her mild tirade but that wasn't the worst of it. Noticing the pair leave the theater was Ichigo who is right above. Her main goal has been to make sure the pair never become an item but more than that for some reason Ichigo really despises Hana, perhaps because she's so perfect? As you can see above the next day at work Ichigo blurted out in front of the entire office about seeing the two together at the movies, are they dating? Hana was tongue tied but for the second episode in a row Yowaki jumped in to save the day. He told Ichigo and the others that he was just with Hana at the movies to get help for their COP project and it's unthinkable that they would be dating. Hana was relieved but then again she wasn't too happy when Yowaki said it was unthinkable that they would be dating.

 Afterwards Yowaki did apologize to Hana for touching her hand in the theater but don't know why as it was her fault and it was an accident, as usual she made a barb to Yowaki and stormed off. Those two being together so much has drawn the curiosity of Ichigo and Charada who are above and had the final scene in his show. At first Ichigo was just using Yowaki to undermine Hana but it's never worked out. Charada is a 'Romeo' and knows how women act, he's been observing how lately Ichigo has truly been falling for Yowaki but she won't admit it. However Charada did relate to her that Hana probably has a crush on him though of course he's dreaming. As the show ended Charada said he could hook up Ichigo with Yowaki which she refused but after she left the bar the pair were getting quite drunk at she sent him a text and said OKAY! to getting hooked up with Yowaki.  

 That ends this recap and shows are only 23 minutes in length. These kind of dramas usually aren't my cup of tea but this has been kind of fun so far and with episodes being short least it means there's no filler. Seven more episodes to go, not sure when the next pair will be done but it'll be soon and would like to finish this off in about two weeks.