"Takane no Hana-san" drama: Episode four 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

 Added in the links to the previous 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? 

 Perhaps no one else is thrilled but I really am! That's because I thought the subs for this drama ended after the third episode as the person doing them at DA dropped the project. Really wanted to finish this drama and lucked out as another team picked this up which I just found out about and to me their subs are so much better. This is not a must watch series as it is kind of silly at times but then again it's been funny and witty. Plus the biggest reason for wanting to finish this is that it's Rika's first starring role and she's done a solid job in this show. May help to skim through the above recaps as it's been a while since they were written up though it's an easy enough story to follow and an episode is only 23 minutes long. There was no ongoing storyline for the first three shows save for Hana's hidden crush on Yowaki. But a new story did begin in this show which should last for the next 3-4 episodes.

 Hana is a department manager at Mitsubachi Confectionary, it's not a large team but it does contain her heartthrob Yowaki who she can't stop insulting. Hana is a superb business woman but when it comes to romance she has the knowledge of a twelve year old, she's 32 in age and seems she's never been on a date. Hana can never bring herself to confess her feelings to Yowaki, most of the time when she says anything to him it's an insult or is putting his work down. But Hana always has daydreams about her crush and though Yowaki does like his boss is it as intense as Hana's adoration?

 On to the happenings and the director of the Horror Mountain Park is meeting with Hana. His company is opening a new Haunted House in the area and he would like to sell sweets after the visitor's experience, could Hana possibly create some sort of terrifying candy? Who know what a scary candy would be like and Hana was a loss on what to propose, more of a problem was that she dreads Haunted Houses after a horrifying ordeal when she was seven. But to her dismay jumping into the conversation was Yowaki who said he would travel to the Haunted House with Hana. She had some mixed feelings about that, she's overjoyed to go alone with her crush but yet will the house be too terrifying for her?

 Things never go according to plan as unfortunately for Hana in tow were two others from the office. One was Ichigo who tagged along as is her main goal in life is to make sure Yowaki never ends up with Hana, she's the only person to know of Hana's secret crush. The other was the office 'Romeo' Charada who he thinks he's God's gift to women and that Hana is deeply in love with him but that's far from the truth as she only has eyes for one man. This was one scary Haunted House and it was the most intense and serious scene to date. The object was to locate a key that could let you out the exit door but meanwhile there was a killer on the loose to prevent that!!!! The quartet was split up into pairs, to Ichigo's fury she wasn't with Yowaki so her plan to get closer to him failed once again.

 Of course it's not a real killer but that person will take the visitor and lock them in a cell, that key can also open up the cell to rescue the 'victim'. So off they went and it didn't take long for Hana to be captured by this 'creature', she was with Yowaki who somehow didn't notice her disappearance. That is until he heard Hana's screams and went hunting for the cell to be her savior. Which Yowaki did and luckily had found the key to open the cell, the pair then dashed to the exit door and fled the horrifying house. Outside they had a mild 'encounter' as when they celebrated they held hands for a few seconds, these two are as innocent as they come.

 We didn't see what happened with Ichigo and Charada at the Haunted House but the four did meet up after for some lagers. Ichigo is a conniving woman and could tell something took place with the two, her jealousy level is at an all time high. But in a nice act Yowaki said it was him that became too scared in the house and had to be saved by Hana, not too convincing but now Hana's crush is also at an all time high level. We never did learn if a new scary treat was made for the company but it was back to the office and awaiting Hana was a nice assignment. She was named the leader of a new project named 'Cool Japan Okashi' with Okashi meaning sweets. It will only be a two person project for now and Hana's manager said while she's so talented she does have some faults(with people?) and needs to name a partner.

 We all know who Hana wants to be paired with but could her heart stand being around her crush Yowaki almost all day long? Plus he's not the most talented in her office which Hana was reminded of when Yowaki gave her an idea for a new candy which was so inane she tore it up in front of him. But to her credit that night at home Hana secretly taped his proposal back together but we never saw her return it to him, would that have made her feelings too obvious? The following day at work Hana did ask Yowaki to be her partner on the COP assignment, of course he accepted and that's the storyline which will be going on for the next few episodes. That brings us to the end of this recap and after this post is the one for the fifth episode.