"Takane no Hana-san" drama: Episode nine 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. 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

Episode four .... Episode five .... Episode six

Episode seven

 

 One more batch of three recaps after this pair today, it'll be done within the week. When this drama took place the time period was never been mentioned but noticed a calendar and the episode started off in mid April. But it's been going on for well over a month yet everyone walks around dressed like it's Summer? The main topic finally in this this show will be the 'Cool Japan Okashi' project or COP for short, the deadline to submit the proposal is April 20th which is only five days away.

 We didn't see as much of Ichigo or Charada in this show as it's just Hana and Yowaki working on the COP proposal. As you may remember at the end of the previous show Ichigo had been rejected by Yowaki after confessing her love, she got so smashed after she could barely stand up the next day at work. Meanwhile Charada is still a bit peeved that Yowaki has been able to spend so much time with Hana working on the project. Charada is the best worker in her Planning department and once again volunteered to help Hana out with the project was turned down. Hope Hana knows what she's doing as when the episode began it was five days until the deadline, four days passed with zero getting done and now it's just one day until a proposal has to be submitted.

 The exact details have never been spelled out clearly but the project has to do with promoting Japanese sweets to other countries with a cultural theme. Many other companies are vying for the huge contract beside Hana's Mitsubachi Confectionary and with only one day until the deadline how can she come up with a unique idea after three weeks of nothing? Yowaki hasn't been much of a help, he does propose many ideas but almost all are so inane and at times it seems Yowaki has the mind of a five year old. Though Hana still berates him too much her secret crush on Yowaki is higher than ever and the main reason for the project going nowhere is that she can't stop daydreaming of being with him. 

 That deadline is now less than a day away and the duo won't be leaving the office until some sort of proposal can be completed. Don't think Hana would be canned or demoted if she fails but then again it would leave a black mark against her. Of course the person to come up with the winning idea would be Yowaki, least to his credit he had been trying quite hard since day one and you can see his winning(?) creation above. Doesn't look like much for now but Yowaki's idea was to create a five story Pagoda made of colorful donuts. The criteria for this project was to incorporate the themes of Japanese culture, which a Pagoda is, and sweets with a Japanese background though don't think donuts are.

 Hana was pleasantly surprised with the idea from her crush and that's what the pair will submit but there may not have been any time to do anything else. You can see the Pagoda Donut above and while it may not look that tasty had it been created from scratch it would. Yowaki also had it five stories so a loving couple could each eat one layer until the bottom story and then share it, guess with a bit of work on it the donut may be a hit and win the COP contract for the Mitsubachi Confectionary company. However that may not be known for another episode or two, the pair submitted their proposal along with many promo pics and the recipes so now it's a waiting game but what will happen if they're chosen for the winning contract? According to Hana though they created the proposal another team would be in charge of the project and sadly that means her days of working closely with Yowaki will be over.

 At 23 minutes an episode things can fly by and after that project was completed there was only a few minutes remaining. You can see what took place above as the pair were heading home from the office, didn't think it would happen this show but it had to at some point as there's only three episodes left. Hana was getting a bit down with the prospect of not working so closely with Yowaki though he would still be on her Planning department team. Hana knew this may be her only chance so before they went their separate ways she blurted out 'I Like You!'. Of course that stunned Yowaki but not for too long as he immediately replied with 'I Like You Too!' and for the first time the pair embraced. 

 They hugged for so long that both missed their trains home(!) and they don't run all night in Tokyo? We don't know what was said between the two new lovebirds and don't think much was, they soon split up with Hana taking a taxi while Yowaki walked saying it would take him two hours?! That ended this episode and how is this new relationship going to play out at the office? Of course Ichigo will be crushed with the news and so won't Charada who has become so obsessed with Hana these last few shows. And we still need to learn the fate of the COP project and wouldn't be surprised if Hana is chosen to be the leader and the pair continue working together. Haven't viewed any show after this one so don't know what to expect and will have the final trio of recaps within the week.