"Love or Not" drama from 2017: Episode eight recap

 

 Air Dates: March 20 until May 22, 2017 on dTV/FOD at 2:10 am,  then from July 20 to September 28, 2017 on Fuji. Total of ten episodes and subs were done by neutrinoxs.

 Main Cast: Just these characters but we see the boss of Kosuka and Wataru on occasion.

Yuika Motokariya as Mako Hirosawa.... Interior designer who is 29 in age and it appears she's never had a boyfriend. That's because Mako's heart still pines for a boy she met when she was nine and he saved her from some bullies who were trying to steal her rabbit doll. She finally met the man in the first show and he didn't live up to her expectations at all. But a person who did was Kosuke's best friend Wataru and they began dating in the third show.

Kenjiro Yamashita as Kosuke Usami.... Also 29 in age and the boy that helped out Mako all those years ago. He's currently a Salaryman with the Sanba Shoji company and is not that efficient of a worker. When Mako finally met Kosuke after twenty years she was extremely disappointed, in the first show he moved into the apartment below hers. 

Keita Machida as Wataru Sano.... Kosuke's junior at the company but he knows much more than his senpai and is often bailing him out at work. Wataru's father is extremely wealthy and the women flock to him but early on Wataru fell hard for Mako.

Reina Asami as Shiho Hojo.... Mako's friend since high school and she works as a free lance photographer. Like her friend Shiho is quite timid around men but does have a boyfriend who is a doctor though that may not be a lasting relationship. It wasn't as Shiho broke up with the creep in the fifth show and then began dating Kosuke.

Erena Mizusawa as Misuzu Mori.... Met Mako in high school, she's two years younger, and currently works as a web writer. She is just so darn attractive and also very outgoing, the next man has been trying to woo her but she's set her sights on Wataru. In the fifth episode we learned that Misuzu is the mother of an eight year old boy named Shin!!!!

Masayasu Yagi as Sota Yabuki.... Owner of the Itsomuno bar/cafe where Kosuke and Wataru often eat lunch or dinner. Sota has been dumped too many times to count by women, after meeting Misuzu in the first show he's fallen head over heels for her but the feeling wasn't mutual until the sixth episode.

Links to the previous recaps:

Episode one .... Episode two .... Episode three .... Episode four

Episode five .... Episode six

 Two more shows to view and recap, should have those two posts by the weekend. Haven't watched any episodes past this one and won't until this is written up. The to keep the 'suspense' going on for a bit longer won't view the final episode until I watch and write up the ninth show. If you're someone who has read many of my recaps(thanks if you have) then you may have noticed I usually take a huge amount of screenshots. These episodes are 22+ minutes in length and would say that would often mean 40-45 screenshots. That hasn't been the case in this series where the amount has only been between 30-35, just 31 for this episode. Don't know why as I have been enjoying this drama and much does happen but guess it's no big deal. In the last recap we saw very little of Sota and Misuzu, something important did involve them in this show but after the first five minutes not much was mentioned of it.

 Will get their story out of the way first, though the scene was longish there was no outcome and would think we'll be hearing much more of this in the final two episodes. Wish it lasted longer but some of the questions I raised in the sixth recap were answered though not all. You can see what the scene was about in the above screenshots, popping up out of nowhere was Misuzo's ex-husband and how could be possibly have known she'd be at the Itsomuno cafe which Sota owns? The man's name is Shogo Tajima who appears to be a few years older than Misuzu. By his looks their son Shin is eight years old so does that mean they got married when she was eighteen or so? One other curious thing to me is that Misuzu's friends Mako and Shiho have never mentioned Shin once in their conversations, just seems quite odd to me they would never discuss the boy.

 These days Shogo is a major success as he's a popular and wealthy game creator but it wasn't always that way. He did struggle when he was married to Misuzu so Shogo had to devote too much time to his career and neglected his family. He's come to realize that he made a major mistake, is there any chance the three can become a family again? At first there was none as far as Misuzu was concerned but after listening to Shogo's story and apologies she'll give it some thought as he has changed his ways. With that scene taking place at his cafe of course Sota was eavesdropping and after Misuzu departed to pick her son up Sota insisted Shogo stay for a man to man talk. But in an unexpected scenario Sota and Shogo got along so well and seems if they had met years ago they'd be the best of buddies. But of course Sota still wants Misuzu for himself and how will this story turn out?

 It being a drama would place my $$ on Sota to end up with Misuzu but not 100% sure of that. Nor am I entirely positive that Mako and Kosuke will end up as a couple which all viewers thought would happen after the first episode. In the last show Shiho, Mako's best friend, had moved in with Kosuke and they've had a rocky beginning. They seem to have so little in common plus she's so jealous of how well Kosuke gets along with Mako. To me the pair rushed into things too quickly, they were getting along so well as just friends and perhaps they're better off that way. But Shiho did one positive thing at last which was to express those feelings to Kosuke and how she's envious of the way he's so friendly with Mako, he's vowed to try and keep the away from her.

 But that's difficult as they are neighbors and do share some of the same friends. When Kosuke did bump into Mako on a few occasions he was quite cold towards her which has left her baffled. Mako even asked her boyfriend Wataru what's been wrong with Kosuke, he's at a loss too as his best friend has also been shying away from him. That conversation too place at Sota's cafe and it was inevitable that the two would begin talking about their problems after Kosuke entered. But at that moment who should be outside the cafe listening in but Shiho! She stormed away and seems so disappointed and slightly irate that Kosuke couldn't stay away from Mako.

 Wataru and Mako seem to me to have the makings of a very fine couple but will it ever take place? They have been dating but things aren't moving along at a fast enough pace. Wataru has been working late at the office though not on a company project but his own which is to design a unique hotel that's rare in Japan. He wants Mako to be the interior designer but not much has been mentioned of Wataru's dream. As you can see above Misuzu sat down with her friend and demanded some answers from Mako, does she truly love Kosuke? Of course she denied it but us viewers can see what's taking place and guess so didn't Misuzu, lot of possibilities for the final two shows.

 As this episode ended there were three conversations about to take place, you can see one above which is between Shiho and Wataru which really stunned him. We'll learn the outcome of all of them in the next show. This season ran from March to May 2017, there was a second season that began in October 2018. So wonder then if there may not be any concrete outcomes to these three possible relationships? Would think there would be but not entirely positive though either and we'll soon see about that in the last two recaps which will be in just a few days.