"Love or Not" drama from 2017, episode seven 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

 One more pair of posts after this and the series will be completed, one of the quickest dramas I've ever written up as it'll take less than three weeks. Could have done it in ten days but didn't want to bury everyone with so many recaps. Does help that shows are only 23-24 minutes in length but also have to say I've enjoyed this series quite a bit and usually not a fan of these kinds of dramas. Noticed it does help when you wait for a show to be completed as you can zip through watching the episodes and should do that more often. Last trio of recaps was just done a few days ago so won't be rehashing too much of what's taken place and the links to those shows are right above.

 We began the series with six people and zero couples, midway through the sixth show all six are now coupled up but wonder how many of them will be lasting? The one relationship I can see working is between Misuzu and Sota, they're in the fourth screenshot down. However we saw so little of them in this episode, a minute at the beginning and then another at the end, that was it. Seems like they're getting along so well and they did have much screen time in the last two shows so perhaps that's why we saw little of them. That last episode ended off with a mini dinner at Kosuke's apartment with all three couples but as mentioned think only one will stay intact to the finale.

 Shiho has been Mako's best friend since high school but what an eerie person she can be. She's quite jealous at how well Mako gets along with Kosuke who asked Shiho to be his girlfriend last episode. Also perhsp becoming a tad jealous is Wataru who has been dating Mako since the end of the second episode. He's Kosuke's best friend and the pair do work at the same office, at that dinner Wataru began to notice more closely how well Mako and Kosuke get along. So that last episode ended quickly with Shiho pushing Mako out the door so she wouldn't spend more time with Kosuke and a first happened after that. Which was of Shiho and Kosuke spending the night together and it appears to me Shiho's trying to trap her new boyfriend. For instance the following morning she asked Kosuke if she could move in, before he could answer Shiho hugged him and went to her place to grab her things!

 Shiho had recently broke up with her previous boyfriend who was a doctor, he really needed to be dumped. So it appears Shiho is a woman who needs to be in a relationship and she's quite a clinging person. What a mistake Kosuke made by allowing Shiho to move in as them living together is not going to work out and to me has zero chance of that! The two have nothing in common from the foods they like to the way they clean and keep an apartment, he hasn't said so yet but deep down Kosuke's so disappointed at himself for letting Shiho move in. Plus the fact she's so jealous of how Mako and Kosuke are so buddy-buddy, she hasn't been able to keep that hidden. So Kosuke has to keep lying or telling a story every time he sees his neighbor and first crush, in a healthy relationship that shouldn't be the case and can easily predict they won't be together much longer.

 Will that also be the case then for Mako and Wataru? Hope not as he's a decent guy and wasn't upset when he learned his best friend Kosuke was Mako's downstairs neighbor. But he has become a bit envious at how well they get along and how Kosuke seems to be there whenever Mako needs help. Such as for the dinner she was preparing for Wataru for that Saturday evening, she is not a very good household person whose apartment is always a pigsty plus she's a terrible cook. For the first time in her life Mako is making curry for that dinner and had to turn to Kosuke for help as he would make for such a fantastic housewife! So Kosuke had to lie to Shiho to visit Mako's apartment and help her with the curry which she actually did a passable job on as Kosuke said it was quite tasty.

 Took a break after writing those first two segments which was a mistake. Happens very time when I stop and that's of losing my train of thought but at least did watch the next episode. So Mako's home dinner with Wataru was both good and bad, good for she did a decent job with the curry. But semi bad as though Wataru doesn't appear to be the jealous type he does wonder why she gets along so much better with Kosuke than him. Didn't help matters for the foursome as one of the comforters Mako left out to dry fell down on Kosuke's balcony and now Shiho's jealousy has reached it's highest level yet. The comforter was the same design as Kosuke's who confessed that Mako bought his as she got such a good deal for buying two at once. That was true but Shiho is still so leery, she has such a hard time confessing her feelings but will finally do so in the next show.

 We're at the end and have found out not every single detail or event needs to be explained fully. When Mako was preparing that dinner for Wataru he told her he had something special for her. Wataru went to his briefcase and my thought was that he was going to pull out an engagement ring!!!! But just at that moment her phone rang and Wataru lost his courage after that. The final few seconds you can see above, Mako asked what Wataru wanted to give her, he didn't reply with any ring or present but instead gave Mako their first passionate kiss which did elate her. That finishes this recap up, episode eight is the next post. So while we saw so little of Sota and Misuzu in this show we will in the next episode as someone unexpectedly from her past reappeared into her life!