Nashiko Momotsuki: "Yodonna" drama recap, episode two of two

 

 Air Dates: Episode one August 8th, second episode on September 12th. Both aired on TV-Asahi and are part of the TOEI Tokusatsu Fan Club(TTFC) special series.

Video from a September 4th event for this episode

Main Cast: Top two were on screen 98% of the time.

Nashiko Momotsuki as Yodonna.... Former assistant/secretary to the emperor Yodon on the world of Yodonheim, hence the origin of her name? Yodonna had been betrayed and killed by the Emperor and was waiting final judgement on her afterlife. But she managed to escape and return to Earth where she has a device that will make her human.

Mizuki Nishiba as Mizuki Kakihara.... Eighteen year old high school student. By a bad stroke of luck Yodonna had attached the device to make her human to Mizuki's body and is 'living' in her brain. But the procedure to make Yodonna a human takes six hours, at the end of that will Mizuki be killed?

Yosuke Kishi as Shosuke Kakihara.... Mizuki's 25 year old brother who works as a detective. A bit of a bumbler but has discovered a Yakuza crime ring which he showed evidence of to the next character who wasn't what he appeared to be.

Yu Kamio as Tetsu Enoshima.... Shosuke's superior at the police station and after the Kakahira parents died he watched over the siblings. But Enoshima is not an honest man as we'll learn in the this episode.

Hideo Ishiguro as Hideki Kujirasaki.... Head of the Yakuza gang Kuchinawa whose headquarters is called 'Maid Cafe Haikyo' which is a front for their operations.

Saori Izawa as Yanako Nishinoura.... Female bodyguard for the Yakuza gang and is one tough fighter as Yodonna found out.

Kentaro Shimazu as Shimasa.... Henchman for the gang.

Rio Komiya as Jyuuru Atsuta.... Mizuki's potential boyfriend.

 WARNING! 😈 WARNING! 😈 WARNING! 😈 WARNING! 😈

 That was a bit of a longish first recap but this should be a tad shorter. Did need to introduce everyone plus there were many details of the story that needed to be explained. Wish there were dramas or TV movies were like this mini special as there truly wasn't a dull moment and it was quite interesting, bit campy at times too and let's get right to this recap.

 You know how the previous show ended as I'm sure you read the above post. The top pic is showing the situation Yodonna and MIzuki are in, it's a device Yodonna took from the Yodonheim world. The device is transferring the soul and possibly life from Mizuki to Yodonna, it's a six hour process and there's still a few hours to go, once Yodonna has her soul and life will Mizuki die? We'll learn that near the end and the main reason Yodonna needs a soul is that she doesn't have the four feelings needed to enter Yodonheim's Heaven. In the first episode she learned the feeling of Pleasure, above you can see Yodonna now can feel Sadness, the remaining two are Anger and Joy. Where we are now is that Mizuki has learned her brother's boss at the police station is not all he's cracked up t be,

 That's him above in the bottom screenshot, his name is Enoshima and he even helped Mizuki and her brother Shozuke after their parents passed away. He's working for a Yakuza gang named Kuchinawa who has been stealing organs from live humans(!!) for a (un)healthy profit. Shosuke discovered what the gang was doing and filmed a deal they had with another gang selling them. The gang uses a Maid Cafe as their front and it's Otakus they've been prying the organs from. Enoshima has kidnapped Shosuke and threatened to kill him unless Mizuki returned his phone that had the video of the selling of the human organs. With no other options she reluctantly agreed to the deal but with what Mizuki and Shosuke know there's no way Enoshima will allow them to live after he gets the phone. Which he did and immediately erased the video that would destroy his career, is there nothing our 'heroine' Yodonna can do and she's been witnessing the action from Mizuki's brain!

 Of course Yodonna would join in when Mizuki's life was in danger, after all if the girl is killed so wouldn't Yodonna! These battles are getting tougher as Yodonna has to use Mizuki's body which isn't in fighting shape but eventually the gang was beaten but haven't seen any die in these fights. Though a few may have in this skirmish for as you can see above Yodonna needed to fire a special gun she used on Yodonheim but where did it come from? The gang may be tough to beat but Yodonna can do the deed, however can she somehow topple her most formidable opponent? That creature is in the bottom screenshot and it's Moses who we met at the beginning of the first show.

 When a creature from Yodonheim is pending judgement for Heaven or Death he's one of two who will make the decision. But Moses is furious at Yodonna for escaping her judgement and has travelled to Earth to bring her back.... or even perhaps kill her! That's because Moses has joined forces with the Kuchinawa gang who also want to take Yodonna down but first it appears they want to eliminate MIzuki and her brother Shosuke who know about the gang's organ dealing. The gang did capture Shozuke and used him as bait to lure out Mizuki to get the phone, after that was accomplished wonder why they just didn't kill him?

 Guess Shosuke was kept alive to lure out Mizuki one more time and that happened in the final scene which lasted for about half this episode. So if all goes according to plan then the Kuchinawa gang can take out Mizuki, Shosuke and Yodonna at one time, with them gone their devious selling of human organs can continue. But Yodonna has been slowly changing her ways, she's now able to feel three emotions and she's begun to care about Mizuki in kind of a human way. That process to transfer Mizuki's soul into Yodonna is almost complete, it's a six hour ordeal and less than ten minutes were remaining. However as Mizuki learned it just won't be her soul that will be lost but also her life, however Mizuki is powerless to stop the transfer.

 But Yodonna isn't powerless and in a surprise she withdrew the transfer device from Mizuki's body, now it's Yodonna who only has ten minutes to live! But that process may have gone on long enough as Yodonna did seem to have a bit of a soul and there was no way she would let her new friend Mizuki perish. But there were more pressing matters such as battling the Kuchinawa gang, now Yodonna was able to use her own body to take them all out. Save for one person though who was the gang's leader Kujirasaki and he'll be her most dangerous opponent to date. That's because Moses has transferred some of his power to Kujirasaki as Moses is not a fighter and what a struggle it was for Yodonna. In a long skirmish Yodonna was finally able to take down the gang leader and need to add in the turncoat Enoshima had been killed very early on, he deserved his death.

 But someone who didn't deserve to die was Yodonna but it appears she did or at least her human form. After that final battle her time on Earth was almost up but one major feat was accomplished by Yodonna as she was able to learn the four feelings of Joy, Anger, Sadness and Pleasure which means she now has a soul? As you can see above Mizuki was holding on to her new friend when Yodonna disappeared from Earth and in a surprise to her ended back on Yodonheim, she thought I'm not dead then? Yodonna's final judgement needed to be decided and it never quite was by the time the show ended, there's one more emotion Yodonna needs to learn and it's Love!

 That brought us to the end of part two and the finale did set up the possibility of a few more of these special shows. I'd like to see more of these spinoffs and bet many others would do as Yodonna was one popular character from the 'Mashin Sentai' series. Because the two episodes were only a combined 62 minutes in length won't give this a rating but will say this was one enjoyable, interesting and action packed pair of shows which I highly recommend, especially for Nashiko's many fans.