Nashiko Momotsuki: "Yodonna" drama recap, episode one 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.

Promo video 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 second 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! 😈

 Do enjoy these Sentai/Tokusatsu shows but don't watch nearly as many as I used to. They're usually fifty episodes and that's just too many shows, have watched seven complete ones to date. Which should be enough as they really do have the same storylines and to be honest have never viewed a bad series. There's been a few series where I've watched ten or so episodes and how I wish they were only twenty shows in length. One of those was the "Mashin Sentai Kiramager" series which ran from March 2020 to February of this year. "Yodonna" is a two episode spinoff from the series and seeing as how I only viewed ten of 48 shows you'd think I'd be lost.

 But that wasn't the case as the Yodonna character did explain the details of what took place with her at the beginning of this first show. After the emperor Yodon's army had lost to the Kiramager superheroes he betrayed his trusty secretary Yodonna and killed her. She's currently waiting judgment to determine whether she goes to Heaven or an instant death.... perhaps neither! Will get to everything during the recaps and of course the main reason for watching this was because Nashiko had the lead role of Yodonna, she played the role in the TV series. She did a solid job to me and I'm hoping the roles for her increase, seems like she's more fit for these kinds of shows.

 This first show lasted a little over 32 minutes. As I was explaining Yodonna, as you can see above, is pending her fate at the Yodon Soul Administration Office. There's really just two options, a person or actually creature would be sent to heaven if they've been a solid citizen of the Yodonheim world. If not an instant death awaits them which you can see in the fourth screenshot, that was of a scientist named Datula who was sentenced to death. But before that judgement he had been talking with Yodonna who was behind the man in the long line. Datula told her he's created a device that can transfer the soul and life of a human into a creature from Yodonheim, he was hoping a third option would be available which would be sending him to Earth to test the device. That didn't impress the judgement decider Moses who sent him to death, up next was Yodonna but before Datula was whisked away to oblivion he dropped the device which went unnoticed to all save for Yodonna.

 Moses presumed being Yodon's secretary would mean an automatic trip to Heaven but Yodonna explained how she was betrayed. 'Hmmmm' though Moses, it had to be because Yodonna is a creature who doesn't feel the emotions of Joy, Anger, Sadness and Pleasure, without them she would be unable to live in Heaven but then Moses thought Yodonna was too good to kill. Moses has a magical spear, when you touch one side of it you can appear on Earth so before anyone could stop her Yodonna grabbed Datula's device, touched the magical side of Moses' spear and soon found herself on Earth! But as you can see above her form is not solid and no human can see her. Yodonna wanted to use the device on the Kiramager member Tametomo who was responsible for her Earth death, she quickly tracked him down on a high school roof. But as she was darting towards him an eighteen year old girl on the roof happened to get in the way and it was her who Yodonna stabbed with the device!

 The unfortunate girl's name is Mizuki and that encounter lasted for a split second so neither Tametomo nor Jyuuru, her potential boyfriend, noticed it and she left the roof soon after that. This unnamed device doesn't kill a human right off the bat, what happens is that there's a transfer process that lasts for six hours. So during that stretch of time Yodonna will be living in Mizuki's brain(!) and they can communicate with each other. Yodonna's main plea with the girl is to remain alive, if Mizuki should happen to meet a sudden death Yodonna would perish too! Should be easy enough to do and neither one likes the other person too much, especially Yodonna who is quite a sassy woman and close to an unbeatable fighter, she had wanted the soul of the Kiramager Tametomo so is quite miffed at Mizuki for stepping in the way.

 In the bottom two screenshots above is Mizuki's older brother Shosuke. He's a 25 year old detective and has been a bit of a bumbler at his job but has uncovered evidence of a major Yakuza crime, the gang's name is Kuchinawa. Shosuke witnessed and filmed the gang selling human organs(!) to another gang but at the end of the deal the Kuchinawa gang killed the other, Shosuke has also discovered the Yakuza gang's hideout. He reported it to his main superior Enoshima who watched over Shosuke and his sister Mizuki when their parents died. Shosuke thinks the world of the man but as we'll see in the second recap Enoshima is anything but a decent person. What gets the major story going is that Shosuke's and Mizuki's phones got mixed up as both had the each other's and Shosuke was unable to show his superior a video of the human organ deal. Enoshima told Shosuke to cool it for a while, we didn't realize it at the time but he's ordered the Kuchinawa gang to get that phone from Mizuki, if she has to be killed in the process so be it!

 This may have been only a 32 minute show but so much took place, more than a ninety minute movie and the action was nonstop. The Kuchinawa gang operates a place called 'Maid Cafe Haikyo' and is using that as a front for their gang, the main offices are there. It really was a maid cafe but not one you'd want to visit. The maid waitresses were part of the Yakuza gang, they would dupe Otakus into their back room and there would remove that person's organs while they were still alive! Mizuki learned that the hard way as she witnessed the above man being 'operated' on, after Mizuki discovered she had her brother's phone she played 'detective' and went to work there but was unnoticed. Say unnoticed for on the way to the maid cafe Mizuki was attacked by members of the Kuchinawa gang who wanted her brother's phone which she refused to give up.

 This is when Mizuki and us viewers discovered Yodonna has a special power and it saved the day, probably her life too. Yodonna was able to control the limbs of Mizuki, of course it appeared she had no chance against the ten gang members but it was actually them who had no chance in the battle! Of course Mizuki was a bit stunned by what Yodonna could do but was also very pleased with the power, Mizuki did let it go to her head as she did become a bit too cocky at times. So back to the maid cafe where Mizuki has gone undercover as she thinks her brother may have been taken hostage by the Kuchinawa gang plus she wanted to find out the truth behind the organ stealing. Mizuki's curiosity got the better of her as her identity was soon found out, will Yodonna once again come to her rescue?

 Of course Yodonna came to the rescue but in a slightly different way. Instead of just controlling Mizuki's limbs she became the girl itself, we viewers could see it was Yodonna fighting but her foes saw the image of Mizuki. Yodonna is such a skilled fighter but the problem she had and in future skirmishes is that Mizuki's body isn't fit for fighting and she's far from an athletic girl. Yodonna didn't have too many problems with the gang's henchmen but there was one final obstacle. That's the blonde woman above who is Kuchinawa's best battler, Yanako. It really appeared as though Yodonna had met her match and it was only through a lucky break that she defeated the woman, won't be the last time these two face off.

 Down to the final two or so minutes and Yodonna is recuperating in Mizuki's mind! But Yodonna did learn one of the four emotions that she'll need to know to become a human, that's Pleasure which is what her feeling was defending Mizuki. In the last scene Shosuke's superior from the police station arrived on the scene. He's Enoshima and wanted to get the phone back from Mizuki but she didn't have it as she put it in a bus locker for safe keeping. That did not please the man at all and in the final seconds he made some threats to Mizuki about her brother, her uttering 'No' above is when she thought is Enoshima part of the Yakuza gang? Whew, that ends this somewhat longish post. It's not long for a drama recap but it is considering it was just a 32 minute episode, not one dull moment. Next post has the recap for the second episode and kind of think there may be more of these shows in the future.