Nanase Nishino: "Kotodamasou" drama, episode two recap

 

 Air Dates: October 9th until December 11, 2021 on TV-Asahi, Saturday nights at 11:00 pm

Subs done by arkisubsxx.... shows are 23 minutes in length, total of ten episodes.

Main Cast: The setting is a women's apartment building where #7 has just moved into. After her will be listing the cast by what room number they're in as we discovered in the third show that's key to the story. Of course Nanase has the lead role but every women will have at least one turn in the spotlight save for the female in apartment one which disappointed me a bit. Kind of a large cast and the hardest part in doing a series is writing this opening up! Episodes are a bit short so we didn't see much of a few characters early on and will be updating the bios.

Kotodama- A Japanese word that means that evil powers dwell in words and names, this is the curse our heroine is trying to discover and kill.

Nanase Nishino as Kotaha Utagawa.... Lives in apartment seven and has just moved into the building thanks to the help of her best fiend Sayaka. Kotoha has her own ViewTube show called 'Attraction Channel' and it's not all that popular so where does she get her money? The underlying question for the first four shows is does Kotoha have an odd curse, one that involves her use of words which has a bit to do with the above word Kotodama.

Ayaka Miyoshi as Sayaka Agi.... Apartment one dweller but not for too long so will need to update this for the third episode. Sayaka is Kotoha's best friend and is a budding songwriter who has had little success. That is until the first episode where a song she wrote has become a minor hit and a man performed in on live TV, however he died during his performance!

Yurika Nakamura as Shiori Maruyama.... Lives in the second apartment and is an assistant to a politician. Shiori is not an easy person to get along with and is a bit shady.

 Mayu Hotta as Ayako Komiyama... The woman in apartment #3 and seemed like the nicest female in the small building, that is until the third show. Ayako is a freelance announcer but has obtained a somewhat steady gig which has made her a tad greedy and untrustworthy, still a nice woman but there's something mysterious about her.

Misato Morita as Asami Kikukawa.... A budding doctor who lives in the fourth apartment, don't know too much about her after three shows.

 Anna Ishii as Saki Hayashibara.... Resident of apartment five who is a school teacher, like the above woman we haven't seen too much of her yet so will be updating the characters as time goes on.

 Rio Uchida as Hitomi Watanabe.... Final resident in the building who resides in #6. She's an editor/publisher and the biggest reason for not knowing much about the final three characters is that the stories will go in order from apartment one up until seven.

Kento Nagayama as Reishi Nakame.... He's a sham psychic who doesn't believe he is. In the first show he hooked up with Kotoha to perform an exorcism which proved to be fatal. However he's a major character who eventually formed a partnership with Kotoha to solve this unknown curse/mystery and is a bit of a goofy man.

 Yuki Saito as Shima Iwato.... Final major character and she's the aunt of Reishi. She's the head of a local shrine where Kotoha and Reishi have visited for advice which never seems to work because Shima is more interested in money than helping or at least early on she is.

 Did talk about how there were problems getting the subs or videos after the fourth episode, really am glad that's cleared up. So if there are a pair of recaps every five days or so should complete this series by Christmas though hopefully sooner. Of course Nanase was a huge reason for wanting to view this drama. But so wasn't Ayaka who is such a huge fave of mine and you viewers too so was really shocked at what took place in the first scene which is a continuation of how the first episode ended.

 If you're reading this you've read the above so need to rehash where we stand. That was with Sayako writhing on her apartment floor in agony after being duped by the Kotodama curse to look outside her window before the exorcism was complete. Kotoha and Reishi looked on helplessly along with a few other residents who rushed in, an ambulance soon arrived at the scene but it was too late as Sayaka is victim #1 of the curse haunting the apartment building. Sure we'll find out many answers in the last two episodes but was Sayaka's death because she wished her ex-boyfriend would die in the previous show? I'm fairly sure the answer is yes to that and will have to say I'm so shocked Ayaka was killed off so quickly, kind of bummed out about that. She's such a popular actress and why didn't they wait until the fifth show or later to kill her off? Least that'll give more screen time to the other residents of the building as we didn't see too much of them in the first episode.

 In the next episode figured out that the Kotodama curse is working in order, from apartment one and up. Residing in the second pad is Shiori who you can see above, after a brief talk with the police Sayaka's demise became secondary. Shiori is a bit of a cold woman and for the most part just doesn't want the other residents bothering her. She's 26 in age and all of the women are between the ages of 24 to thirty. Shiori is an aide to a congressman named Otaka and he's a shady character but then again name a politician who isn't!!!! Like most aides Shiori does all the work and the congressman takes all of the credit. But perhaps for not much longer as Otaka has appreciated the hard work Shiori has done and as you can see above she tells Kotoha that she may run for a seat in the Tokyo Assembly but there is a catch, isn't there always?

 Little bit more about the Kotodama curse above and sure we'll learn it's entire story by the end of the series. That 'catch' for Shiori was to have some talks with a reporter named Shimatani who wrote a story about the congressman Otaka accepting bribes from a construction company. In the article was even a picture of Shiori carrying a briefcase full of the money, if she or her boss wants a future then the reporter's mouth better be shut and quickly! Shiori may not be that nice of a person but she does have some morals and she just couldn't see herself doing anything harmful to Shimatani. So Otaka took over and has hired a killer named Narumi to rub out the reporter, what Shiori needs to do is set up a meeting with the man and be on hand to witness his death.

 More on that coming up and meanwhile Kohata has grown highly suspicious of Shiori as she somehow feels she may have had a hand in Sayaka's death. Shiori didn't and was eventually cleared of that misunderstanding but there was one other item that aroused Kohata's curiosity. Shiroi had been wearing the same bracelet as Sayaka when she died, did she take it off the dead body?! Kohata is a sweet and innocent young 25 year old but is getting a bit conniving. Along with Reishi's help she broke into Shiroi's apartment looking for any kind of evidence that would have tied her to Sayaka. That was a failure but Kohata did find other damaging information about Shiori as she was able to access her computer. That's where she found out about the attempt on the reporter's life that would be happening later on that day, also a few other shady dealings her boss Otaka was doing. Above that's Reishi on the phone and while a sham psychic he does know much about curses, he's the first one to wonder if the Kotodama curse may be going in numerical order.

 Shows being 23 minutes in length makes it difficult to fit everything into one episode so much of this gets resolved in the third show. In the above screenshot is Shiori talking to the reporter Shimatani who wanted to get a story with her which she refused and didn't let on he may have only a few more hours to live! That mini chat took place at the apartment building and for once Shiori wasn't acting too coldly toward her neighbors but instead they thought she was overly frightened. Kotoha knew the reason behind the sudden mood change and was waiting for Shiori to leave the apartment. Shiori was a bit scared of what may happen to Shimatani and the hitman had to call Shiori to get her to come to the warehouse. Can't believe such an intelligent woman wouldn't realize that her boss Otaka was setting a trap for Shiori, one where she too could be a victim.

 Kotoha and Reishi followed Shiori to the abandoned warehouse but did have a hard time breaking into the room where Shiori would meet the reporter. However he wasn't there but in hiding was the hitman and was the whole story to kill Shimatani a ruse to get Shiori there? When Kotoha and Reishi finally broke into the warehouse room Shiori was lying there unconscious, was she shot or did the curse of Kotodama get to her first? That we didn't know at the time but you'll learn everything about Shiori in the next recap and as a matter of fact her story is still going on by the end of the fourth episode. Now that I can finally obtain the episodes will be doing these recaps much quicker, the next pair should be done by this Friday so don't forget what's happened!