Nanase Nishino: "Kotodamasou" drama, episode ten(final) recap

 

 Air Dates: October 9th until December 18, 2021 on TV-Asahi, Saturday nights at 11:00 pm

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

**** The December 4th episode had to be pre-emepted so the series will ended on the 18th.

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. Over the course of six shows have learned more about this curse, here's a few more details.

**** The Kotodama curse is awakened when someone raps three times at the caretaker's office door, it's happened twice so far in the series.

**** The curse may also do some nice things for a potential victim such as granting a wish but in the end that wish is why the person died!

**** The Kotodama hates persons that lie, if you say the same one three times you will be possessed by the spirit.

**** However there are still some unanswered questions such as why does the Kotodama only pick out certain wishes and lies?

**** As mentioned the Kotodama has something to do with words and phrases, in the seventh episode we learned the spirit is of the dead author Natsume so guess that makes a bit of sense that the curse is someone who was so adept at words. At the end of the ninth show it appears that someone else is actually the cursed spirit, who it is will be revealed.

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 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 it 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 which has changed after she was targeted for death by her boss!

 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 at Ashita-TV 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, she was affected by the curse during the fourth episode but managed to live. However against Asami's wishes she donated a liver(!) which went to her ex-boyfriend Suzuki.

 Anna Ishii as Saki Hayashibara.... Resident of apartment five who is a school teacher and had been secretly dating a man named Suzuki, the same man who broke up with Asami! However in the fifth show he broke up with both of them.

 Rio Uchida as Hitomi Watanabe.... Final resident in the building who resides in #6. She's an editor/publisher and through six episodes is the only person in the apartment building not to have been cursed.

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.

Shiro Sano as Hisashi Hatori.... first introduced in the seventh episode, he's been the owner of the Ladies' Court apartment building for over 25 years.

Mina Fujii as Natsume Mitsuba.... We won't see too much of her but she was a writer who lived at the apartment building 25 years ago. At the time the residence was named Kotodamasou and Natsume was killed in the building, is her spirit still haunting the place?

Nanao as Sora Sugai.... Briefly saw her in the seventh and eighth episodes. Added her in for the ninth show as her role became much larger. She's the one who killed Natsume 25 years ago but we're still no sure if it's her or Sora who has become the Kotdama curse.

 Previous recaps

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

Episode five .... Episode six .... Episode seven .... Episode eight

 Now on to the semi thrilling conclusion and while it's been an intense and creepy drama it's also been confusing at times so it may need a second viewing to understand everything. Not sure what an appropriate ending for this series would have been, this was a solid final episode but not as eerie or compelling as the previous nine shows. But all in all really enjoyed this drama and before the final recap begins will give it a final rating of 8.8/10. Noticed I gave the "Girl Gun Lady" an 9/10 which was the highest of the year to date though I thought this show was better, they were both different yet in a way very similar.

 Never do any kind of lists for my top dramas of the year and that's because I view so many from prior years. The best show of the year could have been "Watashi no Otto wa Reitouko" that was also very similar to "Kotodamasou". Biggest difference was the length as this show had ten episodes yet 'Watashi' just had six. So because of that gave it a rating of 8.4/10 though had it been as long as this series it may have been my top show for 2021. Overall a good year for dramas and especially late night shows which I much prefer, let's get to this final recap. Been making these posts a bit too long for a 23 minute show so will make this a bit shorter but will give enough details to whet your appetite.

 At the end of the ninth episode it appeared the Ladies' Court building owner Hatori had met his fate at the hands of the Kotodama spirit. Didn't happen as he was alive and well for this show but in a minor spoiler not for the entire episode. Since the fifth episode the cast and us viewers thought the Kotodama was the spirit of Natsume who had come back to the building seeking revenge. But towards the end of the last show it began to appear that the curse was actually her 'lover' Sora who had killed Natsume 25 years before, what kind of revenge is Sora seeking? No one was quite sure but it's come down to that the remaining four alive cast members needed to deal with Sora at the building where the murder took place, more specifically in the caretaker's room.

 In the second screenshot above is the spirit of Sora who still haunts the room and building. She disappeared right after Natsume's death 25 years ago, we did learn her fate but never of what happened with her body. Hatori had been engaged to Natsume 25 years ago which infuriated Sora as she was having an intense relationship with Natsume and truly loved the woman. Sora was also her 'ghostwriter' for Natsume's popular novels which was unknown until recently. Natsume's engagement led Sora to killing her and could the purpose of Sora's revenge be to whisk Natsume away to whatever world spirits reside in? Seemed like the most logical thing to Kotoha who had Hatori bring the urn with Natsume's ashes which he's had for 25 years but at first they had no affect as Sora remained silent.

 Perhaps a Kotodama curse can't speak as I've just realized it never said a word for the entire series. But the spirit of Sora was still angry with Hatori and his intention of wedding Natsume, in the caretaker's room she cut his face in an explosion and his body was thrown into a corner. It appeared then that the Kotodama curse became much weaker as appearing out of the shadows was Reishi who we hadn't seen since the end of the seventh show, he was alive and well. Soon after that reappearing were the other four women residents of the building who all disappeared at the end of the eighth show, they too were alive and may help to read that recap for all of the details. So with everyone returned Sora's spirit 'evaporated' and the group left the room to decide on what to do next.

 While they were in a 'spirit state' in the caretaker's room Reishi and the four women were able to view the incidents of what took place 25 years ago. They witnessed Sora strangling Natsume and also of Hatori entering the room right after that. He discovered a new manuscript that Sora wrote for Natsume and was going to take it for himself as it would have made a boatful of money. Hatori's evil scheme was too much for Sora who somehow willed the manuscript to burn up in his hands!!!! Right then got the strong impression that Hatori was never in love with Natsume and this 'wedding' was just a way to get her money. Sora must have realized that too but though she had some sort of special power she was no match for Hatori who pounced on her, soon he dragged Sora into the bathroom and proceeded to drown her in the tub. 

 Wasn't really anything that could be done to Hatori after his confession, he could deny what he said plus how could the police believe the story of the five who were transformed into spirits and witnessed the crime that took place 25 years ago? However Sora could do something as she finally got her revenge on Hatori. In the top screenshot above she tangled a piece of cloth around his head, dragged him into a bathroom and he died the same way she did 25 years ago, by drowning! All of that was accomplished by an invisible Sora as the group watched helplessly. But least now the spirits of Natsume and Sora could be reunited and spend their after years together, a ceremony was performed by Shima to do that. On one other note though the four women who disappeared in the eighth show returned it didn't happen with Sayaka and Yukino who were killed early on in the series.

 Getting close to the end and all of the residents have decided to move out of the apartment building. All save for Kotoha who will remain as she told the others she made a promise to her best friend Sayaka to always remain close to her, does that mean her spirit is still hovering around the building? However Reishi has convinced Kotoha it's best to get a new start and she's agreed to move out and live with him! But in the final minute his car stalled as they were travelling away to wherever. While Reishi was fixing the problem who should appear in front of the car but Sayaka, she's right above. She mouthed the words 'You Promised' to Kotoha as she's furious that her friend moved from the building, will the curse of Sayaka now be following Kotoha wherever she goes? Whew, that finally wraps up this series which I highly recommend though as mentioned it can be a bit confusing, kind of like these recaps!