"Itoshii Uso: Yasashii Yami" drama, episode two recap

 

 Air Dates: January 14th until March 18, 2022 on TV-Asahi, Friday nights at 11:15 pm

Episodes are 48 minutes in length, subs were done by Blitz Subs

Main Cast: Wrote much of this bio info up after viewing the first episode and will update as we go along. For instance it appears the fifth character has been killed at the end of this first show! The first six characters are all 29 in age and attended Yamanashi Junior High School. In the first episode they attended their 14th(?) reunion since graduating and all were friends back then.... or were they? A main underlying theme is the fact all of the six main characters are living their lives as a Lie and are hiding some deep secret from their school days....

Haru as Mio Imai.... The drama seems to revolve around Mio who is a very timid person but has been well liked save for two of the main characters. Her dream was to be a manga artist and she works at the Enami Manga Studio editing stories and books. Three years ago Mio did have her first manga but none since then as that book wasn't too successful. She has an enemy at her office named Rie who appears to have stolen some of Mio's stories. Back in school she also had a severe crush on the next person.

Kento Hayashi as Shuichi Amemiya.... Is the president of a small IT company in Tokyo and he seems to be doing very well. Back in school Amemiya was adored by many of his female classmates and that's continued to the present day, it seems secretly he's also had a crush on Mio which he hasn't revealed yet. 

Yuika Motokariya as Reiko Honda.... Mio's best friend back in school and like the above two characters has moved to Tokyo while the next three still reside in Yamanashi. Reiko has been very successful as she works as an attorney but is hiding a secret/lie from Mio that happened when they were in junior high but aren't all six hiding some deep secrets?

Junpei Mizobata as Ryo Fukazawa.... Seems to be the most level headed of the six 'friends' and think he's Mio's mystery fan. Ryo has remained in Yamanashi to work at his family's winery which he will eventually take over, like the others he has a mysterious secret from the past.

Yua Shinkawa as Nanae Iwasaki.... The class 'Princess' but what a cruel and eerie person she was in this first episode.... will it be her only appearance before her death?! Of all the main characters Nanae's life is the biggest of lies as she has given such a false image of herself on social media but those lies were beginning to crumble around her, especially when she began to stalk Mio! She's was still living in Yamanashi and worked as an OL, none of her dreams worked out.

Tomoka Kurokawa as Yumi Nose.... Final of the six who attended school in Yamanashi and the only person to have gotten married. Yumi is just a housewife with no children and her husband Tadashi is such a strict man, perhaps even a violent person too. However she's kept the misery of her marriage hidden and really none of these six 'friends' knew the others all that well, least for now....

This picture is from their junior high school reunion that took place early in episode one.

 Rest of the cast who will play a major part in the action.

 Sayuri Matsumura as Rie Okazaki.... She needs no introduction to Nogi fans! Rie works at the same Manga company as Mio and has made life so uncomfortable for her. Rie has stolen at least one of her stories and constantly blames her in front of others for her own mistakes.

Satoshi Tokushige as Tadashi Nose..... Yumi's overbearing and violent(?) husband, a director for the Yamanashi Police.

Mari Nishio as Hiroko Enami.... Owner of the manga company Mio and Rie work at. She's been noticing more and more on how badly Rie has been treating Mio but for now has kept quiet about it though is trying to diffuse this potential time bomb.

 Above is how the last show ended and this one began. That's Nanae who met her death in the final few seconds of the first episode and at the time she was with someone but who remains a mystery. As a matter of fact as time went on in this episode the questions about Nanae's death have grown and that may remain a mystery until the final show. The police have ruled the incident an accident or possible suicide, we viewers now that wasn't the case and it appears so don't Nanae's friends' from school, now on to what took place in this show.

 There was a funeral down in Yamanashi for the tragedy though we didn't see the actual event. After it the trio of Mio, Reiko and Yumi paid a visit to her mother, though 29 in age Nanae still lived at home. Did mention in that first recap what a false impression Nanae had given everyone about her life on social media and her room was a perfect example of the Big Lie Nanae was living. The room was jammed packed with jewelry, expensive handbags and clothes along with a few other things from her 'admirers' , could one of those men have been the cause of Nanae's death? Though the police don't think a crime was committed the very astute lawyer Reiko could tell that her old friend had been pushed off a remote bridge. On Nanae's phone was her final photo taken, it was too far away to be a 'selfie' so that obviously means she was there with someone else, the person that pushed Nanae to her death?!

 As I mentioned the longer this show went on the more questions there were about Nanae's death and so far few have been answered. Above is Ryo who works at his family's winery, behind him in the background is the sixth of the group of old friends who is Amemiya. That customer was warning Ryo about his old friend, rumor has it he's such a womanizer and told Ryo to avoid that creep at all costs. That rumor about Amemiya spread like wildfire but by the end of the show most of the mystery about his womanizing will be answered. With the funeral complete and Nanae's room searched it was time to head back to Tokyo for Mio and Reiko, may have been better to stay in Yamanashi! That's because the killer(?) of Nanae is still on the loose and does he now have Mio targeted as his next victim? That first night back home Mio had been out at night returning from work, while waiting at a corner to cross out of nowhere jumped a dark, hooded figure who pushed Mio in front of a truck barreling down the street. Luckily the truck swerved and Mio was safe but this killer won't stop at one attempt.

 That fourth screenshot above features a very key item, it's an umbrella Mio took from Nanae's room when she and her two mates paid their final respects to the mother. Right below that is Ryo who is constantly making trips from Yamanashi to Tokyo to check up on Mio, the distance is about 65 miles. In that first episode he seemed like the most level headed of the six person group, now I'm starting to have my doubts. Often he just sits in his small truck outside of Mio's apartment without her knowing about it, is he just worried about her safety or is Ryo actually a stalker?! On this one occasion which happened after that near fatal push he warned Mio about Amemiya's womanizing but it appears to me he's had such a crush on her since their school days. Also mentioned in that first recap that Mio was working at the Enima Manga Studio, she had one manga published three years ago but none since.

 One reason could be that her co-worker above Rie has stolen one of Mio's stories and submitted it to their editor claiming it to be her own. The editor liked it so much Rie will be having her first story in a magazine which left Mio furious but then again she also confessed Rie did do all of the drawing and writing while Mio herself was too stagnant at her job to do a project like that. So Rie has been relieved of her regular duties while she writes up her first manga but sadly tragedy also awaits her. After the news was announced of her 'vacation' Rie left the manga studio to discover it was pouring out, she rushed back in and grabbed the first umbrella she saw. If you paid attention from what was written you may have guessed it was Mio's umbrella which she had taken from Nanae's house. It had a very unique red design to it and stood out which would make it easy for someone to notice.... such as a killer! So this person followed Rie in the rain and when she waited to cross a street the same thing that happened with Mio took place here as she was shoved in front of a vehicle. Not as lucky as Mio was for a car did strike Rie, she wasn't dead at the scene and probably won't die but she was hurt severely and will be in the hospital for a while.

 So Nanae's old umbrella has become a key item in this mystery. Very few people knew Mio was using it, her four friends, Nanae's mother and perhaps the two women at Mio's office. But above Yumi added in another name, that of the unknown Miyuki Nakano. So it boils down to could it have been one of Mio's four friends who followed her because of the umbrella, if so why is the obvious question. We did learn a bit more about Nakano in this show. During his final year in junior high he had moved away and perhaps to an orphanage or a relative's house? That's because his parents perished in a house fire and by the way Mio's friends are avoiding talking about the tragedy it appears they may have had something to do with the fire or knew who did it. If so does that mean Nakano has returned for revenge(?), that's Yumi's theory.

 Speaking of her what a creep for a husband she has. His name is Tadashi and he does have a very high profile position as a director at the Yamanashi prefect police HQ. This man is such a neat freak and also one jealous person who will constantly check Yumi's phone to find out if she's been talking with another man! But the husband may be on to something as we did witness Yumi having a one sided phone conversation with someone who appeared to be a man, can't blame her if she's having an affair! Meanwhile back in Tokyo the lawyer Reiko has been working on digging up details of her friend's Nanae's last hours. She was killed from falling(pushed?) off a bridge at about 1:00 pm on January 15th, it's now the 22nd. Just before her death Nanae made a call to a man who Reiko thinks may have been Amemiya! Plus his car was in Yamanashi during that time frame, all signs are pointing towards Amemiya being the killer and Mio needed to be warned to avoid him.

 Final segment and this is a drama that will be difficult to have brief recaps for as so much has and will be taking place. But longer recaps are also good for that means much has been happening plus it means I'm also really enjoying the show. Mio finished up that manga and it's unknown if it'll be a regular feature in a magazine. But Amemiya wanted to celebrate Mio's good fortunes and against Reiko's advice decided to go to dinner with him. There Mio laid all of her cards on the table to Amemiya, was she sitting across from a liar, womanizer and a killer?! The answer for now may be no to all of those accusations and Amemiya drove Mio back to their hometown of Yamanashi to prove his innocence. Yes, he was in the city at the time of Nanae's death but he was visiting his mother at a nursing home. She has an early case of Alzheimer's so she lives at this home plus there was a record of Amemya being there at the time of Nanae's death. Plus there were records of Amemiya visiting this mother when Mio and her co-worker Rie were pushed in front of vehicles. Amemiya also explained a few other things about the rumors floating around about him and to Mio her old friend is on the up and up, if so then who among her other three friends could be a potential killer?

 None of the three seem as though they could kill someone else but one never knows these things, Ryo has become a bit shady and secretive this episode but to me don't think he's guilty of any crime. So perhaps Yumi's suggestion about Nakano could be true and that's something that Mio began to investigate towards the end of the episode, you can see a screenshot of that above. So that mainly ended this show but now we have many more questions that need to be answered. The third episode aired tonight and the subbing team seems as though they'll be doing these shows quickly so should be back in less than two weeks with the next pair of recaps. After two shows I'm really enjoying this mystery and so far would recommend it, plenty of screenshots to help you follow the story a bit better.