"Mystery to Iunakare" drama, episode one recap

 

 Air Dates: January 10th until March 14, 2022 on Fuji-TV, Mondays at 9:00 pm

 Total of nine episodes, first show was seventy minutes in length but the others will be the usual 46 minutes. Blitz Fansubs is once again doing this drama, they're also doing another current series I'm viewing.

Ratings:

Episode one, 13.6% .... episode two, 12.7%.... Episode three, 13.2 %.... Episode four, 13.3%

Main Cast: The series takes place in Tokyo and most of the action revolves around cases being investigated by the fictional Otonari police station. However all of the stories and cases will end up involving the 21 year old college student Kunou and unlike other dramas will be using the character's last names as that's all they've been using. A huge plus for this series is that it doesn't star any of my fave actresses or Idols though Mai Shiraishi will be making a guest appearance. But I've seen all of the cast in many other dramas and they're all superb actors, so far superb describes this drama!

Masaki Suda as Totono Kunou.... In real life Masaki turns 29 in February but plays the 21 year old Kunou who is attending the prestigious Toei university. He's such a loner but doesn't act like a nerd or outcast at all, he makes sure others know he's never had a job, girlfriend, any other friends nor socializes in the least. But somehow Kunou has the intelligence of a Sherlock Holmes and let's others know how to solve their life problems. But not in an egotistical way as he is a down to earth guy though on occasion others have wanted to beat Kunou for telling them how to live properly. The name Totono is a play on words as it means neat and orderly which seems like another apt description for him.

Sairi Ito as Seiko Furomitsu.... The only female detective at the Otonari station and was looked down upon by her male counterparts. So much that Furomitsu had written a letter of resignation up in the first show but after meeting Kunou changed her mind about quitting. She is a dependable person whose confidence is growing with each show.

Matsuya Onoe as Yuto Ikemoto.... Detective at the station and in a way kind of a goofy man. In the first episode his wife had a child though his marriage wasn't going all that smoothly, that is until meeting Kunoe who gave him some solid advice though he himself has never been married nor had a girlfriend. Ikemoto was the only one for a while who treated Furomitsu as somewhat of an equal.

Michitaka Tsutsui as Mariaki Aoto....Inspector at the Otonari station and is kind of a hard man to figure out. Aoto is a bit quiet though there could be some good reasons for that, he was once a Deputy Inspector but got demoted for a case where he targeted the wrong suspect. That happened seven yeas ago but Kunou remembered the case and told Aoto where he may have gone wrong.

 Guest Stars: There's going to be many known actors making some guest appearances but just one in this first show and he may be the busiest actor of the last twenty years.

 Kenichi Endo as Kanzo Yabu.... Another detective at the station and is the oldest of the team. His wife and eleven year old son were killed in a car accident three years ago and he's vowed revenge on the driver. Yabu thought he found the driver and can't give away any spoilers yet but it was the wrong man and he then tried to frame Kunou for a murder!

 

 Whew, as I've mentioned often writing up the above is the hardest part of a recap. Almost always do two recaps in a row which I think makes it easier to follow the story. But will be just having one post for today and there's a few reasons for that. One is that this was a long episode at seventy minutes, that's almost 1 1/2 episodes so have a feeling this won't be a brief post. Another reason is that the next two episodes are one long story and it begins off in the final two minutes of this first show. So that would have meant three longish drama recaps in a row and realize that's too much to read at once so will have that next pair in about five days, am in no rush to finish them as this series is still airing. To date have watched the first 2 1/2 shows and this is one fine drama, one that's better to view than to read about. While I can describe all of the events and details there's a certain 'atmosphere' about this show which is almost impossible to put into words so recommend viewing this. Blitz Fansubs is a somewhat new site and they do a solid job with their dramas which is where you can get this series. Enough of an intro and the first recaps are always the longest, let's get to the action.

 Totono Kunou is an ordinary 21 year old college student but just ordinary by his appearance, Actually tough to say appearance as you can see his hair is extremely frizzy and there's no way he can control it so he often needs to go to a hairdresser. Kunuo is attending the prestigious Toei University and is in their education program but seems he has an eye on doing detective work, he's already a master in that field! One normal day, which will turn out to be five unnormal days, there was a knock at his door and it was pair of detectives from the local Otonari police department. At the time Kunou was making his favorite dish was Curry, it's been kind of funny as how every time he's ready to chow down a plate of Curry he gets interrupted. The detectives have told Kunou there was a recent murder in the area, does he know anything about it? No was Kunou's response but for some reason the detectives thought he knew more and dragged him down to the station, this turned out to be the beginning of an elaborate framing scheme.

 Above are the two main detectives working on this case, we'll also meet the third person on the case who is an Inspector. You can see one man is Ikemoto, the man in the bottom screenshot is named Yabu and he's the man running the show. He's one hard nosed man and immediately began ripping into Kunou upon arriving at the station. The murder victim's name was Sagae who two nights ago was stabbed to death in a park. Kunou went to high school with the deceased and both were also attending Toei University, obviously Kunou must have known Sagae somewhat well. That was far from the case as while Kunou didn't hate the man he also avoided him but then again he avoids everyone as Kunou is sort of proud he has no friends! Sagae came from a very wealthy family and did flaunt his good fortune in front of others which was another reason for Kunou to avoid the man.

 Yabu had been stressing that there was a witness to the brutal crime and that's about when we learned of Kunou's extraordinary talents. Though such a private person he seems to know everything that goes on in the world, mainly how things happen and why. Kunou threw that witness claim right back at Yabu and wanted to know who was this person, why do they trust his testimony, why was he in the park, etc.? We could tell that really flustered Yabu but he's a cool man on the outside and wouldn't answer any of those questions, he felt Kunou is the culprit and won't let anything prevent him from getting to the truth! So that mainly finished off that day's interrogation but not the case itself, Kunou would be making an appearance at the station for the next four days which is forcing him to miss his classes. But before he left the station on day one Kunou's fingerprints needed to be scanned, that was done by the only woman on the team who is Furomitsu. As you can see by her comments she's looked down by everyone on the team and had begun to write her resignation letter up. So while she wasn't a key part of questioning Kunou she does become an important part of the case later on and by the end of the show deleted that resignation letter.

 Kunou has this unique ability to look at situations in a different way than most others do, he would make for a superb detective. For instance the following day be was talking to the team's main Inspector Aoto who is right above in that newspaper article. Kunou remembered that case from seven years ago when Aoto had arrested the wrong man for a serial killing spree, because of that he was demoted from Chief Inspector to a regular Inspector. Kunou had told Aoto to revisit the case and take a different look at what had taken place such as.... the Truth. For instance the way two people look at something could be considered two truths, while only one is possible it doesn't mean the other person may be lying about an incident or in what they believe, sounds complicated but when Kunou explained it it wasn't.

 It's day two of the investigation to prove Kunou murdered his classmate Sagae and he agreed to let Yabu search his apartment. That was after a bombshell was dropped into Kunou's lap as his fingerprints matched the ones found on the fruit knife that killed Sagae! Kunou did admit it was his knife but he had never used it and was it possible that someone had stolen it from his apartment? It was very possible as we'll see and after searching Kunou's apartment Yabu also made another key discovery on his laptop. There was an IOU template and to Yabu was Kunou trying to blackmail Sagae? But once again Kunou threw all of this 'evidence' back in the veteran detective's face. Kunou isn't a dumb man, why would he throw away a knife with his fingerprints on it in a park trash can? Kunou told Yabu a few other bits of evidence made no sense and it seemed Yabu's team was beginning to question why he was so intent on pinning the murder on Kunou, we'll soon find out why.

 The detective Ikemoto seems like a fairly decent man, at times he can be a bit goofy but he's fair and also a very competent detective. His wife is about to have their first child and has seemed a bit sore at Ikemoto lately which has baffled him. Of course the man who has never had a girlfriend, Kunou, knew all about what Ikemoto's wife was going through and with his astute reasoning gave the detective some sound marriage advice which worked. Ikemoto, along with Furomistu, is quietly on Kunou's side and both think there's no way he could have killed Sagae. It's day three of the interrogation and one other talent Kunou has is an amazing memory. He was telling Yabu about their senior year in high school when Sagae's father got him a sports car but it had been taken away that Summer, the reason is because of what Kunou says in that above screenshot.

 And guess what family three Summers ago was involved in an accident? If you thought Yabu you'd be right on the money as his wife and eleven year old son were run over three years ago and the driver had never been found! Not enough space to go into all the details but Kunou has that ability to work out what has happened with just a few clues or bits of info to work with, could almost call him a modern day Holmes. To his credit Kunou doesn't have a huge ego and doesn't come off as someone superior to the next person though they don't always take his theories with a grin on their face. Just like Yabu didn't when confronted with the facts of that hit and run incident three years ago. It did impress the other detectives how Kunou was able to piece together a crime that did happen yet most of what happened had been held back from the papers. So it appears Kunou has at least solved the mystery of Yabu's wife and son being killed however Yabu already knew that Sagae was the driver of the car, what does Kunou's theory of how Yabu's family got killed have anything to do with him being held for murder?

**** Halfway through that above paragraph realized it was the seventh one for this post and could easily have sixteen to describe everything that too place. That's too long so will try to squeeze everything into ten paragraphs.

 During these proceedings Kunou had felt sure someone had broken into his apartment, not forcibly but with a key to the place. It occurred to Kunou that a year ago he had lost his front door key on campus, within a day it was returned to the Otonari police station. So someone obviously had time to make a duplicate but why wait an entire year to break in just to steal a fruit knife and put a bogus template on his laptop? The female detective Furomitsu did some digging and she is turning out to be a competent detective, with Ikemoto she's believing Kunou's story about being innocent. The key had been returned and guess who took care of it then.... Yabu! So while that doesn't prove anything Kunou feels sure he's being famed for the murder of his classmate Sagae and could Yabu be playing a part in it? The answer to that is a huge YES, on the fifth and final day of Kunou being interrogated for the murder he played all of his cards and accused Yabu of being the person to frame him for the crime.

 Kunou has such a future in law enforcement, not just as a detective but would also make such a persuasive attorney or perhaps a judge. He was so convincing with his argument that Yabu did confess to the murder of Sagae! For almost three years he had been working on his own time trying to solve the case and finally he found his man in Sagae but how could he get revenge on the young man? One day Yabu was on the Toei campus tailing Sagae when he noticed Kunou passing by the man and nodding to Sagae, seems to Yabu they knew each other. Right after that is when Kunou dropped his apartment key without realizing it, Yabu quickly snatched it up and made a copy of the key. Yabu didn't want to ever have to use it unless it was a dire emergency which is what eventually happened. By this time the murder took place a week ago, on that fateful night Yabu confronted Sagae in a park near Kunou's residence. Sagae denied the crime and thought Yabu was looking to blackmail him though Sagae was prepared to pay him off.

 Final segment, besides not admitting to running over his family Sagae had such an uppity way about him when he offered Yabu the money to got away. That infuriated Yabu to the Nth degree and within two seconds had stabbed the young man with Kunou's fruit knife, meanwhile the rest of the detectives were listening to the story. Yabu said if Sagae had just admitted his guilt he would have only arrested the man and let justice be served but when Sagae refused Yabu to himself thought there was no alternative and stabbed the poor man to death. But I wondered what would have happened if Kunou had gone to trial, would Yabu have remained quiet and let him possibly face the death penalty? So that framing against Kunou certainly backfired for Yabu and it got only worse. Kunou then told the man that Sagae had often lent his car out to some college freshman who had gone to their school and seldom drove the sports car himself. Furomitsu is proving she's a top notch detective as she went to this group of young men, one was so ashamed of what took place he confessed to driving the car that ran over Yabu's family, this scheme of Yabu's turned out to be such a tragedy.

 That's the last we'll hear of Yabu in this series as he was led away in shame but the way Kunou conducted himself and was able to discover the truth really impressed the other detectives on the case. One month later Ikemoto paid a visit to Kunou's apartment, of course as he was about to enjoy a dish of curry! He was there to thank him for the advice Kunou had given him about his wife, she just had their baby and things are going much better. During that unexpected visit popping into the apartment was Furomitsu who told Ikemoto to get a move on, a fourth dead body has been discovered! This is a brand new serial killer case Ikemoto and his team are working on, another reason for the visit was to possibly get some advice from Kunou about the killer! But this all took place in the final five minutes so much wasn't known about these recent deaths, Kunou had no time for any of the details as he was in a rush to attend an art exhibit.

 So he left and told the pair he would be in touch but in his scramble to catch the bus Kunou dropped his ticket to the event along the road. Furomitsu noticed it and rushed to catch Kunou before he got on the bus, too late as it was gone and that was odd as the bus arrived five minutes too soon? No, it wasn't a regular bus and you can see what is about to take place in the next two episodes above. The bus Kunou jumped onto is being hijacked by an out of control thug, that incident ended this first episode. Whew, what an episode it was and so aren't the next two shows. Not an overly intense drama but one where you can't take your eyes off the screen but the action does end up picking up quite a bit. So with this recap being so long you can see why I didn't want to have two more posts for the bus hijacking case, will have those sometime next week. So much took place in this seventy minute episode so do recommend viewing these screenshots which will help you follow the action better.