"Mystery to Iunakare" drama, episode two 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, quite a few for the second and third episodes.

 Eita Nagayama as Garo Inudo.... Garo is his real name, that was revealed in the third episode and had been using the alias of Kumada until then. The next two characters are his cousins, Anju is his younger dead sister. Garo was the master mind of the bus hijacking and the interrogation at his families estate. But he's a decent man who wanted to know the truth of his sister's death, he's so similar to Kunou who he grew to respect.

Yuki Kunota as Haya Inudo.... Used two aliases(!), at first was known as Sakimoto until the middle of the second show and then claimed to be Garo until the third episode. Looks like a bit of a thug but Haya was one intelligent man and also wanted to know the truth about Anju.

Ryohei Abe as Otoya Inudo.... Haya's younger brother who didn't use an alias, he looks like a thug for he just may be one! Otoya's motto seems to be 'Hit first, ask questions later'.

Mai Shiraishi as Anju Inudo.... Not a lot of screen time for Mai but her character was so important, she was the first of four victims of the serial killer.

Yoshiyuki Morishita as Makoto Tabakomori.... Driver of the hijacked bus, bit of a quiet and timid person but those are the ones you have to watch out for!!!!

Hiccorohee as Rira Tsuyuki.... Passenger on the bus who claimed to be a reporter but actually worked at a small office as an OL. Kyoko Saito fans may know her as the two are hosts of the 'Kyoccorohee' variety show.

Aimi Satsukawa as Megumi Kashiwa.... Another passenger on the hijacked bus, she's in a dead end marriage and may be getting divorced soon.

Akio Kaheda as Yukihito Narasaki.... Yet another passenger on the bus, a recently retired businessman who seems to be quite wealthy.

YukiMorinaga as Ippeo Awaji.... Last of the passengers and works at a convenience store, he's been fired from many jobs for stealing.

Previous recaps

Episode one

 Whew, that guest star list is quite huge and luckily they're all in the next show too. That's because this is a two part story, it actually began at the end of the first episode but it was just a bit of a tease. No idea how long this post will be but have a feeling it's going to be so difficult making these recaps brief. In a way though that's a positive thing for it means so much has happened and that's been the case so far through three episodes. Also take a huge amount of screenshots and as mentioned before do recommend viewing them as they do explain the story a bit better.

 The drama revolves around the 21 year old college student Kunou who is such a unique young man. He has this ability to simplify and explain how everything in the world works though he himself is a bit of a hermit but mainly by choice. So this story began in the final two minutes of the first show where Kunou was running to catch a bus to attend an art exhibit, unknown to him at the time he had dropped his ticket. Kunou barely made the bus as it was five minutes early, would have been much better had he missed it for on the bus was a hijacker and that'll be the main story. However there was another big bombshell dropped at the end of the first episode which was that there's a serial killer on the loose and his fourth victim was just discovered, there hasn't been one clue to connect any of them. But these two stories themselves do connect and over these two posts we'll see how, actually I'm wondering if one of the stories will continue on.

 Most of the action takes place on the hijacked bus or the estate where it travelled to. So we didn't see too much of the detectives from the Otonari police station but they do play a key part in the story and will discuss what took place with them first. In that first episode Kunou made such an impression at the station, he had been investigated for a murder of a classmate but solved the crime which was done by an older detective named Yabu. The way Kunou can look at details, evidence and situations is so unique, so much that a detective named Ikemoto paid the him a visit at the end of the first show. Ikemoto was hoping Kunou could shed some light on a serial killer who already had three victims, make that four as the female detective Furomitsu rushed in with the news of that fourth killing. But Kunou had no time for police work, he wanted to attend an exhibit at a museum that afternoon. So he rushed away to catch this fated bus but unknown to Kunou he had dropped his ticket on the path to the bus. Furomitsu noticed it, picked the ticket up and tried to catch Kunou before he jumped on the bus but oddly it must have arrived five minutes early.

 One of the passengers was able to send out an SOS about the hijacking to a friend before the hostages phones were taken away. That was reported to the Otonari station but there was no report of a missing bus, of course not as the hijackers had bought this private bus. Furomitsu had almost turned in her resignation in the first show but after meeting Kunou changed her mind, he's really got a pair of allies at the station in her and Ikemoto. Doing some investigating Furomitsu noticed a 'Help Us!' note at a rest stop which had been written by Kunou but only a sliver of the paper remained of the note. But it was enough for her small team to realize there really was a bus hijacking in progress, one where their new friend Kunou was a hostage. So for now the main case was this hijacking over the serial killer but a connection had been made about the killings, the victims had all taken the same bus route. One other detail about the killings is that the victims were all buried alive.

 It wasn't a crowded bus that was hijacked, there were nine people in all on it at the time the event took place. The hijacker, bus driver and seven hostages though we'll soon see who people said they were wasn't the case. What the hijacker named Inudo wanted wasn't said by him and he appeared to be a brainless thug who was also quite violent. So a person like Kunou would easily rile such a person with his unique observations which impressed a fellow rider named Kumada but not the hijacker who became so fed up with Kunou's words he lunged at him with a knife. But in the nick of time he was saved from a possible death by a passenger named Sakimoto who is in the bottom two screenshots above. But as you can see Sakimoto was an alias of the man whose real name was also Inudo, will refer to him as Garo for now but as we'll learn in the next recap that too was an alias. But saving Kunou from being stabbed meant Garo had to give up his identity and told the hostages he was Inudo's cohort in this abduction.

 As you can tell by their names the pair are brothers and what were their intentions for this group of six hostages? That remained unknown for a while but in a key development the bus stopped at a remote rest area. There was when Kunou wrote that SOS message and hid it under a rock hoping it would be discovered, it was by an unknown passenger who tore it up! Upon leaving the rest area the bus almost ran over a cyclist who reported the near miss to the Otonari station, that's what made Furomitsu visit the place. This journey started at 2:30 pm, now it's nighttime and the bus has arrived at the House of Inudo which was a large mansion deep in the woods. While the younger brother Inudo is a bit of a rough man that's not the case for Garo who seems to be an intelligent man and treated the hostages with respect. A huge feast was awaiting the group at the mansion but they were locked in that room and the question still is what do the pair of hijackers want?

 That was revealed shortly after the group had a chance to dine and also during that stretch had been secretly observed. Though the plans to kidnap the five passengers plus Kunou seemed elaborate the reason they were gathered there were quite simple. When the brothers returned to the fancy room Garo told the group why they were gathered, that was to find out info on how his sister Anju was killed! And to be more specific was the killer among the group of five that had been abducted? The Otonari police hadn't been much of a help so Garo has taken it upon himself to solve this case of the serial killer who already has four victims. But there was a sixth passenger who was Kunou and while he wasn't a part of this grilling by Garo he played a huge part in the proceedings due to him having the uncanny mind of a superior detective. After a bit of chit chat to get to know each other better Garo told them it was confession time, he wanted to hear what was the worst crime all of the group had committed? Not that he was really interested in what 'crime' they may have committed but he wanted to observe the personalities of the passengers and felt he would be able to pick out the killer.

 So everyone, save for Garo, opened up about a crime and none of them were that serious. Such as the bus driver Tabakomori saying he had let a goldfish die when he was a child and had been able to hide it from his strict parents. Right above is the convenience store worker Awaji who said he was bullied into stealing when he was younger and that stealing has continued on to this day. But as mentioned often Kunou has this ability to understand situations better than almost anyone else and gave the group a speech on how and why bullies in Japan are allowed to get away with those cowardly actions. This went on for a while and of course after each 'confession' Kunou had to throw his two cents in, while at times it infuriates the next person everything Kunou says is the truth. One passenger who I haven't mentioned is Kumada, he's the man with straight hair who has gotten along with Kunou from the first second. Kumada is a person who does respect the views that Kunou shares about everyone's life and had tried to help him on bus when the younger Inudo tried to stab him. That top screenshot above is a portrait of Garo's younger sister Anju, she had gone missing three months prior but was found two weeks ago as the fourth victim though it's been determined she was killed first. Garo claimed to have painted that portrait but Kunou noticed something about it where it wasn't possible it was his work.

 Final segment, this went quicker than I thought though the paragraphs have been a bit longer than usual. Not all of the passengers had confessed to a crime yet but Garo said he needed a break, it was more of a trick to see what would happen. He left the room with his brother but failed to lock the doors which was noticed quickly by the young woman Kashiwa who told the group about the doors. As everyone began to flee the room and then the estate Kashiwa suddenly started screaming for Garo to return and wouldn't let the group leave! That was very suspicious to the group, could this young woman be a partner of the brothers? The answer is no and why Kashiwa did what she did had a good reason though in a way it was slightly odd. She told the group her story, she's married to a wealthy man but can't have children, for that reason his family has told him to divorce her and to Kashiwa no one in her husband's family has ever cared about her. But if they learn about her abduction perhaps they'll change their views on Kashiwa and accept her as a member of he family, she told the group to wait until the media arrived so she would be on TV!

 Guess her reasoning did make sense but then again she's endangering the lives of the six others. No media arrived but shortly after that speech by Kashiwa storming through the windows and doors were the SWAT team from the Otonari police station. Thanks to the diligent work of the detective Furomitsu the only possibility where the bus could have gone was this remote location and the only place in the woods was the House of Inudo. Needless to say she was overjoyed to see Kunou was still alive, so wasn't her partner Ikemoto but unsure of the feelings of their inspector Aoto. But that joy was shot lived for as the episode ended Kunou told the detectives.... 'There's a serial killer in this room!'. So that line ended off this show and the action will pick up right there in the next recap which is the next post, as usual do recommend skimming through the screenshots.