"Hiru" drama: Season one, episode three recap

 

 Air Dates: March 4th until April 8, 2022 on WOWOW, Fridays at 11:00 pm

Subs are being done by Irozuku Subs. According to them this first season is adapted from the 'Hiru 2' manga while season two will be based upon the first manga. So don't know if that means season two will be a prequel and we'll just see how things work out.

Main Cast: In Japanese Hiru means leeches but this title doesn't refer to that disgusting small creature. Instead the leeches in this drama refer to people who 'leech' off of others and in this case it's living in their apartment while that person is at work or school. Will be adding to this list as we go on, there's still some key characters we haven't seen after three episodes. The year hasn't been mentioned but presume it's 2021 and the month is July for certain.

Eiji Akaso as Yuki Shinomiya.... The main 'hero' and what a depressing young man of 21 he is. Yuki works part time as a cleaner at night and is such a quiet man who has no friends or social life. Plus it doesn't appear as though he owns a computer, stereo or TV and seems he spends his days doing nothing. Doing nothing until his identity was stolen by Yobi, now the police are on his tail and Yuki is on the lam with Zoka. Ten years ago Yuki's father killed a teen girl and is currently in prison.

Ai Yoshikawa as Zoka.... Same age as Yuki, she's a Hiru and quite an efficient one as she has a list of seventy apartments she could stay at. Not sure if Zoka is her true name and as a child she was abandoned by her mother. An older man who turned into a Hiru adopted her and treated Zoka as if she was his own daughter, that is until he was killed by Zobi!

Marie Iitoyo as Hako.... Haven't seen her in the first three shows, grrrr....

Shuntaro Yanagi as Yobi.... Another Hiru and as mentioned murdered Zoka's adoptive father. He had been staying at Yuki's apartment while he worked at night, he was discovered by Yuki one morning as Yobi couldn't leave for he had been stabbed(by Zoka)! He claimed to be Yuki at the hospital to the police who bought his story and what a cruel young man he is.

Kentaro Sakaguchi as Kara.... Met him briefly in the third episode when he saved Yuki from certain death and is considered to be a 'Hiru Hunter'.

Mizuki Itagaki as Tetris.... He finally made an appearance in this show and is also a Hiru but one that's trying to break free from the clutches of Yobi.

Hirokai Iwanaga as Chiroru.... One of Yobi's ruthless henchmen.

Takumi Matsuzawa as Miro.... He also works with Yobi but in a more important position as he appears to be his assistant unlike the above man who is just a thug.

Go Riju as Naoya Murao.... Senior detective at the Shinjuku station, he seems like a decent man who has been assigned to Yuki's case along with his partner.

Manami Konishi as Chika Suzuki.... Murao's partner and think she's divorced from the below character. She was the first to believe Yuki's story about his identity being stolen. Both work in the Violent Crimes Unit in Shinjuku.

Kotaro Tanaka as Junya Sato.... Detective at the main Suginami station, he appears to be a class one jerk and has a higher rank than the above detectives. 

 We're at the halfway point of season one and why couldn't they have just had one season of twelve episodes? We finally did meet two of the more 'important characters' in this episode who were Kara and Tetris but still no sign of Marie, sigh. To date would give this a rating of 7.8/10, one negative is that the episodes could be a bit longer as some events have been too rushed. But on the positive side the episodes have been getting better and with a strong finish could see the rating possibly jump up half a point. Am all caught up with Irozuku Subs so the next trio of posts should be in three weeks.

 Top screenshot is how the last show ended, that was with Zoka being brutally raped by Yobi's cruel henchman Chiroru. He had choked Zoka during the incident, so bad Chiroru thought she was dead which of course wasn't the case but we didn't see or hear anything about Zoka until near the end of this episode. Yuki knew what took place and he's besides himself with rage but there's not much he could do as he was tied and gagged plus he doesn't appear to be much of a fighter. Yobi easily could have had Yuki killed but seems to be a 'thrill seeker/risk taker' kind of man. Yobi released Yuki and as you can see above has dared Yuki to come and kill him, that's what's definitely on his mind as he didn't realize then that Zoka was still alive but in a spoiler is a captive of someone else.

 Didn't see too much of the detective team that's working on the stabbing of Yuki or should I say Yobi who was impersonating him. Suzuki is the female detective and she's really taken an interest in this case for she's come to the realization that Yuki was really just an innocent victim. Especially when she learned that Yuki's tiny apartment had been torched which left him with nowhere to go. As mentioned in the previous recap Suzuki is slowly getting the impression that a recent trio of killings could be the work of this rumored Hiru gang which is no longer a rumor but a fact. She's on the hunt for this impossible to find cult group but no more was heard of Suzuki's efforts after the first half of the show. Meanwhile Yuki has no home to return to after it was torched, all of his belongings are gone too. But he did have the sign-in info to Zoka's e-mail account which had her spreadsheet of seventy apartments that could be free to hide out in, Yuki has just gone to one of them.

 Yuki's choice of an apartment could have been a better one, he chose to spend the day at a place where a student lived. So that meant there wasn't all that much in the place and especially food, just one of everything such as ramen bowls or eggs but Yuki was least able to make a small bowl of pasta. According to Zoka the key to Hirus staying at places is to make sure the owner never knew anyone had been there. So that means only eating a little bit of food, not using too much soap, shampoo, etc. plus leaving everything exactly how it was. But that little bit of food has pumped some energy back into Yuki who would soon be travelling to the abandoned warehouse where Zoka was last seen. Yobi and his assistant are currently staying in a very ritzy high rise penthouse. The owner is a violinist who is in Europe for three months, Miro is that assistant and while cruel is an efficient man/Hiru.

 After what Chiroru did to Zoka Yobi felt this thug had outgrown his usefulness and has ordered another of his henchmen to eliminate Chororu. That's the man in the second to last screenshot, his name was Majime and say was as he himself was slain by the end of the show. Majime had gone to the building where Yobi felt Chiroru was holding Zoka captive, neither was there but to his surprise standing there with a knife was Yuki. As mentioned Yuki is not a fighter and Majime was able to take him down quite easily and was prepared to use a stun gun on him. But out of nowhere came a mysterious man who we only saw for a minute but think will be an important character. That's him right above and his name is Kara, he was able to take that stun gun away from Majime and used it on him which would allow Yuki enough time to escape. According to Yobi this Kara is a 'Hiru Hunter' and a very dangerous man to his cult. Once Kara realized Yuki wasn't a Hiru he let him flee the building but gave him one bit of sound advice which is don't trust anyone he may meet on his quest to find the abducted Zoka.

 Yuki has been using a manga cafe to access Zoka's e-mail and spreadsheet on available apartments. To his shock there was a message from someone and now he's fairly certain Zoka is alive but where is she? Yuki arranged to meet this person who sent the message the following day at the Nakano Station and he took Kara's advice about everyone not being who they may seem to be. That person is right above and is another new character we met this show who is named Tetris. He too is a Hiru but wants to break away from the clutches of Yobi and thinks he can with the help of Zoka and perhaps Yuki. This Tetris is one tough man and though Yuki still had the knife it got taken away from him in a matter of seconds. Just before Tetris was able to explain the e-mail and Zoka's situation popping out of the shadows was the henchman Majime who took was taken down quickly by Tetris, not just taken down but stabbed to death and this thug was hidden away in the parking garage where this was all taking place.

 Tetris then related the events of the last two days to Yuki. He had found Zoka tied up at that abandoned building where she was presumed to have died but of course that didn't happen. Tetris took her from the building but was still very leery of Zoka as she too was a Hiru. But she convinced Tetris that she has four million yen stashed away, it's all his if Tetris will let her go. But he doesn't want to free Zoka quite yet and now with stumbling across Yuki he now has his partner to help him find the money which is in four different locations. So this episode ended with Yuki about to be reunited with Zoka which is how the next episode will begin, as mentioned the last trio of recaps will be in three weeks. Also mentioned how each show seems to be getting a bit better so it may be worth checking this drama out as episodes are only 26 minutes in length.