"Mystery to Iunakare" drama, episode eight recap

 

 Air Dates: January 10th until March 28, 2022 on Fuji-TV, Mondays at 9:00 pm

 Total of twelve 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 and recapping.

Ratings:

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

Episode five, 10.0% .... Episode six, 10.2% .... Episode seven, 12.3% .... Episode eight 10.6%

No doubt the drop in ratings for two shows was due to the Olympics.

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. 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 turned 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.

 Eita Nagayama as Garo Inudo.... Though we mainly just see him in flashbacks he does play an important part in this series and expect to see a return from him in the final two shows. To learn more about Garo read the second and third recaps, his sister had been murdered and along with his two cousins Garo tried to find the killer. Which did happen and the trio got their revenge but are on now on the run from the law. Kunou and Garo got along so well together and it's possible Garo has a hand in the some of the events that have been taking place.

Kosuke Suzuki as Haruo Amatatsu.... Kunou's psychology professor at Todai University, we had only seen him briefly before this in the seventh episode. He was also the boyfriend of Kiwa who died five years ago.

Kuranosuke Sasaki as Tachibaba Kitsutaka.... Long time friend of Amatatsu, Tsuta and Kiwa. The quartet went to high school and college together and currently Kitsutaka works at the Nishi City Hall which is a ward in Tokyo. Very odd man who claims to have many OCD's but is hiding many tragic secrets.

Mansaku Ikeuchi as Tohei Tsuta.... Organizer of this 'Whondunnit' game and is the owner of the Ivy House Villa in Yamanashi where these episodes take place. Tsuta means Ivy in Japanese and he also founded the website Mystery Society.

Asami Mizukawa as Kiwa Miyoshi.... She died five years ago and she's the main reason for this get together for was her death an accident or a murder? So we only saw her in flashbacks and she was the girlfriend of Amatatsu at the time of her death. Kiwa was also Kunou's teacher when he was about ten in age and she's the one who introduced him to Amatatsu.

The four characters mentioned right above.

Hiromasa Taguchi as Della.... A member of Tsuta's Mystery Society website and was invited to take place in this 'Whodunnit' game.

Kento Shibuya as Pan.... Same details as the above person but actually the two are not who they claimed to be, more on that in the next recap.

Previous recaps

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

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

 Not sure after the pair of recaps today whether there's going to be one or two episodes left. Going in thought there would be ten shows but it appeared an eleventh was added but can't say I'm 100% certain  of that. It would help as the two episode cases tend to be a tad better than the one episode stories plus the ninth did end on a bit of a cliffhanger. One other thing is that many fans which includes myself want to see a return of Garo and his cousins, that story never did have an ending.

 This first recap featured something rare for me. That's of having to watch the next show first before writing this up and it's not that things were confusing. But there were so many events and details thrown at us in this show wanted to be sure of things before writing this and think it did help make me understand what took place better. So up until now Kunou has had a hand in solving five cases, this will be the first time he's been involved in a 'Whodunnit case'. The setting is a manor in Yamanashi, just finished a drama that was set there and that's also the case for my next series on tap. After the first five minutes all of the action take place at this Ivy House Villa save for some flashbacks.

 The man in the top screenshot is Kunou's college psychology teacher Amatatsu, up to now we had only seen him for two minutes in the last episode. Both are paying respects at the grave of Kiwa Miyoshi who died five years ago, though we only see her in flashbacks her death is the main story. Amatatsu was Kiwa's boyfriend and both had gone to school together, she was Kunou's teacher in elementary school and she helped him out more than any other teacher. So after paying their respects the pair went out for lunch and Kunou seems to be Amatatsu's favorite student, he's heard about the cases Kunou has helped solve for the Otonari police department. Amatatsu was telling Kunou that weekend his friend Tsuta, who is right above, is holding a 'Whodunnit' party and would he like to attend? To that Kunou replied No and he told his professor he's getting slightly tired of being a 'detective'. That's okay to Amatatsu, Kunou doesn't have to take participate in the game but could he help out with cooking and such, naturally he'll get paid. 

 To that offer Kunou agreed and why not as he's never had a friend and how else would he spend this long weekend? To his surprise coming to this party was also the female detective Furomitsu who really is developing a crush on Kunou. He's gotten Furomistu interested in psychology, she's started taking classes with Amatatsu so she explained all about Kunou's work with the police. So she too was invited to this mystery party but needs to keep her identity of a detective under wraps. Both Kunou and Furomitsu have a special assignment from Amatatsu, he has to keep an eye out for those who Lie while she needs to find out the person who isn't Lying. On to the Ivy House Villa and the owner is Tsuta who is above, Tsuta also means Ivy in Japanese. There will be three others in attendance, one is Kitsutaka who has been friends for decades with Amatatsu, Tsuta and Kiwa though they've drifted apart. Tsuta runs a website called Mystery Society, he invited two members named Della and Pan to partake in the game but they're not who they seem to be, that makes a total of seven people at the villa.

 Top two screenshots are of the other three invitees and as you can see the mystery game was a simple one to understand but perhaps not to solve. Five years ago the previous owner's wife had died at the villa, she fell from a balcony overlooking the living room and the mystery is did she fall on her own or was she pushed. The new owner Tsuta told the group very little has been changed since her death five years ago so can the group find any evidence of what took place? As mentioned Kunou had said he didn't want to take part in the game so was sent to the downstairs library to clean it out. Kunou's professor Amatatsu knows his student well, he knew once Kunou found a clue he'd want to be involved which eventually happened. This library had been used by the deceased wife Ayako and most of the books were of flowers, this woman had also painted so many pictures of flowers though poisonous ones. Kunou was soon joined by Furomitsu who couldn't find one clue after an hour or so, neither did anyone else. But this messy and cluttered library did hold some clues, one was that in so many books was a page marker of a flower and they were all on page 252.

 In Japan the phone number 252 is a signal to the fire department that a person is in distress. So to Kunou that was a potential sign the wife had been in trouble and did she realize that one day someone would be going through her books? Kunou found a few other interesting clues which are in many of the screenshots, to him this was not a loving couple and did the husband have plans to kill his wife! Kunou presented all of his findings to the other members of the mystery party and needless to say they were impressed with Kunou, see how he got involved in this case rather quickly. But it is a party so Tusta told the group that a celebration was needed as the mystery is getting solved quicker than he thought, it's time to open a vintage bottle of wine. 'Not so fast' exclaimed Kunou who realized the wine was going to be a a present from the wife Ayako to her husband five years ago, odds are high the wine is poisoned!  And to top it off there was an article which you can see below that was the story of Ayako's death. She was the wife of Tsuta(!?) but how and why would that article have been in the library?

 Nice job on all those deductions mused Tsuta to Kunou though there was one problem.... it was all(most of it) a HOAX!!!! That certainly stunned Kunou and what an elaborate presentation had been set up for this mystery game but as the minutes went on more secrets about what took place were revealed. Right above is one of the group of old four friends Kitsutaka and he wasn't let on by Tsuta nor Amatatsu on what this game was truly about. Kitsutaka was actually more upset then Kunou on what had just taken place with his hoax of a game but at least Kunou was relieved there had been no dead wife named Ayako. Not so fast said Kitsutaka above as exactly five years ago someone had died in this room, not just one but two people. One man was unknown but not the other, it was Kunou's fave teacher growing up who was Kiwa and as mentioned had been good friends with Tsuta and Kitsutaka. And she had a much closer relationship with Amatatsu has they had been dating for years.

 So the original plan to get everyone to the villa was a ruse, there was no mystery game but hopefully the collected minds could figure out what truly happened with Kiwa. Five years ago she had been stalked by a man and was truly frightened, Tsuta owned the Ivy House so it was suggested she hide out there for a while until this stalker left her alone(hopefully). Somehow this man found out where Kiwa was staying and trapped her in the villa alone. But in a very strange occurrence both of them died and the house had been locked from the inside, something just didn't add up quite correctly. The cause of death had been Oleander burning in the fireplace and that plant will give off poisonous fumes, there happened to be such a plant in front of the house. So here we are five years later and Amatatsu felt it was time to get to the bottom of what really happened but why did it take so long? Hmmmm, thinking about that it's because he finally met the person who could solve such a crime, of course it was his top student Kunou!

 Whew, luckily it seems this won't be as long as I originally thought. One thing that's not easy to explain is the mannerisms of everyone and there had been one slightly suspicious person up until now. That was Kitsutaka who claimed to have many OCD's such as he can only use his own silverware and drinking cups plus can't sleep in a house when others are around. We don't know what was going on in the mind of Kunou but he's been keeping an eye on this man, we'll find out all that he's discovered about Kitsutaka and the others in the next recap. As a matter of fact almost everything will be revealed in the next episode and not many clues were explained to us in this show on what exactly happened five years ago when Kiwa and her unnamed stalker died. That's Kiwa right above and she was Kunou's favorite teacher when he was younger, she introduced him to Amatatsu and that really helped Kunou chances on getting into Todai University where he's currently enrolled. There were two other guests at this party who have remained a bit quiet and have been in the background, there was a good reason for that which we'll see in the next recap too and just about everything will be explained then.

 The man with glasses is named Della, he claimed to be so uncomfortable sleeping in the same room as others so that night was laid out on the couch. Nearby was Kunou who also has the same problem, he was in a hallway but the main reason for their actions were to watch out for anything suspicious. The other guest's name is Pan and he stayed up late typing on his computer but what it was we didn't know. However we did catch a glimpse of a photo Pan had of Kiwa in his notebook, of course that made us viewers very curious. So with the exception of him everyone at the Ivy House Villa was sleeping, that's how the episode ended and the next recap begins off in the morning when all arose.