"Mystery to Iunakare" drama, episode nine 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%

Episode nine, 11.6%

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

 Let's get right to the action, sure you've read the above post so no need to rehash where we stand. Hopefully this will be on the briefer side, I've written up almost fifty of these long recaps in seven weeks so my eyes are rotating in circles! It's the following morning and outside the Ivy House Villa Kunou and his professor Amatatsu are shoveling after a few inches of snow fell overnight, the house is located in Yamanashi. Amatatsu gave Kunou another clue about the day Kiwa died, there was only one set of footprints in the snow going up to the back door yet it looked as if someone had tried erasing a second set. Shortly after Kunou was joined in the garage by the detective Furomitsu who had been kind of quiet in part one of this 'Whodunnit', she's more vocal in this show. All of a sudden the power went off, not just in the garage but in the whole house. The garage door was electric so leaving via that route wasn't an option plus the lock only worked from inside the house.

 But in the garage was where Kitsutaka had been sleeping, he's even set his own tent up. Kunou has been so suspicious of this man for quite a while but just couldn't put his finger on how Kitsutaka could have been involved in the death/murder of Kiwa. In that tent was a map and we had no clue on what it meant, Kunou did and we'll soon find out from him it was part of Kitsutaka's evil plan! Eventually the pair got out of the garage though the power still wasn't on. Outside a power line had snapped due to the ice but to me it looked as though someone had cut the wires. But there was a gas powered cooker so Kuou was delegated to make Curry for everyone, that's his favorite dish but he's never made it for seven people though did have help from Furomitsu. She actually did most of the cooking and that's because Kunou's eyes were on the other five people gathered in the living room, one of them had some sort of involvement with Kiwa's death but who and why?

 As you can see in the top screenshot Kunou came up with a quick deduction from observing everyone and said the person in the room who knew more than he was revealing about Kiwa's death was Kitsutaka!!!! This was about the fifteen minute mark of this 46 minute episode so it was stretched out a bit and the show could have been ten minutes shorter. But Kunou's accusation just wasn't from what he had been observing during this morning making Curry but also from what he noticed the previous evening. Guess it's impossible to do but would like to know what's going on in the mind of Kunou as we're not always sure what details/incidents are important but he does. Such as that Kunou had discovered that when Kitsutaka lied he would rub his nose with his right hand, as time went on he was doing it more and more. 

 Also a few statements made by Kitsutaka came back to haunt him. For instance he claimed it was his first time at the villa in Winter yet he knew where all the shovels and such were plus he said that there was a mat at the doorway only in the Winter. Also Kiwa's boyfriend Amatatsu chimed in with saying how did Kitsutaka know the positions of Kiwa and her stalker when they died, only someone who saw the dead bodies could know a fact like that. There a few other tidbits about Kitsutaka that made him look like he knew more than he was letting on and eventually he broke down with some confessions of the death and also others that have taken place recently. But do have to note that Kitsutaka had nothing to do with the deaths of Kiwa and her stalker but he was also guilty of two things that took place on that fateful  night five years ago. One was not entering the villa when he saw the two bodies there nor did he contact the police as was there a chance they could have been saved?

 For over ten years Kitsutaka has worked at the Nishi City Hall which is a ward of Tokyo. Kitsutaka has had many different jobs over the years but the one he's been dong for a little over five years is helping victims of DV or stalking incidents. The city hall will hide these victims from those trying to hurt them and of course their location has to remain a secret. Five years ago Kiwa was a teacher at a high school and told Kitsutaka of her stalker and her plan to hide out at Tsuta's villa. Kiwa also said a student would be trying to get in touch with her for a college reference and would be calling Kitsutaka. So when he received that call Kitsutaka didn't ask for a name or any other kind of info but did reveal to the caller the location of where Kiwa was staying!!!! After a while Kitsutaka realized the major mistake he may have made as the caller could have been the stalker and zoomed to the villa where he saw the two bodies through the window. Kitsutaka covered his tracks and to this day no other person knew he had been at the villa, had be not been so concerned with his own image perhaps Kitsutaka could have saved a life or two.

 So of course that was such a huge mistake by Kitsutaka but had he confessed after that perhaps he would have gotten a slap on the wrists. But he didn't and now is the time two identities will will be revealed. The two guests weren't part of Tsuta's Mystery Society website but a pair of detectives from the Nishi ward in Tokyo. In the past two months there's been a trio of murders that were so similar to Kiwa's, they were all victims of a stalker or DV. So this pair had tailed Kitsutaka and found out he had given the locations of these three women and what a horrible man he turned out to be. So while he may not have done the actual killings what Kitsutaka had done was make himself an accessory to murder, he'll be put away for a long time. But it could have been worse as Kitsutaka had planned on killing the other six guests at the villa and his plan was a sound one. Kitsutaka's goal was to be an 'Invisible Man' or in other words leave no trace of himself at the villa. So by wearing gloves there would be no fingerprints, a hat meant no stray hairs, etc. plus when he brought his own plates and cups the police working on the deaths would have thought just six had been at the villa.

 The same method that killed Kiwa was to be used on the six as Kitsutaka had put sleeping pills in the Curry. Once everyone was out he would have lit the poisonous Oleander, thrown it in the fireplace and left. Kitsutaka had closed the chimney the night before which was another clue that led to his downfall. So like all maniacs Kitsutaka ranted and raved about how unfair his life had been and how he was so insanely jealous of his two 'close friends' Tsuta and Amatatsu. In the second screenshot above is of a murder that took place recently where four had died from Oleander poisoning, it appears that may have been a practice run for Kitsutaka! Won't go into that more as instead I really recommend viewing these shows. So soon our culprit was led off, Kiwa can finally rest in peace but how Kunou would rather have his favorite teacher back. That makes six cases Kunou has been involved in and he's solved them all to date, he would make for one super duper detective.

 In the final minute Furomitsu had paid a visit to the hospital where Kunou had been in the fourth and fifth episodes. There she saw the above woman Raika who had befriended Kunou but remained such a mystery and told him she would be dying by the time the next Cherry trees bloom! This Raika had no clue on who Furomitsu was but suddenly passed out, upon reviving she was uttering the name of Chiyako who is supposed to be her twin sister! So it appears that mystery will be the final story in this drama and how I hope it's a two episode tale. Also hoping we'll see the return of Garo as his story is still wide open, if there's no post next week you'll know there were two episodes left.