"Hiru" drama: Season one, episode four 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!

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, killed in the third show.

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 was 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. 

Previous recaps:

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

 Final trio of recaps for this mini drama though the second season of six episodes will be beginning in a week. Will be recapping that too but still don't know why they couldn't have just had one season of a dozen shows. Sigh, still no Marie in this series so deleted her name from the above list, grrrr! Episodes are 25+ minutes in length so if you need to skim through the above recaps they won't take too long. Described at the top what a Leech means in this drama, not the bug but kind of a Human Sponge. One that squats in a person's home while they're away, eats their food, take some cash, etc. and there seems to be many of these people in Tokyo who are all younger than thirty.

 So at the end of the previous show Yuki had been saved by a rogue Hiru named Tetris who killed one of Yobi's henchman. Tetris currently has Zoka tied up in an apartment, for the second time in this series she had been raped and both were in the last two episodes! Zoka claimed to have four million yen stashed at various locations in Tokyo, if Tetris will release her the money is all his. He was a bit leery about that claim but has roped in Yuki to help him out, Tetris wants to break away from the 'Main Hiru' Yobi but he himself is not a nice man and can Yuki trust him at all? At the end of the third show gave this a rating of 7.8/10 to date, after this episode that rating will stay the same.

 It's April 6th and the fifth episode was just subbed but not going to view it until this is written up, final show airs this weekend. So Tetris brought Yuki back to an empty apartment where he's got Zoka tied up to prove that she's safe and sound. Zoka really isn't after being raped twice and being beaten up to an extent too but her condition isn't as bad as it could be. Tetris doesn't want to roam around Tokyo getting the money Zoka has stashed so has enlisted the help of Yuki who after seeing Zoka alive has promised to get the money for him. But as Zoka says above will getting the money guarantee their safety? Yuki talked to her privately in a small closet, we didn't know at the time but he slipped Zoka a very small pair of scissors which may end up saving her life.

 Tetris can't stand the Hiru Yobi and now that he's killed two of his henchmen Yobi has ordered that he be killed which is why Tetris can't move around Tokyo freely. Yuki can and Zoka gave him the locations of the places she hid the four million yen. However the problem is there isn't four million hidden away as Zoka claimed, she told Yuki to get the money and run as far away as possible. But after she saved his life Yuki wouldn't do such a thing and is now on the trail for the money but what will Tetris do if there's only a million yen? He's given Yuki a bag that has a GPS device in it, that way Tetris will know if he runs away or stops at the police station. 

 In the second screenshot above is the female detective Suzuki, below that is her partner Murao. We didn't see too much of them in this show but it being only 25 minutes in length can't see a lot of everyone. During his pursuit of the money Yuki stopped at two phone booths to make calls, Tetris wouldn't know that from the GPS and both were to Suzuki. In the first call Yuki told her where Tetris had killed Yobi's henchman Majime and his tip was right on the money. In the first episode Yobi had impersonated Yuki but as time has gone on Suzuki's realized what had happened and believes Yuki is truly who he says he is. After that phone call Suzuki's partner Murao also believes the story of Yobi stealing Yuki's identity, we'll see the pair again again very shortly.

 Yuki had a time limit of three hours or until 4:00 pm to find the money and it was getting very near that limit. Tetris left Zoka still tied up in the apartment and went on the hunt for Yuki, wasn't hard with the GPS. Yuki still had the bag Tetris had given him, when Tetris took the bag back he expected to find it full of cash but instead there were just some books to make it look heavy. Very wisely Yuki didn't trust Tetris and vowed not to give up the cash until Zoka is released, Yuki said the bag was in a locker at Shibuya Station but won't give him the key quite yet. But Yuki is one weak man and Tetris gave him quite a beating to get the key, that was part of Yuki's plan but not get beat up that badly. So with Yuki lying in an alley in severe pain Tetris took the locker key and headed to the station, there was a very unexpected surprise awaiting him.

 When Tetris arrived at the locker it was empty and needless to say he was infuriated. But even more so when he turned around as there was Suzuki and Murao along with five officers ready to arrest him for murder! It was a valiant struggle but Tetris was eventually handcuffed and led away to Suzki's station, will we see more of Tetris in the future? So that second call Yuki made to Suzuki was to tell her about his plan about pretending to hide money at the train station, after that first call about the murder Tetris committed Suzuki believed every word. Yuki did hide the money in a locker at Shibuya station but in a different area and it was still there at the end of the show. In the crowd watching the arrest was Yobi's assistant Miro who filmed the event for Yobi to watch. We didn't see much of either this episode but sure we will in the next two shows.

 With that tiny pair of scissors Yuki gave Zoka she was able to cut her binds and escape the apartment she was trapped in. She soon met up with Yuki in a nearby park which seems to be their unofficial meeting place. Yuki was still in bad shape from the beating Tetris laid on him but Zoka knows so many empty apartments which she's used in the past, one is where they headed to. So in the final half minute Zoka was moaning about the tragedies she's recently gone through and how those two rapes weren't the first ones she's experienced. As the episode ended it appeared the pair were about to go to bed together and that was something I hoped wouldn't take place, shouldn't they be more concerned with getting as far away as possible from Yobi? So that concludes this episode which was decent enough but still can't give it a high recommendation yet, recap for the fifth episode is the next post.