"Hiru" drama: Season two, episode three recap

 

 Air Dates: April 15th until May 20,2022 on WOWOW, Friday nights at 11:00 pm

Subs were once again done by Irozuku Subs and episodes are 26 minutes in length.

Main Cast: Save for the first character all of the Hirus are different from the first season which also had only six episodes, the two detectives also made a return. Hiru is the name for Leeches in Japanese but it also has a different meaning. It could be for a person who 'leeches' off of others which is the case in this drama. A Hiru may spend the night or day at someone's residence while they're working or at school. A Hiru has no regular place to live so they'll eat, clean and sleep at those residences which are usually apartments and a Hiru could almost be considered a Squatter. 

Kentaro Sakaguchi as Kara.... His real name is Makoto Tsukinuma and is the only returning Hiru from the first season. Kara is known as a 'Hiru Hunter' and he may have killed a few of them for a reason we just learned in the second episode. He's on the hunt for a mysterious masked person who killed his mentor Mishin some years ago and has been seeking revenge since. Kara has this unique ability to suddenly appear and disappear in what seems a blink of an eye!

Marie Iitoyo as Hako.... Her real name is Sakura Yoko, thought Marie would be in season one which didn't happen but least her role in this show is quite large. The Yo in Yoko can also be pronounced Ha which is where Hako comes from. Hako did go to school with Kara a decade ago, she's a Hiru but not a very adept one who has to keep getting bailed out of tense situations.

Yui Sakuma as Robo.... Not much is known of her yet but she's a very curious woman, she's about 23 in age and so aren't the first two characters. She knows Kara well and it appears Robo works part time as a call girl to find out info about Hirus for him.

Masaki Miura as Nanashi.... Close friend of Kara's and both were under the wing of Mishin until her death. Nanashi is currently very sick and in the hospital but what is his illness?

Harumi Shuhama as Mishin.... As mentioned the 'mentor' of both Kara and Nanashi. We met her in the second episode through some flashbacks and that's the only way we'll see Mishin as she was killed by this mysterious masked man, small role but a very important one.

Jiei Wakabayashi as Chikin.... Also a Hiru who we met in the second episode. He's helped out Hako twice but can't quite figure out if he's a good or bad Hiru.

Itsuji Itao as Yashima.... Haven't seen much of him through three shows, he runs a black market operation which Hirus go to often to sell things or to buy fake ID's.

Takeshi Onishi as Abe.... Manager of the Price King pawn shop which is actually a black market operation owned by Yashima. However he has a criminal record so Abe's name is on the deed and he buys so many stolen things from Hirus.

Manami Konishi as Chika Suzuki.... Female detective who was also in season one and she did help out a pair of Hirus as she does fight for justice though her partner was killed by a Hiru.

Kotaro Tanaka as Junya Sato.... Suzuki's new partner who was also in season one, the main case the pair are working on is finding out the mystery of Kara.

 

This season ends in less than a week and hopefully the subs for the final three shows are done soon, the fourth show as just done yesterday. As mentioned in the first and second recaps this has been a much better series than season one. The storylines are a bit more interesting plus to me the biggest difference is the cast. Kara has the biggest role in this season but he wasn't seen too much in the first. The two main characters in the first season were decent but they weren't all that likable and also were hard to root for which is something that can never be said for Marie but wish she would change that outfit.....

 Think very soon, possibly by the end of this show, the death of Mishin will become the main story. That's her in the top screenshot and talked about who she is in the previous recap, Mishin was a middle aged woman who taught Kara how to be a leech, also Nanashi who is in the second screenshot. Nanashi partially saw Mishin getting murdered though didn't get a good view of the killer but that may not have been possible. According to Nanashi the killer was a masked man so that's not much to go on, since that day Kara has been looking for this person who he feels is a Hiru. It could be and if so the name Tetris is a possibility, he was in two shows the first season. Tetris had been arrested so figured he wasn't part of this season but could be wrong on that, will know more about this Hiru for the next recap.

There's three screenshots of the female detective Suzuki above who has a new partner in Sato as her previous one was killed by a Hiru in the first season. Suzuki has become amazed at how large the Hiru community is but she also has an open mind and is willing to help some of them. When that last show ended Kara had dropped an envelope in Suzuki's home mail box, in it was an empty ID plate which the Price King pawn shop has been using for fake IDs and they look like the real thing. Suzuki has done more investigating and feels this pawn shop is the reason for the huge rash of thefts recently by Hirus as Price King is a black market operation. She's also put two and two together about the IDs as three potential Hirus have been found murdered in apartments with an ID of a dead person, soon Suzuki and her partner Sato began to stake Price King out. The pair have found out many more shady things about this shop however by the end of the episode still didn't have enough evidence to do anything against Price King.

 Not as much of Marie's character Hako this episode but it still may have been the best show to date. Thanks to Kara stealing her fake ID in the last show Hako has been spending her nights at capsule hotels which don't require an ID but I'm wondering why is she staying at them? In the last show she did receive 20,000 yen at the pawn shop for a ring, why is she spending that cash so quickly? That cash has come to an end and once again Hako had to ask for the help of Chikin to bail her out, this time for a place to stay. The 'Hiru Hunter' Kara seems to know all of the places Chikin stays at save for one which is where he brought Hako, the house should be empty for another day or two. Hako mainly just ate and slept but we'll see her again in the final minute. During this scene Chikin had received a call from Abe who is the manager of Price King, where are the designer watches Chikin promised to bring to him? Well, in the last show Kara thwarted an attempt by Chikin to steal those watches but when he left Hako in the house he grabbed one there to bring to Abe, one was better than none.

 While at the pawn shop Abe told Chikin the big boss Yashima wanted to see him, that sent a shiver of fear through the cowardly Chikin. Nothing to fear though as Yashima just wanted some info, mainly about Kara and still don't know what Chikin's relationship is with him. Wasn't much Chikin could tell Yashima about Kara save for two details, one being that Kara was known as the 'Hiru Hunter' as he despises then so much and why? The second piece of info was about that mysterious masked man and how Kara is on the hunt for him, unsure if Yashima knows anything about that person. But his aide does and it's who I referred to in the beginning. The aide's name is Tetris who we saw in the first season yet looks so much different here plus he was supposed to be in prison. Tetris seems to know something about this masked man and at the time was wondering was he the person who killed Kara's mentor Mishin? At the end of this scene Yashima ordered his troops to close down an abandoned Karaoke club as a young woman named Koga ran away, was that place for the trafficking of women?

 We do see that runaway from the Karaoke club in the final seconds but don't think we'll see her again in this series. Not much is known about this club and by what Yashima briefly said seems the young women there are sold to rich foreign men. When a show is only 25+ minutes in length there isn't time for everything to be explained, perhaps the club will in the next episode. In the last episode we met an older Hiru that had no name so dubbed him Baka. Didn't think we'd see him again but he made a return towards the end of this show. Suzuki and Sato have been staking out the Price King pawn shop and have a feeling they're aware of the heat at the shop. So when Baka entered the shop they sent him right away as they 'closed' for the day. It was the second time Suzuki had seen the man there so off she was with Sato to nab this Hiru. Which they did but Baka drew a knife and fled with his bag of expensive watches but when an incident such as this occurs you know what to expect. That's Kara appearing out of nowhere, it was him who nabbed Baka and had the impression Kara may have killed this man, Kara will give a Hiru one chance to go straight and if you don't....

 But still in chase of Baka was Suzuki and her partner, Kara saw them and dashed away before he could hurt the Hiru badly. It was only a one second glimpse but it was the first time Suzuki had seen Kara in person, though he's done some bad things Kara has also helped out Suzuki twice in nabbing criminals. Baka wouldn't say a word at the station and Suzuki was absolutely furious with him, she's so close to raiding the Price King shop but just can't get enough evidence. We're down to the final two minutes and Hako is still sleeping in that mansion Chikin brought her to. It's nighttime and Hako could have sworn she heard the front door open, is that Kara again or possibly the owner of the house? It was neither as it was that young woman Koga who had escaped from Yashima's Karaoke club, how did she know about this house? She immediately fell asleep on the sofa and watching from the stairway was Hako. As the credits were rolling appearing out of the shadows was the person in the below screenshot, was he about to kill this girl and could he also be the masked man that killed Kara's mentor Mishin? Have no answers to those and other questions, what a solid show this has turned out to be and recommend it more than the first season. No episodes have been subbed past this one but perhaps with the series ending soon they'll all come at once and that's when the final three recaps will be done.