"Shoujiki Fudousan" drama, episode two recap

 

 Air Dates: April 5th until June 7, 2022  Tuesdays at 10:00 pm on NHK

Subs are being done by Miamaw-subs, also goes by the title of Honest Real Estate

Main Cast: First real estate drama I can recall viewing and most of the action takes place at the Tosaka Real Estate Office. Their main seller had been Nagase or at least until an 'accident' in the first episode. At a lot where a new building was to be constructed there were a few older monuments which unknown to Nagase were religious and he was irate they hadn't been removed. So he took matters into his own hands and attempted to destroy them which infuriated their 'Gods'!!!! Since that moment Nagase went from being a chronic liar to a man who cannot tell a lie, whenever he's about to an unseen breeze comes out of nowhere transforming him for a few moments to the most honest man in the world!

Tomohisa Yamashita as Saichi Nagase.... You can see what's happened with Nagase above, before then he would tell any lie in the world to make a sale! He had been successful as he was the #1 agent at Tosaka realty but after becoming a semi honest man his ranking has dropped to fifth. What's also dropped is his lifestyle as he's gone from living in a ritzy penthouse to a small and rundown one room apartment. As time goes on think Nagase will learn how to use this 'honesty' to his benefit but can he become the company's #1 seller again?

Haruka Fukuhara as Sakura Tsukishita.... Rookie at Tosaka RE and quite a naive young woman. Nagase has been assigned to be her mentor and with his sudden personality change Sakura doesn't know what to think of him. Through two shows she's made zero sales as Sakura seems to care too much about the tenants and needs to change her ways.

Hayato Ichihara as Takahisa Kiriyama.... Nagase's rival at the real estate office and has actually passed him for sales by the end of the first show, he's a man not to be trusted.

Shinobu Hasegawa as Masumi Okawa.... Office manager at the company, at times Okawa seems to be a tough man but is kind of a push over.

Masao Kusakari as Toshiro Tosaka.... Owner of Tosaka Real Estate who doesn't do much as far as the day to day activities go, not much screen time the first few shows.

Rika Izumi as Minami Enomoto.... Didn't see enough of her in the first pair of shows but think this role will become a bit larger. Minami is a new employee at the Mitsutoma bank as a financial agent and has her sights set on Nagase becoming her next boyfriend!

Kana Kurashima as Ryoko Hanazawa....  Head of a new real estate company named Minerva and we only saw a little bit of her in the first two shows. Minerva has quickly become Tosaka's biggest rival and her aim is to steal Nagase away from them.

Guest stars: 

Hideyuki Kasahara as Koichi Miura.... Husband of the below woman and have no clue what kind of job he had but needed to watch his expenses.

Eri Tokunaga as Yuki Miura.... Wife of the above man who is about seven months pregnant, she fell in love with an apartment but is it out of their price range?

 

Not up on how the real estate industry in Japan operates so in each of these posts will have some screenshots at the top that may explain certain things about the process.

 

 That was a solid first episode and with any luck may have the next two recaps within the week. This should be a shorter recap too as first shows are always the longest of a series and there was only one major story in this show. Before those next pair of recaps may do a trio of them for the second season of "Hiru". Watched the first episode, three have been subbed and once the fourth is done will write up the recaps for those first three shows. Want to wait until that fourth episode is done so there's not a long gap between the posts. Haruka is in another current drama titled "Imadoki no Wakai Mon wa" that began on April 9th. While this is one fine series have a feeling I'm going to enjoy that one more as for some reason Sorimachi has always been one of my top actors. There's three episodes to go, will start on the drama when it's finished and in June will start recapping that series. There's 3-4 other current dramas I want to view and where will I find the time?

 Whenever the subs are in blue that's Nagase talking to himself. His life has taken such a tumble in one show or should I say when he finally became an 'honest person'! When the series began he was living in a ritzy penthouse, by the end of the first episode her was living in a rundown, small apartment. Nagase has been doing some investigating of his new condition which is when he's asked a question an unseen breeze will blow and he has no option but to answer that question truthfully. Nagase has discovered he's cursed because he broke a religious monument in that first show which angered the Gods, he's found no way yet to reverse the curse. He better soon as when the series began Nagase was the number one agent at Tosaka Realty, when this show started he had quickly fallen to fifth! Overtaking Nagase was his bitter rival Kiriyama and he's one man you cannot trust, we learned that in the first show but even more so in this episode.

 Above is the newbie agent Sakura who is so easily duped, she's amazed at Kiriyama's talents but if she only knew the truth about his lying to clients! Which is what he was doing in the second to last screenshot, we'll see this pair a lot in this show. On the left is Yuki who is married to the man on the right who is Miura, these days to make it easier for females use their first names and for men their last names. As you can see Yuki is about seven months pregnant and the couple are looking for a two bedroom apartment, don't know what Miura does for employment but they can only afford 120,000 yen a month or $920. Kiriyama is their agent and says he has just the place for them which is a nice apartment complex called Square Mansions. Kiriyama showed them some photos of the place but said it wasn't ready to be visited but does that matter to them? Hopefully not Kiriyama said as many others wanted the apartment, act now or lose any chance of living there!

 One other major thing was that Kiriyama told the couple the rent is 130,000 yen a month which is more than they had planned. But it's actually a steal as rents at Square Mansions are usually 150,000 a month so it's a bargain at that price, for now the Yuki and Miura will sleep on their decision but are leaning towards saying yes. At the next office table was Sakura who was trying to make her first sale, with her was Nagase and that first sale for Sakura still didn't happen by the end of this episode! She too was trying to rent a place at 130,000 but her approach was all wrong according to Nagase after her failure. The reason Kiriyama may be able to rent an apartment at 130,000 a month is because he told the couple it was a bargain at that price as the price was usually 150,000 a month. So while a client may be spending more on an apartment they feel they're getting a deal and it's how things are worded which is so important, also helps when you can lie such as Kiriyama does!

 Kiriyama knew what took place with Sakura's client, to her silent fury he swooped in and stole this man away! To top it off Kiriyama was able to rent this place to the man but as usual used some unscrupulous methods. During this period we learned the differences of contracts, there's three common ones called exclusive which is best for an real estate office such as Tosaka. The other two are sole and general, the last is the worst as other agencies will be also looking for the best deal for a prospective client. So besides seeing his sales drop Nagase also hasn't been a good mentor to Sakura but in a way he has been as he's teaching her the honest ways to rent a place or make a sale. But those honest approaches aren't working out so the Tosaka office manager Okawa is on Nagase's back, shape up soon or ship out! That bottom screenshot above was the start of a humorous scene when Sakura brought out Nagase to get hammered plus to moan endlessly about Kiriyama's dishonest methods.

 Also at that restaurant was Minami(Rika) and we've only seen her in in one scene each of these first two shows but think her role will become bigger. Minami is a new financial officer at the Mitsutoma Bank and in the last show briefly met Nagase. She's unaware of the tumble his life has taken and Minami's immediate goal is to have him as a boyfriend! She was a bit concerned when she saw Nagase whooping it up with Sakura but he explained that he was her mentor and one of his duties was to show them a good time on the town! In the bottom screenshot above is a middle aged woman named Hanasawa who we've also only seen briefly in these first two shows. She works for a new real estate company named Minerva and can't figure out if she's their director or top salesperson. Hanasawa seems to be like a drill sergeant and she also has a goal when it comes to Nagase, that's to have him work with her at Minerva but to date the pair haven't met. Tosaka Real Estate is the top agency in the area but Minerva is quickly hot on their heels and have stolen away many potential clients.

 In the middle screenshot above you can see Sakura who was out on the rounds showing apartments. She's all gung-ho after that drinking session with Nagase but she truly needs more training. That woman she was with told Sakura she was happy enough with the apartment they just visited but Sakura insisted they see a few more, in the end think the woman was so frustrated she didn't rent any of them! So by the end of this episode Sakura had worked with ten clients and as impossible as it sounds didn't manage to rent out one apartment. She has a 'customer first' motto which may sound all fine and dandy but it doesn't translate into sales. Back to the main story for the rest of the recap which was the couple Kiriyama was working with who want a new and bigger apartment due to the wife Yuki being pregnant. They only wanted to spend 120,000 yen a month on rent but seemed to agree on going up another 10,000, Kiriyama dropped a huge bombshell when he now told them the rent could be possibly raise to 150,000 a month after a year!

 Though Kiriyama works with any kind of client think he prefers working with the more profitable contracts in order to get a higher commission. After informing Miura about the rent increase he told Nagase he was doing him a 'favor' and let him take the two clients off his hands, don't think Kiriyama expected them to rent the place after the news. Nagase was so apologetic towards the couple as the rent increase was buried deep in the lease, that's why I wonder why tenants don't have more legal help at these meetings. But the wife Yuki really wants to live there, she and her husband wonder is there anything Nagase can do to lower the rent? Nagase did feel they were cheated a bit by Kiriyama but in the past he did the same type of tricks. So with Sakura in tow he headed out to the apartment at Square Mansions to visit the apartment and also the owner. He was a man named Nikaido and seemed like a fair owner, he didn't want to raise the rent but felt he had no choice. His mother in Shizuoka is sick and because of that has to pay her bills along with the building's mortgage so Nikaido needed more cash and it was Kiriyama who suggested raising the rent.

 This was a very nice place and Nikaido had plans to move his family into until his mother got sick. Nikaido could understand how a price increase of 10,000 yen could turn away fine tenants like Yuki and Miura so after meeting with Nagase lowered the rent increase to 5,000 yen. The husband at first wasn't pleased with any kind of increase but him and Yuki wouldn't find a better place for the money in Tokyo. Plus it was near Yuki's doctor's office plus were many stores and parks in the area, so Miura came around on his thinking and agreed to rent the apartment, 5.000 yen is only about $44. So finally Nagase finally had a minor success after so many recent failures, though not a large commission it left Kiriyama fuming! Didn't discuss it that much but this new honesty that Nagase had helped him a bit in renting the apartment. So that wraps up this recap and both shows were terrific but hoping Haruka's role becomes a bit more 'meatier'. Would like to have the next pair of posts this week but don't think it'll happen as first I want to begin on the recaps for the second season of "Hiru", will have a trio of posts at first as it's only a six episode series. As usual have many screenshots here to help you follow the story a bit better.