Yuki Yoda: "Ryosangata Riko: Puramo Joshi no Jinsei Kumitate Ki" drama, episode three recap

 

 Air Dates: June 30th until September 2, 2022... Thursday nights at 12:30 am on TV-Tokyo

Episodes are 24 minutes in length, subs are being done by Masssterchief

Main Cast: Most of the action takes place at the very busy Fun Fun Create company which specializes in planning and holding events. Wrote this up after viewing the first episode so a bit of tweaking will be done as we go on. There's three divisions at the company, #'s one and two are so busy they need more than 24 hours in a day! But our 'heroine' Riko works in the third division with four others and they are far from busy as their main tasks are mailing out flyers and such. In the first show a rumor had even started that the third division could be disbanded, will that eventually happen?

Yuki Yoda as Riko Komukai.... Has acquired the nickname of 'Mass Production Girl' as she just likes mainstream and safe things/activities. But one night after work she passed by the Yasan Hobby Shop which she had never noticed before. Deep down Riko does like models and such, she had never made any though until entering this shop and then the rest is history....

Karen Fujii as Kyoko Nakano.... Female employee in the third division, she seems to be talented so how did she end up there? Kyoko gets along with Riko so well but has noticed her friend can be way too boring and needs a jolt to her life. 

Oshiro Maeda as Yuki Asai.... Started at the company with Riko but while she's still stuck at the bottom Asai has moved up to the first division. Seems as though he's doing well but in reality think he's not doing that that good of a job... he's a bit stuck up too.

Ayumu Mochizuki as Ryota Oishi.... Ace of the first division unit.

Ayumu Mochizuki as Shinji Takaji.... We met him in the second episode when he was transferred from the first to the third division. He knows almost everything about the company but his problem is Takaji doesn't like to do any 'real work'.

Magy as Teru Inuzuka.... Leader of the third division, very laid back man which isn't a positive at the Fun Fun Create company.

Yoshiaki Yoza as Atsushi Saruwatari.... Another third division employee who at one time was in the first division but asked for a transfer, why?

Yoshiyuki Morishita as Hitoshi Kijimura.... Oldest third division employee who like the others is so worried they'll be laid off.

Yoji Tanaka as Ichi Yajima.... Owner of the Yasan Hobby Shop where Riko visited in the first show and where she became addicted to models. Yajima seems to know all there is about models and took such a liking to Riko who tends to like the older versions.

Erika Ishikawa as Chiemi Ikuta.... Part time employee at Yajima's shop.

 May add in a few more characters as we go along

Link to the show's site: TV-Tokyo site

Previous recaps:

Episode one .... Episode two

 

 Slower stretch as of late for my drama viewing which happens now and again, wonder if it has anything to do with this intense heat? Haven't viewed the next show yet but think the episodes will be stand alone stories though all will revolve around the making of models. If there is a theme it's how such a simple thing can really turn your life around and it's worked for Riko in the first two shows. In the last episode we met a new character who is named Shinji, he was transferred from the first to the third department and is the main focus of this episode.

 The Fun Fun Create company organizes and puts on promotional events along with doing many other projects for their clients. At the company the first department/division is considered to be very elite and it's why Fun Fun Create has been so successful. On the other hand the third department is at the bottom though the employees there seem to be competent, especially one who I'll talk about later. Shinji is a very smart man but doesn't know how to use his brains. He is a bit lazy plus when he does come up with an idea he doesn't know how to put the pieces together for a solid project. So he was demoted in the last show and it seems the person most reasonable for that is the first division's ace Oishi, that's him in the third screenshot. Don't think he has a crush on her but Oishi does seem to like Riko quite a bit and even stuck up for her in the first show. In that screenshot he was asking how Shinji was doing and to take care of him for he does need a lot of help!

 In the last episode Shinji was immediately put as the leader of a sports car event which proved to be a huge bomb. For him that is as Riko and her trusty mate Kyoko did the whole project by themselves and it was a smashing success! Once again Shinji was appointed to be the leader of a project as the rest of the the staff was too busy, it was to arrange an event for a new Manten Nodoame product. That's a ramen soup in Japan and it appears to be very popular, Fun Fun Create has been promoting their products for many years. But once again Shinji has proven to be useless, working on the project with him was Riko. Seems like she could have done a better job by herself but agreed with all of Shinji's ideas though she knew they were less than stellar. In the second to last screenshot is the third division employee Saruwatari and he's overseeing the project. To date every idea Shinji has shown him has been a failure but deep down Saruwatari thinks he can be a solid worker but how can he get him more motivated? Riko has been thinking along those same lines and she too is getting frustrated with Shinji as you can see above, you know what her solution to a problem is which we'll see soon!

 Mentioned Saruwatari a bit and may as well talk more about him, first time we've met one of the three 'veterans' of the third department. In those top two screenshots he's with the ace Oishi and the two are friends even though Saruwatari switched departments. Usually when you go to the third it means a demotion but don't think that was the case for him. Oishi had asked Saruwatari when he was returning to the first division and it appeared he may have been the ace there once. So what may be the focus of an upcoming show is what took place for Saruwatari to ask to be moved to the less than stellar third division? Back to the main story and Riko is still so frustrated with Shinji as she too realizes how smart he is but how Shinji be motivated to work harder and put his thoughts together?

 In this show when all else fails it means a trip to the.... Yassan Hobby Shop! Not that Riko's life was bad but she had fallen into a rut, perhaps at work too until in a spur of the moment decision in the first show she paid a visit to the shop. She made her first model then and also in the last show, doing an activity such as that has really expanded Riko's way of thinking and she just may be a future Ace at Fun Fun Create. So of course when things are dire it means a trip to the hobby shop is needed which is where she dragged Shinji, could making a model also turn his life around? Above is the owner Yajima and what a nice man he is plus he knows every trivial fact there is about models. His assistant is Chiemi who also is very knowledgeable about models, seems Shinji developed a quick crush on her! These scenes of making a model have been the highlight of all three shows, what was Shinji's choice? It appears most models we'll be seeing are older classic ones, to Yajima's delight Shinji chose a true classic which from 1995 and Evangelion Unit 01!

 In those first two shows Riko also picked an older classic model to assemble. But they were much easier as there weren't too many parts, that wasn't the case for Evangeline Unit 01. There were too many parts to count and it took Shinji so long just to break away the parts with his Nipper, that's the tool used to break the pieces away from their plastic. Plus the instruction booklet was quite long, at first Shinji was very overwhelmed and said there's no way he could finish such a project by himself. Those are words never to say in front of Yajima who is just so patient with rookies at model making. It must have taken at least three hours but with Yajima's guidance the model was completed, it took so long Riko and Chiemi had fallen asleep! You can see a few pics of the Evangeline model above, it may look small but as mentioned it did take at least three hours to complete.

 Many parts such as the legs and arms moved so Shinji had to be very careful assembling it, he got an A+ for a grade from Yajima and Riko. So her plan worked as doing a project like that has finally lit a fire under Shinji, he told Riko let's head back to work even though it must have been after 10:00 pm! Two days later the presentation for the Manten Nodoame ramen had to be made, as you can see above it didn't go perfectly. However it was completed and overall to Shinji's senpai Saruwatari he did a decent job on it, to him Shinji can use this partial failure for future success! So ends this recap and to date all three episodes have been enjoyable though wouldn't call this a must watch series. But of course if you're a Yuki fan it has to be seen, next post is the recap for the fourth show.