Yuki Yoda: "Ryosangata Riko: Puramo Joshi no Jinsei Kumitate Ki" drama, episode eight 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? No is the answer to that and as the series has gone on that unit is becoming a slightly important one.

Yuki Yoda as Riko Komukai.... Had acquired the nickname of 'Mass Production Girl' as she just liked mainstream and safe things/activities. But one night in the first episode 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. He's one of Riko's biggest backers and am wondering if it's because he has a crush on her? The answer to that is yes but both are too shy to ell their true feelings to the other.

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 Shinji doesn't like to do any 'real work'. That changed in the third show and of course it was because Shinji build his first model!

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 was so worried they'll be laid off. In the fourth show there was an offer to retire early and Kijimura did begin to fill out the forms until he had a change of heart.

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.

 

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

Previous recaps:

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

Episode five .... Episode six

 

 Two days later than usual with these but that also means two less days until the next pair which will be the final ones for this fun series. The last few episodes the romance between Riko and Oishi had been growing but for the most part it seemed to be a bit one sided with Riko. In this show there was zero of that potential romance, as a matter of fact Oishi was never seen nor was he referred to. The above character Kyoko had the focus once again in this show and guess it was deserved as we hadn't been seeing all that much of her in the last 2-3 shows. Back in the third episode there was talk of the Fun Fun Create company doing some restructuring but hadn't heard any more about it until this show. In that top screenshot Kyoko had overheard some employees discussing how the overseas department may be on the chopping block, so might the third division where Kyoko works at. She kept the news to herself and that was the main theme of this show which is how she tries to do everything by herself.

 Was slightly confused about one thing which was did Kyoko go out on her own to schedule an event or did she keep it hidden from her mates in the third department, am thinking the former is what took place. Kyoko had dinner with a man who had just begun a startup company for medical supplies, he wanted her to organize their booth at the huge Mirai Expo in Chiba. Which is what Kyoko did and she's always been the most efficient in her department. She rented out a booth, created flyers and handouts along with doing many other things associated with an event. However tragic news was on the way as this unnamed man called after almost everything was complete to tell Kyoko his investors had backed out, the Expo would have to be cancelled! That's easy for that man to say but didn't he realize what he had done to Kyoko? She rented the booth out and ordered all of the booklets and such, with the investors backing out she'd be on the hook to pay the two million yen($14,500) bill, what can she do?! Kyoko really didn't have many options, she appeared to hunt down others who may want to take the booth of that original company but to no avail.

 That huge bill has really affected Kyoko as she's become so testy with others and wasn't getting enough rest. For the first time ever she snapped at her best mate at Fun Fun Create Riko, Kyoko knew she was in the wrong and took the next day off which was her first vacation day ever! Her long time coworkers told Riko a bit about Kyoko's background at the company which was when she started four years. The department was never mentioned but thinking it was the second unit as we hadn't heard anything about them yet. In that division they treated newbies like dirt and all ignored Kyoko who soon after asked for a transfer to the low rated third department. But that time in the second unit is when Kyoko learned to do everything by herself and it's so difficult for her to trust others but it's also because she's a superb worker. After that day off Riko suggested a bit of rest for Kyoko, why not take it easy for a night and go out drinking together, their coworker Shinji invited himself along.

 Was getting the impression Riko knew what Kyoko was going through, not her exact situation but that she once again tried to do something by herself and not ask for help. You knew it was going to happen as it does every show, whenever there's a huge problem that needs to be solved it means a trip to the Yassan Hobby Shop is on tap!!!! Which is what took place after the dinner, though Kyoko knew about Riko building models don't think she knew to what extent. Kyoko herself wasn't all that interested in making any and twice tried to sneak out of the shop only to be stopped by Riko. Eventually Kyoko broke down and said she did have a certain fondness for Ultraman, perhaps it's because that famous character is also a loner who does everything by itself? Ultraman has been around since the mid 1960's, I've seen many of it's seasons but there's too many to keep up with! As you can see above there's a brand new model version of Ultraman, this new one is of him being a human with not as many powers as the original version.

 Riko has really come a long way as far as building models go. She could almost be considered an expert by now and she needs no help with assembling them. Riko is also a patient teacher as we've seen in a few shows, this was Kyoko's first time ever making a model and was a bit scared. Riko told her not to worry about a thing as she and Shinji would help with assembling the legs and body, Kyoko just needs to trust her mates. As mentioned in the beginning that was the main story of this episode which was of Kyoko learning to trust her mates at Fun Fun Create and work much more closely with them. Above is the finished Ultraman and though the models are small they can take hours to assemble. Kyoko did have a few rough moments but listened to the advice of Riko and the shop owner Yajima, that Ultraman model came out perfect and Kyoko did have such a fun time though didn't say it.

 After that scene she did admit to Riko and Shinji that she needed help, of course it was for that Mirai Expo. Unknown to Kyoko the following day Riko gathered the other department three workers and explained what had happened to Kyoko's first solo venture. The third department isn't highly rated but to me they get the job done and as you can see above they've bailed out Kyoko. She still had that booth rented and now what's going to happen is that the Manten Nodoame soup company will take over the booth. They've been mentioned a few prior times as they seem to trust only the third department with promoting their very popular soups. So with that Kyoko was off the hook with that two million yen debt she would have owed and she did learn a valuable lesson which is that it's okay to trust and believe in your coworkers who had her back the entire time. So a happy ending to this show and now we're down to just two episodes to go, will we see Riko trying to rekindle that romance in them? Will have the next pair in about two weeks and as mentioned in todays first recap this is the kind of drama that you often see have a second season and would love to see that happen.