"Shotengai no Pianist" drama: Episode three of thirteen recap

 

 Air Dates: October 3rd to December 26, 2022  Monday nights at 10:30 pm on BS Shochiku

Thirteen 25 minute episodes, subs once again done by GEO9875 at DA

Also known as Pianist in the Shopping District

Main Cast: Usually have to update this section often but don't think that's going to happen in this series. Most of the action will be taking place at the Kajiwara Music Store which is in the shopping district in an unnamed small city.

Kiita Komagine as Ren Sawamoto.... Young man about 22 or so in age who works as an electrician. He still lives with his mother and about ten years ago his father disappeared, how and why will probably be revealed later on in the series. Ren is so talented at the piano but ten years ago stopped playing, when his father left? It seems so as the family piano was sold at that time and it appears Ren has found it at the Kajiwara music store, will finding it spark his interest to start playing again?

 Mio Yuki as Modori Kajiwara.... About twenty in age and works at her father's music store, she seems to run the place. Midori isn't all that talented as far as music goes but has a dream to be a painter and wants to attend an art school. No one seems to recognize her talent except for Ren, the pair never met until the first episode.

 Hiroto Yoshimitsu as Yosuke Kajiwara.... Midori's father and seems to be nice man, also a big fan of music and thinks that his daughter doesn't have much talent at painting!

An Hasegawa as Moe Kato.... Daughter of the next woman and is ten years old. Moe loves the piano but has to sneak into the Kajiwara store to play their street piano as her mother hates the the instrument and would rather see her daughter studying 100% of the time. Moe is a beginner but does show a lot of talent and her favorite piece is "Fur Elise" by Beethoven. 

Maki Kubota as Masae Kato.... Moe's mother who as explained hates the piano and owns a clothing shop near the music store, she says the piano is way too loud which I think is a lie.

 Naho Toda as Sakiko Sawamoto.... Ren's mother and to date don't know much about her.

Short promo video for episode three

Previous recaps:

Episode one .... Episode two

 Right above is a person who I hadn't thought about for a while and perhaps most Nogi fans reading this hadn't either! That's Seira Nagashima and she was one of my top members for a while but left the group in March 2016. Heard some tidbits about her over the years but not all that much so as time went on she kind of faded from my memory. But looking at her bio she's been quite busy the last few years doing many different kinds of activities though they're not the kind of things that make for an interesting post. So it was a nice surprise to see Seira make a guest appearance in this episode playing a pianist named Yuki, think she'll be in the next two shows but don't know if her role will be all that large as it wasn't in this episode.

 That top screenshot is how the previous episode ended, it was with the 'hero' Ren and the ten year old girl Moe giving a performance of the song "Canon". What had made it special was that there had been a petition started by Moe's mother for the Kajiwara Music Store to get rid of the street piano. But their duet on the song swayed everyone's mind and the piano will be staying. For the first two shows Moe's mother Masae had really hated the piano and had forbidden her daughter to play it. But after that performance she's had a change of heart and asked Ren to be Moe's instructor! Think it's part of a minor scheme of Masae's, one where Ren and Midori would have to look after her? Midori seems to run her father's music shop, that's him right above on the left and his name is Yosuke. It just popped into my mind, haven't seen one customer buy anything at the store!

 It appears each show is going to have a main song and of course they're from composers who died centuries ago. For this show the piano piece is titled "Traumerei" by the German composer Robert Schumann. Hopefully you read the first two recaps, will refer back to some things but don't have the time to discuss everything. The biggest point is that Ren, who is an electrician, was once an avid piano player until his father left ten years ago and the instrument was sold. But he hasn't missed a beat as his playing is so superb yet in those first two shows it was such a struggle for Midori to get Ren to play. But guess that performance to end the prior episode has changed Ren's way of thinking and he told Midori he would appear at the music store every weekend to play, perhaps it would draw some new players and hopefully some customers!

 That first Saturday was a bomb in the eyes of Midori as no one stopped at the shop to listen to Ren's amazing skills. Then again the front door is always wide open and you didn't need to enter the shop to hear his playing. After Ren left that day he happened to leave behind his sheet music for "Traumerei" which was picked up by Midori's father Yosuke. In the top corner, which you can see above, Ren had written his name and his last one is Sawamoto. That name rang a bell to the father and did he realize right then that the piano at one time been Ren's?! Ren thinks it's his old piano and has even told his mother the news, I'm wondering if she didn't know where it ended up. Her name is Sakiko and it's coming up to the tenth anniversary of when her husband Tadashi left, that's when the piano was sold.

 Of course he's Ren's father and he hasn't seen him since the day he left but Sakiko had kept in contact with him but not lately. Starting to wonder if at the end of this series Ren will be reunited with his father? Practicing hard on that Schumann piece is Moe, she plays often at the Kajiwara shop but how does she practice at home for there's no piano there? Moe has a paper keyboard which she can practice on and she showed Midori there are some YT videos that help players out. Plus what's becoming a bit popular are videos of street piano players, this is when we met Seira as Yuki. She has a popular channel and Moe often watches the videos of her playing the piano. That gave Midori a bright idea, that's to have Ren do the same thing but as you can see above that idea was shot down by him instantly!

 If Ren won't play then up next is Midori who was also very leery about making a video. But she finally relented and a performance was uploaded but that too was a dud for after two hours it had only received eight views! Strolling into the shop a bit later was Ren who heard about the failed video and for some reason has changed his mind, he's willing to do one with Moe. Midori had come up with the team name of M and M, with Ren aboard she wants to change it to M, M and R which Ren vetoed. He will be doing duets with Moe but first did a solo video which was recorded and uploaded, of course it was "Traumerei" but have no idea yet whether the video was popular.

 On a side note Ren is an electrician but we haven't seen him doing any work since the beginning of the first episode. It was the following day and Ren was heading back to the Kajiwara Music Store, before he arrived Ren could hear someone playing the piano and this person was fabulous! As you can see above Ren stood at the entrance with many others to enjoy the performance which was by.... Yuki! Ren had never heard of her but was so impressed with her playing, as Yuki ended the piece so didn't end this episode and will the pair become a team for the next two shows? That I don't know as the fourth show hasn't aired yet but the recap for that is the next post.