"Informa" drama: Episode four recap

 

 Air Dates: January 19th until March 24th on Kansai TV, Thursday nights at 12:25 am

 Subs were done by Magicstar at NYAA, episodes are ~24 minutes in length. This drama is based upon a novel by Garyu Okita that came out on December 5, 2022 so not a long wait until it became a show, it will also be a manga.

Main Cast: Sure there will be some updating as we go along but it appears after two episodes the top two characters will easily have the most screen time. Its nice to see Megumi whose role is a medium sized one yet important. She was a fave actress of mine for a while and was also a popular gravure model back in the 2000's, she's now 41 in age but still looks terrific to me. Hopefully won't have to add any more names to this list, it's only a 25 minute show but what a large cast.

Kenta Kiritani as Keijiro Kihara.... The 'Informa' in the series which is the Japanese word for informant. Which is what Keijiro is and he has his hands in so many shady activities involving celebs, politicians and criminals. There was a sordid affair five years ago that forced Keijiro to leave Tokyo but he's returned for good in the first episode.

Reo Sano as Kanji Mishima.... Young reporter for the Weekly Times newspaper, Kanji's wish was to have beefier stories and he may come to regret that wish!

Megumi as Asuka Nagasawa.... Editor of the Weekly Times newspaper which is a tabloid mainly reporting on celeb scandals and such. But Asuka does have a background in hard news and it was her who told Kanji to work with Keijiro aka the Informa.

Yasushi Fuchikami as Kyosuke Kawamura.... We didn't meet him until the second episode. Keijiro's 'younger brother' but just in the Yakuza sense of being brothers. The two are very close and Kawamura is the leader of the Mugurama group.

Go Morita as Saeki.... What a ruthless man who is a contract killer, supposedly from overseas but he is a Japanese man.

Toru Hakozaki.... Older reporter for the Weekly Times.

Kana Kita as Nana.... Works at a hostess club and has known Keijiro for many years. She has a five year daughter and is the father Kawamura?

Ryo Tajima as Okabayashi.... A member of Saeki's gang and appears to be the brains of the team.

Wataru Ichinose as Kim.... Also a member of Saeki's gang who is their 'heavyweight'. Kim is a Korean but was born in Japan, Tokyo's Korean town.

Kazuya Takahashi as Katsuji Maruyama.... Detective with the Metro Police and their organized crime division, he has a long history with Keijiro.

Mototaka Mishimura as Mizukoshi.... Maruyama's partner..

  

Previous recaps

Episode one .... Episode two

 

 Lot took place in this episode, sure all have read the above post so let's get right to the action which was nonstop for the first seven minutes. But before that near the end of the last recap Keijiro had given his trusted detective ally Maruyama some info on where the Yakuza leader Takizawa would be that night. The main reason for that is Keijiro felt there was a mole at Maruyama's station and he was correct on that. This mole had set it up so Saeki's sidekick Okabayashi would have access to certain police files, in one was Takizawa's location that night where Saeki headed with his two gang members. However that location was a setup by Keijiro as Takizawa was safe and sound that night at the club Keijiro's close friend Nana worked and the Yakuza boss was well guarded. The place where the ruthless contract killers Saeki, Okabasyashi and their goon Kim headed to was a very crowded rave club. That's them in the top screenshot and it's hard to do a killing there, of course lying in wait was Keijiro.

 With him was the young reporter from the Weekly Times tabloid Kanji, Keijiro is insistent he record everything that goes down that night. Also at the club were many of Kawamura's gang who mingled in with the large crowd. We didn't see Kawamura in the last episode but he's Keijiro's Yakuza brother from over five years ago. At the club the very huge Kim jumped up to the DJ's stage to draw attention to himself and away from his two close mates who just roamed around the club. Okabayashi is a whiz with computers, he sat down and somehow hacked into the club's computer system within a minute and set off the smoke machines which enabled him and Saeki to head somewhere undetected. Of course at a rave club a big Yakuza boss wouldn't be on the dance floor but in the VIP lounge, that's the place Saeki headed to with Okabayashi. Did say the big boss Takizawa wasn't in the room but there was a person anxiously awaiting for Saeki, that naturally was Keijiro! The pair did have a conversation and those above screenshots show some of it.

 Of course Saeki was more than irate that Takizawa wasn't in the room and demanded to know where he was though there's no way Keijiro would reveal such a thing. Neither knows each other's name but they do know each other slightly from the past. The entire story hasn't been told but it seems five years ago Keijiro had been ambushed, don't think at the time he was still a member of a Yakuza clan. At the ambush Kiejiro's chauffer had been murdered and that case has gone unsolved. Keijiro remembered the face of Saeki from somewhere and guess what, it was the night of that ambush! Saeki is the man who killed Keijiro's chauffer and the pair had been close friends, Saeki during this mini meeting did admit to the killing. Now that Saeki, along with Okabayashi, are trapped in this room there's no way Keijiro will let them leave but it's hard to take down someone as wily as Saeki. In Okabayashi's coat lining were bags of nitro, unless Keijiro and Kawamura's guards let the pair go Saeki threatened to blow the whole club to Kingdome Come..... and he would!!!!

 Keijiro had seemingly no options so let the pair leave but noticing something in the corner was Kanji, he was still filming the action. It was a fire extinguisher, if Keijiro douses the nitro bags before Saeki can light them they can still nab the fiends. So near the club entrance Keijiro once again confronted Saeki or at least tried to. When Keijiro was about to make his move a dozen thugs jumped in between the two, who and where did this gang come from? There was a big melee between these new thugs and Kawamura's gang which allowed Saeki and Okabayashi to flee the cub. They jumped into their vehicle but without their mate Kim who was slow leaving the club for he wanted to join in on the melee's action for a few moments. Kim did make it out of the club and was running towards the waiting vehicle. But also waiting was Kawamura in a car, he floored it and as you can see above slammed into Kim. He's such a huge man that he was only hurt a bit badly, meanwhile his mates had to leave and Kim was soon brought to an old club that Kawamura once ran but is now closed. That old man in a wheelchair in the third screenshot above is unnamed so far and it's the first we've seen of him. He was the person to hire Saeki for these contract killings and was beside himself that this third murder was a dud.

 At Kawamura's club Kim was tied up very, very tightly as what a dangerous man he is. Kawamura gave him such a beating yet he couldn't get the goon to open his mouth to reveal where his mates Saeki and Okabayashi were hiding out at, we know it was a pet shop. There's no way Kim is going to open his mouth and Keijiro thought there has to be a way for him to start blabbering. Kawamura thought they should just keep beating the man, the two close friends did have a minor spat and it ended up with Kawamura leaving, was this a charade by the pair? Filming all of this had been Kanji and he just couldn't take watching a human get beat so severely, he finally had too much and told Keijiro he's quitting and headed back to the Weekly Times office. There he told his editor Asuka he's no longer going to be following Keijiro around, the way the underworld operates is just too much for him. Asuka did agree to relieve Kanji from the story but we all know he'll be back with Keijiro very soon.

 Meanwhile Keijiro knew brute force wouldn't work against Kim so he tried another method. Don't know who the man was but Keijiro had a friend who was able to discover the names of Saeki's small gang, of course one was Kim. He's such a powerful man but also a momma's boy, Kim was born in Tokyo's Korean town and still supported his mother. Once the identity of Kim was found out Kawamura had sent some of his guards to the mother's residence, Kim heard her pleading over the phone for his help! Keijiro asked the goon what's more important.... 'Your mother or the location of your two gang mates?!' We won't know Kim's answer until the next episode, there's also one other thing we have to wait on. At the very end Kawamura had arrived at his very deluxe apartment building, lying in wait there was Saeki along with another dozen hoodlums! Saeki had told Okabayashi do find out everything he could about everyone involved in the rave club's melee, that's how he found Kawamura's name and address and this potential confrontation ended this episode. Whew, just a 26 minute show but did so much happen! Every show is getting better and am glad I decided to view this drama, as mentioned it's available at NYAA and will be back in about two weeks with the next pair of recaps.