"Informa" drama: Episode three 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'.

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

 Writing this up before viewing the next episode but there were quite a few unanswered questions from the first two shows that did get answered. Sometimes the first two recaps of a series have so many questions in them and I need to be a bit more patient as most things work themselves out. There's a new subber for this drama and I get the show from NYAA, nothing wrong with the other subs but these are a bit better as the fonts are so much easier to read. Not much Megumi in this episode but sure we'll be seeing so much more of her though not as much as her second photobook post! Let's get to things and it may help to skim through the first two recaps which aren't that long.

 The previous episode ended off with the Informa Keijiro and the young reporter from the Weekly Times tabloid Kanji outside of the HQ of a Yakuza boss named Takizawa. According to Keijiro he's next on the contract killer's Saeki's hit list and at the end of the second show wondered how Keijiro knew that? In Saeki's hotel room Keijiro had found a file left behind naming Takizawa as the next victim, later on in the show Keijiro wondered if Saeki left it behind so it would be found? Takizawa wasn't at his HQ and is in hiding, he too somehow learned of the contract out on his life. His second in command Aida was there who is in the top screenshot, what a toughie he is though when it comes to brain cells he's certainly lacking them. Aida insisted he had no clue where Takizawa was which at the time was the truth though as you can see above Keijiro said he had a clue where the boss was hiding.

 Which was a ruse as Keijiro told Kanji it's important to lower someone's guard as they'll reveal so much more. Kanji isn't Keijiro's protege but the Informa has been trying to teach him the tricks of the trade though not 100% sure what Keijiro's trade is!!!! After that mini confrontation the pair headed to a club which Keijiro frequents, mainly because of a hostess named Nana who he's known forever. To our and Keijiro's surprise Kanji can sure hold his liquor, he downed so many drinks and at the end of the night was stuck with a tab of 240,000 yen.... $1,830(wow)!!!! Kanji paid a visit to the men's room, one of the thugs from Takizawa's HQ had tailed the pair and while Kanji was taking care of business this thug jumped him with a knife! Seems Keijiro is aware of everything that may take place, he was soon on the scene and took down this man rather easily. Keijiro is quite a tough guy who you don't want to get into a scrap with as this thug learned the hard way. But in the end this potential beating of Kanji paid off as this goon knew the whereabouts of his boss Takizawa, it was at a bathhouse which Keijiro and Kanji visited the following morning. 

 This bathhouse is a Yakuza joint and think owned by Takizawa who was there. As you can see in the top screenshot Keijiro has a body full of tattoos and so didn't all of the other gang members there, some traditions continue on to this day. Also there was Takizawa's second in command Aida who was quite irate Keijiro had shown up with Kanji who always has a camcorder recording the action. Aida may be tough but isn't in Keijiro's league as this man was subdued rather easily when he tried to attack Keijiro who was a Yakuza member at one time. The full history of that hasn't been revealed quite yet but little bits of it are slowly being thrown at us. Above the older man is Takizawa who had no clue who Keijiro was, the man sent to kill Takizawa? No, of course not was Keijiro's response and as the screenshot above states he was there to warn Takizawa of who was after him, contract killers from overseas and Keijiro still doesn't know the name of Saeki nor his associates.

 Takizawa did take a liking towards Keijiro as he realized he was an old Yakuza member plus knew more about Takizawa's impending doom than he did. In that bottom screenshot above the group all moved to a hotel room where Keijiro had even more info, it's when I learned he got Takizawa's file from Saeki's old hotel room. The talk turned to a pair of recent killings, both men had been burnt alive by Saeki and his mates. Their names were Yamamoto and Ishihara, what was Takizawa's connection to them? The trio, plus I'm sure more, were involved in an urban development project, Yamamoto had been a politician while Ishihara had been a director at the construction firm that won the massive contract. Of course the Yakuza are often involved in these dealings which is where Takizawa came in, he admitted skimming from the huge profits, so didn't the others, to make sure the urban development was 'protected' but swore the amount of $$ wasn't all that large.

 It was helpful to learn that info but Takizawa wants to know what can be done to protect him? Keijiro has some plans but of course there's a price for everything, Takizawa hired Keijiro on the spot to flush out these killers. Later on Keijiro met with the man in the third screenshot above who is Maruyama, a detective for the Tokyo police's organized crime unit. The pair have a long history and Maruyama wants to know where Kiejiro is getting his info, he didn't know Takizawa was on a hit list but Keijiro will only help the police to a certain point. While that conversation was going on Kanji was having his own with Hakozaki who is a senior reporter for the Weekly Times, his desk is right next to Kanji's. Hakozaki has been doing some digging on what took place with Keijiro five years ago and why he had to flee Tokyo. Keijiro's chauffer had been killed in an ambush but Keijiro was able to escape, this chauffer's nickname had been Junk. That's what Keijiro has been calling Kanji who was warned not to make the same mistakes as the dead chauffer!!!!

 As mentioned Keijiro has a plan to expose the killers of Yamamoto and Ishihara, he felt there was a mole in Maruyama's police unit. So he gave the detective some info to see if it's true and it is, Keijiro told Maruyama the location of where Takizawa would hiding out. That info was put on the police database, within minutes the above man Okabayashi saw the location as this mole has set it up for him to have access to the police records. Okabayashi is the 'brains' of Saeki's small group, when Saeki learned where Takizawa was he and his mates wasted no time and headed there. That place where Takizawa will be at that evening is a very crowded rave club, not an ideal setting for a killing.  However what will take place won't be known until the next episode, above you can see Keijiro hiding in the shadows waiting for the contact killers. With him of course was Kanji and Keijiro is insistent all of the action will be filmed properly. That ends this recap, now on to watch the fourth episode which is the next post.