"Informa" drama: Episode ten(final) 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: Did do updating for this section as went along and the top two characters easily had 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(did for the last two episodes), 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. He grew up at Ishigami's orphanage which wasn't known until the ninth 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! Bit of a wimpy man but one that Keijiro has come to depend on.

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 were very close and Kawamura is the leader of the Mugurama group. At the end of the sixth episode Kawamura was shot to death by Saeki. 

Go Morita as Saeki.... What a ruthless man who is a contract killer, supposedly from overseas but he is a Japanese man. Though very ruthless Saeki is also quite intelligent and careful which is why he's been a killer for so long. He grew up in Ishigami's orphanage and has been his faithful killer(!) for so many years.

Toru Hakozaki.... Older reporter for the Weekly Times. Beaten badly at the end of the sixth episode and we haven't see him since.

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? No, it was revealed in episode five who the real father was Nana's husband Ainosuke however he was shot to death five years ago just before the birth of his child.

Ryo Tajima as Okabayashi.... A member of Saeki's gang and appears to be the brains of the team though can be brutal when it's needed.... but is he also a traitor? That is still up in the air and at the end of the ninth show was stabbed to death by Saeki.

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. Was killed at the end of the eighth episode by Keijiro.

Kazuya Takahashi as Katsuji Maruyama.... Detective with the Metro Police and their organized crime division, he has a long history with Keijiro. In the eighth episode Maruyama was taken off the Saeki case by his corrupt superiors but in the end did get his deserved justice!

Mototaka Mishimura as Mizukoshi.... Maruyama's partner. Not much was seen of him until the seventh show but he appears to be a mole for the man employing Saeki. 

Renji Ishibashi as Kento Ishigami.... Former politician who is the person that hired Saeki and his gang to take out certain lowlifes, not just for this series as Saeki has been working for Ishigami for well over five years. Ishigami's aim over the years has been to eliminate the 'bad seeds' of Japan and at one time ran an orphanage. At the end of the ninth show was shot to death by Saeki.

 All of the above info was edited for these last two episodes.

  

Previous recaps

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

 Episode five .... Episode six .... Episode seven .... Episode eight

 

 We've finally hit the conclusion of this series and at 31 minutes this was the longest episode, most were around 25 minutes in length. So ended up taking about fifteen more screenshots than usual so this recap may have four segments instead of three, we'll see how it works out. Will give my rating for the drama now and would give it a solid grade of an 8.7/10, can't think of any negatives about this show. Though will say the fourth through seventh episodes were the best as there was much more intensity and action but every show was quite good. If you like intense series with so, so many plot twists would recommend this one and someone out there did make a comment how good this series was. Sure you read the above recap for the ninth show, would also suggest skimming through the eighth episode as I needed to for there was a long gap between recaps.

 That last episode ended with two killings, both were done by the brutal yet kind of coolish man Saeki. He first killed his long time partner Okabayashi for Saeki thought he had betrayed him, there had been so many incidents lately which turned out badly for Saeki which had never taken place before. Okabayashi was the common denominator in all of them, Saeki didn't want to hear any excuses and just stabbed his one time trusty partner to death before he could plead his case. Looking back on that at first I thought that indeed Okabayashi may have been a traitor, he could have killed the reporter Kanji but didn't. My theory is the person who had been leaking info about Saeki's plans was Ishigami's personal secretary Kawamata, he had been the person supplying the Informa Keijiro with other info so wouldn't he be the most logical suspect? Kanji witnessed the murder and what I can't believe is that Saeki never eliminated him?! He knew Kanji was tied up in their hideout so why wouldn't he have killed the reporter and that was never brought up. Kanji soon left the hideout and as you can see above in most screenshots he hooked up with the Informa Keijiro.

 Kanji gave him all the gory details of what took place but Keijiro didn't bat an eyelash as he knows what kind of ruthless killer Saeki is. For almost nine episodes Keijiro didn't know who Saeki really was but he was a key figure in his past. Both had grown up at the Ishigami House which was an orphanage, many times Saeki had bailed out Keijiro when he was being bullied. But that was over 25 years ago so he had forgotten about about the boy plus of course Saeki looks so much different. Keijiro also makes a reference to Ishigami above, he had planned a devious 'Game' which has worked out but wouldn't be able to see the outcome for Saeki killed him at the conclusion of the ninth episode. Ishigami wanted to see the best two fighters that lived at his orphanage face off in a life and death match which will happen near the end. Kanji dropped Keijiro off at a remote location and it looked like the same place his old friend Ainosuke had been killed by Saeki five years prior. More on Keijiro later and the man in the bottom screenshot above is the detective Maruyama. He had been working on the Saeki case but had been demoted to the Lost and Found department for his corrupt partner and superiors were working under Saeki and Ishigami.

 Maruyama had done some outstanding research and made a very detailed report about the activities Saeki, Ishigami, their gangs had done plus even some info about Keijiro. Maruyama was getting a bit too close for comfort which is why he was demoted but he'll end up getting his revenge. When Kanji escaped from Saeki's hideout he grabbed Okabayashi's tablet and why didn't Saeki do something with that? Kanji gave it to his editor at the Weekly Times Asuka who is in the above two screenshots. She visited Maruyama at the Lost and Found department, what a demotion for such a top notch detective who is also a friend and ally of Keijiro. Asuka had gone through Okabayashi's files and knew Maruyama would want to view the info, he reluctantly agreed to and as it turns out it's a good thing he did. We didn't see them in the last show and only for about two minutes in this episode and not sure why. They're the gangs of Takizawa and Kawamura, they were the leaders of the two gangs and both had been killed by Saeki or his henchmen. 

 Both gangs got a bit of revenge in the eighth show as they defeated the Chinese Mafia clan working for Saeki. In this short scene both gangs got more revenge for their murdered leaders as they broke up a major drug deal the Chinese clan was having at a remote pier late at night. The scene was action packed but it really didn't have anything to do with the major story, perhaps to fill out a few minutes? That major story is of the impending showdown between Keijiro and Saeki, that took place while that other scene was. Keijiro had been dropped off somewhat close to the Ishigami House, the orphanage he grew up at. It's now late at night and Kiejiro is in the building which was quite dark, soon entering the building was Saeki and of course he grew up there too. Keijiro figured this would be Saeki's destination, what he thought was that after Saeki murdered Ishigami he would head to the orphanage to find information out about his real parents which turned out to be an accurate assumption!

 This scene at the orphanage ran from the fifteen to 21 minutes mark, it was the first and final showdown with the 'former friends' and was surprised to see this battle took place well before the end of the show. Why there would be old records still at the orphanage is beyond me, there were so many things which didn't make sense in this final show. Keijiro had managed to find the info on Saeki, seems his parents had abandoned him but why was never revealed. We learned a few episodes ago that Keijiro's mother had also abandoned him when he was very small at a train station. Then there was a bit of trash talking between the two and up until this moment Saeki hadn't realized Keijiro was the youngster he used to protect from being bullied. One thing led to another and the pair began their first and final face to face grudge match, during 80 % of it seemed Saeki had the upper hand and though smaller than Keijiro is one matchless fighter. But seeing as how Keijiro is the 'anti hero' of this drama of course it had to be him that came out on top.

 The battle moved outside and that's when Keijiro got the upper hand, he had Saeki pinned to the ground and was giving him one severe beating. But in one last move while Saeki was on the ground he pulled out a pistol, to shoot Keijiro(?) as he did have the chance to. Instead Saeki handed the weapon to Keijiro and said to fire(!), to me think that Saeki was just so tired of living the life of an elite yet lonely hitman. At this point it was up in the air whether Keijiro would pull the trigger, but think when he thought back on his two best mates being murdered by Saeki he felt there was only one option. That you can see above as Keijiro did end the life of Saeki who of course deserved the death penalty but was hoping there was other option. Though a ruthless killer Saeki was the character I thought was the coolest and it's a shame these two old, old friends couldn't have somehow teamed up. While everything was taking place back at the Weekly Times office Kanji was writing up his story about the Informa, it was quite a good one and as you can see above made the cover of the tabloid.

 Not quite the end of the story, seems a rival tabloid also ran a story about the Informa which ended up selling more issues than the Weekly Times did though they did most of the research. In the middle screenshot above is the veteran reporter Hakozaki who has returned to action after being in the hospital since the end of the sixth episode, that was from being beaten silly by Saeki's goons. There was more justice which I was glad to see. In the top three screenshots Keijiro's friend and ally Maruyama appeared at a restaurant where his corrupt ex-partner Mizukoshi was having lunch with another corrupt man from the police. Maruyama had gone through Okabayashi's tablet and found enough evidence to nail these two traitors who had been working for Saeki, there was so much info found that even more higher ups were brought to justice and good for Maruyama!

 In the final scene Kanji had gone to a cemetery with the hostess Nana who we hadn't seen in the last two shows. She was paying respects to her husband Ainosuke who had been murdered five years ago. Also to pay respects to his brother Kawamura who has recently been killed and both had been shot to death by Saeki. Had the impression Kanji was about to ask Nana out as it was so obvious he's developed a crush on her. But arriving on the scene was Keijiro and it was him who actually set up this up with two visiting the graves. Unseen by the others Keijiro took a very small case that was hidden at one grave and dragged Kanji away with him. In this case were some rolled up papers, Kanji read one which was about another adventure the Informa Keijiro was about to begin. Kanji was told now that he's read the info he has to follow Kiejiro around again and had no choice in the matter, Kanji certainly didn't as a few seconds later a Hummer smashed into Kanji's car spinning it around about twenty times! The thugs then left their vehicle to finish off the job but Kanji's car still ran and as the show ended he was driving right into the gang! So ends this recap and also ends this fine series, don't think it'll happen but that final scene did leave the door open for a possible second season. Wouldn't mind that happening as I did enjoy this drama and once again will recommend it for those who like action and intense shows.