Nashiko Momotsuki: "Yodonna 3: Yodonna's Valentine" drama special recap

 

 Air Date: March 5th on TV-Asahi and is part of the TOEI Tokusatsu Fan Club(TTFC) special series, subs done by Eigo.

Short promo video for this special

Main Cast: Top two were on screen 98% of the time. The first part of Yodonna's bio is from the two previous recaps, added in the new info just below that and for the most part there were just three characters, the bottom man was also in the "Mashin Sentain Kiramager" series.

Nashiko Momotsuki as Yodonna.... Former assistant/secretary to the emperor Yodon on the world of Yodonheim, hence the origin of her name? Yodonna had been betrayed and killed by the Emperor and was waiting final judgement on her afterlife. But she managed to escape and return to Earth where she has a device that will make her human.

In this Valentine's special Yodonna had finally been killed by the Emperor Yodan some time ago. She's currently the assistant to Helun who judges whether the dead can go to hell or their version of Heaven! But Yodonna's wish is to be revived and Helun will grant her request under one condition.... if she can find out the true meaning of LOVE!!!! That's Yodonna right above and upon returning to Earth she was a ghost like figure.

Mori Hinami as Miko....  Street vendor who was selling 'love chocolates' and many wanna-be lovers fell for the ruse. When Yodonna returned to Earth she was invisible to all as she was a partial ghost but Miko could see her and even she didn't know why. Soon after the two met up Yodonna was able to enter Miko's brain(!) and will explain how that worked in the recap.

Kihara Rui as Imizu Tametomo.... He was also in the 'Mashin' series and Yodonna thought she recalled his character Kirama. Imizu fell for Miko but ended up going out with Yodonna who was controlling her brain, how that worked out will also be explained.

 WARNING! 😈 WARNING! 😈 WARNING! 😈 WARNING! 😈

 The two previous specials aired in the late Summer of 2021. Some of what took place with Yodonna and what her background is was explained in the below two recaps. It's not essential reading but may help to skim through them as I won't be talking too much of Yodonna's past.

Episode one .... Episode two

 This was an unexpected nice surprise, those first two specials aired in August/September 2021 and thought that would be the end of them. That luckily wasn't the case and though this is kind of a goofy show hope to see a few more of these specials. This was only a 31 minute episode and usually wouldn't do a recap for one of these shows but seeing as how Nashiko was the star had no choice! She also sang the opening theme song, don't think her voice is a good as her figure! This special also starred Mori Hinami who I've liked for a while though she's never had any posts which was mainly due to her being too young. She just turned 22 last month so let me try to work on a post or two for her and you'll see her in plenty of screenshots.

 Yodonna was a character in the "Mashin Sentain Kiramager" series and a popular one as there have been these spin off specials. What took place prior to this show isn't all that important but would help reading those previous recaps which are short to know what her character is all about. Though just a 31 minute show did take sixty screenshots, may not have too much writing(there was) but there will be many photos so let's finally get to the action.

 Yodonna lives on the world of Yodonheim which actually may be in another dimension. In between the second special and this episode Yodonna had been killed by the world's Emperor Yodon, soon after he was killed too. At the end of this show his death will prove to be a key storyline in this episode. While Yodonna was 'alive' she could live among humans though how she was able to do that was very odd and that's all explained in those two previous recaps. Yodonna is currently the top assistant on the world of Yodonheim to the creature Helun who is right above. He's a judge who decides if the other creatures who have died go to Hell or the mystical place of Yodonheaven!

 Yodonna's one wish is to return to the living self she once was, she requested to Helun that she be revived and he would be more than happy to grant that request to his top worker. However there's one major problem and that's with Yodonna's emotions, she really doesn't have any except for fury and revenge, she is one ruthless fighter! The word LOVE is alien to her, Helun has told Yodonna if she can find out the true meaning of Love he'll grant her request to return to her former state, but of course the questions to her were what is Love and how can she find out what it means?  Helun will allow Yodonna to return to the planet Earth to complete her love finding mission, the problem is she'll be a ghost like figure and for now on the action will take place on Earth as Yodonna has finally arrived there.

 At times Yodonna will look a bit odd in the screenshots such as the second one from the top. That's because she's a spirit and doesn't have a solid figure. Yodonna has arrived on Earth a few days before Valentine's, the first person she saw on he return to this planet was the above young woman Miko. We never did learn much about her save that she's a movie buff and possibly could be an actress too though a failed one. Miko was selling Valentine's sweets on the street and of course Yodonna was at a loss on what that word meant. While no other human could see the ghost like figure of Yodonna Miko could, she couldn't understand why but said she had always been able to see spirits(?). Yodonna had such an urge to eat one of the special chocolates but couldn't as being a ghost meant she couldn't pick up anything solid. There was only one solution to that and that's for Yodonna to use one of her unique powers which is to enter the mind of a human that can see her!!!!

 In two screenshots above is of Yodonna and Miko talking in her brain, this also happened often in the first two specials. Yodonna was explaining her situation to Miko who didn't bat an eyelash to such an outrageous story which was of Yodonna returning to Earth to find the meaning of Love. Miko is all in to help her new friend and said the Valentine's season is the perfect time to find out about love. Miko loves movies and told Yodonna viewing romance ones is the best way to learn about Love so the pair soon headed to a cinema. There they watched a very sappy film which Miko cried over but it was all Yodonna could do to stay awake! Of course we only saw bits of the film and the best part of it was it featured an all time fave of ours who was Sayaka Tomaru. 

**** Hope this doesn't sound too confusing and need to explain this as it's very important. While you will be seeing screenshots of Yodonna as a human it's actually Miko. We viewers would see Yodonna but other people were seeing Miko, when we saw her as Yodonna it meant that she was taking control of Miko's brain and using her body though the next person had no idea of that. May sound a bit confusing, it really wasn't but it's not so easy to describe in words. An example of what I mean is below, when Miko was asking a guy about Valentine's it was actually the brain of Yodonna but the man was seeing only Miko.

 After that film Miko was hit upon by a man and she was a cute young woman. However Miko wanted no part of this creep and coming to her rescue was the above blond man who was named Imizu. In Miko's brain Yodonna fell for this man instantly and as she says above could this man possibly be Kiramai Yellow? Yes Imizu was and he was a major character in the 'Mashin' series. Yodonna asked this nice young man if he was free on Valentine's Day which he was, now Yodonna quickly has her first ever date but what does a woman do and how can she get Imizu to fall for her? Leave it to the 'love expert' Miko who told Yodonna all about the meaning of Valentine's and in Japan the women are supposed to give chocolates to their (potential) loved ones. So Yodonna did whip up a batch of chocolate to give to Imizu but there has to be more to Love than just that she mused.

 Which is true and soon Miko showed her other romantic things such as how to kiss which you can see above. At the time was under the impression that it was actually Miko who Yodonna had fallen for and that proved to be true. For the big date Imizu brought Yodonna, looking like Miko, to the same film. In that movie the man thought he had fallen for one woman but it was actually another who he really loved and didn't realize it for so long, This time around Yodonna paid more attention to the film and began to wonder if her true love may be the person closest/next to her? Not Imizu but her new friend Miko who had been teaching her so much about romance which did turn out to be the case.

 Final segment and after the movie Yodonna confessed her love to Imizu. She even initiated a kiss but pulled back at the last moment when Yodonna realized that her true and only love has been Miko! You can see Yodonna saying that to Miko in her brain(!) above and soon the pair went to a cafe. Yodonna was still in the form of a spirit but at the cafe she became solid again, that transformation was due to Helun viewing everything and to him Yodonna has finally learned the meaning of Love! But after she became solid again what should happen but another transformation, this time it was Miko who changed. That's above and the red looking creature is named Honeydra who is an enemy of all those who live in the world of Yodonheim. There was never a woman named Miko and he had used that form to get closer to Yodonna for she has something very special about her which she didn't realize. Which is that she had the spirit of her former leader Emperor Yodon in her and it was transferred to Yodonna after he was killed.

 Honeydra wants that spirit as it has some very special powers and it was never explained well why Yodonna had Emperor's Yodon spirit in her. Honeydra was going to do a ritual on the spot to transfer the spirit into his body but he didn't realize what a powerful fighter Yodonna was. The pair had an intense but short battle right in the cafe which by now was deserted, of course in the end Yodonna defeated this Honeydra creature. So though Yodonna had been tricked her new master Helun knew she had found the true meaning of love and will allow Yodonna to remain on Earth for a while in her now revived solid form. The way it ended did set up the possibility of future specials which I would like to see, granted these aren't must watch shows but they are so entertaining. However if you're a Nashiko fan it definitely is a must watch and have plenty more screenshots below of the action. Bit of a quick ending to this recap as it was soooooo long for just a 31 minute show.