"Boderless" drama: Episode one of ten recap

 

 Air Dates: March 7th until May 9, 2021 on dTV/Hikari, Sunday nights at 11:00 pm

Episode are 30-34 minutes in length, subs done by Westillsubbing

Main Cast: There's seven members from the three Sakamichi groups, two each from Hina and Nogi while there's three from Keya(Sakura). There's a new series called "Actress" which began on April 14th and it appears it would help watching this show first as four of the cast make a return and some stories are a continuation from this drama. Everyone does make an appearance in each show but the stories/episodes are centered around two major characters, somehow in the end the stories connect with each other. The first two shows focus on these two gals so will have their names first in the cast list. For now only a little bit is known of the other characters, bio pics are from the drama's dTV site.

 Kyoko Saito(Hina) as Kiri Katayama.... You rarely hear Kiri being used so may refer to her as Katayama. Kiri is a very odd high school student, she's not shunned by others though prefers to be alone but was intrigued by Nao and the pair hooked up. It appears Kiri wants to be a mystery or crime writer as she's obsessed with the human body and what it takes to kill someone! Kyoko is listed as being seventeen in age but was 23 when this drama was filmed.

 Hikaru Morita(Keya) as Nao Mori.... Seventeen year old high school student who thinks her life is just so boring and ordinary. Nao is best friends with Saeko who is her complete opposite and she wonders why would such a popular girl like her? Nao's life soon changed drastically when she met Katayama and will that change be for the worse?

 Yui Kobayashi(Keya) as Kotone Ichihara.... Works at her father's cafe and is the older sister of the below character. Kotone is one cheerful and happy go lucky young woman which is the opposite of her sister but not much is known about the pair yet. 

Seira Hayakawa(Nogi) as Kanon Ichihara.... Younger sister of Kotone and it doesn't appear they get along so well, for now it seems Kanon's dream is to be a rock star.

 Risa Watanabe(Keya) as Haru Yatsuji.... Older sister of the below girl, through the first two shows we've just seen the pair in a forest escaping from a crazed killer! It shows Risa's age as twenty but she was 22 when this series was filmed.

 Hiyori Hamagishi(Hina) as Kei Yatsiji.... Blind younger sister of the above girl.

 Sakura Endo(Nogi) as Yuuki Matsumiya.... Know zero about her to date and unsure if I'll be recapping her solo episodes.

Other main cast members, will add to it as we go along.

Ayako Konno as Saeko.... Nao's best friend since they were little girls.

Takayuki Hamatsu as Kozo Katsuji.... Father of Haru and Kei, did he disappear in a forest?

 Short promo video for episode one

 

 Very late with these recaps and most of the fault lies with me. At first this series wasn't subbed but many months after it ended they were completed and knew where to get them. However it was protected by a password question and did know.... one of the potential answers! It was a question where there were two correct answers and the one I kept using wouldn't work and was so baffled why that was!!!! Oh well, that's water underneath the bridge and it's okay that these are being done a bit late as sometimes I prefer watching a drama a year or two after it airs. 

 After I wrote the above up took a break and viewed the second episode. Glad I did as much was learned about the characters though won't update the bio info until the next recap which is the post after this one. Don't know if it'll be that way for all ten episodes but after these first two shows there was a mini behind the scenes special and did take some screenshots from that which will be at the bottom of this post. After writing up those very long "Taxi Driver" recaps this will be a nice break as will keep these at three segments. In this first show the two main members featured are Kyoko as Katayama, will use her character's last name, and Hikari as Nao. Every now and again we would see a short clip of about thirty seconds featuring the other characters and not sure yet if I'll be talking about them or not in this post, have no clue yet how I will write this up.

 Thought about it and why not get the two minor stories out of the way first. They only lasted for about four minutes and can squeeze everything into one paragraph, then can concentrate on the main story for the rest of the post.

 In the top three screenshots is Risa as Haru, playing Kei is Hiyori. The two are sisters and were roaming a forest, at first thought they were looking for their father but in the second show learned that wasn't the case. Kei is blind and that happened because of a traffic accident when she was younger and since then Haru has been blaming herself for what took place. We learn so much more about the two sisters in the next recap, as mentioned these two minor stories didn't have much screen time. The other four screenshots above feature Yui as Kotone who works at her father's cafe, unknown for now what else is going on in her life. The family lives above the cafe, this is another two sister story and as you can see above Kotone was bringing some cake to her sister Kanon who is played by Seira. Kanon's dream is to be a rock star and did she drop out of school(?), she's seventeen in age. The sisters don't appear to get along so well, that wouldn't be the fault of Kotone who is such a cheerful young lady but think she may have some dark secret.

 More about those above characters will be learned in the next recap, let's get to the main story and it is a very interesting one. Hikaru plays Nao who is a seventeen year old high school junior and is so confused about her present life and also the future. To Nao her life is just so ordinary and she appears to have no ambition though she is a smart student. At school Nao was the only one in her class who failed to fill out a career form as she has no clue about what she wants to do with her life. At home her father works for the local government and her mother is a stay at home housewife. In a lot of the screenshots you'll be seeing the character of Saeko who is Nao's best friend and also the only major character who isn't a member of any of the '46' groups. Nao has always wondered why Saeko wanted to be her friend, Saeko is so carefree and loves to have fun, the opposite of Nao who wants to break out of her shell but doesn't know how. That will soon be happening though will she come to regret changing? In this small unnamed town a tragedy did take place, nothing to do with Nao but she may be sucked into the mystery which had to deal with an unknown man being murdered at the town pool and with the time being March it had been closed.

 The other major character in this opening story is Kiri Katayama who is played by Kyoko. Almost always use the first names for female characters but won't be doing that for Kiri as everyone just calls her Katayama-san. She's in the same class as Nao and sits two rows over, Nao has always been so curious about Katayama who doesn't seem to have any friends though isn't an outcast either. For the first time Nao did get a chance to meet with Katayama as in the school library on the day this episode was set Nao bumped into her and sent all of her books flying. And what odd books Katayama had as they were all about the human body plus one had the theme of how to kill someone! When Nao pressed her soon to be friend about the books Katayama was a ball of fire as this may have been the first time she's every had the chance to discuss the thing she's most interested in! Hmmmm, but are those interests about human bodies and how to kill someone(?), that'll we'll be learning much more about.

 For now that was just a one off encounter but soon the pair will be visiting a place and think Nao will wonder what has she gotten herself into? Being at the library was a rarity for Nao who does not like books at all and seldom reads though at home her father keeps pushing her to do so. He's a very mild mannered man who should come down on his daughter a bit harder. These are just half hour episodes and after recapping the "Taxi Driver" drama writing this up seems like a vacation! It's the following day and at school Nao's best friend Saeko asked if she wanted to join her and some other girls from class going to a movie or whatever. To that Nao replied no as for the first time in her life for Nao had plans that day to go with Katayama somewhere secret after school. Secret for Nao doesn't know what her new potential friend has planned but creepiness is at the top of the list!

 Being thirty minute episodes means can keep these recaps at three segments so this is the final one. Creepiness is an apt word for Katayama has dragged Nao to the scene of this small town's recent murder and wonder if the name of the town will ever be revealed? The location was the town's swimming pool but being March it hadn't opened yet, the murder took place in the men's locker room which is where the pair ended up at. Katayama really freaked out Nao about all her talk about how killers go about their savage acts but at the time really didn't think she was any kind of psycho but try telling that to Nao! Katayama seemed to know so much about the way a killer operates and was trying to reconstruct this murder scene and seemed to me she had a good grasp on what took place. That spooked Nao so much she attempted to flee the scene but stumbled into Katayama sending her thick notebook flying to the ground. That's the second to last screenshot above and you can see what Katayama had written in the pages, all about various ways to kill a person!

 That was the final straw for Nao who dashed from the locker room alone and Katayama remained with an evil smirk on her face but what took place actually piqued Nao's interest even more about Katayama. The episode ended with Nao at home later that night doing her homework. When she opened her textbook she turned to a page and that's the bottom screenshot above, had Katayama written DEATH in those pages? That we'll find out in the next show which I thought was a bit better, that's the next post. Wrote half of the recap up a week ago and then took a break so lost my train of thought so hope this turned out okay, will write the next post up in one swoop. Below are more screenshots from the episode and the bottom fourteen are special ones. They're from a behind the scenes segment that took place after the show and lasted for almost fifteen minutes which was somewhat interesting, Hikaru and Kyoko couldn't stop complaining on how cold it was in the classroom.