"Boderless" drama: Episode ten(final) 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

Based on a 2018 novel by Tetsuya Honda

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, bio pics are from the drama's dTV site.

 Kyoko Saito(Hina) as Kiri Katayama.... You rarely heard Kiri being used so may refer to her as Katayama. But in the third show she said to use her first name so that's what I'll be doing. 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. It was learned in the third episode that Kotone failed twice to get into a musical school, since that happened two years ago she refuses to play the piano.

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. Unlike her sister Kanon has passed an exam to attend a music college which she's kept a secret, she's also been working as a barmaid to save money so she can move to Tokyo. She has a huge crush on Kazushi who seems to like Kotone more which is another reason for the sisters drifting apart.

 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, her injury occurred when she was about five in age due to a car accident.

 Sakura Endo(Nogi) as Yuuki Matsumiya.... We didn't meet her until the fifth episode. Yuuki is a sixteen year old(?) who has an unknown disease which prevents her from attending school or really leaving the massive estate she lives in. Though not a key figure in the murder mystery her father is, will add him in to the list if he continues to appear in the episodes. In the sixth show Yuuki was sent to a special hospital in Hokkaido, because of the murder?

Other main cast members, don't think there will be any new characters added in.

Ichirouta Miyakawa as Akira Ichihara.... Father of Kotone and Kanon, he owns a small coffee cafe in the town and it's unknown what happened to his wife.

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

Takayuki Hamatsu as Kozo Katsuji.... Father of Haru and Kei, was he killed by a crazed man?

Gaku Oshida as Kazushi.... Good friend of the Ichihara family, about the same age as Kotone and seems to like her quite a bit. However having a huge crush on Kazushi was her younger sister Kanon and she is so jealous of her sister which is one reason they've drifted apart.

Tooru Tezuka as Shigenobu Matsumiya..... Father of Yuuki and owns the very successful Matsumiya Pharmaceutical company. A the end of the fifth episode he stabbed his one time mistress Maya to death in front of his daughter. In such a surprise it was revealed in the sixth show that Matsumiya is the man who was murdered in the first episode!!!! 

Sayuri Kokushou as Hiroko Matsumiya.... Very strict mother of Yuuki and is the VP at her husband's company. For a while she was a suspect in his killing but that wasn't to be, she's just glad the creep is dead! 

Ruto Chitose as Maya Shinozaki.... We only saw her in the fifth show, at the end of it she was stabbed to death by Matsumiya. Stabbed to death is what everyone had thought but she does make a return in this show as the killer of Matsumiya! Had some plastic surgery as her face had been cut up by Matsumiya, now she could easily pass for a man.

In this fourth episode we finally got a view of this unnamed city where the action is taking place. It's that tiny as you can see and does anyone know what city it is? At the end of the sixth episode discovered the city is in Saitama but is still unnamed.

Previous recaps

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

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

 Short promo video for the final episode

     

 

   

 We learned that above fact out at the end of the previous episode and most of this continued on from that. Much different kind of show which lasted for 34 minutes, we didn't see any of the main six characters until the 30:37 mark so obviously they didn't have a lot of screen time. Sakura as Yuuki did and she did a passable job in this show and series but wish we saw more of the main characters from the first nine episodes. Will give my final grade on it now which will be a solid 8.6/10 though had I given it after the eighth show it would have been 8.8/10, last two shows were good but not nearly as suspenseful as the first eight. Of course if you're a fan of Hina, Keya or Nogi this is a must watch but even if you're not a fan do recommend this series and I was pleasantly surprised at how serious it was. On another serious note let's root for Seira to come out of this predicament unscathed and next month will do my first post or two for her.

 So as mentioned we didn't see the main six characters until the half hour mark had passed. Would have been nice to see more of them for the events in this episode took place five years after the last episode ended or the Spring of 2025. Everyone's life has of course changed and all for the better but the final scene was over in a blink of an eye. In major spoiler which I didn't realize until the half hour mark what took place with Yuuki in this show didn't really happen and hoping my spoiling it a bit can make the recap a tad shorter. The first thirty minutes are of a stage play that Kiri wrote, it's all based upon the story of Yuuki and Maya's 'love'. So Kiri wrote the story thinking how things may have turned out for when the last show ended it was April 2020. Kiri did think there were too many unanswered questions about Matsumiya's murder which I thought she would still be working on but that wasn't to be, let's get to the final show. This series did need to viewed as the current "Actress" drama in a continuation of this show, will recap that drama one all eight episodes are subbed.

 As mentioned what took place in  the first thirty minutes was a stage play Kiri wrote called "First Love". It was a look of what may have become of Yuuki after 2020 and that brings up a huge question, what did become of Yuuki five years after she killed her father? When the last show ended Yuuki was living in a secret room at Matsumiya Pharmaceutical and was in real bad shape, would have been nice to know what ever became of her. In this story Yuuki's mother Hiroko had opened an orphanage called Rainbow Hill, just her and Yuuki run the place and by now Yuuki is about 25 in age. She's still in touch with Maya who is now in prison for the murder of Matsumiya, she did do the hiding of the body but of course Yuuki was the one who killed her father. Everyday Yuuki would wait patiently for a letter from Maya and the pair have been sending them to each other for years. Maya is still Yuuki's first and only love which is the reason Kiri may have titled her play "First Love". Hmmmm, did wonder how Kiri would have known about their relationship but it was Maya that admitted it when she was holding everyone captive at the cafe in the eighth episode.

 But soon she may be experiencing her true first love for in the second screenshot above a new chef is beginning work at the children's home, his name is Igawa. What a nice young man he is and was so talented at cooking though Igawa's main talent could be getting along with others, especially children. There's a young girl about ten in age at the orphanage named Chisato, she can't speak or perhaps won't because of some tragedy in her past. Igawa really did care about this girl and had been teaching her to cook, she did an ace job at baking Yuuki's birthday cake. Yuuki too does care about Chisato as she's so similar to Yuuki when she was that age. At the orphanage Yuuki is the teacher and actually does just about everything as until Igawa came along it was just her and her mother running the place but there's only a dozen children.

 As time went on Igawa began to fall hard for Yuuki and even confessed his love to her though in a shy way. He wasn't rebuffed but then again Yuuki told herself she mustn't ever fall in love, during that scene she admitted to Igawa she killed her father but seems that had no affect on his love for her. Also during that time the letters from Maya stopped coming and what could the reason be, those letters seemed to be the main reason for Yuuki living. She did discover that her mother had contacted Maya and told her to stop writing to her daughter and in a way her mother Hiroko may have been right with telling Maya to stop but she often does the right things in the wrong way. Yuuki did try to visit Maya at her prison but Maya refused to see her, what's the sense of living if Maya isn't in her life????

 Shortly after that Yuuki did receive a letter from Maya but sadly she said it would the final one she would write to Yuuki and just wanted to let her know one last time how much she cared for Yuuki. You have to remember that Maya is in prison as she took the blame for the murder of Yuuki's father, it was never mentioned how long her sentence would be. If it was for twenty years would Yuuki want to wait another fifteen for her first love or try her hand with someone nice like Igawa? That final letter hit Yuuki hard, she has some unknown disease and had to enter the hospital. Visiting her there was Igawa who brought the girl Chisato with him, that's her in the bottom screenshot above. For the first time ever Chisato spoke to Yuuki as she called her Teacher and Yuuki was so choked up about that, could that event give her a reason for living too besides her love for Maya?

 It was close to a 35 minute episode and we're now at the half hour mark. The final scene involving Yuuki was the top screenshot above, arriving at the entrance to the orphanage was Maya who said to Yuuki "I Love You" and I was curious on how that would play out plus how did Maya get released from prison? That was never to be answered as the scene quickly shifted to a theater where the cast were taking bows for their performance, what I had just viewed was a half hour stage play! There's now four minutes to go and the writer of the play was Kiri who based it on what may have happened with Yuuki and Maya. Watching in the audience was her best friend Nao and if you recall the pair didn't know each other when the series began. Kiri had graduated from a university and opened her own stage company, wouldn't she have been better suited to be a detective? I think so but in a surprise who became one was her best friend Nao who went to the police academy and has just been promoted to the rank of detective. Nao said she owed all of that to Kiri and Nao had just been informed there was a murder in the area, Kiri begged Nao to let her join her at the scene and wish we saw more of them in this episode.

 Down to the final scene, the blind younger sister Kei is now helping her father run his reopened Dojo while her older sister Haru has been traveling the world. For the other pair of sisters Kanon fulfilled her dream of moving to Tokyo and seems her musical career is looking promising. All of the main cast had a reunion at an event which was for.... Kotone getting married to her childhood friend Kazushi! That final scene zoomed right by and my only beef with this last episode was that the final scene should have been longer as what else has happened with everyone in the last five years(?), for instance has Kotone taken up the piano again? Then again some of my questions may be answered in the "Actress" drama which is a continuation of this series, four of the main cast are in that current drama. That wraps this up and gave my impressions in the beginning, ending could have been better but all in all this was a series I really enjoyed. Plenty more screenshots below of the action and the bottom eleven are from a behind the scenes segment that aired after the episode. Not sure what will be up next, am leaning towards the Korean drama "Delivery Man", will watch the first two shows and if I like it then will be doing recaps for it starting next month.