Air Dates: April 14th until June 2, 2023... Friday nights at 1:00 am on Lemino
Eight episodes that were ~32 minutes in length, suns done by WeStillSubbing
As was the case with the "Borderless" drama this was based on a novel by Teteuya Honda
Main Cast: There's no Wiki page nor did the Lemino site have any info on the characters and such. This is a sequel to the "Borderless" drama that aired in 2021 and takes place five years after that show took place. The setting in that previous drama was a small town in Saitama, now most of the action takes place in Tokyo. Four of the six main characters returned except for the sisters Haru and Kei, that was probably because Risa graduated but she still could have appeared in this drama. There's so little info out there about the series and characters so sure there will be a lot of editing to this above section, wrote most of this up after viewing the first two episodes and there are some characters we haven't seen much of yet. Kyoko, Hikaru, Yui and Seira were all in the previous drama.
Kyoko Saito(Hina) as Kiri Katayama.... In the other drama Kiri had been an aspiring novelist and still is at the age of 23. She did attend college and after became a writer/director/actress of stage plays. Besides that dream of being a writer Kiri also had some thoughts about being a detective as the other series revolved around a murder case which she helped solve. For the first four shows we didn't see Kiri in any present day setting as she's been missing for over four days, what we saw of her were flashback scenes from the last few months. Kiri is currently writing a web novel titled "Escape Beyond" which has been popular but there's been a huge downside. Which is that the credit is going to an actress named Kanna and Kiri is just going along with this charade as she had been in debt because of her producer running off with the money from her last production! That novel was the same one Kiri had written in the "Borderless" drama but in that show it was unfinished, it's now complete.
Hikaru Morita(Keya) as Nao Mori.... Kiri's best friend in high school though the pair didn't meet until they were seniors. She's also 23 in age and in a shock Nao attended the police academy and did graduate eventually becoming a detective in the Violent Crimes unit. However three months before drama was taking place Nao quit the force and is working as an investigator for the Wada Tooru Detective Agency. At this new agency Nao is partnered up with Tomomi and the pair seem to be very close. Nao hasn't seen Kiri for over two months and is worried about her disappearance. Nao had quit the force to stay home with her mother who had cancer however it soon went into remission. Nao had help getting this new investigative job from Kotone, the two weren't close but knew each other well enough as both lived in the same small town.
Rei Ozono(Keya) as Tomomi Tagawa.... Also an investigator at the detective agency and as mentioned is partnered up with Nao. To date know zero about Tomomi's past but she is so gung-ho as a detective and is just so observant plus very deductive. She impresses Nao to no end who may think deep down why didn't Tomomi join the police force? Though she's never met Kiri she's the one who is mainly leading the case about her disappearance. Tomomi is friends with Kotone as both had gone to high school together and have remained in touch though Tomomi is now living in Tokyo and is one year younger than Kotone.
Yui Kobayashi(Keya) as Kotone Nakajima.... In the previous series her last name was Ichihara but in the five years since that ended Kotone married her childhood friend Kazushi and they have a three year old daughter. Kotone is still working at her father's coffee/tea shop called Cafe Dominant located in a small town in Saitama, the family lives in the back. As mentioned she does know Tomomi from years ago as Kotone was her senpai in high school and the pair have remained friends. Kotone only knew Kiri slightly but is aware of her disappearance and think she eventually joins the case to find her.
Seira Hayakawa(Nogi) as Kanon Ichihara.... Kotone's sister who is three years younger and lives with her sister's family in the back of the cafe. Through three episodes we've only seen Kanon in two short scenes so have no clue what is up with her, in the previous drama she was an aspiring musician who wanted to attend college in Tokyo, do know she currently has a broken leg.
Ririka Ito(Nogi) as Kanna Mase.... Perhaps the most key figure in this drama though she was murdered at the end of the first episode!!!! Kanna was a very popular actress and one with a swelled head though of course was always an Angel around her fans. Kanna was not a writer and didn't like books but was convinced by her manager to begin a web book called "Escape Beyond", three chapters have been released which have been extremely popular. But Kanna had no hand in writing this story as 100% of it was written by Kiri(!) and could that have played a part in her death? Also there's a copycat criminal who has done some of the violent happenings in the first three chapters such as killing cats. In the soon to be released fourth chapter there was a person killed, could this copycat criminal be following what took place in the story? If so how did he know of what would be taking place in the new chapter?
Learned in the sixth episode her real first name is Kazumi.
Runa Hayashi as Mari Mizuta.... Mainly goes by the nickname of Mickey and she also may have another alias of Miki Amano. Mari had been staying at Kiri's apartment up until the time of her disappearance, she was also an actress who appeared in her plays. Mari does have some useful info about Kiri but when she tried to contact Kotone about it had been struck by a car and until the end of the third episode was laying unconscious at a hospital.
The above seven were from the three Sakamichi groups, there are more characters who are below. As mentioned there was no info anywhere on most of the cast save for the above seven so for now will just list the character's name and a bit of info, sure more will be added in.
Runa Hayashi as Rie Kato.... Didn't learn until the seventh episode her last name is Kato and we didn't see much of her until the sixth episode. Rie was Kanna's assistant and just may have seen her killer who could also also have been stalking her, will that put her life in danger too? Don't think so as in the sixth episode I got a strong impression that Rie was involved in the murder. In a bit of a shock we learned in the seventh show she's Kanna's older sister!
Kounoso.... Kanna's manager at the Delight Agency, seems like a decent man though he did rope in Kiri to write that web novel and he too was looking into her disappearance.
Kuzushi Nakajima.... Kotone's husband for about four years and the pair had been childhood friends in that small town in Saitama, no idea what he does for a living yet and that's him in the middle.
Oki.... Publisher of Kanna's web novels and while we haven't seen much of him yet think this role may become larger, that's him on the right below. In the seventh show we learned he had been in a relationship with Rie and he too thinks she may have killed Kanna!
Wada.... Owns the Wada Tooru Detective Agency where Nao and Tomomi work. He seems like a decent chap and his assistant is named Okura who is in the middle below. Wada is retired from the Tokyo PD where he worked in the First Investigative Unit.
Episode nine .... Episode ten
Short promo video for the drama which is worth a view, don't think there are any videos for each episode. There could be but the Lemino YT channel isn't available in America.
Links to the dramas previous recaps
Not sure if Rei is correct with Fun but this was a decent series though have to admit it really took a nosedive over the last three shows. This was a semi sequel to the 2021 "Borderless" drama which I really enjoyed and gave it a rating of 8.8/10. For five episodes this series wasn't far behind as I would have given it a 8.5/10 but the last three shows were so-so at best and the final rating dropped to a 8.2/10 which is still okay and if you're a '46' fan then of course you need to view this. There were many positives in this show with #1 being how Rei looked!!!! All seven members from the three groups did a solid job though not all of the roles were that large. The plot was good too and there were many twists in it which were interesting though wish the sleuths had done more detective work. There were three negatives about this drama and and it really affected the final three shows. One was that in those last three episodes the focus was more on the minor characters instead of being on Kyoko, Hikaru, Rei and Yui which is why most of us watched this series.
Another was with this final episode and how fluffy it became. There was a brutal murder plus a few lives were destroyed because of it yet at the end everyone had a grin going from ear to ear which was kind of odd to put it mildly. One other minor beef was how the intensity level dropped over the last three shows. So there were some negatives but every drama does have a few of them, all in all still thought this was a solid series but could have been better, let's get to the final recap.
On to the meat of the episode which was over a twenty minute scene with many flashbacks, all of them were narrated by Rie. That's her above and until the previous episode we had never known she was the older sister of the murdered actress Kanna. If you did read the sixth recap right around then is when I began to feel Rie was suspect #1 and in a shocker was correct for a change! When that last episode ended Rie had posted that blog message from a field with a large red tower, Nao had recalled it when they 'rescued' Kiri at the end of episode five. So with the publisher Oki, who is Rie's boyfriend, Nao headed to Kitamoto along with Kiri and Tomomi. At the end of the last episode had thought that Rie had build this mini shrine for her dead sister Kanna but actually the pair had built it when they were young girls, am thinking Rie is three years older and somehow that shrine is still standing after over a decade? For the next 10-15minutes(or longer?) the action was at this mini shrine and much of what took place was of flashbacks narrated by Rie. For instance she told everyone their parents had died when the girls were young and were raised in Kitamoto by relatives. Back then Rie did write a lot of stories and one had a character named Kanna Mase which her sister Kazumi took as her stage name.
But Oki had taken such a liking to Rie and though fifteen years older the pair began to date as he could live with Rie's condition. She never did tell Kanna about what took place as her younger sister was so irate Rie didn't write any Blog messages for ten days!!!! During that conversation Kanna also blurted out to Rie that she was..... pregnant and Oki was the father! That surprised me as I didn't think Oki liked Kanna at all and wonder if she was just saying that to really twist a dagger into Rie. Who even knows if Kanna was pregnant as wouldn't the autopsy have shown that? Those words were too much for Rie who by now just couldn't take anymore from her sister. Rie pulled a large knife from a rack and began to stab Kanna endlessly, Rie's hatred towards her sister had hit the point of no return. However deep down Rie still did love her sister and admitted that to the quartet listening to her long spiel. Until Kanna had changed her ways a year or so ago Rie's main reason for living was to be with her sister, she wants to join Kanna again and is the only way by killing herself?!?!
That was a very long scene which had to last over twenty minutes, Rie did say a lot more about her and Kanna's past which are in the screenshots below. This was the longest episode as it lasted a little over 35 minutes, after that very lengthy scene we're already up to the 28 minute mark. Up until now this was a decent episode but the final eight minutes kind of destroyed things. Nao did give Rie a sermon on why she shouldn't kill herself as family is so important and there's no way Kanna would want her to do that. Nao thought that while Kanna did treat Rie like dirt deep down she still loved her and this is coming from a woman who has been avoiding her family! Rie eventually surrendered and that was the last we saw of her, she's currently pending trial and how long would a murder sentence be for? That didn't matter to Oki who told Rie he would be waiting for her and their relationship became that close in just a few weeks? The truth about the web novel "Escape Beyond" was revealed and that Kiri was the true author, overnight she's become a sensation. Kiri has written a few other novels which really impressed Oki, he will publish them and any others Kiri will pen in the future.
The 'Family Theme' was overbearing in the these final few minutes, nothing against that kind of theme but this series ended on such a sappy note. We heard Kotone go on about the importance of being a tight knit family, even Nao paid a visit home to see her ailing mother. And to top it off even Kiri visited her home which she hadn't done for over three years, that talk Kotone had with Kiri's mother had an impact as she was waiting for her daughter with open arms. So that concludes this series and as mentioned in the beginning if you're a '46'' fan of course this is a must watch. Overall it was a decent series with many more positives than negatives though the intensity level did drop and the final episode could have been a bit more interesting.
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