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 two 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?
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.... Don't know her last name yet and we didn't see much of her until the second 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?
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 is 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.
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
Did have that short absence due to my health problems but should still easily finish this series within the next week. In that top screenshot as it says is a young woman named Mari Mizuta who was a key figure in the first four shows but we didn't even see her once in this episode. However we did see for the first time Kyoko as Kiri in a current day setting as opposed to flashbacks, that's her right above. That's how the last episode ended with her tied up and that explained why she's been missing for a week. Her situation gets explained fully in this recap and haven't viewed the next show as I'll wait until this is written up. Right below is the man who abducted Kiri and his name was never once mentioned. Will refer to him as Zoomi as that was his username at a social media site and how he was eventually found.
**** Viewed the next episode after writing this up and Zoomi did have a real name which is Hieda, too late to change that name in this post.
So that's Zoomi in the first and last screenshots above, he does look like that usual stalker type of man you often see in Japanese dramas and films. However he wasn't that bad of a man as we'll soon see and did have some info about the murder of the actress Kanna Mase. Now that Kiri was found in this episode the main focus will turn to who Kanna's killer was. Before we get to Kiri's adventure the show began off with the trio of Nao, Tomomi and Kotone visiting Kiri's empty apartment. Kotone had received the key from Mari Mizuta who lived with Kiri, she had told Mari if anything were to happen to her to contact Kotone as she was the only person who could figure out what the laptop's password was. Which stunned Kotone as she had no clue and the only times she had ever seen Kiri was when she visited her father's Cafe Dominant coffee shop. So Kotone thought back on some of the conversations they had such as with painters and flowers. Those clues were a failure and Nao wondered what was Kiri's 'the usual' she ordered when visiting the coffee shop? It turned out to a special type of coffee made out of Mandheling beans, entering that name opened up the laptop!
Much of that is in the above screenshots and their first order was to track Kiri's recent search history. **** Have to add in that Kiri really despised Kanna as she was forced to sell her novel to Kanna's manager to cover the debts from Kiri's last stage play. It's a web novel that has become extremely popular, Kiri was paid by the manager Kounosu but Kanna was getting all of the credit. However Kiri nor her abductor Zoomi are not suspects as Kanna's murder happened after Kiri was taken hostage. Back to the trio who discovered Kiri had visited that Zoomi site quite often and this user was such a massive fan of Kanna's. On that site Kiri noticed some pics of a Udon shop located in the smallish city of Kitamoto in Saitama prefecture. That's where Kiri began her search for this Zoomi character and at first have to say was not entirely 100% sure why she was looking for this person. It was because of her "Beyond Escape" web novel, a copycat criminal was doing some of the crimes committed in the first three chapters that were published such as putting dead cats in mailboxes! Kitamoto is a real city in Saitama and Kiri said to the local residents she questioned that she was doing a survey about Kanna's local fans, of course this was just before her murder. There was zero success at that Udon shop or any other nearby businesses, Kiri took her hunt to the neighborhoods to question people at their houses. But once again had no success in finding out who this copycat criminal could be until she met the man in the above bottom screenshot and also some below.
At this man's house who remained unnamed for the entire show Kiri finally hit pay dirt but perhaps wished she didn't! This man was the mysterious character of Zoomi who was the first person to show any interest in Kanna though tried to hide it. Kiri noticed this man's level of interest in her was sky high and knew she found the copycat criminal, it was time for her to make an exit! However Zoomi said while he didn't know much about Kanna(LIE!) he had a friend who was a fan, he told Kiri to hold on while he got the phone number. Huge mistake for the second Kiri turned her back Zoomi grabbed and tied her up throwing her in a shed in the side yard, much of that is above. Zoomi had no clue who Kiri was so wasn't and still am not 100% positive why he held her hostage. One reason could have been Zoomi thought Kiri would go to the police claiming he was the copycat criminal, he could also have been frightened that people were checking into Kanna's background. There is no getting around the fact that Zoomi was slightly crazed but all in all he wasn't that bad of a person(?). Kiri had to be tied up for at least four days but Zoomi always fed her well, let her use the bathroom and clean herself which did confuse Kiri to an extent.
Kiri didn't tell Zoomi the whole story about Kanna using her "Escape Beyond" story as a web novel and said they knew each other from the Delight Agency. Kiri also added in she was investigating the copycat crimes written in the novel, was it Zoomi who had been putting dead cats in mailboxes? Zoomi did admit he was the culprit however he didn't kill one cat and just put already dead ones in the boxes. He felt the novel would become even more popular if the public knew about a copycat criminal which is why he had done those heinous acts. No time was ever mentioned but thinking on about the third day Zoomi read the story about Kanna being murdered at her apartment, When he related the news to Kiri of course that startled her, was she being held hostage by a killer???? Well of course not as she knew Zoomi had been around the shed and his house the whole time, if not who could have done it? You will see in the third to last screenshot above a web tabloid ran a story of Kanna possibly dating her manager Kounosu, to Zoomi there's no doubt that he's the murderer! What you also see above is Kiri in his house searching through the internet. Zoomi trusted Kiri enough to know she wouldn't flee after using the bathroom, she easily could have but by this time she did trust Zoomi and though a tad crazed it seemed to Kiri he had Kanna's best interests at heart and truly wants to find the real culprit.
One other reason Kiri began to feel Zoomi was a somewhat decent young man was she had secretly noticed him nursing his very sick mother in the house. So in Kiri he does have a possible ally who will help track down Kanna's killer and Zoomi soon told her the story of his past.... with Kanna! At 23 in age Zoomi is two years older than Kanna and was her Senpai at school when she moved into town, presuming Kitamoto. But at the time her name was actually Kazumi and Zoomi got along very well with her, sadly at the beginning of their senior year at high school Kazumi's family moved away. Zoomi never heard about her again until the name change to Kanna and that was because she became such a huge star. However a star with such a swelled head as a few times Zoomi did try to approach Kanna but was immediately whisked away, to Zoomi it was hard to tell whether she remembered him or not. But Zoomi did remain a closet friend and did support Kanna though wasn't always smart with what he did such as putting cats in mailboxes. After hearing that story Kiri is now an ally of Zoomi's and will try to hunt down the killer though not with his help. He told Kiri she could leave whenever she wanted and she headed to the shed to grab her things.
While she was doing that somehow arriving on the scene were the trio of Nao, Tomomi and Kotone who had traced Kiri's path to the house. Zoomi had no clue who they were and panicking said Kiri wasn't there but there was no fooling Tomomi who said to open the door to the side shed! That Zoomi couldn't do as he didn't have a key but was soon saved by Kiri who popped out of the other shed and the quartet are finally reunited! Kiri told her mates the entire tale of what took place and they wanted to bring this creep to the police. Not Kiri though who said while Zoomi did some bad acts all in all was a decent man and to let him be. Kiri did turn this into a positive as she said she could use this adventure for a new story! So that concludes that mini incident and now I'm sure the attention for the last three episodes will be hunting for the killer of Kanna, my money is on Kounosu being the culprit but sure I'm wrong. Speaking of him in the final twenty seconds he was entering an apartment complex and looking very worried. Across the street was the woman in the final screenshot above who we had never seen before. She appears to be a reporter or photographer as she took some photos of Kounosu, the episode ended on that note. Now on to view the sixth episode and that's the next post.
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