"Actress" drama: Episode four of eight recap

 

 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.

 As mentioned more characters will be added in as we've heard of some other names but haven't met them yet. If you didn't view the "Borderless" drama or read the recaps have the links to that drama's final two episodes if you want to learn more on how that ended and about the returning characters.

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

Episode one .... Episode two

 

 Did even more editing to the character's info and that may continue on for the next two shows. This recap marks the halfway point of this drama, the goal was to finish by the end of the month but should have it done ten days before that! This hasn't been as intense as the "Borderless" drama so far but the way this episode ended I think marks the beginning of when it starts to become very dark. In the top screenshot above you see the character of Mari Mizuta who had been mentioned before but no one knew anything about her. She had been laying unconscious at a hospital after being struck by a car, her waking ended the last show and will begin off with her in this recap. Below that is Kyoko as Kiri and except for flashbacks we haven't seen enough of her though she is so key to the storyline. The way this show ended I think we'll be seeing much more of Kiri and you'll see why. Sure you read the above recap so no need to rehash anything else so let's get to what took place in episode four.

 When Mari Mizuta(water puddle!) arose it just happened to be when Kotone had waked into her hospital room. This drama began with Kotone receiving a call about Kiri from an unknown woman, that person was found out to be Mari. That took place about four days before this episode, Mari had wanted to visit Kotone at her Cafe Dominant but couldn't find the place. Shortly after Mari hung up she was struck by a car and has been lying in the hospital since then. Mari had been living in Kiri's apartment, freeloading is more like it, and had been an actress in a few of her plays. Mari told her of Kiri's disappearance a week ago and said she thought Kiri may go to Kotone for help. But why(?) thought Kotone as the pair didn't know each other that well. Mari was still a bit groggy from being the meds and Kotone soon left but will return as Mari does have more important info.

 Also at the end of the last recap Nao had been chasing this creep Abe through the backstreets of Tokyo. Abe used to be in Kiri's acting troupe but before her last play ended he took off with all of the money which left her a million yen in debt! Because of that is why Kiri had allowed the now dead actress Kanna Mase to publish her "Escape Beyond" story as a web novel and Kanna's manager had given Kiri enough to cover her debts. Nao is such a short woman at 150 cm but somehow managed to catch up to Abe and pin him down, that police academy training came in useful. During that time her partner Tomomi had grabbed Abe's partner Hamayamada who we thought was a good guy for he seemed to be friends with Kiri. The way Nao threw Abe down made the pair think the women were truly from the Tokyo PD and because of that told them the entire story of what had taken place with Kiri or at least the portion they knew. Kanna's (ex)manager is a man named Kounosu who masterminded the entire crime, he had roped in Abe and Hamayamada to be his henchmen. Kounosu thought if Kanna could somehow write a novel or do something much more deeper than acting the respect and popularity for her would sky rocket but what could she do as Kanna was anything but intelligent!

 In those top two screenshots on the left is Abe, Hamayamada is on the right. As said the pair were roped in by Kounosu to steal the money from Kiri's last stage play which sent her into debt. That was of a million yen which really isn't that much, in America that would be close to $7,000 and I've noticed the yen has really dropped in value the last five years. Putting Kiri in debt would make her desperate for money and she did sell her "Escape Beyond" novel to Kounosu for a million but he did say more would be coming if it became a film or TV special, he also did sign Kiri to his Delight Agency. Bit of a low move by Kounosu and also the pair of men who Kiri thought were her friends. She is furious that the web book has become so popular and outside of a few people no one knows she wrote it. What was also disturbing to Kiri was the copycat criminal who had been duplicating the crimes in the first three chapters such as cats getting killed. In chapter four of the novel there was a woman murdered, if this criminal is following the story then that was the murder of Kanna! But also at the end of the chapter a man was slain, who among the main characters will that be????

 One other thing is that the fourth chapter hasn't been published yet on the web so the killer must somehow have access to the manuscript. We didn't see much of Kounosu in this show but he is a very key figure, above in a screenshot you will see a photo of him and Kanna. Kounosu had received an e-mail with that pic and is someone trying to blackmail him? We also learned that Kanna originally was going to publish a book of all of her SNS posts but the web novel was more important, above Kounosu told her (ex)assistant Rie to go through with publishing it if she wished but he couldn't understand why as Kanna treated her like dirt. Back to Kiri's disappearance and it seems Kotone has been doing most of the work the last two shows. In the previous episode she was able to obtain a copy of the "Escape Beyond" novel at Nao's house plus had discovered some things from Mari. Kotone's next mission was to visit Kiri's family house and that was a flop. Her family lives in a gated mansion and Kiri's mother was anything but nice to Kotone. We could see why Kiri hadn't been home for years, her mother was such a rigid person who could care less about her daughter and Kotone got no info out of that visit.

 Mari was feeling much better so called Kotone to visit her at the hospital again, this time some progress was made. It was another mini flashback scene involving Kiri which Mari related to Kotone. Kiri was also investigating these copycat crimes that were taken from her "Escape Beyond" web novel and seems she made some progress. However she didn't reveal any of it to Mari and could anything that Kiri learned be the reason for her disappearance? Kiri's laptop was password protected and Mari tried a thousand combinations with no luck. But Mari did recall Kiri saying that if she truly needed to log onto the laptop or needed any other kind of help to contact Kotone as she could figure it out! That baffled Kotone as she had no clue what Kiri meant or what the password could be but will try to figure it out. Mari gave her the key to the apartment and quickly Kotone traveled to Tokyo from her small town in Saitama which doesn't seem to be far away. Kotone has kept Nao and Tomomi updated on the progress she made, Kotone met the pair in Tokyo and off they went to the apartment though what happens will be in the next episode.

 There's less than a minute to go and there's an unnamed man who we have seen in each episode but only for about ten seconds each time. He's in the second to last screenshot and he was such a Kanna fanatic who could also be considered a stalker. He would always show up at her events and post messages at her SNS page, he really creeped her out. At his residence this crazed looking man also had a wall devoted to Kanna that had hundreds of photos of her. Guess he could be considered a suspect in her murder but as of now who has a clue if he was involved? As the episode came to it's final ten seconds this man went to a very dark room, what was there is in the bottom screenshot and it was none other than Kiri tied up!!!! So that was a shocking ending and least we know what's happened to her, how did this crazed man ever find out about her association with Kanna? As mentioned before a good mystery drama always has many posing questions and plot twists, this series has both to date! I've said many times it does help to look at the screenshots as they do help you follow the story a bit better, will be back in about five days with the next pair of recaps.