"Actress" drama: Episode one 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 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 being 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!

 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. Why she left the police force is still a mystery and 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. 

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 and how they met is also unknown.

 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 working at her father's coffee/tea shop called Cafe Dominant, the family lives in the back. As mentioned she does know Tomomi from years ago but how they ever hooked up is yet another unknown. Kotone only knew Kiri slightly but is aware of her disappearance and 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 two episodes we've only seen Kanon in one short scene 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 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?

 The above six, soon to be 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.

 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.

 

 Whew, as I've said many times glad that above section only needs to be written once as it takes longer than doing the actual recap! So as the intro said this takes place five years after the "Borderless" drama ended, the scene has shifted from a small town in Saitama to Tokyo. Like that first series think Hikaru as Nao may get the most screen time, she did in the first two shows though the main four characters won't be far behind as far as screen time goes. There won't be a lot of action in this drama but have skimmed through a few of the future episodes and it does become an intense, dark thriller. Not much more to add in so let's get to this first recap which did end with a gruesome scene and may become the main storyline to this series.

 That first screenshot is how this first episode began off, with a housewife finding a dead cat in her mailbox! It wasn't the first time an incident like this has happened in the area and as the newscaster says in the second screenshot could this be the work of a copycat criminal? If so he's copying some events that have taken place in the first three chapters of a web novel titled "Escape Beyond", much more on that novel in this and the next recap. It's being written by the actress who is in the bottom screenshot, she's Kanna Mase who wasn't in the "Borderless" show. Kanna is an extremely popular actress of about twenty in age, everything she touches seems to turn to gold.... that is except her heart! That screenshot above was from a special TV show about her where they talked about the novel, all of her endorsements and TV dramas, we don't see much of her but she may be the most important character.

 Near the top are some screenshots of Yui who is back playing the character of Kotone. Her last name has changed from Ichihara to Nakajima as she got married to her lifelong friend Kazushi and the pair have a three year old daughter, Kotone by now would be 25 in age. She works at a coffee/tea shop named Cafe Dominant but am thinking she and her hubby own it as they live in the back of the cafe. Also living there is her 22 year old sister Kanon and through two shows we only saw her once, she's the woman with the broken leg. As you can also see in those screenshots Kotone had received a call from a mysterious and for now unnamed woman. It had to do with Kiri Katayama but the caller never got into details about why they were calling and of course Kotone was totally clueless. She quickly called Nao and guess she kept in touch with her from that first drama. Nao was very close to Kiri in "Borderless" but as is the norm the pair sort of drifted apart after high school. However Nao did see Kiri two months before and it wasn't a happy parting, Nao is blaming her self for that and also for never trying to get in touch with Kiri after that get together. In the car above on the right is Nao, on the left is her partner Tomomi and both were listening to Kotone explain that odd call about Kiri. 

 Both Nao and Tomomi are private investigators for the Wada Tooru Detective Agency, they were on a stakeout about a cheating husband which went nowhere. May be hard to tell by the screenshots but Tomomi is one super detective, she is so observant and has such deductive skills, wonder why she never became a regular detective? Nao did and that was thanks to being with Kiri in the "Borderless" drama, Nao went to the police academy and eventually became a detective. But she quit almost three months ago and for now no reason has been given, after telling Tomomi a few things about Kiri Nao told her the full story of seeing Kiri for the last time two months ago. Kiri had yearned to become a novelist, perhaps even a detective but is now working in the entertainment field as a writer/director/actress of stage plays. The last time Nao saw her old friend was at one of Nao's plays, the pair went out for dinner after along with two of the female castmates. Kiri was such a loner in high school until she befriended Nao but had always been so upbeat and fun. Nao was the opposite for at that time she could so gloomy and quiet, she's still that way five years later. You'll be seeing more of that man in the third screenshot whose name is Kounosu who works at the Delight Agency, he's the manager of Kanna and also has a secret working relationship with Kiri.

 He had popped into the restaurant where Kiri and Nao were at along with two of the stage play cast. Soon walking in was the popular actress Kanna though she was anything but a respected actress in the eyes of Kiri and her mates. The two castmates of Kiri's had been axed from doing a guest spot on a drama starring Kanna and there's some bad blood between them. There's also something very down and dirty going with Kiri who despises Kanna immensely for some reason, the 'why' on that we'll learn about in the next recap. So it wasn't the most enjoyable of evenings for Nao the last time she was with her old friend Kiri and to me it appears Nao thinks the two have drifted too far apart to ever be close again. That evening was only two weeks after Nao had quit the police force, she couldn't bring herself to telling Kiri that and there's some sort of gloominess with Nao so far in this series. After telling her partner that mini story Tomomi says the pair need to hunt down Kiri which you wouldn't think would be difficult but it was soon found out Kiri hasn't been seen for over four days. In the bottom screenshot above Kiri was talking about that recent incident about a dead cat being found in a mailbox, there have been others too and could the connection be tied to a web novel?

 In the beginning did mention that web novel "Escape Beyond" that has had three chapters published. Those cat killings were incidents in the third chapter, there have bene some other copycat crimes from the first two chapters. In the top screenshot above is Kanna's manager Kounosu talking to the novel's publisher Oki, Kounoso is worried about a copycat criminal for in the fourth chapter a woman gets killed! Also above you can see how Tomomi is taking charge of this off-the-cuff case finding Nao's friend Kiri and there are no clues on where she could be. The pair went to her apartment, tried calling her, asked some of her stage play workers about her and it all added up to be a big zero in the quest to find Kiri. Nao and Tomomi eventually turned up at the Delight Agency to have a chat with Kounoso who seemed to know Kiri but why? That is the third to last screenshot which took place in the final minute, some details did come out about Kiri then but we don't learn what until the next episode.

 Above that screenshot is Kotone welcoming home her husband Kazushi at Cafe Dominant and by now have to presume they own the joint. Kazushi was telling her about an unnamed woman who was hurt earlier in the day outside of a friend's house. Kotone was still a bit spooked about that mysterious call she received in the beginning of the show about Kiri, could this unknown woman have been the caller? That too is a question that will be answered in the next recap. Down to the final half minute of this first episode and what a finale it was, how it ended was with the above two screenshots! Lying on the floor of her apartment was Kanna and as you can see was.... stabbed to death?!?! Sure looks it and the show ended on that note, is it the work of the copycat criminal again? That will be explained a bit more in the next recap though the full answer to that and other questions I posed weren't completely answered. That recap for the second episode is the next post and it appears this is going to be a very dark drama which are usually the more interesting ones, more screenshots below of this show's action.