"Actress" drama: Episode six 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 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.

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 .... Episode three .... Episode four

 Yes, the trio of Nao, Tomomi and Kotone were able to discover the whereabouts of Kiri and all of that info is in the above post. That's Kiri's friend/roommate Mari lying in the hospital bed and we never did see her again in this show. As mentioned in the previous recap while viewing this show did find out that Zoomi's real name was Hieda, he was mentioned a few times in this show but we may never see him again in this series. If you combine this drama with the "Borderless" show there's a total of eighteen episodes, this would be number sixteen. So while it turned out to be a decent show the first half of this 33 minute episode was by far the slowest of any show but luckily things did pick up after that and there's just two more episodes to go.

 The show began off with a scene of less than a minute which is the top screenshot, hard to tell who is who. On the left is Rie who was Kanna's personal assistant, on the right is a man named Oki who was publishing Kanna's "Escape Beyond" web novel and for now the remaining chapters have been put on hold. Though not an overall good writer Kanna did post a lot of mini essays on her Blog which were extremely popular and Rie wants to see them published. For now Oki has nixed that idea which infuriated Rie who crumbled up the plan in her hand. We didn't see Rie again but at the end was thinking she was more furious than she should have been and could she be considered a suspect in Kanna's murder? Instead of traveling back to Tokyo the quartet remained in their small Saitama town, Tomomi spent the night with her Senpai from school Kotone. We did learn later on that Kotone's father had opened a second coffee shop and since then Kotone has been running Cafe Dominant.

 Meanwhile Kiri went to spend the night at Nao's, some screenshots of that above. It's the first time in over two months that Nao has returned home and could she have some bitter feelings towards her mother? Nao did quit the police force to care for her mother who has/had cancer but it soon went into remission. Nao did get a job with her current detective agency but really think that deep down Nao regretted quitting the police force. During the night of course the main topic of conversation between Nao and Kiri was the murder of Kanna. Nao said to let the police solve the case but by now we know that's not the way Kiri works, she herself wants it to be like the case in "Borderless" and solve it herself! Nao knows her too well also and knew it was a lost cause trying to talk Kiri out of it, think Nao too would love to investigate the murder and that will begin in the morning. For now it seems on social media many are accusing Kanna's manager Kounosu of being the killer but after what took place later on don't think he'll be considered a suspect.

 Most scenes at the Wada Tooru Detective Agency add it to be about two minutes in an episode but the one this time around had to be twice as long. Wada the owner has named the agency after himself, he's assisted by the competent yet irritating Okura who above is the man wearing glasses. The pair are so glad the girls were able to return safe and sound from that search for Kiri though Nao and Tomomi didn't tell Wada the whole story. As mentioned the previous night Nao had agreed to assist Kiri in the hunt to find Kanna's killer, that she told her boss. Who is a very low key man, Wada did work for the First Investigative Unit on the TPD so he knows what murder cases are like. He didn't forbid Nao from helping Kiri but would prefer that she didn't but guess who popped into the detective agency then to change Wada's mind???? Of course it was Kiri who felt there may be more copycat crimes and not by Zoomi, in the next chapter of "Escape Beyond" a man in his forties gets killed so Kanna may not be the last victim.

 Few other persuasive things were said by Kiri which convinced Wada that Nao and Tomomi can continue on the murder case but he is frightened for the girls. So if the next victim is a man in his forties the most logical person would be Kanna's manager Kounosu, that's him right above. He's been AWOL for three days and has not been at work nor his apartment, where could be be? Of all people calling up Nao was her boss Wada who gave her the address of where Kounosu may be staying, with his part time girlfriend who is also right above. And Wada was right on the money as that's where Kounosu was hiding out, not from Kiri or the police but from the media who wouldn't leave him alone. Especially on social media as it doesn't take much to bring  an innocent man's life down. Innocent is how the police feel about Kounosu as he was interviewed twice and had an airtight alibi on where he was the night/morning Kanna was killed, that he told to Kiri, Nao and Tomomi. Below Kiri had asked "Weren't you two lovers?" to Kounosu and she truly had been thinking Kanna was having a secret affair with him. Not at all and as a matter of fact it was Kanna who was using Kounosu instead of the other way around. 

 So where we stand is that at the end of this episode we have no suspects in Kanna's murder. We've had three who have been Kiri, Zoomi and Kounosu but all are innocent, as mentioned in the beginning Rie in my eyes could be considered a fourth. Not as much took place in this show as we're down to the final four minutes. The trio of Kiri, Nao and Tomomi left Kounosu's girlfriend's apartment and were stopped by the above woman who we saw for a few seconds at the end of the fifth episode. Her name is Iinuma and is a reporter for the Weekly Real tabloid, she's been working on a story about Kanna's murder. This Iinuma is one in your face person but also seems to be a very excellent reporter. She's discovered that Kanna had been passing off Kiri's "Escape Beyond" web novel as her own and wants to know why Kiri would allow that? Iinuma had done a lot more digging into Kiri's past and wants to know everything about the relationship between her and Kanna which Kiri refused to answer. 

 Iinuma replied if Kiri won't respond to her questions then check out the Weekly Real site tomorrow for the story she wrote about Kanna's death! Even that wouldn't make Kiri open her mouth and wonder if she does know some secrets about Kanna that we're not aware of? That scene took place in the final minutes, Kiri zoomed away with her mates Nao and Tomomi all worried about Iinuma's story with the episode ending on that note. So bit of a sluggish first half to this show but the second half was so much better, just two more episodes to go to find who the killer of Kanna was. Haven't viewed those shows yet but will soon and within the week the last pair of recaps will be done for this series.