"Actress" drama: Episode three 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?

 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 six 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.

 

Links to the dramas previous recaps

Episode one .... Episode two

 Did a lot of editing for the first four characters as we finally learned more about their backgrounds. Right above is a screenshot on how the first episode ended as the popular actress Kanna Mase had been stabbed to death in her apartment. So while we won't be seeing her often save for flashbacks that character is so key to the storyline. For now the main character of Kiri is still missing after a week and as Tomomi told her mate Nao unfortunately it appears Kiri had the biggest motive of all to kill Kanna! There was a web novel titled "Escape Beyond" that Kiri had written but Kanna was taking credit for it. There has been copycat crimes committed by a criminal that followed the first three chapters. In the yet to be released fourth chapter a woman had been killed and only four had a copy of the manuscript, of the four Kiri is the most logical suspect! Some of the above was from this episode, other details were from the first two shows and the links to those are above. Let's get to this episode's action and so much happened in a 31 minute show.

 What there were in this episode were many mini flashback scenes, at least five with one being right above. At the conclusion of the last episode Nao and Tomomi were talking with the man Kounosu above, he was the manager of the murdered Kanna Mase. Like the pair of investigators Kounosu is also looking for the missing Kiri, Tomomi bluffed him by saying they knew where she was but first wanted details about the web novel "Escape Beyond". Tomomi has a clue on what had been taking place but wanted to hear the entire story and some of that is above. Somehow Kounosu had obtained a copy of the novel that Kiri had written which had impressed him and he thought why not pass it off as being Kanna's work as that would make her popularity even higher! That was from two months ago and at the time Kiri was in debt for almost a million yen as her assistant had run off with the cash from her last play. She agreed to sell the story to Kounosu for a million but at the time Kiri had no clue of his ulterior motive. When she did Kiri burst into a meeting with him and Kanna demanding the story back, Okay said Kounosu as long as Kiri returns the million yen!

 Which of course Kiri couldn't do so for a while went along with the charade and deep down holds a grudge against Kanna, enough to murder her? After hearing that tale from Kounosu Tomomi said it appeared Kiri's life could be in danger too and wouldn't reveal her location though of course Tomomi had no clue of Kiri's whereabouts. At the Wada Tooru Detective Agency where she works with Nao Tomomi prepared a very detailed chart of Kiri's known life and where she could have gone to, that chart also included all of her actress friends and other acquaintances. But even so Tomomi has no clue on where to begin and she seems more into this case than Kiri's one time best friend Nao who wasn't paying attention to Tomomi's spiel about the case. And for good reason as Nao had been reading the "Escape Beyond" web novel and now she finally remembered the story. It was one Kiri had written as a senior in high school and was a big focus of the "Borderless" drama. Nao now remembers the novel well and these recent copycat crimes have followed the ones that took place in the story. After also reading the first three chapters of the novel that are on the internet Tomomi was the first to say that Kiri is the #1 suspect in Kanna's brutal murder but of course above Nao says there's no way she could have done that and I agree with her.

 The top screenshot is pf the two men who run the detective agency where Nao and Tomomi work. On the right is the assistant manger and accountant Okura who is fuming that the pair keep going off on their own to work on this unpaid search case for Kiri. On the left is the owner Wada who is such a decent man and must like the two as he doesn't care what they do in their spare time. The two don't have many clues to work on but there are a few and they've decided to spilt up for the day to pursue them. Tomomi began off by questioning the publisher of the web novel "Escape Beyond" as he's one of the few that knew Kiri was the actual writer. Oki is the man's name and didn't have much info for Tomomi but did say he was unsure whether the web novel could continue without Kanna and should he pause it for now? Oki did add in that Kanna's assistant Rie had told him that a red sports car may have followed Kanna around on the day of her murder, it was the first Tomomi had heard of it. What he said was true and the crazed looking man who drove it was a fanatic of Kanna's but we've only seen him for about thirty seconds in this drama, he could be the killer but it does seem a bit too obvious to me.

 Nao does have a full copy of the "Escape Beyond" novel that Kiri had given her five years before when they were seniors in high school. The novel is at Nao's family's house in that small unnamed town in Saitama but for some unknown reason is avoiding her family, especially her mother, so how can she get it back? Nao placed a call to Kotone who still lives in town and runs her father's Cafe Dominant coffee shop. Kotone agreed to visit Nao's old residence to get the manuscript and those are the above bottom four screenshots. That visit was a success as Kotone did find the novel and had a chat with Nao's mother where we did learn some of why Nao won't return home. Four months ago Nao's mother had been diagnosed with cancer, shortly after Nao quit her job with the police force to return home and care for her. Luckily the treatment for the cancer was going well and Nao no longer had to care for her mother however she was out of a job for she had quit the force! Nao didn't know Kotome well but visited her at the cafe to see how things were going and told her the story of leaving the police. Visiting Kotone was a stroke of luck for Nao as Kotone had said she had a high school mate who was a year younger and was working at a detective agency in Tokyo. That mate was Tomomi and thanks to Kotone Nao got her position as an investigator at the agency.

 The hunt for Kiri continued as Nao recalled another actress at that mini dinner she had with Kiri two month ago, the last time Nao saw her. She thought her name was Cookie but a bit of digging revealed this woman's name was Miki Amano who herself has been unable to be located by Nao. However she did receive some info from Kiri's other actress friend Yasuko who we met briefly in the last episode. Seems that Miki was staying/freeloading at Kiri's apartment, could she have had some dirt on Kiri but what could that be? So though Nao and Tomomi haven't dug up any solid clues about Kiri's disappearance or perhaps even Kanna's murder they are accumulating a lot of info that may be of use soon. There's one other person Nao did recall from that dinner who was a man named Hamayamada who seemed like a decent guy, he went to college with Kiri and the pair appeared to get along.

 So the hunt now went to Hamayamada's office but even he hasn't been seen for a few days, where are these people disappearing to? However at the office Nao did notice a man who she had never met but had seen a photo of him. His name was Abe and he was the creep who stole all of the money from Kiri's last play that left her a million yen in debt! Nao gave chase to this man who fled the office, the chase continued on into the next show, so much took place with Nao and Tomomi yet as mentioned they still have no concrete leads. We're down to less than a minute to go and if you read the first recap you will recall that Kotone had received a mysterious call from an unnamed woman who kept talking about Kiri and then hung up. In the second episode it was discovered that a woman had been struck by a car in Kotone's town, could it have been this woman? If so she's in the hospital but her name was found out to be Mari Mizuta and there's not one person who has ever heard of this woman. In the final seconds Kotone paid another visit to the hospital which is the above bottom two screenshots. Shortly after she entered the room this Mari's eyes opened which ended this episode. It also ends this recap and the mysteries in this drama are sure adding up, seeing as how the next episode is the halfway point some of these questions will soon have to be answered. Haven't viewed the fourth episode yet but will do so now, that recap is the next post.