Kyoko Saito: "Nukarumi no Shokutaku" drama, episode one of nine recap

 

 Air Dates: October 21st until December 16, 2023 on TV Asahi, Saturdays at 11:30 pm

Episodes are 24 minutes in length, subs were done by ArPsanSubs

Main Cast: Not too large of a cast as it appears there will only be six major characters. Of course the main one is Kyoko who is my reason for viewing this drama. Wrote most of the below up after watching the first two episodes, will keep updating this section as we go along. This is a nine episode series so will have three batches of three recaps. The setting of the drama has never been mentioned but it takes place in a smallish city.

 Kyoko Saito as Mia Neijiki.... Young woman of about 24 in age who works at the small market Super Suzuran. Mia lives with her mother who constantly puts her down but she puts up with it, Mia has zero confidence in herself. The father died eight yeas ago and he too was so strict with his daughter, she's seen no happiness in her life. Until recently as Mia has started an affair with her store manager who is twenty years older, she thinks the world of him and why? His name is Natsuo who is married but his wife is suffering from a mental condition so eventually wanted to break it off with Mia. Who would hear nothing of it and has plans to 'cure' the wife thinking it'll reunite her with Natsuo!? There is another in this ordeal who is the manager's son Haruki who has fallen head over heels for her.... Mia too has feelings for this high school senior.

 Hisashi Yoshizawa as Natsuo Nasukawa.... Did give a lot of info about him above. He's the manager of the Super Suzuran store and is twenty yeas older than Mia. When Natsuo's wife became sick he began an affair with Mia but when the series began it hadn't been going on for too long. When his wife Fumiko's condition became worse Natsuo wanted to end things with Mia as he had to do all of the chores at home which he actually hadn't been doing as it was a pig sty at his apartment! The next character is his eighteen year old son Haruki who is a senior in high school.

Kaito Sakurai as Haruki Nasukawa.... Son of the above man and while skipping school one day had met Mia at the back of his father's store. Haruki has become so smitten with her and the feeling may be mutual but he does have someone who worships him in an eerie way. Her name is Chifuyu and is Natsuo's classmate at school, she's had a crush on him for many years. However Chifuyu has spread rumors around school about the condition of Haruki's mother and how the two once had sex after he pushed himself onto Chifuyu! Which was an out and out lie but she hasn't taken it back and now Haruki has become an outcast at school and is often truant, he is an excellent runner and is on the track team.

Naho Toda as Fumiko Nasugawa.... Through two episodes we haven't met her yet so need to wait until adding in a screenshot, talked about her in Natsuo's bio and will update this part soon.

Nanoka Hara as Chifuyu Ozaki.... We met her in the second episode and she wants to be with Haruki so desperately, the pair are classmates. The pair have been friends for a while but he wants to end that, Chifuyu comes off as such a sweet young woman but is anything but that! She's spread rumors about the condition of Haruki's mother and has even hinted that he raped her which was such a massive lie.

Mariko Tsutsui as Miyuki Neijiki.... The second screenshot is of Mia's father who died eight years ago, on occasion we will be seeing him in a flashback scene. Miyuki is Mia's mother and she constantly berates her only daughter, this is not a likable mother! The pair do live together and Miyuki often throws in snide remarks such as 'why would any man want you as a wife'!

 Haven't been able to find any trailers or promo videos for the drama yet but think there may be some. This video here is from a press conference to promote the series.

 

 Not sure when this first trio of recaps was published, began this on December 27th. Of course my reason for viewing this is that it has Kyoko in the main role of Mia, this is the third drama I've seen her in the last nine months. Don't think this will be a 'must watch' drama but it does appear it will be a very eerie and suspenseful show. At first though this was going to be a ten episode drama, then learned it was only eight shows. But then a ninth got added in which was called a 'special' and nine episodes does make it easier as there will be three batches of three recaps, two more are below this one. Being just a 24 minute show the recaps will be shorter than regular ones so it shouldn't take too long to breeze through three posts, let's get to what took place in this first episode.

 Those top screenshots are how this series began, with Mia Meijiki(Kyoko) and her Super Suzuran manager Natsuo Nasukawa at a love hotel! She's a clerk at his mini supermarket and through two shows we haven't learned how this pair got together to have an affair. Both are extremely quiet and a bit introverted with many problems at home, Natsuo is married with a son in high school. He had just given Mia a set of earrings and she was overjoyed with them, in her head we heard her say it was the first time anyone had ever given Mia anything nice like those. Mia is so in love with Natsuo and as of now can't explain why that's so, because of her lonely background? He's a decent guy but twenty years older with a family, Mia is so attractive so there's been so suitors around her age? On their way back home Natsuo did comment about his wife and how they may have to slow down a bit with meeting. We haven't seen her yet but Natsuo's wife's name is Fumiko who has been suffering from some mental illness which seems to be getting worse.

 The older woman in the middle above is Mia's mother Miyuki. The father died in an accident eight years ago and really used to berate Mia endlessly but somehow she still loved him dearly. Miyuki also berates her daughter needlessly and perhaps even worse than Mia's father did, the mother has no confidence that Mia will ever be a success in life. Mia is about 24 and still lives at home, really nothing is known about what's happened in the six years since leaving school. While those earrings were such a nice gift from Natsuo Mia has never head her ears pierced, she thinks her mother wouldn't approve. That evening Mia did the piercing herself, it hurt like Hell but she was successful! The following day at the Super Suzuran the above two clerks commented about the new earrings and did Mia do the piercing herself? Overhearing the conversation was Natsuo who hadn't realized that her ears hadn't been pierced, to make it up to Mia he asked her out on their first official date, more on that later.

 In that top screenshot above at the market a teenage boy bumped into Mia sending her sprawling and a box of oranges scattering everywhere. The boy quickly fled but a short time later Mia went on break at the back of the building and saw him sitting there. This boy's name is Haruki Nasukawa and if the last name sounds familiar it is as he's the son of Mia's heartthrob Natsuo! But for now she doesn't know that and of course Haruki has no clue she's been having an affair with his father!!!! Mia took an instant liking towards Haruki as he seemed to be so sad and depressed, he should have been in school but was truant. Haruki really enjoyed this mini conversation as he had no one else to talk about his troubles with, his mother is in no condition to help anyone out.

 More on him later and Mia is so pumped up as that night she'll be going on her first official date with Natsuo. Up until now it seems they've only spent time together at love hotels and don't know how long that's been going on. This date was a pure disaster for Mia for as Natsuo says above he needs to break things off with Mia! Natsuo said it wasn't her fault at all but his wife Fumiko's condition is getting much worse, he has to take care of her, their son and do all of the household chores. Naturally Mia was stunned and also heartbroken but she won't give up being with her dream man! Mia told Natsuo not to worry about things as she'll make sure everything turns out OK and her plan doesn't begin until the next show. But Mia was still quite shaken from what had taken place, she didn't sleep a wink that night and you can see above how frazzled she looked the next morning at work.

 That morning the manager Natsuo hadn't shown for work and an important piece of mail had been delivered that he needed to respond to. Recruited to bring the mail to Natsuo was Mia and it was hard to say whether she was pleased or not at the time. That's Natsuo's apartment building above and on her way there Mia ran into Haruki who was once again skipping school. We'll learn why and much more about him in the next recap. It wasn't an 'accidental meeting' as Haruki really wanted to thank Mia for listening to his troubles and giving a bit of advice. During this mini encounter Mia did break down and confess to Haruki that she herself has been troubled for so many years and has kept everything bottled up inside her. Mia feels she is such a worthless person and will never be a success, no doubt because of the constant berating her mother gives Mia. However she did tell Haruki that because of being 'worthless' she's made it a goal of hers to help out as many people as she can in her life, that brought a tear to both of their eyes and could this be a budding relationship?!!!!

 Getting very close to the end and Mia did finally make it to Natsuo's residence with the important mail. Thought she would ring the bell but perhaps she was scared of meeting Fumiko and just left the nail in their box. But now that Mia knew where Natsuo resided she began to keep tabs on him there as you can see in two above screenshots. Can't call what Mia was doing as Stalking but se is getting to be a bit too obsessed with Natsuo who has been trying to avoid Mia at the store and is working different shifts. For now Mia doesn't have any plans on helping his family and not sure what she can gain by spying on Natsuo outside his apartment building. Think Mia's 'derangement' will be getting worse with each show, as this one ended she told her cruel mother she was seeing a man but left out it was someone with a family and twenty years older!!!! That wraps up this recap and the next pair of posts are for episodes two and three. It does feel nice writing up a much shorter recap and the big plus to shorter episodes is that there's little to no filler.