Kyoko Saito: "Nukarumi no Shokutaku" drama, episode six 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 has never been mentioned but the location is a smallish city.

 Kyoko Saito as Mia Neijiki.... Young woman of about 24 in age who works at the smallish Super Suzuran market. Until the third episode that is as Mia quit due to her feelings about her manager Natsuo's family. 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.... That's Fumiko below on the left, her mental condition has been improving thanks to Mia and in real life Naho really is a very attractive woman. She's been married to Natsuo for twenty years and it's her problems that have prevented him and Mia from continuing their affair!

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'!

Previous recaps: May not often refer back to what's taken place so it may be wise to skim through these recaps which aren't too long.

Episode one .... Episode two .... Episode three

 

 Last recap of today's trio and should be back in about four days with the final three. Not sure if I'll be giving this series a grade or rating, will decide at the end. All six episodes have been decent but just feel as though they could have been better. Such as them being a bit more creepy or suspenseful but perhaps it hurts when a show is only 23 minutes in length. The ninth episode is the final one and that's the length of two so in a way there are four shows to go. So that's plenty of time for this show to move up a notch as far as how good it will or could be though of course if you're a Kyoko fan it is a must watch. 

 For the third episode in a row a show ended off on a very intense and interesting cliffhanger. But like the previous two this one's conclusion in the following episode was just so-so but the rest of the episode did set itself up for a compelling trio of shows. That last episode ended with Haruki's wanna-be girlfriend who is also his stalker Chifuyu overhearing him tell Mia they should run away together. If Chifuyu can't have Haruki then no woman can as she tried to stab Mia with a boxcutter, in the process she slashed Haruki in the arm who pushed her down some stairs, that's the top screenshot. Everyone was okay, Chifuyu had fractured her left arm but could go home that day. She did blurt out to Haruki's father Natsuo about Haruki and Mia running away together but said she made a mistake on what she overheard, much more on her coming up. 

 Haruki these days can't stand the sight of his father as he's now 100% positive he had been having an affair with Mia but for now what can Haruki do? Natsuo seemed like a decent man and perhaps still is but we viewers aren't looking at him in such a good light after this show. He had a flashback which are the bottom three screenshots, one thing he was feeling guilty about was cheating on his wife Fumiko whose condition has been rapidly improving. In that flashback Natsuo recalled two other times he had an affair with a worker at his supermarket, Mia is at least his third! What makes it somewhat odd is how these young women were the ones to begin the affair, not that Natsuo is an ugly man but being fifteen years younger than him couldn't those two women and perhaps others have found someone else? We didn't see Natsuo after that scene and he must be missing Mia so badly, however I'm starting to think she's starting to have second thoughts about the affair though could be wrong.

 We also just saw Mia and Fumiko in one other scene as most of the action which will be discussed in a moment revolved around Haruki and Chifuyu. Still not sure what this 'grand scheme' of Mia's is as far as helping out Fumiko with her mental condition. Mia has been posing as a worker from the Health Department and in all honesty Fumiko has been getting so much better. At first Mia thought with Fumiko's condition improving she could begin her affair anew with Natsuo, not so sure now as Mia has taken such a liking towards Fumiko. Who wants to change so badly, she is thinking of going back to work and even let Mia cut her hair. Fumiko is looking quite good and is much more cheerful, she did confess to Mia she knew her husband Natsuo has had at least one affair in the past but has no idea he also did/does with Mia, those affairs did play a part in Fumiko's problems and that was the last we saw of the pair in this episode.

 Chifuyu is one deranged teenager, she's much more dangerous than Mia. The reason Haruki has been skipping school is because of the stories Chifuyu had spread around school about Haruki's mother. Chifuyu also claimed that Haruki had attempted to rape her in the school's infirmary which was a massive lie. Chifuyu is so obsessed with Haruki and has been for years but these days he can't stand the sight of her, who needs enemies with friends like her! Chifuyu did blackmail Haruki into attending school again to keep tabs on him, if he doesn't attend his father will discover Haruki's plan to leave this unnamed town with Mia! At school things hadn't changed as many still called Haruki a rapist, where are his friends as he was the Ace of the track team. One more scene to go and later in this fateful day Chifuyu dragged Haruki to a Karaoke joint, the bottom screenshot above and the below ones.

 Chifuyu has done some low things towards Haruki but as you can see above she's hit a new level with her viciousness! Haruki had sat silently in the Karaoke room thinking how can he escape the clutches of Chifuyu but sadly for him there was no way out. As you can see above Chifuyu began to disrobe but had no intentions of doing any sexual actions with Haruki, at least not there. She soon convinced him to take his shirt off, Chifuyu then began to snap photos of them with their shirts off! That's all the evidence this conniving woman needed to entrap Haruki even more and as I've mentioned earlier what kind of man would want such a lowlife woman such as Chifuyu????

 Haruki realized once again Chifuyu had the upper hand with those photos, she'll show them to his parents and everyone at school unless he does exactly as he's ordered. Which to me is getting married as soon as they graduate from high school and perhaps before that even visiting love hotels ala Mia and Natsuo! That bottom screenshot was from the following day and Haruki had been standing on a bridge, there was no way he would ever end up with Chifuyu and would it be better to die?!?! Just as Haruki was deciding to jump or not his phone rang, the caller was Mia and could she see him immediately? That ended this episode and of course Haruki will be meeting up with Mia, to decide their departure? Thanks for reading this and the other recaps above this, to date would say this was the best episode of the six. Will be back in about four days with the final trio of recaps, not a must watch but the shows have been decent enough and the pace does move right along.