"Akai Meiro" drama, episode eighteen of 26 recap

 

 Air Dates: October 4, 1974 until March 28, 1975... Friday nights at 9:00 pm on TBS/Daiei

There's 26 episodes that are 46 minutes in length, this series is also known as Red Maze

 Once again the subs were done by GEO9875, fifth series I've recapped by them. This is the first of a long running RED series, there were a few more dramas and some TV specials.

The average rating for the drama was 18.9% with a high of 22.7%.

Main Cast: Thanks again to GEO9875 for doing the subs for this series, another classic that has been revived. This could prove to be a challenge for me and may write up 6-8 recaps before publishing any. The recent series I finished "Abunai Deka" had 51 episodes but all were stand alone stories. This drama is one long 26 episode story so don't want to have long gaps between the recaps, every now and again do need a break so that's where the challenge will be. Am writing most of this up after viewing two shows, know there will be much editing to the character's bios and a few new ones may have to be added in. But I am looking forward to this series and it has started off strongly, except for a pair of Sentai shows this is the oldest drama I've viewed. 

 This drama has such a strong cast, so many were stars at the time or became one. Ken Utsui is the older man above, he sadly died ten years ago but what a terrific actor he was. Playing his wife who died early on was Akiko Koyama, she'll be turning ninety this year and have seen her in so many older films, she was so classy and attractive. Momoe Yamaguchi needs no intro as she may be the most popular Idol in the history of Japan, recommend reading up on her. Yusaku Matsuda died at the age of forty in 1989, he was a star actor but could be known more for being the father of two current popular actors Ryuhei and Shota Matsuda. Some others in the main cast are also known, will talk about a few of them in future posts. Below on the left is Takeo who was killed at the end of the first episode, on the right is her old friend Yukiho and could that conversation be the key behind everything that will take place?

 Ken Utsui as Masato Yuki.... A psychiatrist who has just returned to Japan after spending three years in NYC as a college lecturer/professor about the minds of criminals. In Tokyo Masato works at Towa Medical University Hospital, he's the leader of a new section called Laboratory of Criminal Psychology and Medicine. Masato's wife was Takeo who was murdered early on, he's the father of the next character Akiko. He seems to be a calm and collected individual but does Masato have a secret past, such as did he have an affair with Yukiko? That never happened but in the fifth episode we did learn that Masato isn't the true father of Akiko, who is? The answer to that is in the final character bio.

 Momoe Yamaguchi as Akiko Yuki.... Masato's fifteen year old daughter who is a freshman in high school. She's also the daughter of the following woman and a major question is if Akiko is truly Taeko's daughter, will be doing much editing for this character. Which hadn't happened through ten shows but since then Akiko's role had grown and she could be the key figure to all of these incidents and mysteries.

 Akiko Koyama as Taeko Yuki.... Though she was murdered at the end of the first episode still have her in this section as Taeko is so important to the story. We will be seeing her in flashbacks as the main story is finding out who was her killer? While Masato was in America a huge question is was Taeko having an affair, she acted so secretly upon his return. Another puzzle for now is if Taeko is the birth mother of Akiko? No and that was revealed in the fourth episode but Taeko had raised her since birth.

Yusaki Matsuda as Jun Tsuzuki....  Jun is 26 in age and is currently unemployed, he had been a construction worker. He's the younger brother of the below woman, something unknown(for now) happened in Jun's past which has made him so dour and unsociable. At the end of the second episode he was arrested for the murder of Taeko but personally think he's innocent. In March 1971 his then girlfriend Fujiko had been raped and murdered by a middle aged man. Masato had done the evaluation on this man who he deemed unfit to stand trial which would be Jun's motive if he is the actual killer of Taeko. Jun was arrested again in the sixth episode for Taeko's murder but near the end of episode eight was released. The key bit of evidence had been his work helmet but according to the Forensics Unit it had been tampered with and who is trying to frame Jun? That is still unknown but Jun had zero to do with Taeko's killing.

Aiko Nagayama as Yukiko Sakurai.... Jun's older sister who is married but it seems to be a loveless marriage. Yukiko also has a few mysteries surrounding her, one is did she have an affair with Masato before he went to America three years ago? She had grown up with Taeko but the pair did drift apart, because of the affair? Or perhaps something else such as I'm thinking that Yukiko is the birth mother of Akiko!!!! The two women hold a very dark secret and have for fifteen years, that happens to be the age of Akiko! **** In episode five it was revealed Yukiko is the true mother of Akiko, the father's name is Egami who killed someone fifteen years ago and is still on the lam.

Ryoko Nakano as Kyoko Sonoda.... New clinical psychologist in Masato's criminal unit. Kyoko seems to be such a nosy woman but also very competent at her work, she is very attractive and wonder if she has set her eyes upon her leader Masato? Yes she does which many have noticed though not Masato, Kyoko had attended a university in Germany. Beginning with the 14th show began to wonder if Kyoko may be involved with all of these sordid incidents, if so that would make for such an interesting storyline.

 Makoto Sato as Yusaku Yanagida.... Prosecutor who is also Masato's lawyer, advisor and his best friend. The pair have known each other for decades and Yanagida seems to be a real decent man who is also trying to solve the mystery of Taeko's murder, that's him on the left below. He too once had the hots for Taeko but lost out to Masato though it never affected their friendship.

Masaya Takahashi as Professor Oyama.... He's Masato's superior at the university and don't know much about him to to date but he doesn't seem to like Masato and may not be trustworthy. That's Oyama on the right below, he cares more about the college's image than his own staff. In the fifth show some anger had arisen with the university staff because of Masato doing the evaluation of Jun, in a surprise Oyama has his back and will stand up for him. No longer as in episode ten Oyama will now be the leader of Masato's criminal lab and will take all of the credit!

 Here's a few others of the cast who we see now and again though don't have huge roles.

Goro Oshi as Goro Murai.... Owner of the snack bar seen often and Jun's best friend. Goro is also good friends with Misaki who visits his snack bar often and we do see him briefly in each episode. Misaki is a photographer and though not knowing Masato seems to dislike him immensely.

Goro Tarumi as Hidehiko Sakurai.... Yukiko's husband and owns a combo clothing factory and store. They had been in Yukiko's family for decades but had fallen upon hard times, Hidehiko has worked hard to make it profitable again.

Isao Tamagawa as Sakazaki.... Lead detective for Taeko's murder case.

Toshiaki Nishizawa as Masaru Egami.... We first learned of him at the end of the fifth episode. Over fifteen years ago he had been dating Yukiko in Kyoto and had gotten her pregnant. In March 1959 Egami had robbed and murdered a woman, since then he's been on the lam but is the.... true father of Akiko!!!! Many who knew of Egami thought he was dead but has now resurfaced in Tokyo, why as the statue of limitations ends in less than four months and could be have been involved in Taeko's murder? By the end of the eleventh show is doesn't appear so but it also seems as though an unknown man is trying to protect Egami from the police and Masato.

Previous recaps.... May be difficult to read many of them but if you've been following the story there would be no need. However much does happen in each show so don't have the time to explain everything that has taken place up until this point, some of the above is very informative but reading a few of these would definitely help.

 

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

Episode five .... Episode six .... Episode seven .... Episode eight

Episode nine .... Episode ten .... Episode eleven .... Episode twelve

Episode thirteen .... Episode fourteen .... Episode fifteen .... Episode sixteen

 

 Think four episodes ago began to lead off this section with a screenshot of Kyoko, don't see any reason why that shouldn't continue! As you can see she uttered the word Meningioma which is very similar to a brain tumor, will discuss in the recap what she was talking about. However in some spoilers she was talking about Jun and does he have that condition? Few weeks back was reading an article about this drama which said that Yusaki Matsuda who plays Jun wasn't too happy with his role so asked the producer to kill him off. Not 100% positive but think Jun will meet his demise in the 20th episode, if so let me look for that article and have more details on what exactly took place. On to this show and sure you've read the above recap, so much has been taking place. Jun is highly suspicious of his friend Misaki as he feels he's the person harassing Masato and his daughter Akiko. However Misaki was beaten up badly so is he still a suspect to Jun? Plus Masato was almost run over by a car but saved at the last second by Jun though he's still hobbling around, there was no way Misaki was involved in that. Also Akiko had run away and had bought a ticket to the Seto Sea as she still feels her birth father Egami perished at sea, there were also some other reasons for her running away and let's finally get to this episode's action.

 As mentioned Akiko did run away and had left a note which at first I thought was a suicide message. Which it wasn't but instead Akiko said she was leaving as perhaps that will stop all of the misery she's caused to so many others though none of it has been her fault. Didn't think her real birth mother Yukiko showed her father Masato the note but even if she didn't Masato did discover it at the end of the last episode and was reading it. While he was doing that the doorbell rang, Masato hobbled down the stairs thinking it was Akiko but we viewers could see that it was Misaki. Who snapped a photo of Masato the instant he opened the door and not really sure what Misaki's main intention was visiting the house, neither did Masato. Misaki beat around the bush for a while about Akiko's disappearance and seemed he just wanted to make Masato feel lower than he already did, when it finally appeared Misaki may relate some info he left the house. Masato is still hurting from almost getting run over by a car but did try to chase after Misaki who himself isn't doing well after being beaten by that Mysterious Person. To Masato's surprise and I'm sure Misaki's a man jumped out of some bushes and attempted to finish what he began before. Masato was about a hundred feet behind and was watching Misaki get beaten badly once again, in his condition there was no way he could come to his rescue.

 But someone did who was Jun, the sound of him approaching made this attacker flee and this time around Misaki wasn't too badly hurt. He didn't stick around to talk with Jun and quickly left, though Misaki has been attacked twice Jun still has suspicions he's been involved in the harassment of Masato and Akiko. Jun was in the area as it seems he's taken on the role of being their bodyguards and was truly worried about Akiko's safety. The next day Masato visited his best friend, the elite prosecutor Yanagida. I've really liked this character but will admit have had some thoughts about Yanagida being involved with what has been going on, whoever these persons are have to be someone who knows Masato very well and Yanagida certainly does. There's still been no word about Akiko so Yanagida suggested he issue a nation wide alert saying she's a person of interest in the murder of Taeko but don't think it went any farther than that. Masato too has become a bit leery about Misaki, he asked Yanagida about his alibi during the time of Taeko's killing but it seems Misaki's alibi held up as he was at a photo shoot at the time of her death but that doesn't mean he's in the clear with everything else that has been going on. In the bottom screenshot above it was that evening, for the first time Akiko contacted someone and it was Kyoko who we didn't see much of until the end.

 It wasn't a long call, Akiko just asked that Kyoko make her father's life very happy and didn't give her any details of what was going on. At the time Akiko was in Kyoto and had a wait to board a boat to the Seto Sea, surprised they would allow a minor to travel alone like she was. Kyoko immediately told Masato of the call, she couldn't tell where Akiko was calling from but she had used a payphone plus it was a long distance call. Early the next morning Masato paid Yukiko a visit and asked how much of her past was Akiko aware off? Not much according to Yukiko though Akiko knew that she had come from Kyoto and that Akiko had been born on the island of Shikoku. The main city there is Takamatsu so that was Masato's next destination via Kyoto. As you can see above Akiko was wandering around the island and was looking for a specific woman. Whose name was Hana Tokuda but had been told the woman died twelve years ago. That was the first time I can recall hearing that name and who is she for when Masato arrived he also asked about the woman, those were the only two times she was spoken of.

 Meanwhile back in Tokyo Jun is still keeping tabs on his (ex?)friend Misaki. He observed Misaki returning to his shabby apartment from a photo shoot and on the door was a note. After dumping off his equipment Misaki tore away with Jun on his tail but he remained hidden, the destination ended up being an abandoned factory. Jun was behind a pillar and watched for the third time Misaki be attacked, he dashed up but the culprit fled and so didn't Misaki. However Jun wants answers to these incidents so badly and did catch up to this attacker who was none other than Egami!!!! That did surprise Jun who didn't think Egami had anything to do with Taeko's murder or any other incident. Which in a way was true, Egami did confess that he had also tried beating up Misaki outside of Masato's house but those have been his only crimes. Egami also had suspicions about Misaki and had been tailing him, it appears Egami knows what Misaki has been doing and had wanted to send him a message to stop. Egami also knows much more than he revealed but once again told Jun he can't tell him any more info until the statue of limitations expires for his 1959 murder which will be in two months. Jun can't wait that long and wants info about Taeko's murder now but right at that moment Jun had another of those 'attacks' and slumped to the ground, those are becoming more frequent and painful for Jun.

 Though he has tried to beat up Misaki twice Egami isn't all that bad of a person, there were some good reasons for attacking the man. Egami could have easily fled from Jun but instead called his sister Yukiko for assistance. This scene began off at an abandoned factory but the chase ended up in a park where Yukiko found Jun, she also noticed Egami though not for long. The last three episodes the police have felt sure Egami would try and meet up with Yukiko so have tailed her since she entered the hospital. They did meet up once briefly before this until the police had noticed Egami, they did here too but he was able to escape once again. Yukiko is extremely worried about Jun who said his fainting was nothing serious, he's had so little sleep as of late which was the reason for his 'attacks'. But did add in that Egami knows the details of Taeko's murder and how can they get him to reveal that info now and not in two months? Lot was taking place during this time, Masato was still searching for his daughter on the island of Shikoku.

 He had overheard two sailors talking about a young woman who had just been saved, could it be Akiko Masato wondered? Yes it was and what had taken place was that Akiko had been standing by a cliff when the wind picked up violently and she slipped off, know she's had thoughts of killing herself but that incident was just an accident and don't think she could do the actual deed. A passerby had seen what had taken place and rushed Akiko to his house, she was shook up but for the most part was A-OK when Masato finally found her. Sometimes not saying anything could be for the best, that's what Masato had told Akiko as he wasn't going to scold or punish her for running away. Akiko was well enough where the pair returned home that evening and were greeted by Jun who had heard from Kyoko that Akiko was safe and sound. Jun heard the news at the Snack Village shop, he immediately called his sister Yukiko with the good news. However Jun had a hard time handling the phone which Kyoko noticed, Meningioma is a brain disease and it affects how you can control parts of your body such as you fingers though of course Jun said it was nothing to worry about. So for now everything is fine and dandy with Masato, Jun did help out a bit when they returned and told Akiko to think of him not as an uncle but a big brother and could come to him at any time with her troubles. 

 There's less than ten minutes to go in this episode but quite a bit did take place. The following morning Jun paid the prosecutor Yanagida a visit to tell him of his suspicions about Misaki. Yanagida has also been a bit leery about the man but his alibi for the time Taeko was killed was the truth. Jun said how about checking Misaki's photo lab though Yanagida said they need concrete evidence for a warrant, to that Jun replied ' You didn't need concrete evidence to arrest me twice!'. Right after saying that Jun slumped to the ground again with an 'attack', they are now becoming very frequent and Yanagida rushed Jun to the hospital. He notified Kyoko on what had taken place and she dashed there, Jun once again said it was nothing to worry about but Kyoko had called Yukiko about what had happened who told Kyoko they are happening quite often. Kyoko does know a bit about medical conditions, she talked to the doctor who treated Jun and asked could it possibly be Meningioma? The doctor said yes but would have to do some tests on Jun, of course he would refuse those which is what he told Kyoko when she caught up to him outside the hospital. She was very disappointed with Jun, does he feel his disease is too far along to be cured?

 Shortly after Kyoko met up with Masato and Yanagida, she told them what she felt Jun's problem was and is there any way they could possibly save him? Jun may need an operation ASAP as who knows if the next attack may be fatal, Kyoko said she had to find Jun again and talk some sense into him. Though Kyoko said don't bother Masato had to join her, he's not overly friendly with Jun but knows the man has saved his life twice plus cares so much about his daughter Akiko. The episode ended with the above bottom screenshot, as Kyoko and Masato were passing over a bridge they noticed a scuffle on the next one. The two men grappling were Jun and Misaki, as the show ended it appeared Jun may push him over onto the train tracks and once again this was an intense ending. Thanks as usual for reading these recaps and the last four shows have been quite superb after a pair of so-so ones, will be back once again in three days with the next pair of recaps and we're getting close to the end.