"Black Familia" drama: Episode two of ten recap

 

 Air Dates: October 5th until December 7, 2023 on NTV/YTV, Thursdays at midnight

Ten episodes that are 42 minutes in length, subs done by eveychooey at DA

**** There are two mini 'special episodes' that total about 24 minutes. The subber eveychooey said they should be viewed after the eighth and final shows so will somehow add those into the recaps or perhaps have two posts for those episodes.

Main Cast: With my #1 woman of all time Risa(above) having a major role in this series there was no way I was not going to recap this but think it's a show I may have ended viewing as the plot seems so intriguing. Just wrapped up the "Akai Meiro" drama and the storyline is so similar to that as a major character was killed in the first episode of the series and after that the main story is seeking out the answers to the killing. Am writing much of this up after viewing the first two episodes and will be editing the info as we go along and I'm really looking forward to this drama. As usual will have a pair of recaps for today and like that previous series will be writing many posts up before publishing them as not to have along gap between recaps. 

**** This drama begins off in the present day, am presuming 2023. But at the end of the first show it's quickly a year later though there will be many flashbacks to 2023(?).

Yuka Itaya as Kazuha Shindo and Shinkawa.... Wife of Kosuke along with being the mother of Sana and Riria. Kuzuha had been a housewife until the death/murder of Riria, while the whole family wants to find out the truth of what happened none as much as Kazuha does. She's the mastermind behind the plan hatched a year later and she got a job as a cook in the Saotome household, there she uses the name of Shinkawa who claimed to come from Fukuoka. Kazuha is looking for any kind of evidence she can find at their glamorous estate but by the end of the second show suspicion has fallen upon her.

Takashi Yamanaka as Kosuke Shindo.... Husband of the above woman and the father of the two daughters below. Kosuke works at an exclusive salon where many models, actresses and celebs go so that's how he makes a decent salary. A very mild mannered man though think when the chips are down he's someone you can depend on.

Risa Watanabe as Sana Shindo.... Obviously talking about herself below!!!! Sana is an aspiring journalist about 25 in age though don't think she had a regular job when this series began. Sana is very adept when it comes to investigating and she gives much credit to her Master Serizawa who is at the bottom of the list. Sana opened a web page after the death of Riria to gather information and helped her mother Kazuha immensely with learning to become someone from Fukuoka. Later on Sana will begin to work with Serizawa on this case and think even infiltrates the Saotome house like her mother did.

Win Morisaki as Yuma Igarashi.... Kazuha's younger brother who moved in for a month when he lost his job.... three years ago! Yuma hasn't been a freeloader as the family does like the man and he does help out around the house. He did find a job in the first episode working at a Gaming company but had to decline the position because of Riria's death, that's Yuma in the middle below. Yuma is very good at creating gadgets, he's made some recorders for Kazuha to plant at the Saotome estate.

 Yuna Hoshino as Riria Shindo.... Eighteen year old high school student and the youngest of the Shindo family. Just before the first show Riria had won an award at the Tokyo Venus Auditions and was scheduled to have a small role in a drama the following week. Which never happened as she was killed halfway through the first episode, it took place at school as Riria had fallen from the roof. The police have ruled it a suicide and quickly closed the case, after that so many untrue rumors about Riria began to pop up. That infuriated the Shindo family, especially the mother Kazuha who is leading her family on a quest to find out the truth about her death, we will see Riria often in flashbacks.

 Above are the five members of the Shindo family, the rest of the main characters.

Yusuke Hirayama as Akio Saotome.... President of the Saotome Holdings company and it was him who put pressure on the police to close Riria's death case quickly and call it a suicide. He's still a mystery after two shows though we can tell there's something very suspicious about him, that's Akio below on the left with his slimy son Rintaro. Akiko has always felt he married his wife Reimi at too young of an age but is trapped as she may take it all with a divorce!

Mariko Tsutsui as Reimi Saotome..... Akio's wife who works as a TV commentator. She's an excellent dancer and loves to entertain her high class friends at the family estate, Remi was the one who hired Kazuha aka Shinkawa as a cook, she too is quite mysterious so far. She and her husband Akio do not love each other and sleep in separate bedrooms.

Akihisa Shiono as Rintaro Saotome.... The slimy son of the above two characters. Rintaro was a member of the Liberal Party and held a seat in the House of Representatives but was forced to resign in the first episode because of a possible scandal involving the harassment of women. However a year later Rintaro was re-elected and he is not a likable young man who loves to drink and do drugs to the disgust of his father Akio.

 Nanami Taki as Aoi Saotome.... High school senior who was best friends with Riria. Aoi was so upset at her death however it appears she knows things about it which no one else does, did her father quash the case to protect her? Aoi is on the left below, two of Riria's other fiends are on the right. Though best friends with Riria surprised Aoi didn't know that her mother was Kazuha, when she began to work at the Saotome estate Aoi didn't recognize her.

Takehiko Ono as Taizo Saotome.... Akio's father and founder of Saotome Holdings. He's originally from Fukuoka which is why Kazuha learned so much about the city and area. Tazio was the main reason Kazuha was hired, that's him on the right below and don't think his role will be large.

Yusuke Shoji as Ayumu Serizawa.... Magazine reporter for the "Weekly Starryu" tabloid who wrote a very damaging article about Riria after her death. But actually it was just his name attached to the article as Serizawa believes Riria was killed and told that to her mother Kazuha. He too will be working to discover the truth behind the killing and believes the Saotome family is involved. Serizawa helped train Sana to be a reporter but for now don't know the background between the two.

 Shinsuke Kato as Takuro Takase.... Riria's ex-homeroom teacher and resigned a few weeks after her death. In a shocker Takase appeared on a web show and said he once had a sexual encounter with Riria, after that he paid her to keep her mouth quiet. However Takase also added in he believed she had other 'Sugar Daddys' and was he paid to say those horrible lies???? Not with cash for Takase reappeared a year later teaching English at a Saitama cram school, his wife Namie knows Remi Saotome so did she get Takase this new gig which was discovered by Sana. If needed will add in the wife Namie to this section if her role becomes important. 

 Thanks for reading that above recap and doing so helps as I don't have time to explain a lot of what has happened to date and that's the case for all dramas. Once again quite a bit did take place so won't have this intro a long one. The TIME is very important even though no dates have been mentioned yet. Between the start of the first episode and now a year has passed, least that's when most scenes take place. But we do see flashbacks of what had happened during that year with the Shindo family and how they put their 'Revenge plan' into action and of course there will also be flashbacks of Riria before she was killed. Didn't do a lot but did edit some bio info above and will be doing that for most recaps.

 Riria's death was ruled a suicide by the police though to all that knew her it's impossible that she would have done such an act. Riria was an aspiring actress and was going to have a minor role in an upcoming drama plus never seemed to have any kinds of difficulties, she truly loved her family and living. Thanks to some sleuth work by the reporter Serizawa he felt that the police were ordered to close the case immediately and call it a suicide. According to Serizawa the influential Saotome family, above in the bottom screenshots, had ordered the police to close the case, Riria's mother Kazuha had also found a photo of her daughter with the family. That was from a year ago and during that time the Shindo family has been doing their own planning to find out the truth of Riria's death. The main thing was of Kazuha trying to learn how to act like someone who has come from the Fukuoka area. That's because the elder head of the Saotome family Tazio had been raised there along with his wife Miyoko who is now dead. Tazio is in his seventies and the Shindo family thought if they could get close to him perhaps they could infiltrate their exclusive estate and find out some clues about their relationship with Riria.

**** Will keep using the name Kazuha but when she met Taizo and began to cook for his family she used the name Shinkawa.

 Hope the above didn't sound too scatterbrained and during this year period Kazuha tried perfecting the dialect of those from Fukuoka. But more than that as she also studied their customs and the way they prepared their local dishes. It wasn't a solo effort as Kazuha was helped out by her younger brother Yuma but playing a bigger role in this training was her 25 year old daughter Sana. Who went to Fukuoka with her mother to see first hand how women from the area acted and talked, Sana also did a lot of research of the deceased Miyoko to get Kazuha to act very much like the woman. All of this training paid off and in a few screenshots above you can see Kazuha with Tazio, she met up with him by 'accident'. Tazio was shocked when he heard Kazuha talk and hadn't heard the Fukuoka dialect since his wife died. Kazuha began to get much closer to Tazio very quickly and even had him taste one of her dishes which reminded him so much of how Miyoko cooked. Tazio even asked Kazuha if she could prepare a Fukuokan dinner for his family which she did and all loved her cooking, Tazio's daughter-in-law Reimi was so impressed she even asked Kazuha to help prepare the food for an upcoming tea party.

 This revenge plan of the Shindo family took a year to create but the results when put into action have moved quickly. Kazuha's husband Kosuke is an ace hairdresser and makeup artist, he did the face of his wife slightly over to make her look more like Tazio's deceased wife Miyoko. It was the day of Reimi's high class tea party and the Saotome family loves to flaunt their wealth and high community standing. Of course the women that attend are so sickingly fake but Kazuha was the hit of the occasion with the food she prepared. It appears Reimi may want to hire Kazuha on full time and she never did say what she had been doing prior to meeting up with Tazio. Also at the party was Reimi's eighteen year old daughter Aoi who helped Kazuha out a bit. Aoi was Riria's best friend but guess she had never met Kazuha as she didn't recognize her but the pair hit it off well together. Aoi is a huge fan of some Korean boy groups and Kazuha showed her an online dating service to meet Korean men. Aoi did visit it and is that site part of the 'revenge plan'?

 So the party was a success plus it appears all in the Saotome family like Kazuha and she may become their full time cook. However that's just the tip of the iceberg for Kazuha as her main mission is to find evidence about their involvement with Riria's death and how she knew the family. While the tea party was in full swing Kazuha was able to do a quick tour of the mansion and made a map of the place. To her the most likely guilty person is Tazio's son Akio who is now president of the family's Saotome Holdings company. Kasuha was going to plant a bug/receiver in his den but was spotted by Akio's slimy son Rintaro but Kazuha was able to get out of that jam though Rintaro is now a tad suspicious of her. That bug was created by Kazuha's younger brother Yuma, he's an Ace with electronics and had to turn down a job in the first show with a gaming company due to the death of Riria. While the Saotome family is #1 on the 'revenge list' also very high up is Riria's ex-homeroom teacher Takuro Takase who quit his teaching position shortly after her death. Takase even had the nerve to go on a sleazy web show called Mr. Salvage where Takase said he once had sex with Riria(!) and thought she had many other men. Shortly after that Takase disappeared and for a year his whereabouts were unknown.

 Sana is truly an Ace when it comes to research and finding results, she's an aspiring reporter but still don't know if she's ever had a job in that field. The hunt Sana did for Takase paid off as she found him working at a cram school in Saitama, time for phase two of the Shindo revenge plan! This scene was a very long one but extremely important as so much information was found out though it did raise many more questions. Takase is one pervert, after his English cram class ended he went to a chair which a female student had sat in and began to smell it!!!! Sitting in that chair happened to be none other than Sana, Takase quickly followed her up the stairs and was about to use his pen camera to take photos of her panties! What a creep this man is but he fell right into Sana's trap as she immediately confronted Takase. Right at that moment another teacher arrived on the scene who was Yuma in disguise. The pair brought Takase to a room and Yuma said he was a new Korean teacher and he does love their adages. Takase began to drink the bottle of water he was given and within seconds was in such a uncoherent state. The water was drugged and soon after Sana and Yuma put Takase in a wooden box and hauled him away!!!!

 To where I don't know, perhaps the school's basement? Waiting there were Riria's two parents Kazuha and Kosuke, all four want answers from Takase NOW or else they will go to the police.... that is if Takase isn't hurt too badly! The questions came fast and furious, Takase did answer most honestly and did so for he knew the Shindo family would hurt him severely or perhaps do worse. Takase did admit to being at the school the night Riria fell from the roof but hadn't even known she was there. The creep Takase had gone to school to get cameras he had installed in the girl's bathrooms(!), he was about to leave when he heard the commotion and saw the family huddled around the dead Riria. So Kosuke was correct when he thought a man was observing them from a third story window, soon after Takase fled the building. On the road leading to the school Takase was almost run over by a car, it too was coming from the school. He was shown a photo of the Saotome family and though he just saw the face for a second or two Takase could have sworn it was Akio though that would never stand up in court. So the reporter Serizawa's ideas of the Saotome family being involved in Riria's death look to be accurate but there's still more info to be learnt from Takase.

 A question was how could such a lowlife like Takase get a teaching position at a cram school? Takase revealed that he had been paid to go on that web show to spread those false rumors about Riria, because of that he had enough cash for a while. However Takase was unable to reveal the identity of the person who paid him off for even he didn't know! Takase is married to a very attractive woman named Namie, through her he was able to land this new gig at a school. Takase is so frightened of his wife and though he explained why none of it made much sense but it gets explained better in the next show. But what did make sense was when he told the Shindo family Namie was friends with Reimi Saotome and had been at the tea party Kazuha had prepared the food for. What everyone has deduced from Takase's ramblings is that he's just been used as a pawn by the Saotome family, it appears Remi got him this new teaching position and the payoff money probably came from the family. Which means her family is more involved than the Shindos thought and now what course of action do they take? Just before they left Yuma slipped a bug into Takase's wallet and that becomes so key in the next episode. During this time Takase was blindfolded and for now has no clue on who these four people were, his confessions were also recorded. Above you can also see the father Akio talking with his slimy son Rintaro, he had to resign from his House of Representatives seat in the first show for harassing women.

 However a year later he was reelected and what a slimeball Rintaro is as he had no remorse for his actions and in front of his father guzzled some drinks and lit up a joint! But Rintaro did relay a piece of key info which was that he found Kazuha snooping around in Akio's den and will the family now keep a watchful eye over her? We're down to the last two minutes and the final scene, Kazuha was meeting up once again with the reporter Serizawa. She thanked him for the info about the Saotome family and Serizawa said he'll continue to do his own private investigations. Then walking in was Sana and until now we never were aware she knew Serizawa who she calls Master for he taught her all there is to know about researching and being a journalist. Don't know if the pair ever worked together but have a feeling Sana will soon be teaming up with him and that brings this recap to it's conclusion. There's a few more screenshots below of the action, the next pair of posts should be in three days and haven't viewed any episodes after this one. **** Now have watched the next show and did come back to make some edits to things I wasn't sure of.