"Black Familia" drama: Episode three 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 23 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, Reimi 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. Takase was married to a cruel woman named Namie and was going to add her onto this list. However she was killed at the end of the third episode and was it an accident?

Reo Nagatsuma as Kazuya Ishimine.... Young actor whose popularity is rising and his fan base consists of mostly women.... especially older ones! Ishimine himself may dig older women as he's having an affair with Reimi who has to be twenty years older. Ishimine is also the mysterious Mr. Salvage(second screenshot below) who has a controversial YT channel and Reimi is the one who created it, Ishimine may just be following her orders.

 Prior recaps: Of course will refer back to some things that took place in previous episodes but don't have time to go into a lot of detail so could help reading some of these. What I thought is a good idea and it goes for all dramas is to wait until the final show has been completed. Then from that post you could start from the first recap and read them all in a row which would be better than searching for them though it would be a lot of reading but in a way easier.

Episode one .... Episode two

 

 Added in one new character though didn't have to do much editing to the above list. Thought I was going to be adding in a second one who is the above woman but after this episode don't think we'll be seeing her which did bum me out. That's Yumiko Shaku who was one of my first favorite actresses and it's truly difficult to top her beauty and figure! Hadn't thought about Yumiko for a while so was looking forward to seeing her, she played the role of Namie Takase who was the wife of the slimy teacher Takuro Takase. You'll read why Namie won't be around any longer, at one time she was a sweet woman who became such a cold hearted person. Did post two of her older photobooks last week and will have more of them coming up. Once again quite a bit took place in this 42 minute episode and many things were cleared up so did edit the previous two recaps a bit. As mentioned a year has passed since the first episode but we do see flashbacks of some events that happened over the year, mainly with the Shindo family who want revenge for the murder of their eighteen year old daughter Riria. That first screenshot below is of a flashback, Kazuha's younger brother Yuma at one time had thought about suicide for he couldn't land a job but after a long talk with Riria changed his mind, let's finally get to what took place.

 Thanks to the tabloid reporter Serizawa the Shindos feel the mystery behind the death of Riria lies with the wealthy and influential Saotome family. In the first two recaps which I hope you read the mother of Riria Kazuha was the one who had the most screen time trying to find evidence at their estate. Kazuha is now a cook at the house claiming to be from Fukuoka and while undercover uses the name of Shinkawa. In this show the roles of Yuma and Sana(above) were expanded and they too have their own dangerous assignments to bring down the Saotome family and find out what their involvement was with Riria's death. Yuma has been unemployed for three years but had found a job in the first show as a gaming designer but because of Riria's death had to decline it, finding out how she died is more important! Yuma does love the culture of Korea and while being unemployed had used the time to learn the language, he appears to be somewhat fluent. It just so happens the Saotome daughter Aoi is a huge fan of K-Pop boy groups, Aoi was also Riria's best friend and there is a screenshot above of Aoi showing Riria a photo of her #1 fave singer Seo-Jun.

 There is something a bit suspicious about Aoi though she does seem to be a very nice girl. The death of Riria shook her up badly and was it because she had a guilty conscious? The mission of Yuma is to get close to Aoi and Kazuha had shown the girl a site where you could meet up with young Korean men, this plan was in the works for a while. Aoi signed up at that dating site and wasn't too impressed with the men she saw. But one eventually caught her eye and it happened to be none other than Yuma(!) who was using the name of Park. He claimed he's teaching English in Korea plus is semi fluent in     Japanese and is 27 in age, think Yuma is actually around 35 but as you can see by his hair above could pass for a younger age. Aoi and Park did connect and through the show had been sending texts to each other but haven't met face to face yet, sure that will take place in some future episodes. So Aoi is now taken care of, the most suspicious of the Saotome family is her father Akio but it will be tough getting close to him, so far no attempt has been made. But Kazuha has also become close to his wife Reimi as she's now a cook for the household, more about this devious Reimi coming up. So now it's time for Sana to get in on the act, her assignment is to learn as much as she can about the Saotime son Rintaro who is such a slimy person, to the public it appears he's changed the past year but not to Sana as she says above.

 Still don't know any dates but when the series began it was a year ago and at the time Rintaro was a politician in the House of Representatives. He was forced to resign for abusing some women however ten months later was reelected and it was probably because of some behind the scenes deals involving his father Akio. We don't see much of the tabloid reporter Serizawa but he is an important character and was the person who taught Sana most of what she knows about reporting. The pair showed up at Rintaro's office hoping for an interview which he turned down because Seriawa had written some less than flattering stories about his scandal though all were true. Saving the day was Sana, she introduced herself as a new reporter working with Serizawa and no matter what he had written Sana is on the side of Rintaro! This was all scripted out and Rintaro fell right into the trap, Sana will be using the name of Sarina Shintani while undercover but so as not to make it confusing will continue to use Sana. Who told Rintaro she thought he was actually the victim(!), three years ago she too had been abused by an ex-boyfriend who uploaded a video of them to some porn sites!

 Later on when Sana was leaving with Serizawa she did reveal that tale of her being videotaped by her boyfriend was true and not to breath a word of it to her mother. Those words from Sana made Rintaro very curious about her, he invited her in to his office but without Serizawa. There Sana told Rintaro of her plans for an article, it wouldn't just be an interview but also one that would include many pin-up photos as he is a good looking young man. Rintaro was a bit leery about that for he is a politician but his assistant Kamata said the idea was unique so why not go with it? So another meeting was set up a few days from then and while at the office Sana noticed Kamata was a huge Hedgehogs baseball fan, don't know if that will be key in the future. After Sana had departed Rintaro told his assistant it's a shame Sana was with Serizawa as he would have loved to take her out to lunch.... and have her for dessert?!?! So now save for the father Akio the plans to get closer to the Saotome family members is in full swing. Now the object is to get evidence about Riria's death and there was a major incident near the end of the last recap involving her teacher Takase, that's Kazuha above talking about his wife.

 It is important to read the previous recaps but realized how very key it is to read the one for the second episode, especially the part about Riria's ex-teacher Takase. He had been abducted, blindfolded, tied up and grilled by the Shindo family about his past incidents. Takase admitted he lied about having sex with Riria plus other things he said were also lies. He had been ordered to say those dirty things about Riria by his wife Namie, she is so attractive so how'd they hook up? What Takase had said about his wife's control over him didn't make much sense but before Takase was released Yuma had slipped a recording bug into his wallet and via that the Shindos were about to learn everything about Takase and Namie. She had discovered what a pervert her husband had turned out to be and Namie was set to divorce him. But above Reimi Saotome had told Namie, who had asked for some advice, to hold on to Takase for a while to use him and Namie was at a loss on what that meant. Namie did seem to be a decent woman a few years back but once under the spell of Reimi had begin to treat Takase worse than dirt. 

 It was Reimi who had told Namie to have Takase say those untrue rumors about Riria on that sleazy Mr. Salvage show so it had to be Reimi who had gotten Takase that position at a cram school. The Shindo family heard all of this info via that bug in Takase's wallet, they also heard that Namie had opened some sort of 'Perv Club' as there's many more men like her husband and why not bleed them dry for money?! Which is what Namie had been doing and the Shindos heard that weekend Namie will be holding another meeting of the club near a resort hotel. Visiting there will be a female college tennis team and while working out these slimeball pervs can take as many photos as they want from the nearby woods. So it's that Saturday and Namie, along with Takase, brought about ten men to this resort but was she in for a shock as the Shindo family had contacted the police. Who soon swept in on this group and arrested the group, all except for Namie. One of the 'pervs' happened to be Kosuke Shindo in disguise and told Namie to run to his vehicle parked nearby. Which she did but upon entering the doors locked and Namie had noticed all of the dashboard wires had been cut. There was a hidden radio in the vehicle and communicating with Namie via the radio was Kazuha who was hidden nearby in the woods. She told Namie her time is up as she knows all about this secret club for perverts, will Namie tell Kazuha everything or should she let the police settle the matter?

 Whew, this has turned out to be a longer recap than planned but so much did take place. There was a tarp thrown over the vehicle so Namie couldn't see Kazuha who also dumped gas around the vehicle, if Namie doesn't come clean about everything she's history! So Namie did spill her guts and the story began a few years ago when Namie's beauty business was struggling and she was in debt. Somehow Reimi befriended Namie and bet she had this planned out well in advance, Reimi paid all of Namie's bills but of course there was a catch, Namie had to convince her husband Takase to do some dirty deeds for her. Quite a few deeds and of course some involved Riria, Reimi had ordered Namie to make sure Takase appeared on the Mr. Salvage show and to spread those cruel lies. There were a few other things but you catch the drift, for some reason Reimi wanted to make Riria's life Hell and why Namie had no clue about. All that and more she told Kazuha who did believe her though wouldn't let Namie go, it appeared Kazuha may have burnt her to death. But Kosuke arrived just in time, he also wondered if Kazuha would have gone through with it? It was reported the following day that Namie had escaped from the vehicle and was running down a forest road. However a semi tuck cane out of nowhere and ran Namie over, needless to say she was crushed to death and I wonder if Reimi had anything to do with that?

 Speaking of Reimi though much older(25 years?) she's having an affair with a young and upcoming handsome actor named Kazuya Ishimine. We saw the two spending an evening at a deluxe hotel and as it turns out Ishimine is the mysterious Mr. Salvage!!!! This program was created by Reimi, we didn't know much about her until this show but what a cruel woman she is. Reimi ordered Ishimine to talk about Namie on his next show and also to bring up Reimi's name as one who may have been swindled by Namie. Ishimine is under her control so that was done and also a few other celeb names were mentioned. We're nearing the end and Sana had her second meeting with Reimi's son Rintaro at a hostess club. It was a very short scene but it allowed to see Sana to see what a dirt bag Rintaro truly was. That bottom screenshot above was from the club and Sana had taken a photo of it, to me it looked like joints and Rintaro is one partying guy who also briefly roughed up one of the hostesses. That brings us to the end of this recap and think the next show will begin off with a bang! For in the final ten seconds we saw Reimi the next day on TV, she's a commentator on a news show and when the show ended she had blood streaming out of her right eye! Hopefully future recaps will be shorter but on a good note when recaps are a bit longer it also means an episode was quite good and much happened. The next post is for the fourth episode, haven't viewed that yet.