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.... added them onto the bottom of those episode recaps.
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(?). In the sixth episode we did learn the date was early November 2023 so this series may have begun about two months prior.
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. In the fourth episode Kosuke met the evil Reimi and is about to become her full time makeup artist, with her he uses the name of Koo.
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. In the third episode Sana began to work with Serizawa to get closer to Rintaro and she's been successful. While undercover she uses the name of Sarina Shinatani.
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. Yuma is using the name of Park to get closer to Aoi, he's claiming to be a 27 year old English teacher living in Korea and the two chat via a camera.
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. In the beginning of the sixth episode Taizo died but shortly before that he had net with Kazuha and said he knew her real name wasn't Shinkawa! Taizo didn't reveal how he came upon that info and also added in he didn't know who had killed Riria.
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? Also at the end of that episode Takase was arrested and we haven't heard from him since.
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.
That mini special aired right after the regular eighth episode and was just ten minutes long. Not much was revealed during that time and what did take place will be the final part of the recap. This was the most intense episode to date and think it'll continue on into the next show. Episode seven ended on an intense cliffhanger too, that's the above screenshot which is of Yuma lying at the bottom of a very steep stairwell. He's alive though remained in a coma for the entire show, the police have ruled his falling as an accident but were they pressured once again by the fiendish Saotome family? That's what Yuma's family thinks but they never tried to find out the truth in this episode but then again it may have been obvious to them, so much did take place and let's get to the action.
Like the now deceased Riria Inata too tried out for the Venus Factory auditions a few years back to become an actress. Inata didn't do so well at the audition but was willing to do anything to become an actress, that she told the president Mika Kuginuki. So Inata had been invited to many of their 'celebrations' which were nothing more than drinking parties for the Venus Factory sponsors to take a girl for the night, it happened often to Inata. She was soon dumped by Mika who felt she had no future, feeling sorry for her was Akio who hired her to be his personal secretary at Saotome Holdings and sure Inata was also having an affair with Akio for a long time. So after what happened with Riria a year ago and Yuma the previous night Inata couldn't remain silent any longer, she wants to see justice done to Akio and now! Inata is a computer whiz and had managed to hack into Aoi's laptop, she found out Aoi was meeting Yuma(Park) and had told Akio that who said he would take care of the matter. While in Aoi's laptop Inata was also able to discover the address of Yuma which is why she knew where to go, the Shindo house. So there's some solid evidence at last for the family though the mother Kazuha was so irate with Inata, if she had only spoken up a year ago then perhaps Riria wouldn't have been killed and Yuma wouldn't be in a coma! Kazuha screamed at Inata to leave the house as she was so furious but Inata will somewhat atone for her mistake later on. That was a long explanation of what took place in that scene but it was so important had to relate most things which were said.
Sana told her parents Kazuha and Kosuke about the tape, that gave Kazuha a brilliant idea on how to use it! There were a few parts to this plan, the most important one was for Sana to make a copy of the tape and give it to the Saotome son Rintaro which happened. Rintaro despises his father Akio and would love to destroy his career, Rintaro doesn't care for his mother Reimi all that much either but don't think he hates her. When Rintaro learned that Sana had taped her audition, which had some unsavory comments from Akio on it, Rintaro was in seventh heaven and told Sana to watch what happens next! Meanwhile Kazuha was at the Saotome estate where she's still a cook and housekeeper, she was helping Reimi and Aoi out with the decorations plus cooked the cake and lavish meal. Of course it was unknown at the time but Kazuha had planted three cameras hidden in the decorations, those were courtesy of the reporter Serizawa who we hadn't seen for two shows. Above and below are screenshots from the party and it was anything but a happy birthday for Akio. Who quickly got a bit tipsy and began to mouth off to his family about how they should all worship him(!) even though he is a slimeball. Disgusted with hearing those comments was Rintaro who got up from the dinner table and went to the DVD player where he inserted Sana's tape and to say his family was stunned would be such an understatement!!!!
The next day the reporter Serizawa held a mini press conference to discuss what took place but had asked only for the foreign media to be there as the Saotome family had the Japanese media under their control. This interview though was shown live in Japan on the foreign stations, seemingly everyone saw it and does the Saotome family have any future???? Not much of one, after Serizawa's interview Reimi tried contacting some of her friends, all hung up on her. At the Saotome Holdings office Akio cancelled all of his appointments and destroyed any evidence which he also told the Venus Factory president Mika to do, in his hand later was a passport and was he thinking of fleeing the country? Wouldn't doubt if that was Akio's plan but thwarting that was Kosuke who entered Akio's office and said his secretary Inata had left... for good! The office that is for she soon appeared at a TV press conference where Inata and some other victims told the public of the evil doings of Akio and Venus Factory. Kosuke told Akio he should recall him as he's Reimi FT makeup artist and is known as Koo when he's in that role. Kosuke has come for two reasons and won't leave without any answers, why did Akio kill his daughter Riria and push Yuma down those stairs? Akio is such an arrogant man and laughed so hard at Kosuke who had some sharp scissors but was able to hold back for a while in attacking Akio. Who denied everything, he did recall who Riria was and had even said he had once slept with her though unsure if that did take place. But Akio said he had no involvement with her death even though he was near the school the night it happened. Akio is the kind of man who would gloat over killing someone yet he didn't here and it did make me think.... was he telling the truth?
Later on that day Kosuke and his wife Kazuha once again visited Yuma in the hospital, there's been no change in his condition. Kosuke told his wife what had taken place at Akio's office and for the most part the Saotome family has been destroyed. But I do wonder about Aoi who was Riria's best friend, shame her life is destroyed too if she is innocent though I'm not 100% she wasn't somehow involved in Riria's killing and why was she smirking at the birthday party?. In the second to last screenshot Kazuha did make a very astute comment, what if Akio was telling the truth and he played no role in the death of Riria???? That would leave just one man left from the Saotome family and it's one the Shindos may not have thought was involved in Riria's killing. With twenty seconds to go in the episode Sana was walking down the street, she heard footsteps behind her and when she turned around she was zapped with a stun gun which is the above screenshot. The person happened to be Rintaro who threw her in his car's trunk and the episode ended on that note! This was by far the most intense show to date and not having watched any episodes after this have no clue what will be taking place. The below screenshots are from the special episode, after them is a mini recap of what took place.
This special show which aired right after episode eight lasted for ten minutes and just had two scenes, we did learn a bit but wonder if this show was really needed. We haven't seen Ishimine that much in the previous three shows, he's a young actor who is becoming very popular and has been having an affair with Reimi for a while. This scene explained how they hooked up, at first Ishimine was successful when he began his acting career but that all soon came crashing down. His parents had used his name in a fraud scheme, though Ishimine was innocent he was soon blacklisted. Reimi had seen a dejected Ishimine outside her studio one evening about five years ago, he was guzzling some beer and may have been thinking about taking his life. Reimi did feel sorry for him and took Ishimine under her wing and with her help Ishimine's popularity has been zooming sky high. We also learned that Reimi had come from a poor family and could somehow relate to Ishimine, not that she's a role model for anyone but Reimi may not be as cruel as we had thought. Hmmmm, then again she did force Ishimine to begin that Mr. Salvage web show which exposed the evil/corrupt doings of many popular and respected people, even after eight shows Reimi is still a bit mysterious.
That scene lasted for about seven minutes, the other one was for three and featured Rintaro. He was sitting in a bar pounding down doubles of whiskey, every time he finished one he would blurt out 'What an interesting girl'. Rintaro was referring to Sana and he had been thinking back on the times they had spent together. Though a bit inebriated Rintaro began to piece together all of the depressing events that had been happening to him and his family as of late, to Rintaro the common denominator was Sana! So in a rage Rintaro left the bar, somehow found Sana walking along the street and that's when he zapped her with the stun gun. As you can see above Sana is tied up in his car trunk and above that what Rintaro's comment was to her. So that finally ends this recap which was by far the longest of any of them but it was also the top episode to date. Two more shows to go which I haven't viewed yet, will have those recaps in 3-4 days.
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