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(?). 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. In the seventh and eighth episodes Sana posed as a twenty year old aspiring actress named Wakana to infiltrate the corrupt Venus Factory agency.
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. At the end of the seventh show Yuma was pushed down a steep stairwell and has been in a coma since then.
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. By the ninth episode we did learn that Riria was the one who had leaked that damaging video of Rintaro, also in that show who the person that killed her was.
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! Akio was arrested in the eighth episode for forcing many Venus Factory girls to have sex with him and many other older men, also arrested was the agency's president Mika.
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. For close to five years Reimi has bene having an affair with a much younger actor named Ishimine.
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. Though it appears Aoi is such a nice girl deep down she could be the daughter of the Devil, she was involved in the death of Riria which was explained in the ninth recap.
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 never heard from him again.
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.
Thanks for reading this post and any others you checked out for this superb series, the recaps probably don't make sense if you haven't been following this drama. Will give my grade and thoughts on this series now, if you've been reading these recaps or did view the show you know why I've enjoyed it immensely. This drama had so much suspense and also was quite mysterious, two of my fave genres. That suspense kept building as the series went along, as good as the first five episodes were the final five were even better. There were many side plots to the original story but it never veered off course, the main story was finding out the true killer of Riria which did take place in the previous episode. The story and characters were all believable and can't think of one negative thing to say about this drama which I highly recommend for those who like suspense/mysteries plus superb acting and writing. So my final grade will be a 9.3/10, a slight increase on what I originally was going to give it. That's a very high grade for me and this has to be the best new Japanese drama I've seen in at least five years, there have been many fine series over that time period but none topped this show. One thing that does deserve a TEN is the way Risa looked and that had no effect on my final grade.
So it's time for the finale and there were a few cliffhangers to end off episode nine. Two were extremely suspenseful with the screenshot above being from one of those, it was right after the Saotome family daughter Aoi confessed to Riria's mother Kazuha that she had killed her a year ago!!!! Will begin off with the conclusion of that scene and then have what else continued on into this show. A lot did happen and this may be the largest of this drama's recaps but I don't care as it's the final one. Plus after this 41 minute episode ended there was a mini special that had aired, that lasted for twelve minutes. There was also one of those specials that aired after episode eight but I didn't feel it was all that special, the one for this episode was good and was set about a year later. Let's finally get to this terrific final show, what a twist there was to the ending. If I did have any minor beefs it would be of the final scene not being long enough and a scene in the middle being too long.
While that rooftop scene was going on being held hostage at an unnamed bar was Kazuha's other daughter Sana. She had been abducted at the end of the eighth episode by the Saotome son Rintaro who is the youngest politician in the House of Representatives. In that eighth show Rintaro had come to realize that Sana was such a key reason his family was destroyed, so wasn't Kazuha and Rintaro was so shocked when Sana told him their new family cook had been her mother Kazuha! Rintaro did grow up in a wealthy household but never learned the meaning of family as his parents were extremely cold. He wants to see if the Shindo family has some strong bonds and in the last show Rintaro called Sana'a father Kosuke to say they were gong to play a game. The time then was 1:00 pm, Kosuke had until 9:00 pm to find out where Sana was being held hostage or else! Rintaro's threat was if Kosuke didn't arrive by that time Rintaro would strip Sana naked and stream it live to everyone in Japan!!!! What a cruel thing to do and when the last show ended it was after 9:00 pm, will Rintaro go through with disrobing Sana for all to gawk at? That we may never know as when he was thinking things over who should appear at the bar but Kosuke.... along with Rintaro's father Akio who had been released from jail that day. The screenshots for this scene are above and also just below
The scene ended with that mini fight, we didn't see what happened after but wouldn't be surprised if Akio and Rintaro reconciled to an extent. No one knew what the other was doing at the time, for instance Kazuha had no clue Sana had been abducted and Kosuke had saved the day along with Akio. On the other hand Kosuke had no idea that Kazuha had found Riria's killer who was Aoi, she did text Kosuke the next morning to let him know. After that confession by Aoi on her school's roof Kazuha brought her back to the Sotome estate and put her to bed. This next scene was quite a long one, the screenshots for it are above and below. The media attention against the Saotome family has ebbed and there was no horde of reporters in front of the estate. Aoi's mother Reimi waltzed in and not sure if she was surprised to see Kazuha there. While at the Saotome house she had used the name of Shinkawa but by now did Reimi know her real name(she should)? Reimi was wondering where Aoi was, Kazuha replied she was upstairs in her room taking a nap which did please Reimi. Before he was arrested Akio had been holding his passport and think he was going to schedule a flight out of Japan. That plan was thwarted and didn't think of this until now but wonder if Reimi had a similar idea? There was really no way she could stay in Tokyo, neither could Aoi and I do wonder if she may have had plans too for the pair to leave Japan. On to what Kazuha finally had to say to her nemesis Reimi, that will be right after this batch of screenshots.
Don't want to spend too much time with what Kazuha said as I'm sure most could deduce quite a bit of it. Of course Kazuha laid into Reimi how she and the Shindos could never forgive the Saotome family and she hoped they would rot in hell! By this time Kazuha may have been thinking what was left to say, all of the details of Riria's death have been revealed and what was left for Kazuha to do? Well there was one thing and she told Reimi the next morning she was going to accompany Aoi to the police station where she would confess to her horrible crime. That was something Reimi did not want to see happen in a million years, why would Kazuha do that to Aoi as that would leave her with no future? "FUTURE?" screamed Kazuha, who cares if Aoi has to spend some time in prison, at least she's alive and Riria has no future because she was killed by Reimi's daughter! Reimi even volunteered to let Kazuha kill her if she would spare Aoi from confessing, of course Kazuha refused that offer but told Reimi she too could kill her(!) and that also didn't happen. The long scene ended on that note but there was one other major incident that was discussed during it and wanted to save that for last. It had to do with Kazuha's younger brother Yuma, that's him right above and after being in a coma for over two episodes finally woke up in this show.
In that last episode Reimi had her lover, the young actor Ishimine, go on his Mr Salvage web show to say Reimi pushed Yuma down those steep stairs in episode seven and was also responsible for Riria's death! At the time didn't know why Reimi wanted to put herself out there as an evil woman and was tempting the police to arrest her. Remi told Kazuha she heard from her husband Akio that their daughter would be meeting a Korean man named Park that evening, he's actually Yuma in disguise. Reimi went to the city plaza where the two were to meet, we viewers had thought up until now that Yuma had chickened out in meeting Aoi. Yuma confessed to Aoi that he was the Park she came to like so much from the internet and explained why he had duped her, to find out info about Riria's death. Aoi couldn't believe she had been fooled so easily and Yuma had thought Aoi was completely innocent though of course was so badly mistaken. Aoi fled the plaza in tears and hearing everything was Reimi who wanted to get back at Yuma for hurting her daughter. She followed him along the street and when Yuma was about to descend a steep stairwell Reimi pushed him down the stairs which resulted in Yuma being in a coma for over two episodes. Reimi noticed her actions had been recorded by CCTV and she somehow soon got a copy of that, the video of her pushing Yuma was shown on that Mr. Salvage web show.
That was a long scene featuring Kazuha and Reimi, perhaps too long but by now most mysteries have been cleared up. Well, we still never learned what became of Riria's phone and after that scene less than ten minutes remained in this drama. The time is now a few months later, Reimi had been arrested for pushing Yuma down those stairs plus for the murder of Riria as she confessed to it! Reimi is currently in prison and will be there for a very long time but her ex(?) husband Akio is a free man though has lost everything. It appears the actor Ishimine loved Reimi more than we all thought, one day he trapped Akio along the street and told Akio this is payback for Reimi. Ishimine coolly took out a knife and stabbed Akio which is above, it was never mentioned but have to presume he's dead. The Saotome family did take quite a fall from their lofty standing, the son Rintaro resigned for the second time as a politician though what he did to Sana remained a secret. There's one Saotome family member left, perhaps the worst of them in a way as it's the daughter and killer of Riria Aoi, more on her very shortly. The Shindos did have a memorial for Riria at her gravesite to 'let her know' that justice had been done and it was accomplished without anyone being killed by a family member.
There's one minute to go in the episode/series and wish this scene could have been longer, The Shindo family were having breakfast and with them was Yuma who had finally been discharged from the hospital. There was a place set for Riria at the table and I was thinking was it some sort of memorial for her death? But then again there was a glass of juice plus some fresh toast on the plate, who was it for???? In such an unexpected twist sitting down at the table was.... AOI and no one batted an eyelash at her! So it appears Aoi is now a member of the Shindo family and is taking the place of Riria, who would have thought that would happen? Kazuha from the kitchen looked at her family with a smile on her face but when she looked at Aoi we viewers also saw a reflection on the knife she was holding, with that the series came to it's finish!!!! Wow, what a twist that was at the end with Aoi taking the place of Riria and as far fetched as it was everyone in the Shindo family seemed to be pleased with that arrangement. It took me a while to figure out what exactly had taken place but this sounds correct to me. Kazuha never brought Aoi to the police to let her confess that she killed Riria. When Reimi pleaded with Kazuha not to send her daughter to prison Kazuha must have dreamt up that scheme right then and said fine to Reimi's request, as long as Aoi becomes their new daughter to replace Riria! It does sound extremely odd so that's why I had wished that final scene lasted longer and some things were explained better but leaving a bit of mystery is also good at times. So while that concluded the actual series there was a mini special that aired right after, the below screenshots are from it and following them is a brief recap on what took place.
Aoi's mother Reimi is still in prison and will be for a very long time. That was told to Sana by her son Rintaro who is right above, even though he's resigned twice from the House of Representatives Rintaro is running for office again but really has no chance of winning. Rintaro is a free man but has tumbled from living in a ritzy mansion to some seedy apartment, he was such slimeball but also did have a good side to him which Sana had noticed. Rintaro did make a few mistakes but nearly as many as the others in the Saotome family, he has become such a humble young man but Sana will still be keeping an eye on him. Didn't mention her status but Sana has become a respected free lance reporter and has moved out of her family's house, so didn't Yuma who finally got a job. Sana wanted to stay but her mother Kazuha said it would be best for her to leave as Sana is 26 in age and it also seemed Kazuha had wanted to devote all of her time to her new daughter Aoi! Hope those events with Aoi weren't too confusing and as mentioned wish we had seen more of what took place with her after being 'adopted' by the Shindo family. That wraps up this drama and as mentioned in the intro what a superb series this was, the best new show from Japan I've seen in many years. Do have quite a few other things that will be recapped but as of now not sure what will be up next, you'll be seeing what my choice was soon enough.
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