Yuki Kashiwagi: "Kono Koi wa Tsumi nano ka?" drama episode one recap

 Air Dates: December 2nd to the 23rd on MBS/TBS, Sundays at 12:50 am

Four episodes in total, subber was Monchi

Main Cast:

Yuki Kashiwagi as Tae Komada.... 32 year old female who as a master Shogi player

Kentaro ito as Taiga Kohinata.... 24 year old office worker who has never had a girlfriend

Yuma Yamato as Wataru Tasaki.... Taiga's colleague at work

Jun Murakami as Hiroto Yuki.... Taiga's boss and has known Tae for 24 years

Makoto Tanaka as Akane Eguchi.... another colleague of Taiga at his office

Mao as Sanae.... Tae's best friend and also as Shogi player

Shuhei Abe as Ken Okita.... another Shogi player who looks up to Tae

 Unlike Korean dramas there's no promo videos or trailers for the series, perhaps it would help the struggling Japanese drama industry if there were more of them.

 Most of this short four episode series revolves around Taiga though Tae's(Yuki) role becomes almost as huge as the drama goes on. Think I'll be enjoying doing these recaps so much more than the previous drama I viewed which was "The Ghost Detective", an excellent series but it took so long to write up. Have already viewed this drama as the shows were only about 24 minutes in length, do prefer shorter series though wish this one was a few more shows longer.
 On to this first recap and will have all four of them in a row. Taiga is a 24 year old who works at a company whose name we never did learn though it's not important. To date Taiga has never had a girlfriend nor did it appear as though he had ever been on a date. He's a man who kept saying he has no need for other people and lives a bit of a secluded life but he is one smart guy who others depend on at work though they may use him a bit as he's so naive.
 One morning Taiga's life is about to take a huge change and that's on a chance encounter he had on the train with a woman. That above screenshot was the first glimpse we saw of Tae and also it was the first thing Taiga noticed about her when Tae accidentally bumped into him. Bit hard not to notice that feature about Yuki and Taiga certainly did though it was Tae who apologized over and over.

 Taiga is an excellent employee though he's someone who goes strictly by the book. His cute office mate Akane had asked him to revise a proposal for a client which should only take a few minutes. Not without the manager's approval was Taiga's answer to the request though his best and only friend at the company Wataru did the revision and it was mainly to score some points with Akane. The office seemed to have many after work parties and never once has Taiga participated in one.
 That is until his boss Yuki ordered him to attend the one that was being held that night, with no choice Taiga arrived reluctantly. Taiga is not someone used to being around others and he put a huge damper on the party. When Akane offered to serve him food Taiga erupted and told her that only he was allowed to touch his food. The stares following that from his fellow employees made Taiga quite uneasy so he took a quick break to the men's room.
 Upon his departure who should be see for the second time that day but Tae! Once again it was a bit uncomfortable for Taiga as this time Tae's undies were stuck in her skirt and he was a bit too shy to tell her about the embarrassing situation. Taiga beat around the bush about it though before she knew what was going on her best friend Sanae came around the corner.

 Sanae accused Taiga of being a dirty pervert and looking at Tae's undies without telling her what was going on. Taiga started to deny the charge but just gave up and left the pair. Shortly after he left Tae deduced that Taiga was warning her about her predicament but just didn't know how to tell her in a correct way. He also said his farewells to his fellow office mates who were thrilled upon his departure. On his way home Taiga noticed a woman who was barfing in some bushes, against his better judgement he offered the woman his bottle of water to clean her mouth out with.
 The woman turned out to be Sanae and for the rest of the series she does refer to Taiga as being 'a dirty glasses man'. The two ended up talking for a short spell, Sanae is also a professional Shogi player though not in the same league as Tae. Taiga is just a person who is not good around others, he didn't realize it but some of his comments upset Sanae who quickly decked him, he stood there bleeding from his nose as she took her angry leave.
 There was someone to the rescue and for the third time in a day Taiga is face to face with Tae. Though only seeing her for about three minutes up until now Taiga has quickly developed a crush on her and it may be the first time it's ever happened in his life. Tae wiped his face clean from the blood and Taiga is in heaven with her actions.
 As I've said and will be doing so in these recaps Taiga just does not know how to act around people and especially women. He blurts out without thinking 'Will you be by friend?' which kind of stunned Tae for a few seconds. Taiga let her know there was no ulterior motive behind his request, she also seemed like a person who also has problems around others so she said Yes to Taiga's offer to be friends. On that note this short 23+ minute episode came to it's conclusion.

 Bit longer recap than I expected but bet it was less than half the size of doing one for a Korean drama. Bit of a fluffy show though not as much as you would think, it does get a bit darker and serious towards the end. Yuki is an okay actress and would like to see her in more dramas, thought her 2013 series "Mielino Kashiwagi" was one well worth viewing. Plenty of screenshots here though it's not a complicated show and following this are the three recaps for the rest of the drama.

Yuki Kashiwagi: "Kono Koi wa Tsumi na no ka!?" drama episode two recap

 Air Dates: December 2nd to the 23rd on MBS/TBS, Sundays at 12:50 am

Four episodes in total, subber was Monchi

Main Cast:

Yuki Kashiwagi as Tae Komada.... 32 year old female who as a master Shogi player

Kentaro ito as Taiga Kohinata.... 24 year old office worker who has never had a girlfriend

Yuma Yamato as Wataru Tasaki.... Taiga's colleague at work

Jun Murakami as Hiroto Yuki.... Taiga's boss and has known Tae for 24 years

Makoto Tanaka as Akane Eguchi.... another colleague of Taiga at his office

Mao as Sanae.... Tae's best friend and also as Shogi player

Shuhei Abe as Ken Okita.... another Shogi player who looks up to Tae

 It's the day after meeting Tae for the first time and as Taiga says above it's another first as he's already in love with her. Also above is the only person in Taiga's company who kind of likes him and that's Wataru, you may remember him from the "Kakegurui" drama that aired early last year. Thanks to Taiga's naive ways he may have found a way to Akane's heart, she's also a worker at the company who is pretty darn cute.
 Taiga asked him for some advice, he wanted to repay Tae for being so nice to him the previous night plus now that they're 'friends' he wants to get to know her better. Wataru suggested taking Tae out to dinner, Taiga tried and tried but just couldn't hit the send button on his text message. But to his surprise as he was contemplating on what to do he received a call from none other than Tae! She also had the same idea and called to ask Taiga out to dinner, took him all of two seconds to say yes.
 However who should be at the restaurant when he arrived than Sanae, she's the person who gave him a bloody nose at the end of the previous episode. Taiga was more than a little leery to sit at the same table with her but Sanae told him Tae would be there any minute. Once again the pair had a mini conversation and at least this time Sanae didn't punch him in the nose. During that talk Taiga learned something which blew him away, though she doesn't look it Tae is 32 years old though in real life she's only 27.

 Taiga is just 24 years old so he begins wondering will that difference in age affect his new friendship? Tae also wondered that too though soon the matter was completely dropped as the pair began to learn about each other, it wasn't an 'official date'. Tae revealed to Taiga that she's a professional Shogi player and even carries books around on the game, however she didn't tell Taiga then how could she was at the sport.
 Taiga took an interest in her profession and it seemed he was a person who should be good at the game but we discover later on he's never played it once. The pair had a nice evening but dinner was the extent of their time together as she headed home but least Taiga had made a bit of progress of finally being around others.
 The following day is when Taiga learned how good Tae is at the game of Shogi. He noticed her in a few magazines and he was beyond impressed but then again he began thinking, is she way out if his league as a woman? She may be an excellent player but Tae is a regular, down to earth gal who also has problems being around people. Upon leaving the bookstore with a magazine that featured Tae on it's cover he ran into her in the street, he quickly ditched the mag in his bag.

 Tae was dressed in a kimono as she had just come from a fan meeting session, seems Shogi players are quite popular in Japan. Tae has been playing for 24 years already, she started at the age of eight and though an expert at the game she still has never won a major championship. As they were strolling along one of Tae's clogs broke, she wondered if it was bad sign for her upcoming tournament?
 Taiga is slowly becoming a gentleman, he told Tae not to worry about her broken clog and carried her piggyback to a taxi stand. That journey took them up a steep set of stairs and Taiga was truly hurting though he kept it hidden, seemed Tae was rapidly becoming impressed with her new friend. The following day at the office Taiga was wondering where his boss Yuki was, Wataru told him it was a Wednesday which meant he was at the company's Shogi club.
 Taiga was unaware that the company even had a club but when he heard Tae would be in attendance giving advice he rushed to their room. Not many employees were members of the club though all were quite fanatical about the game. Especially Taiga's boss Yuki who has known Tae since she began playing. Yuki is also an expert player but never went the professional route.
 Yuki is kind of close to Tae and was amazed that of all people she knew Taiga. He asked if the two were dating but both quickly denied it. Taiga's boss then asked him to sit down and play a game with him, that's where we learned Taiga had never played the game before. Because of his admission Taiga began to wonder if his long shot relationship is doomed with Tae because of not knowing how to play Shogi? And with that scene this second episode came to it's conclusion, a show is only 23:50 in length but once you subtract the credits the length is more around 22 minutes.

 Two down and two to go in this very short series and as I mentioned in the first recap wish this series was another two or so episodes longer. Do discover many new faces watching dramas and one is the person who plays Akane and her name is Makoto Tanaka. She looks quite cute in this show but her appearance is so different in real life, still going to try doing a post for her soon.