"She" drama: episode one recap and screenshots

 Air Dates: April 18th to May 16, 2015 on Fuji-TV at 11:40 Saturday nights

Main Cast:

Mayu Matsuoka as Ryoko Nishizawa

Ayami Nakajo as Azusa Ogiwara

Seika Taketomi as Saya Yamamoto

Kurumi Shimizu as Miyuri Eto

Aoi Morikawa as Chisato Okumura

Ryo Narita as Haruto Muraoka

Jin Shirasu as Yuki Hirose

Reika Kirishima as Mizuki Ogiwara

 As you can see this drama actually aired last Spring, the first episode was subbed but that had been the only one done. Now someone has finished this series off and looking for a drama that was a bit different picked this one and there were a few reasons for choosing this one. One is that it starred Mayu, she really is one of the better young actresses and I really should be doing more posts for her, as a matter of fact may have found the female to complete that list of my fave females from #11-20.
 Another reason is that the series was only five episodes and to top it off each episode was only 19+ minutes as I really like short dramas like this. One minus to that though as it's hard to get into too much detail or character backgrounds because of the length but it also has no time for filler then. So these recaps will naturally be a bit on the short side seeing as how they're only 19 minutes long, may not bore you too much then which is a big plus.
 If you've seen the "Piece" drama from 2012 then you may like this show as it's kind of similar to it though not nearly as good, "Piece" is one the better dramas from the last five years. Mayu plays Ryoko who is a senior at high school whose one time best friend Azusa has disappeared. Azusa was one of the smartest students at school but yet didn't apply to move up to the advanced class which was a mystery to everyone.

 You're going to see that 'april_15' on many screenshots as it's Ryoko keeping a diary on her cellphone. The story opens up on April 20th, each episode is for that day which means the next one will be for the 21st and like that up until April 24th. The students who were close to Azusa are being interviewed by some of the school's admin staff along with Azusa's mother as they're trying to find out what happened to her. No one really knows what could have happened, a kidnapping or was she murdered or could she have possibly just run off?
 The date of her disappearing was April 6th, a few students had seen her on the school roof that day, shortly after that is when she disappeared. Though Azusa was a pretty and popular student seems even her best friends didn't know her that well as they had put their heads together trying to solve the mystery. Even though she was smart a rumor was floating around that she had been caught stealing the answers for the Winter session finals and the school had hushed it up.
 Azusa also had been dating Haruto who was quite good at badminton finishing third at the prefecture's tournament. Don't know what prefecture it was as they never did say where this show was set though it wasn't in a large city. Haruto was a popular guy with the ladies as Miyuri had asked him out the previous December and they went out very briefly. Miyuri had been confronted by Azusa for stealing her man but actually she didn't seem too upset about it, she mentioned she'll get her due one of these days though if not by her then by someone else.

 Ryoko was filming those interrogations done by the staff, you'll see many screenshots of them like the ones right above. She was doing that as she didn't quite trust the staff and had wanted to make sure no lying or hush hushing would occur. It does seem like a brief recap but remember an episode is only 19 minutes long so for the most part that's all that happened in this first show. Mainly we learn a bit about what the others felt about Azusa and a bit about each of their backgrounds with her. At a total of 95 minutes for the whole drama it's almost like it was a movie that was chopped into 19 minute segments.
 Didn't leave much out or at least any major points from this episode but if there were then the screenshots should help you follow the story also. Though these are short recaps am trying to write all five of them up in one sitting so none of them are going to come close to being a tome. Mainly watched it because of Mayu who is superb throughout the series but all of the others in the main cast also do a solid job, so far so good and you can check out the second episode in the next post.

"She" drama: episode two recap and screenshots

 Air Dates: April 18th to May 16, 2015 on Fuji-TV at 11:40 Saturday nights

Main Cast:

Mayu Matsuoka as Ryoko Nishizawa

Ayami Nakajo as Azusa Ogiwara

Seika Taketomi as Saya Yamamoto

Kurumi Shimizu as Miyuri Eto

Aoi Morikawa as Chisato Okumura

Ryo Narita as Haruto Muraoka

Jin Shirasu as Yuki Hirose

Reika Kirishima as Mizuki Ogiwara

 These posts will probably be no longer than three paragraphs due to it being only a 19 minute show but still took quite a few screenshots. Have seen many dramas that ran for only five episodes but can't recall one that was only 19 minutes long, perhaps there are but they're harder to obtain. That pic at the top is also a bit so-so but couldn't find a good one for this show.
 Continuing on from the first episode none of the students nor Azusa's mother knew what happened to her, as she had such a promising future her disappearance is a mystery. There's quite a few flashbacks you'll notice in the screenshots, though the story takes place in April of 2015 we see some from earlier that year and even some from 2014. We also found out another tidbit about Azusa's ex boyfriend Haruto, besides cheating on her with Miyuri he also had his eyes set on Saya and the pair had also started dating and think they're still somewhat of an item.
 Another character we meet this show is Chisato who is a very mysterious person. Doesn't seem as though she has any friends but she isn't hated, just ignored. We see Chisato often looking at some hidden cameras and microphones, has she been secretly taping everyone and if so why? One other thing about Ryoko is that she's also very smart, perhaps not at the level Azusa is but quite close but her school average is five posts below getting into the special advanced class. Ryoko has been jealous of Azusa for a long time for being so smart, this actually led to them being ex-best friends but she's kept that a secret from everyone.

 Ryoko is keeping up with her investigation into Azusa's disappearance along with the school's staff but so far not one concrete piece of evidence has been found. Many are suspicious of Ryoko as she always carries her camcorder around plus she's been taping the interrogations, some feel she has an secret motive for doing that.
 Back to the mysterious Chisato who has uncovered some various things about Azusa's friends but being a loner she has no one to share them with. She eventually is able to convince Ryoko to come with her to the media room, she wants to show her one of the damaging videos that were on a secret camera. We don't learn quite yet what it is, that detail comes out next episode but when Ryoko watches the video she breaks down and asks for mercy from Chisato, what's on that tape can never be seen by anyone.

 Like I've been saying and will probably men it again but only so much can happen in 19 minutes, perhaps about 25 would have been a better length. Then again because of it's shortness was able to get through the whole series in one sitting, some of these much longer dramas take me weeks or longer to view.
 Also like having shorter recaps, these only take about twenty minutes to do while some can take an hour or so, if you review ten episodes then it can take a long time to do. Sure a few of you like reading shorter things too, always tried to just give the major details of a drama to let you decide whether you want to watch it or not, some reviews I've read other places give away too many spoilers and I try to keep away from doing that. Did take quite a few screenshots from the show though, here's many more from this episode and the next post has the recap for the third episode.