Shinigami-kun drama: episode 4 recap and screenshots

Main Cast:

Satoshi Ohno as Shinigami #413

Mirei Kiritani as Shinigami's supervisor, through 4 episodes she hasn't been called anything

Masaki Suda as Akuma, the Devil

Yutaka Matsushige as The Chief

Guest Stars:
Takehiro Hira
Asami Usuda
Hitomi Sato
Ken Yasuda

 Bit of a comeback this episode after #3 was a bit lackluster, for a while thought this was going to play out like Ohno's "Locked Room Mysteries" drama but didn't turn out that way but still was a interesting watch.

 Shinigami #413 has been given another assignment to go back down to Earth to get another human who is about to die but there is a major complication this time around. And that is there's no name listed in his book, just a time and hotel room where that person will be, also unlike other cases where the person has 3 days to live this time they only have four hours. Upon arriving on Earth it seems like a simple task however as there's just one young lady who is staying in the room. Seemed easy at first but of course things don't work out that way as shortly after the doctor who the woman is having an affair with arrives, but that just starts the avalanche of people coming to the room.
 The death is supposed to happen at 6:00 pm, it's now right around 2:00 pm where 2 people enter the room, a young mother's child is very sick and she needs the doctor to try to help him, now with these arrivals there are four people in the room. But to top it off a seemingly deranged killer becomes the final person to enter the room, he won't let anyone leave as he's holding them hostage with a knife. But even if they could escape his clutches there's nowhere for them to go as a fire has broken out on the hotel floor leaving everyone in the room trapped.

 As it stands there are 5 humans in the room and Shinigami #413 has no idea who will be the person to die, he only lets a person know if they are going to die, he has no input in the decision of which people die in the world. So for the next few hours it's constant bickering between the 5 people and many, many things about their lives come out. The "killer" really isn't one, by mistake he happened to kill a man who was threatening a woman and as a matter of fact he's actually been a hero security guard on a few occasions. However on those two occasions he was granted a wish by Akuma who has arrived on the scene and is hoping he'll use his third wish so he can take his soul.
 It's getting nearer and nearer to 6:00 pm and still no one in the room knows which of them is about to die when suddenly the fire gets much worse and unless the occupants act quickly all of them in the room could die. Shinigami explained to all that besides not knowing who will die he also doesn't know how many will die, there is a chance that any number of them could die.

 The security guard eventually relents to Akuma and takes the third wish which is saving everyone in the the room by going out into the blaze and setting the sprinklers off to put out the fire. He does do that but at the same time there's also a massive explosion that destroys the hotel room, know we're left wondering did anyone in the room survive?
 And actually all of them did, they all were injured and ended up in the hospital but all survived leaving us with the one question: who did die? Someone did but it wasn't a living human yet as the woman who was having an affair was pregnant and due to the explosion ended losing her baby, the baby had no name hence that's why the Shinigami's book was blank as far as listing the person who is supposed to die. All ends well as the couple get engaged, the "killer" was once again a hero and didn't need Akuma's last wish to save everyone, second show in a row where the third wish wasn't granted, hope this doesn't happen all the time.

 And that's close to being an accurate summary though I did leave many small details out, last few recaps have been way too long and wanted to go back to writing them a bit shorter. This was much better than the third episode though it ended on too good of a note, it's a rather serious drama but not enough serious things happen besides that one death every show. Plus we haven't seen what happens yet if Akuma's 3 wishes are granted to a human, it's almost happened twice but the third wish at the last moment wasn't granted, we really need to see what happens if it is.
 So far through four episodes would rate this about an 8/10 or just a tad higher, it's been a solid watch but there are some things which could be better but there's still plenty of time to improve this series a bit. Will be back with episode 5 soon and them there will be a bit of a break as this drama didn't air last Friday night due to some soccer match so there will be a bit of a gap after the next recap. Next post has quite a few screenshots form this episode, explained most of what occurred but check them out for all the smaller details I didn't get to.

Shinigami-kun drama: episode 3 recap and screenshots

Main Cast:

Satoshi Ohno as Shinigami #413

Mirei Kiritani as Shinigami's supervisor, through 2 episodes she hasn't been called anything

Masaki Suda as Akuma, the Devil

Yutaka Matsushige as The Chief

Guest Stars:
Tokio Emoto
Hana Sugisaki

 An okay episode but not quite as good as the first two shows, like the first episode this one dealt with a young female who is about to die. This was also the first appearance of Akuma as the devil, he played a bit part in the second episode as a human who found Shinigami 413's death book, he also only had 3 days to live and has come back this episode as the devil but no mention has been made in this or the next episode as being a human who just died recently.

 Akuma as the devil can grant a human 3 wishes of whatever they want but once all 3 wishes have been granted he takes away their soul and naturally they also die. Kirishima is someone who ends up taking the 3 wishes, he's not a good looking guy and his first wish was to have all woman fall in love with him but the results aren't what he was expecting. Hana plays a young female who has been very sickly for a while, she has difficulties walking and many times she needs a wheelchair to get around but didn't use iti n this episode. She sadly has been told by Shinigami #413 that she only has 3 days to live, surprisingly she takes the news okay probably because she's so tired of living with her condition. 

 Hana ends up meeting Kirishima and though he is much older the two of them end up hitting it off well, he also can see the Shinigami because of his knowing Akuma, when you can see one of them you can also se the other one. So Kirishima knows that Hana only has a short time to live and he ends up staying her remaining days with her. Hana comes from a rich family but only has a mother, her father constantly works and is never at home and Hana would love to spend some of her remaining time with him.

 Along with Kirishima they fake a kidnapping and ask for a ransom hoping Hana's father will bring it so she can spend some time with him but her doesn't show and ends up sending his assistants instead. It looks like they are going to bring Hana back to her residence but Kirishima uses his second wish with Akuma so he can beat up all the assistants and it works as he defeats them and once again it's just him and Hana,

 It's getting close to her D-Day though, the two of them have a great time together but now she has less than one day to live. Her other wish besides the failed attempt to see her father was to also visit the sea and the two of them end up going there. However their car on the way there ends up breaking down and Kirishima has to end up carrying Hana there. He's in bad shape too as even though he was able to beat up the men who wanted to bring Hana back home he also got hurt really bad and because of that is unable to successfully carry Hana all the way to the sea.

 And this is when Kirishima has to end up using his third wish with Akuma, his wish is to have the power to be able to carry Hana to the sea and Akuma grants it but before they are able to make it Hana passes away. Because of that at least Kirishima's third wish wasn't granted but that also meant that Hana is now dead, kind of a sad one too as she never was able to make it to the sea nor see her father, one good thing at least for her was meeting Kirishima who did make her last few days a pleasant experience.

 And that really ends the episode with Hana ending up dying, like I said it was an okay episode but a bit boring, just nothing special about it. Not that much of the Shinigami nor his boss in this show either, kind of like it when their parts are bigger, they have a strange kind of relationship which is a bit funny to watch. Next episode is a much better show which I just finished and will be doing a recap of it tomorrow, meanwhile check out the next post that has a mega amount of screenshots from this episode, not all that much happened it seemed but still took so many pics from this episode.

Shinigami-kun drama: episode 2 recap and screenshots

Main Cast:

Satoshi Ohno as Shinigami #413

Mirei Kiritani as Shinigami's supervisor, through 2 episodes she hasn't been called anything

Masaki Suda as Akuma

Yutaka Matsushige as The Chief

 This episode we finally get to meet 2 more of the main cast, "The Chief" made a short appearance in the last minute of this episode but think starting with the next show we'll be seeing much more of him. Mirei's character still has no name after these two episodes and not sure if she'll ever have one, she's just kind of a mysterious figure who for some reason is #413's supervisor, will say she looks quite fetching in that short skirt. In this episode shinigami #413 plays the biggest part once again but the key part is a different character, in episode 1 it was Fukuko who had 3 days to live, this time around it's another human but not one who is scheduled to die.... yet.

 At the end of episode one shinigami #413 had left his notebook in the human world and to start off this episode him and his supervisor are at their wits end trying to find it, grave consequences can happen if it falls into the hands of a human. And on Earth is where the book is as a disgruntled insurance salesman Akuma finds it lying on the ground next to a park bench. How it ended up there was never explained but Akuma looking through it has seen the name and dates of many but had no clue to what any of it meant. At first that is as he quickly discovers that most of the names are of recently deceased people but then he notices a few of the names are of the living with a date only a few days into the future. When one of the names on the list all of a sudden dies he realizes the book could be his savior as he is an inept insurance salesman who cannot sell a policy and any day now he expects to be fired.

 Think the Shinigami book needs a bit of explaining, if you've seen the Death Note films or anime it closely resembles that book. Once a name is written in the book that person will die but in this drama the one big difference is whoever wrote the name can erase it and that person will be saved. And like the films if you touch the book you can see the shinigami and communicate with him whereas ones who don't touch cannot see the shinigami. 

 Back to Akuma who has found the book, he finds the names of the people who are scheduled to die and goes looking for them to sell them a life insurance policy. He is successful in selling them and his job for now has been spared but the problem a few days after they buy the policy they die and the company has to end up paying off the insurance, now Akuma's boss wants to fire him for a different reason. As you can see in the above pic Yamamoto is scheduled to die, his young son Kenta happens to be an acquaintance of Akuma so in order to save the father Akuma does something quite rash. Instead he writes the name of his boss in the book, doing that means there's one too many deaths that are planned by according to the shinigami rules when a name gets added like that another life will be spared and that live will be Yamamoto.

 Things don't work out as easily as that though because there are certain rules a shinigami has to follow and even though it's possible to change who can live and die it's strictly against the rules to do so. Shinigami #413 has finally tracked down Akuma and has found his book and thinks all is now okay until he discovers the name of Akuma's boss in the book. Only the person who wrote it can erase the name and put things back in their normal order but Akuma will not do that, he truly hates his boss with a passion and there is nothing anyone can say to him to make him erase that name. Akuma seems like a nice guy but his boss has driven him right over the edge, it may be murder but no one will be able to prove it as only the shinigami world knows exactly what is going on. 

 Meanwhile Akuma and shinigami #413 have become a bit closer, not quite friends yet but getting to that stage. #413 keeps trying to talk Akuma into erasing the name of his boss but to no avail, it's now getting down to crunch time as the boss has only a few hours left to live. It's not a change of heart but Akuma does end up erasing the name of his boss thus sparing his life but instead has ordered him to sign off on an insurance policy for Yamamoto, the boss refuses knowing that the policy will have to paid out. However the boss ends up passing out as he's nearing his deadline and when that happens Akuma steals his seal and approves the policy. Shortly after the boss makes a miraculous recovery but because of that Yamamoto has passed away, his family was poor but now has enough money to survive on thanks to the policy.

 Nearing the end with this recap, it's a bit easier to watch it than explain it though it's really not a difficult drama to understand. Anew name has been written in the book of #413 and that's of Akuma's friend Kenta whose father has died. When Akuma sees that he snatches the book away from #413 and quickly writes his name in the book, now he's scheduled to die in 3 days but because of that he's saving the life of Kenta. Once again there's an uproar in the shinigami world because of that but we're not sure how it's going to play out as the episode ends, think to keep the story a bit fresh wouldn't be surprised to see Akuma die in the next episode and probably become a shinigami himself, perhaps even working with #413. Final minute of this episode we finally meet the remaining main character who is "The Chief" of the shinigamis, he warns #413 and his supervisor there is deep trouble on the horizon as they are going to have to deal with a very bad person, who it may be or what it may be we have no clue about as the show ends on that note.

 Probably went into too much detail for this episode but it's really hard not to for this drama, on the other hand I also probably left a lot out, if so the next post has a mega amount of screenshots from this episode which you can check out to help you a bit more with the story. Through 2 episodes would recommend it, this drama with a few cliffhangers could go either way but have a feeling it's going to remain a solid watch and would think it may even get a lot better, least I'm hoping so. Will be doing reviews every other show so will be back in two weeks with some recaps for episodes 3 &4.

Shinigami-kun drama: episode 1 recap and screenshots

Start Date: April 18th on TV Asahi, air time is 11:15 pm

Main Cast:

Satoshi Ohno as Shinigami #413

Mirei Kiritani as Shinigami's supervisor, through 2 episodes she hasn't been called anything

Masaki Suda as Akuma

Yutaka Matsushige as The Chief

Episode guest stars: 

Sakurako Ohara as Fukuko

Riho Takada as Mami

Shu Watanabe as Naoyuki

 Don't think this drama season is going to be a strong one and the last few haven't but there's a few that have raised my interest and actually was thinking this could be the best of the weak bunch. Can't say I'm a fan of Arashi but their VS show is often an enjoyable watch, Ohno's dramas though have usually been solid watches, he doesn't take the easy way out and the series of his that I've seen have all been really good so thought this deserved a chance then. For the first episode until the last few minutes he was the only one of the main cast to make an appearance so this review will just be featuring him and the guest star Fukuko.

 A shinigami or at least #413 appear on Earth 3 days before a person is about to die to give them a warning on it and to give them time to clear any last affairs they may have or to use that time to do something they've always wanted to do.This episode a high school senior Fukuko has been told by #413 that she has only 3 days to live, naturally she doesn't believe him at first as I'm sure nobody would but gradually he proves that he is indeed a shinigami and that she now has less than 3 days to live. Fukuiko is not a popular girl at school but has been best friends with Mami who is quite an attractive girl and is the most popular in school, for some reason they've been best friends for  along tome.
 In reality though they're really not best friends as Mami has been using Fukuko over the years, Fukuko has realized this but being friendless she somehow puts up with it. As the story begins Mami has been in an accident and is in the hospital waiting for surgery as her face has been scarred and she has lost the sight in one eye. Fukuko is the only one from school who goes to visit Mami, she may have been popular but it was only mainly because of her looks, once the boys at school have learned what happened to her they want nothing to do with her even though Fukuko has pleaded with them to see her.

 The main question though is what is going to become of Fukuko who has less than 3 days to live, it would make no sense for her to tell anyone as who would believe her? Up until now Fukuko has never had a boyfriend and even worse than that she's never been on a date, #413 suggests that would be an excellent thing to try to do in her remaining time so she could leave the Earth in a happy state. There has been one boy who she's had a bit of a crush on named Naoyuki but before she could get to know him better Mami sort of stole him away from Fukuko, that wasn't the first time something like that has happened. Fukuko gets in touch with Naoyuki and they do hang out a bit together but it's mainly because he wanted to learn of what happened to Mami and to have Fukuko help him by her a present but like her classmates he doesn't want to visit Mami in the hospital.
 So sadly much of Fukuko's remaining time is spent alone except for the shinigami who does spend a lot of time with her, they actually in this short span of time do become friends and he ends up being the only one who she's ever been able to confide to. With less than a day to live Fukuko visits Mami one last time and for the first time actually tells Mami what she really thinks of her and how much she's hurt her over the years which leaves Mami in tears for as no one has ever told her these things, their last time together wasn't a pleasant encounter.

 It looked like Fukuko's one wish to finally go on a date will not happen but her and #413 spend an enjoyable afternoon on a rowboat at a park, for Fukuko it was such a fun time she said that it could count as an official date and she could die somewhat content though naturally dying is one thing she still doesn't want to happen. It does happen though but one good thing does come out of her tragic death which was she was able to help Mami out as Fukuko had signed up to donate her organs in case she died. And after her death Mami who had needed an eye fairly quickly was given Fukuko's eye though at the time she didn't know about her death plus the doctors were not allowed to tell Mami who had donated the eye.

 And there for the most part ends the first episode, bit sad at the end but overall it was a very solid watch, only complaint is that we didn't seen any of the other in the main cast until the very end and even then it was just briefly. Ohno did a really good job in this first episode and the young actress who played Fukuko also did a really solid job, had never seen her before this but perhaps she'll be one to check out in the future, to date she hasn't appeared in too many things though. Episode 2 though we do get to meet 2 more of the main cast and both have some solid roles which brought a lot to this series, thought the next episode was a bit better than this one. Next post has even more screenshots from this episode and hopefully will have a review of the second episode within the next day as I've just finished it and as I may have said was a bit better than this episode though this was a ver good watch.