"Tantei☆Hoshikamo" drama: Episode seven recap

 

 Air Dates: April 26th until June 28, 2021 on NTV, Tuesdays at 1:00 am

 Subs were done by Jumping Storm/hsjhoshi at LJ

Main Cast: Very small one really, just the top two characters get much screen time though the third person does to an extent and so don't each episode's clients.

Daiki Arioka as Hoshi(kamo).... His full name is Hoishikamo but is always called Hoshi in this show so will refer to him by that name. Hoshi is a private detective whose office is in a second hand goods store that was left to him when his parents died, he's close to thirty in age. He's quite frightened of women and has rules set up to how close they can get to him. Hoshi doesn't appear to need money that badly and is extremely frustrated that most cases he gets are cheating ones between spouses.

Yuki Katayama as Tsugumi Karato.... Hoshi's new assistant at the store and also for his detective cases. She hired herself for those positions and also had hired Hoshi as an investigator in the first show to track her 'stalker'.

Yoshinori Okada as Detective Soda.... Local detective for the police force and such a bumbler you wonder how he ever got that position. 

Keisuke Horibe as Joe.... Hoshi's sensei/mentor but have only seen him for a few seconds here and there.

 Links to the previous shows, would read the first recap if you haven't to see what's going on:

Episode one .... Episode two .... Episode three .... Episode four

Episode five .... Episode six

 Bit of good news for some which is that I'll be slowing down on my drama viewing, meaning recaps too. The stretch from April 1st until now has been my busiest in years watching dramas, in that 3 1/2 month period have completed thirteen Japanese series, one from Korea and am about to finish this one. Plus there was one that no longer was getting subbed so had to give up on it. For now am going to abort the 'Toki Bando' series which became such a disappointment, watched the first six episodes and could barely make it through that last one.

 So will finish this series up, two more recaps after today and then will take a mini break until the end of the month to clear my head. Though may be watching the 'Gumiho' Korean drama which ends next week but don't think I'll be doing any recaps for. So that break should get my energy level back up for dramas but to be honest there's not a huge army of those fans here but it has grown by many in the last few years, let's finally get to this mini recap.

 Haven't viewed the next episode yet but there is no major ongoing storyline. Save for the murder that took place in the first show and surprised there hasn't been more said of it. The man murdered was a detective who Hoshi had gone to school with. The inept detective Soda is in charge of the case and though we saw so much of him in this episode not a peep was made of the murder. But with only three shows left would think the focus would soon be on the crime and it's always been Hoshi's dream to solve a major crime which is why I think he may turn out to be a hero. Once again no regular case for Hoshi but he did have to help out his detective 'friend' Soda solve a kidnapping.

 Not a regular kidnapping but Soda's small dog Jennifer had been kidnapped two days before. Soda had been walking the dog in a local park when a jogger ran past the detective and to Soda it looked like a suspect from an unsolved case that happened years ago. Zooming forward Soda was correct on his assumption and has had the man checked out at Police HQ. We didn't learn this criminal's name or crime but fairly sure that man will become a part of this unsolved murder, could it be Hoshi's long lost mentor Joe? Back to the kidnapping of the dog and when Soda saw this jogger go by he tied up his pet Jennifer to chase the man though couldn't nab him. But when Soda returned to where Jennifer had been tied up there was no dog there! Plus when Soda told his wife of the disappearance she told her husband not to come home until he's found her precious dog!!!!

 Tsugumi had a nice line above saying 'Was Soda just kicked out from home because of the dog?'. The answer to that was no as it doesn't seem Soda's wife is all that thrilled with having him as a husband. So because he's working on a case Soda has asked Hoshi to rescue his kidnapped dog, Hoshi agreed for Soda will be sleeping at his used goods shop until the dog is found! That was enough incentive for Hoshi and his assistant Tsugumi as they went right to work, first off was posting Jennifer's info at many pet sites with no success. The dog's favorite food is roasted sweet potatoes, in a brain storm Hoshi thought of an idea to get the dog back.

 At the spot where Jennifer disappeared he set up a contraption to lure Jennifer in, below that mini dog house were potatoes but after two hours no dog had appeared. So that was another failure but at least Hoshi is now sure someone took the dog but where to begin the hunt? Tsugumi had an idea of her own which was that perhaps the dog's looks had changed so even if they saw Jennifer they wouldn't recognize her. For instance the dog may have had her hair trimmed so the duo scouted out all the local dog salons, once again a bright idea ended in failure. Now at a seemingly dead end are there no other solutions or clues for the team?

 We still haven't learned much about Hoshi's 'First Star!' maneuver and to his fury Tsugumi used it herself this show! It was about a customer who was at their shop the previous day and purchased some odd items for an older man, a small shirt that a baby may wear plus a bowl that would be perfect for a pet. To Hoshi this man could be the culprit but how to find him, that's when Tsugumi used that 'First Star!' trick and recalled the man paid by credit card. So it was a snap to find his address and the team staked out this man's residence.

 That's the man above who did admit to the 'kidnapping', it was never intentional but he had felt sorry for the tied up dog and brought her home. No harm, No foul as this unnamed man gave Jennifer back to Hoshi which means that Soda can return to his house though it probably won't make his wife happy! In the final ten seconds of the show that was a scene where Soda was showing Hoshi a photo of his detective school mentor Joe, could it have anything to do with that ongoing murder case? That we'll find out in the next recap(hopefully) and that show is the next post.

"Tantei☆Hoshikamo" drama: Episode eight recap

 

 Air Dates: April 26th until June 28, 2021 on NTV, Tuesdays at 1:00 am

 Subs were done by Jumping Storm/hsjhoshi at LJ

Main Cast: Very small one really, just the top two characters get much screen time though the third person does to an extent and so don't each episode's clients.

Daiki Arioka as Hoshi(kamo).... His full name is Hoishikamo but is always called Hoshi in this show so will refer to him by that name. Hoshi is a private detective whose office is in a second hand goods store that was left to him when his parents died, he's close to thirty in age. He's quite frightened of women and has rules set up to how close they can get to him. Hoshi doesn't appear to need money that badly and is extremely frustrated that most cases he gets are cheating ones between spouses.

Yuki Katayama as Tsugumi Karato.... Hoshi's new assistant at the store and also for his detective cases. She hired herself for those positions and also had hired Hoshi as an investigator in the first show to track her 'stalker'.

Yoshinori Okada as Detective Soda.... Local detective for the police force and such a bumbler you wonder how he ever got that position. 

Keisuke Horibe as Joe.... Hoshi's sensei/mentor but have only seen him for a few seconds here and there.

 Links to the previous shows, would read the first recap if you haven't to see what's going on:

Episode one .... Episode two .... Episode three .... Episode four

Episode five .... Episode six

 Did say above would be taking a break from Japanese dramas, when I return "Hakozume: Tatakau! Koban Joshi" may be my first watch. It's a prime time show which are ones I avoid like the plague these days but that one looks decent plus it does star Erika. These late night shows like this are series I much prefer but at a loss which ones will be coming up next, think it's better when they pop up out of nowhere. Two  more recaps to go for this drama after today and think those are going to be decent episodes, to me this eighth show was the best to date and finally the case was somewhat difficult. But more importantly the last two episodes will be concentrating on the murder from the first episode as it was mentioned much more in this show, on to the recap.

 Our 'hero' Hoshi had gone to detective school with a man named Kurotani, he's the detective who was murdered in the first show. Hoshi had thought the killer may have been a woman as a red high heel shoe had been left at the scene. However the detective in charge of the case Soda told Hoshi in the beginning of this episode that much of the evidence is pointing towards the man Joe who was Hoshi's mentor at school and he really has looked up to the man. Seems Joe and Kurotani kept seeing each other after graduation but didn't get along well at all. There were rumors of them always arguing and coming close to blows, to Soda this teacher Joe is now the #1 suspect. More about the case ends the episode off plus there's other mentions of it up until then.

 After two shows without a regular case Hoshi and his new assistant Tsugumi have one this time around and it wasn't as easy as his prior cases. That third screenshot above shows Tsugumi asking Hoshi why he didn't flinch when the woman client entered his shop as he does have a phobia around females. Such as they can't look at him for more than five seconds and also have to stand at least 30 cm away from him! But noticed over the last few shows that phobia has lessened and perhaps because most of his clients have been female? This new one's name is Mei Takeda and it should be a happy time for her as after a year dating a man named Ryo Samejima he's proposed to her. But it's been anything but a uplifting period as Ryo had become so dour and secretive, could he be cheating on his future wife? That's what Mei presumed so she had hired another detective to check out Ryo and did he have another woman? But after Mei had met the detective twice he disappeared with all of her advance money, was she also deceived by this detective?

 And guess what(?), of all people this detective was Hoshi's ex-classmate and the person killed in the first episode, Kurotani! So naturally Hoshi accepted this case, two of them to be exact which is to find out if Mei's husband was cheating on her or perhaps it was a marriage scam, the second of course was to find out what exactly happened to Kurotani. First stop for Hoshi and Tsugumi was a bar named Sanchome where Mei had said she met the detective and it seemed everyone there knew him. However the bartender said he's never seen or heard of this man Kurotani but Hoshi is a sly man. He was able to trick this bartender into saying he did know Kurotani but the bartender didn't realize his slip. After his shift this bartender went to an office above the bar which happened to be Kurotani's, Hoshi was trailing the man and fooled him into thinking the police had just arrived on the scene which made him flee.

 Finally Hoshi could learn about what his old classmate, whom he didn't like, had been up to all these years and most of it wasn't positive. For instance Kurotani had been blackmailing many people, including that bartender, so it seems quite a few may hold a grudge against this less than decent detective. But Kurotani had been doing decent work on Mei's case and found out her soon to be husband wasn't cheating on her but was a person who would pull marriage scams, get as much money and things from the woman and then flee. But before Hoshi could do more investigating the police did show up as they had a stakeout in process, it wasn't Hoshi's 'friend' Soda but a new detective you can see above named Yokoiri. This man quickly arrested Hoshi, Tsugumi had been observing this from across the street, and dragged him to the station where Yokoiri announced it was now him in charge of the Kurotani murder case. But saving the day for Hoshi was Soda who burst into the interrogation room saying to release his friend and until next week Soda was still the detective leading the investigation.

 Much more serious show than the others which I think made this the best episode to date. Now that Hoshi has been sprung from the clutches of Yokoiri it's back to Mei's case and with the info he found in Kurotani's office he approached this man named Ryo. That info about him being a marriage scammer was correct and when Ryo met Mei he had all intentions of duping her out of all of $$ but then again she wasn't a rich woman. Ryo confessed to Hoshi and Tsugumi that he's changed his ways after dating Mei and for the first time had fallen in love. It wasn't just some lie to get out of trouble as later on Hoshi set up a meeting with the two where Ryo admitted everything about his past but truly does want to get married to Mei. She too had fallen in love and this case had a happy ending as the marriage is back on, makes me wonder if there was a second season could Hoshi and Tsugumi become an item?

 We're at the end with less than a minute to go in this episode. Hoshi has just returned from that case to his shop and who should be there but the detective Soda. He's realized there's no way be can solve the Kurotani case by himself and he has less than a week to do so, would Hoshi become his partner to solve the murder? Of course the answer was YES and and am now really looking forward to these last two episodes. Glad I stuck with this drama as it started out a bit goofy but has become much better and serious as the episodes have gone on, will have the last pair of recaps later on this week.