Air Dates: March 11th to the 15th on Netflix, March 18th to the 22nd on Hokkaido TB
Also goes by the name of 'Stay Tuned', the series had a total of five 43 minute episodes
Main Cast:
Kyoko Yoshine as Hanako Yukimaru... newbie reporter who constantly messes up
Hiroko Iijima as Hajime Yamane... another new reporter who is seemingly perfect but....
Atsuwo Ohuchi as Heizo Hasegawa... the supervisor of the TV newsroom
Kanako Miyashita as Maki Hanae... new news anchor in training
Takuro Osada as Hayato Kitagami... yet another newbie in the production department
Taisei Shima as Tetsutaro Fukube... new hire in the sales department
Hikaru Takihara as Seiichi Tachibana... new technician
Ayumu Saito as Mamoru Jogasaki... TV station main director
Kimiko Jitsukawa as Reiko Kurenai... veteran newscaster
Hitoshi Fujio as Yosuke Furuya... weatherman
Ken Yasuda as Katori... rival from the HGT station
Yo Oizumi as Kanbara... local farmer
Shinya Kawano as Ogura... director of the newsroom who never stops eating
.... and so many more with minor roles, hugest cast I've ever seen.
Have finally come to the conclusion of this series, only felt long because I took such a long break between recaps as the final two episodes were watched about a month ago. As you may know the two shows that aired from 4:00 until 6:00 pm were combined and it was a new creation of HHTV's main director Suzuki. But the name will remain the same which is 'Evening Big bang' which was the name of the 5:00 pm newscast. As you can see above HHTV is still getting trounced in the ratings by their rival HGT but things are looking up as those ratings are now about half a point higher.
The new show will be featuring a variety of things from news to in-studio segments. And Hanako has been put in charge of of one of those live segments. she's come up with a solid idea of having a very popular young violinist play live on the show. She's been put in charge of everything about the broadcast but she isn't aware of so many little details that go into an event, the cameramen slowly shake their heads at Hanako's suggestions for them filming. That live segment won't be taking place for two days and though that's a huge step up for Hanako there's an even bigger story looming for her and HHTV.
If you've read the previous recaps you know about Kanbara. He's the manager of the non-profit 'Sprout Mind' agency which helps farmers in need on the island of Hokkaido. Most farmers really liked Kanbara as he did help so many of them out but at the end of episode three the government accused him of mismanaging the grants they gave him which totaled between 300-500 million yen. Hajime had done a special feature on Kanbara which was well received at the station but in reality Hajime didn't do a solid job. He knew that many things were missed during the filming, things that he should have questioned Kanbara about. Such as how did he get so much money to purchase such expensive items like a designer watch and brand new souped up SUV?
Since that announcement Kanbara has been in hiding, there's no warrant out yet for his arrest but one could be issued at any minute. One of the few people Kanbara trusts is Hanako, he knew her family which were farmers and it was only because of her that he did the interview with Hajime. Now that he's in trouble he decided the one person he could turn to was Hanako as she isn't someone to leak his whereabouts, he also thought she could give him some info on what the police had planned.
Kanbara called Hanako while she at the her desk at the station, that desk happens to be next to Hajime's who overheard the conversation. He briefly talked to Kanbara and tried to convince him that another interview would be in his best interests, Kanbara was very leery about that so politely declined. He didn't reveal his location but Hanako thought she heard a name in the background which was of a local farmer. That was enough of a clue for Hajime who really wants to interview Kanbara again, he's still got a bit of a bad taste in his mouth from the first one.
Hajime tracked down the farm though at first the woman farmer was naturally reluctant to tell him that Kanbara was there. She finally broke down and Hajime headed to a small, rundown house in a nearby forest. Needless to say Kanbara was shocked to see the reporter, he was still leery about talking to Hajime then again but perhaps he could set some things straight by letting the public know what happened and what his situation is.
But the interview didn't go the way Kanbara thought it would as Hajime began asking some probing questions, ones he should have asked in his first interview. Such as where did he get the money for such expensive items such as watches and a customized SUV, Kanbara was floored by the questions and asked Hajime to leave. But before that Kanbara made him swear to keep his location a secret, Hajime agreed for now but was torn on what the right thing to do was.
That Kanbara situation took up the rest of the show save for one scene which I'll get out of the way now. Had been talking about Hanako being put in charge of a segment for the 'Evening Big Bang' show, she enlisted the talented violinist Mayumi to play. She's a young woman who was accompanied by her mother as she's still has stage fright even though she's played live many times. Somehow Hanako was somewhat of a calming influence and the performance was a huge success.
Mayumi had played an old Japanese classic song titled "City lights", musically the song was the same as the original but not the lyrics. That's because Hanako had re-written the words to the song and made it an ode to herself which of course stunned the station's staff who took it all in good humor. Especially the main producer Ogura who saw in Hanako what nobody else could see, to me he's the main person who keeps the station running so smoothly.
With that performance a success it's back to Kanbara who took up almost the remainder of the show. The police have discovered his location though it wasn't Hajime who revealed it. All of the other Hokkaido stations have been notified and even some reporters from the mainland took the trip to the island to cover the story. So there's a mass of reporters outside of the small house where Kanbara is holing up in, he's inside quite scared but refuses to leave. There is a warrant out for his arrest, it's just mid afternoon but the police have announced they won't make their move until 8:00 pm.
HHTV is the sister station of a much larger one in Tokyo. That main station considered HHTV to be a group of bumbling farmers so they sent their star reporter to the scene to get the huge scoop. Naturally HHTV wasn't pleased with the man and especially Hajime who had to deal with the jerk outside of the house Kanbara is holed up in. But really nothing came out of it as the reporter didn't get his major scoop, Hajime wouldn't work with him plus Kanbara refused to meet the man.
But Kanbara did want to meet with someone before his arrest, with the entire fleet of Hokkaido reporters on hand he of course requested that Hanako join him! That sent shock waves through the crowd but not through Hajime, he's slowly learned that she always ends up where the action is. Even at HHTV headquarters the staff is stunned that Kanbara has sent for Hanako, with really no choice she's whisked off to the small house to try for an interview and to see what Kanbara's demands are.
Hanako brought with her a small camera, one that doesn't have the greatest of pictures but it was the only one she knew how to operate, you can see the quality of it above. But in the beginning the meeting with Kanbara wasn't shown live, management thought Hanako should just film as much as she could and it would later run as an exclusive on their newscasts. That is until Kanbara began speaking, he wasn't being interviewed at the time as Hanako was preparing him some food but Kanbara began to confess about his crimes and what really took place.
This looked to be the story of the year so the question at the HHTV station is do they sit on what Kanbara is confessing until a news broadcast? As I've mentioned Ogura is the key person at the station, he's a veteran producer who knows what the viewers want and need to watch. To him the decision is easy, stop recording the event at Kanbara's hideout and air it live. Not so fast was the statement from the board chairman Jogasaki, it's approaching 8:00 pm when the station will begin airing a major drama their main station has sent them. It'll be a sure fire ratings winner, there's no way they can interrupt such a show for some local news.
Seemed the whole HHTV staff was on hand in the newsroom, every single one voted to air the interview. All said that the most important thing a local station can do is keep their viewers informed on events that affect their lives plus many other solid reasons why Kanbara's interview should be aired live. The staff finally got through to him as Jogasaki made the correct decision, he ordered 'News Flash' to begin reporting on the story and be prepared to air the live Kanbara interview. As that takes place at their rival HGT's station they're watching the developments, their manager Katori is fuming at being shut out but also gave a nod of respect to HHTV getting such an exclusive.
But at the house Hanako didn't know she was now live on the air. Kanbara had said no phones so they were unable to contact her. What it took was Hajime going to the window of the house with a sign telling Hanako, You're now live on TV. Hanako was quite nervous at first but soon realized she had a responsibility to the station and viewers, no more fooling around she thought and be serious about the matter. Which is what she was as Hanako asked some probing questions to Kanbara who was reluctant at first to answer them but eventually began telling the complete story of what he did.
Yes he admitted, he siphoned off some money from the government grants, perhaps a total of 100 million of the 500 million that was given to him over a three year stretch. But Kanbara also stressed that he did help out the farmers so much, he truly cared about their plight though at first he wasn't as interested in farming as one might believe. Kanbara knew he would be found guilty and may have to spend time in jail but think his confession made him appear to be an okay person and though guilty bet many viewers took his side. The interview went on for about fifteen minutes, it was after 8:00 pm so the police stormed the house and arrested Kanbara, what happened in the future to him is unknown.
But Hanako is now a hero at the station, the live interview received some massive ratings. Because of tat HHTV is now once again focusing on more local programming instead of relying on tired dramas for their prime time shows. For the most part that long interview and standoff with Kanbara brought us to the end of the episode. But there was a brief scene to end off the show which was from a year later, all six of the rookies are still at the station and passed their probationary periods as they're now full time employees, wonder if that means a second season may be in the works?
Wouldn't mind a second season as I really did enjoy this drama. Usually like short series as this one was but wish it did have another 2-3 episodes. These last few recaps are the first ones for this new blog, I kind of struggle sometimes getting the motivation to write these up but think in the future that won't be as much of a problem.
This is kind of a hard show to give a grade too, can't thing of any negatives about it but have seen better ones. So will give it a rating of 9.1/10 which is one if my higher grades, do highly recommend this as it was very informative of what happens in a newsroom and was very enjoyable. Huge cast but most did get a turn in the spotlight and all did a solid job. Up next for Japanese dramas will be the '3-Nen a Gumi' series which has ten episodes. Will do five recaps within the week, will watch the remaining five shows and have them about two weeks from now. But before that may have a mini Korean drama titled "Hot and Sweet", we'll see how things work out.
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