"Janus no Kagami" drama: Episode four recap

 Air Dates: This series aired twice, first on the FOD network Fridays at midnight from August 16th until October 4th, then Mondays at 12:55 am on Fuji-TV from October 21st until December 9th.

Eight episodes with a running time a little over twenty minutes, subs by aoinousagi

Above is the PV for the theme tune that's sung by Hinako, didn't know she could sing

Main Cast:

Hinako Sakurai as Hiromo Ozawa.... meek 17 year old student who lives with her grandmother....

and also as Yumi who is her split personality and the complete opposite of Hiromi

Jin Shirasu as Kenichi Shindo.... president of the high school student council

Akihisa Shiono as Tatsuya Tsutsumi.... mysterious young man who befriends Yumi

Sayuri Kokusho as Takako Ozawa.... Hiromi's very strict and violent grandmother

Maria Mori as Jun Abe.... Hiromi's best friend at school

Sawa Nimura as Ryoko Azuma.... leader of a gang who all despise Yumi

Masato Hagiwara as Kazunari Koumoto... owner of a jewelry store and Hiromi's father?

Few others will be added in as the episodes go on

 At one time think there may have been ten or so blogs which reviewed Japanese dramas but seems these days the number has dwindled to two others besides myself. Korean dramas have definitely become more popular, I prefer most of them too but do get tired of watching such long series. However brought that up for I noticed the other two places and some that recap Korean shows can do them with very brief recaps where not every bit of info or happening needs to be explained. So going to try doing that for the remaining six recaps and the goal is to have no more than four paragraphs though many screenshots. That first attempt at making a recap much shorter worked out well, won't be explaining where we are at this point as you can read everything in the above three posts.

 That third episode ended off with Yumi transforming back into her real self which was Hiromi. Luckily her classmate Shindo was nearby and was able to send her home in a taxi when she passed out. But at home her grandmother Takako was furious that a man brought her granddaughter home but this time around didn't lock Hiromi in the backyard shed. At first Hiromi transforming into Yumi was only happening once a day and almost always at night. But now it's occurring a few times a day and has even happened at school, Hiromi has no clue what's going on but her alter ego Yumi does as she knows much of what Hiromi goes through every day.
 The following morning Hiromi is her usual self and surprisingly her grandmother wasn't too furious at the events from the previous night, perhaps she has an inking of Hiromi transforming? That day at school Hiromi's watch stopped working so with her best friend Jun stopped at a jewelry store after school. The watch could be fixed but it needed to be left at the shop overnight. Just before departing the pair met the owner Koumoto, Hiromi seemed to think she's seen his face before but didn't give it much of a second thought. But this new character Koumoto will soon become the main figure in this series or at least up until episode six.

 While the name of Koumoto may not have rang a bell with Hiromi it did with Yumi later that night who could recall what Hiromi had done that day. Yumi has a picture of her dead mother with a man outside of the Party On club she often frequents. In that pic was a man standing next to her but his face had been torn off and Yumi had no idea who the man was. But she did know that the odds were high he was her father and Yumi's man goal at night had been searching for clues about her father. It had been revealed at the beginning of this episode that Hiromi's mother Yukiko had committed suicide shortly after giving birth to Hiromi by jumping off a roof.
 After much investigating and with the help of her ally Tatsuya Yumi has come to the conclusion that Koumoto is without a doubt her father. So what happened that made him leave Yukiko and did that lead to her suicide? That's now Yumi's main purpose for the next two shows and to start off she's planning on robbing Koumoto's jewelry store. She's enlisted the help of the five gals who had beaten Tatsuya and Shindo in the previous episode, she's promised the girls they'll be so rich from the robbery. But of course Yumi always has a trick or two up her sleeve, she's actually set the girls up to get them out of her way but how that turns out doesn't happen until the next episode.

 Think the brevity of these last two posts worked out well and perhaps for shows less than 25 minutes in length will keep this format of four paragraphs. Realize not 100% of what takes place needs to be explained and sure you readers enjoy reading more of an overall view such as these last two. So far this has been one superb and interesting drama, have watched up until the sixth episode. Will be viewing the remaining two tonight and the final four recaps will hopefully be done a week from now.