"Octo: Kanjou Sousakan Shinno Akari" drama, episode two recap

 

 Air Dates: July 8th until September 9, 2022 on NTV  Thursdays at midnight

Episodes are 43 minutes in length, subs are being done by Kaizan Subs

Main Cast: Most of the action takes place at the East Kanagawa police station. We really only saw the top two characters in the first show so will be updating these bios.

Marie Iitoyo as Akari Shinno.... 28 year old detective who has been at the station for a year. The recaps will explain it better but Akari has this 'unique ability' to read people's emotions, she can do that by the colors coming out of their eyes which only she can see! Akari does come off as an introvert for outside she wears a hood and inside never looks at someone's eyes, that's because she doesn't want to know what their emotions are. Don't know the details yet but at the age of thirteen her parents were murdered in their house.

Kodai Asaka as Ryo Kazehaya.... Akari's new partner but isn't what he seems to be. Kazehaya is actually a spy sent by a director named Hirayasu at the National Police, his mission is to spy on Akari and the rest of the staff at the East Kanagawa station. But he has taken a liking towards Akari and think they'll make for a solid team.

Takashi Yamanaka as Kohei Kumokawa.... Deputy Chief at the station who really believes in Akari's talents which can't be used as evidence in court.

Eiichiro Funakoshi as Mamoru Hirayasu.... A director at the National Police Force and why has he sent Kazehaya to spy on the station?

Mikoto Hibi as Satoko Kitamura.... Female detective at the station.

Kouki Nishida as Takahiro Nanjo.... Male detective at the station and like the above character didn't see much of him in the first two episodes.

Asami Usuda as Yuki Komoto.... Akari's psychiatrist and she knows everything about the way you can read emotions from others. Don't think she has this ability though and not sure why Akari has been visiting her for so many years. Could be because of her parents deaths plus to get advice on her unique talent of reading emotions.

Rena Matsui as Shiori Shinno.... Akari's 35 year old sister who we didn't see in this show but know she's in the hospital, has she been there since her parents were murdered? Think so which will be explained in the beginning.

 Guest Stars

Manami Hashimoto as Chizuru Suzumoto.... Wife of the below man and she's a successful novelist who just won a major award. Chizuru was hauled into the station and could she have hd anything to do with her husband and his lover's death?

Mutsuo Yoshioka as Takuto Suzumoto.... Chizuru's husband who was cheating on her, he was stabbed to death or was it a suicide?

Promo video for episode two

 

 That first episode was such a chore to write up as for some reason I was so scatterbrained but it turned out well enough, this recap should go much smoother. You can see above that Rena is part of the main cast and what a fave of mine she was from 2012-16. She left SKE in 2015 and for a while they may have been my top J-Pop group. She had close to seventy posts by the end of2017, hardly any since but have seen her in a few other dramas and a film. But Rena's role is an odd one as she's been in a hospital for fifteen years due to a trauma, more on that below.

 You can also see that Manami is a guest star, she still looks so darn fabulous even though she'll be turning 38 on August 8th. She's one of my all time top gravure models but she's now married with a child so bet we won't see her do any more gravure pics. Her last photobook came out in January 2020 when she was 35 in age and there aren't many books better than that one. Mikoto is also someone I like immensely but haven't seen enough of her through two show. 

 Before we get into this episode's case let me explain Akari's(Marie) past as it is very important, it was brought up twice during this show. In that top screenshot you can see Akari sleeping in a hospital room, to date we've never seen her apartment. She's with her sister Shiori who is seven years older(35) and that's her in the bottom screenshot. Fifteen years before the sisters arrived at their home together but something just didn't seem right, Shiori told the thirteen year old Akari to hold off while she investigated. What she found was a horror as in a side room both of their parents had been brutally stabbed to death which is in the second screenshot. Akari's superior Kumokawa was telling this story to her new partner Kazehaya who was curious about her past. He's spying on her and the others at the East Kanagawa police station on orders from a director at the National Police Force named Hirayasu, why is still not known at this time.

 So after Shiori discovered her parents creeping down the stairs was the murderer who is in the second to last screenshot. He had his next target lined up who was the petrified Akari, she screamed and in the nick of time Shiori jumped in to save her sister. However she herself was stabbed and just before the assailant could attack Akari again there was a knock at the door which was a life saver. It was a police officer who came to visit the father who was a detective for the Minato force. The culprit quickly fled which saved Akari's life, soon after this man killed himself. That incident was when Akari got this unique ability to read people's emotions and that's by the colors coming out of their eyes. But since then it appears Shiori has been confined to a wheelchair and also the trauma was so bad she can't even speak but is there something else going on we don't know about yet? So for the most part that explains much of what took place in Akari's past, not all but now I'm not as confused.... to an extent....

 As mentioned one of my top five gravure models is Manami Hashimoto who plays the main guest star Chizuru and you'll see plenty of screenshots of her, she still looks stunning! Chizuru had been married to a man named Takuto and say had been because he was discovered stabbed to death in the above apartment along with the woman who lived there. At first all signs pointed to her husband killing this woman named Fukita and then turning the knife on himself, isn't it almost impossible though to stab yourself to death in the stomach or chest? So though not a suspect Chizuru was brought in to the East Kanagawa station to give an account of what happened. The new yet veteran detective Kazehaya is in charge of the case and with him is his new partner Akari though don't think they're officially a team yet. So here's the story which Chizuru related to them about night of her husband's suicide(?).

 Chizuru and her husband Takuto lived on the fourth floor of an apartment building. On the night of the incident it was late but no exact time was given, Chizuru heard a thump on the ceiling and when she rolled over in bed her husband was gone. She then discovered their balcony door was open and even more baffling was there was a ladder there going up to the fifth floor, was there an intruder? Chizuru then called maintenance and told them of the situation, a janitor soon arrived and the pair entered that fifth floor apartment which was #502. To Chizuru's horror lying there on the floor was her husband, next to him was the apartment's dweller Fukita. Both had been stabbed many times and the police are presuming Takuto killed Fukita and then turned the knife on himself but as mentioned stabbing yourself to death is so difficult to do but what other possibility was there? During this questioning of course Akari was paying attention to the emotions of Chizuru and that's by the colors coming out of that person's eyes, you can see that above and below. There's eight main colors and the one coming out of Chizuru's eyes above were Yellow which signifies Happiness, with her husband dead why is she feeling that way?

 I'm hoping we'll eventually get a picture of the graph which shows what all of the emotions mean, then will post it at the top for future reference. Chizuru is a novelist and apparently a successful one though the avid reader Akari had never heard of her. Recently Chizuru had won a prize for her last story and she's currently working on the follow up to it so she'd rather not waste her time at the station, not much emotion from a woman whose husband has just died! That Yellow emotion for Happiness was referring to Chizuru winning that prize as it was a major one. During the second round of questioning which was much shorter there was also the color of Red in her emotions. Putting them together means you have a high self esteem and for some reason Chizuru's has been getting higher as time goes on. There was one other tidbit during this interrogation which is that Chizuru mentioned how her husband Takuto hated noise and complained to management about the fifth floor apartment and the one next to them. Him sending the complaint was actually Chizuru's idea as did she have a deadly plan in the works for a while? 

 A detective also needs to do some leg work so off to the apartment building went Akari and Kazehaya. As you can see above they entered apartment #502 where the double suicide(?) took place. Akari had noticed what a large place it was for a single woman and why did Fukita need so much space? It eventually came out that she was a call girl and it's where she often entertained her clients, that's also why there was so much noise from the apartment. There were quite a few gifts in this residence from Fukita's clients including one from the husband Takuto. So the evidence is pointing to a double suicide and also to the fact the pair had been having a long time affair! But something wasn't quite right to Akari who suggested they interview Chizuru's neighbors on the fourth floor who she said were often too loud. It was a young couple who lived there, the man really had no clue about noise coming from his apartment. However his girlfriend Narashima did and what Akari noticed from this young woman's eyes was the color of Green coming out of them. That's the color of Fear and what was this woman so afraid of, her boyfriend finding out her.... affair?!?!

 Slowly Akari has bee building up a case against Chizuru for being the murderer(!) yet all of her evidence was circumstantial and were theories. For the third and last time Chizuru was brought in for another round of questioning where Akari laid most of her cards on the table. There was evidence as mentioned but had Chizuru remained quiet she may have walked away a free woman but did her ego get the better of her? All of that story she had told Akari and Kazehaya at first were pure lies and it wasn't too far away from being a perfect crime. A few weeks back Chizuru had left her apartment for a meeting with her agent, the husband Taketo was staying home that day. But the meeting was cancelled and upon her return Chizuru's husband wasn't there. However she heard some thumping against the wall from the next door apartment, looking over the balcony what should she see but her husband in bed with the young woman Nakashima, now we know why she was so fearful. If there's one thing Chizuru cannot stand is Noise which makes sense being a writer. So after seeing Taketo with their neighbor in bed is when she devised her plan which for the most part was well thought out but she had never met an emotion reader such as Akari.

 That upstairs neighbor Fukita just made too much noise and Chizuru just wanted to shut her up for good! So in the fateful night while her husband was sleeping Chizuru had climbed that ladder, discovering Fuikta asleep she stabbed the woman to death. Quickly returning to her own place she told Taketo there was a loud bang from upstairs, she though they soul investigate. Chizuru had left the door unlocked and when they entered Taketo was naturally stunned at what he saw he the affair he was having with Fukita was all a ruse and he too was stabbed to death by Chizuru. During this questioning she showed zero remorse over her actions as Chizuru finally got her greatest wish.... peace and quiet! So that wrapped up this case, while Akari reading the emotions of others was key to solving the case what would she and Kazehaya have done without Chizuru's confession.

 In the final minute Kazehaya was talking to his main boss Hirayasu from the National Police, that's him in the above screenshot and he's only made two cameo appearances. Kazehaya wanted to know why he was sent to spy on Akari and the others at the East Kanagawa station but no answer was given, just keep doing your job the director said. So ends this second recap and thought it was much better than the first episode. This case was a solid one but it just seems this series should be a bit better but it's just starting as there's still eight more episodes. Always recommend viewing these bottom screenshots but especially for this drama to catch some of the minor yet important details. Not sure when I'll be back with the next set of recaps, two weeks perhaps(?) as I'm also recapping two other dramas.