Jurina Matsui: "Death Cash" drama episode one recap and screenshots

 Start Date: July 13, 2016.... aired Wednesday nights at 24:10 on TBS

Main Cast:

Jurina Matsui as Yuka Minami

Shigeyuki Totsugi as Takeshi Wakamoto

Rina Kawaei as Erina Hayashi

Kaya Kiyohara as Koyume Minami

Riho Yoshioka as Kazue Hagninomo

Yurika Nakamura as Mari Ueno

Toshio Kakei as Taichiro Zaitsu

.... plus many others who have or will get killed off after one episode....

 This and the next recap post were originally done at the end of July, deleted those and reposted them so you can start from the beginning. Ceased the recaps at that time as the first subber stopped doing them, thought I wouldn't get the chance to view the series with them. However the folks at SKEvolution have just finished subbing all ten episodes to my delight and sure many other Jurina fans. So as mentioned have reposted those first two recaps so you'll know what's going on and after them are recaps for the third and fourth episodes.

 Have been a bit negative on J-dramas lately, mainly because their Korean counterparts have zoomed past them as far as the quality of series goes. However that comparison is really just for the prime time shows, to me these last night dramas are still quite good though they don;t seem to have as many these last few years. One thing which helps is the length of an episode, a late night show like this one lasts around 23 minutes. Meanwhile prime time shows still last 45-50 minutes, why is it written in stone that a drama airing between 8-11:00 pm have to be so long?
 Will cut that off there, one of these days I'm planning on having a post or two looking at the state of Japanese dramas, perhaps I'm no expert but after watching over 400 of them think I may have an opinion or ten and would think many of you would agree with them.
 On to this drama which pleasantly is now subbed, third episode just aired last night. Am planning on doing future recaps this way, will do posts for two episodes so hopefully in two weeks will be looking at the third and fourth episodes.
 This is Jurina's first lead role in a drama, really her first major role in anything though season two of "Majisula Gakuen" her role was somewhat big. She plays a freshman at a yet to be revealed college, name of her character is Yuka. She lives alone with her sister Koyume who is still in high school, their mother is in Africa while the father is dead(?).

 Wanted to keep this short but that long intro didn't help matters. Yuka seems to be a popular student at college with many friends, appears though as at least one will be killed off every show due to the curse of 'Death Cash'. So far in these two episodes I've viewed when one of Yuka's friends has been desperate for money an endless supply all of a sudden appears out of nowhere for them.
 In this show Yuka hadn't been able to get in touch with her best friend Ikumi who suddenly stopped going to school. Unknown to Yuka Ikumi was smitten by the 'Death Cash', hordes of money had appeared before her one night at her apartment. She had just broken up with her boyfriend, she thought it was perhaps because she wasn't beautiful enough. With this sudden windfall of cash she spent too much to count on beauty products to make herself more attractive, she had kept this a secret from everyone.
 The curse of the cash is when the bills start to stain, then the curse rises which leads to a gruesome death for whoever had received the money. That's what happened to Ikumi who hung herself in her apartment. Yuka had been a bit tardy in saving her, she had a premonition that Ikumi was in trouble but arrived too late to save her. Because of her showing up at the apartment Yuka was the prime suspect in the death along with all of her other friends.

 Yuka has a special gift which is being able to see a tragic event that is about to happen, The fact that she can see it has prevented two of her friends from being killed as she was able to pull them back from certain death such as gardener's shears embedding themselves in her friend's head. But that talent was unable to save Ikumi's life nor the life of another friend named Miura.
 Miura was a senior at the college but was unable to get a job nor start a company like the rest of his classmates. Main reason for that as he was considered too soft, companies hiring felt there was no way he would be of any value profit wise to them. Miura wished for some money and just like that millions of yen appeared in his apartment. He couldn't spend it fast enough as when he did spend it more would appear.
 He opened a small company called Knight Will and invited Yuka over to see it one evening. Once again Yuka saw a premonition and was able to save Miura's life. But it appears Yuka can only save a life once as shortly after some strange events occurred at the company's office with Miura being stabbed to death, most of these deaths appear to be accidental, However they're not as some unknown force/curse is behind these strange killings, after two episodes we have no clue on what it could be.
 Shortly after Miura was killed out of the shadows jumped detective Wakamoto, he feels as though Yuka is behind these deaths. To him she's still the prime suspect in Ikumi's death and now he wants to blame Miura's death on her which brings us to the end of this first episode.

 For a short episode, 23 minutes, quite a bit happened. True much happened but we still don;t have a clue on anything about what the curse of 'Death Cash' is nor do we after the second episode, recap of that is the next post. As mentioned above these late night dramas are so much more interesting and fast paced than prime time shows, sure this beats most of those dramas right now.
 Don't get me wring as this series isn't going to be a classic not probably a must watch but it started off quite well and does show much promise. Noticed when an Idol has a huge role in a drama it's usually these late night shows, though AKB and their 48 families are hugely popular don't think any of them can bring in big ratings for the prime time shows. That's been proven so many times in the past, some Idols are okay actresses but most are anything but good. Jurina did fine in this episode, though she's never had huge roles in the past she always seems to do a solid job in them.
 Had wanted to keep this brief, turned out to be one of the longer recaps I've done recently but the recap for episode two should(will) be much shorter. Few more screenshots for you to enjoy, don't think it'll help you understand any more as don't think I left anything(too much) out.

Jurina Matsui: "Death Cash" drama episode two recap and screenshots

 Start Date: July 13, 2016.... aired Wednesday nights at 24:10 on TBS

Main Cast:

Jurina Matsui as Yuka Minami

Shigeyuki Totsugi as Takeshi Wakamoto

Rina Kawaei as Erina Hayashi

Kaya Kiyohara as Koyume Minami

Riho Yoshioka as Kazue Hagninomo

Yurika Nakamura as Mari Ueno

Toshio Kakei as Taichiro Zaitsu

.... plus many others who have or will get killed off after one episode....

 Will make this shorter than the above post, first episodes tend to be longer due to introducing the characters and plot. That first episode Yuka(Jurina) had two friends who were mysteriously killed due to the curse of the 'Death Cash', that's an endless supply of money which suddenly appears in front of someone who really needs it. The curse is when the bills start to get stained your life is snuffed out.
 Just one friend of Yuka's was killed this episode who was a man named Kawabe. He was on the school javelin team through a scholarship as he was too poor to pay for college. However he failed to make the elite team after a tryout, his scholarship could be in jeopardy and the coach had told him he only picked people for the team who were paying for their schooling.
 Kawabe could be on the team if he was able to come up with the regular tuition money, an impossible task for someone as poor as he was. Kawabe wished so hard for the money and like the other friends of Yuka's that money was suddenly in front of him at his apartment. The money so far has only appeared at the person's apartment and when they're alone.

 Meanwhile Yuka is still the prime suspect in the deaths of two of her friends, the detective Wakamoto has even begun tailing her to catch her in the act of murder. Wakamoto had an open mind though as the deaths were quite strange, he begins thinking that perhaps Yuka didn't do the killing but she was at the scene shortly after her friends were killed.
 Yuka didn't think Wakamoto would believe her if she told him about her premonitions, being able to see an event before it happened and being able to save that person once. Wakamoto did believe her though and told her to call him when she sensed that another death was about to occur.
 Another one was about to happen and as you probably figured out it was going to happen to Kawabe who had received some death cash. Yuka was at the college watching Kawabe's javelin practice but sensed tragedy was about to strike and summoned Wakamoto to the school. He rushed right over but neither him nor Yuka could do a thing to save Kawabe who was stabbed to death in an eerie fashion by a bunch of javelins.

 That name in the middle screenshot is spelled wrong, it is Kawabe. One other event that happened at the practice field was that Yuka had a premonition about Wakamoto getting killed by a discus, she was right about that and was just able to save his life by a whisker. He's really curious about Yuka now, he knows she's not responsible for the deaths but she does have some connection to them.
 It wasn't announced but it appears as though the two are going to form a team to find out the truth about these mysterious deaths. To date though neither one is aware of the 'Death Cash' or it's curse, as a matter of fact we have no clue what the curse is really about. Yuka has a picture at her apartment with eight of her friends in it, three have been killed so are the other five now next in line?
 Not as much happened in this show versus the first episode but it was just as fine of a watch, being 23 minutes long think it's better to watch two episodes in a row. So far can't say I'm loving this drama but it's been a solid watch, enough mystery and unanswered questions to keep your interest. Once the next two episodes are subbed will be back with recaps for them, should be within the next two weeks.
 Jurina has been a bit quiet lately, think she's only had one post here in the last few months but she really looks so jaw-dropping in this show. We'll probably be seeing more of her and a few other SKE members as their 20th single is coming out in less than two weeks. Wasn't a long recap but think most of what happened were covered but here's more screenshots if I missed anything.

Jurina Matsui: "Death Cash" drama episode three recap and screenshots

 Start Date: July 13, 2016.... aired Wednesday nights at 24:10 on TBS

Main Cast:

Jurina Matsui as Yuka Minami

Shigeyuki Totsugi as Takeshi Wakamoto

Rina Kawaei as Erina Hayashi

Kaya Kiyohara as Koyume Minami

Riho Yoshioka as Kazue Hagninomo(died in ep. three)

Yurika Nakamura as Mari Ueno

Toshio Kakei as Taichiro Zaitsu

.... plus a few others who have or will get killed off....

 Surprised and very glad the SKEvolution team finished subbing this series, had given up all hope and thought it was forgotten about. Forgetting is what happened to me as I viewed the first two episodes at the end of July and didn't recall too much of what happened. However read those two recaps I did way back when which jogged my memory but first watched episodes three and four and remembered what the show was about.
 So won't be mentioning too much from the first two shows, you can read the above two posts for more info but think if you just read this and the next post you'll know close to everything. This is Jurina's first leading role in a drama and to me she's done a good job through the first four episodes. Then again don't most Idols do a solid job in horror dramas and films?

 Her character's name is Yuka who is a university student. Her group of friends are dwindling quick as in the first two episodes three of them were killed. The mystery is were these deaths murders, accidents or were they possibly the work of a supernatural force? Yuka thinks the latter option is what's happening, naturally there's no one to believe her and especially at the police station.
 There is one detective whose name is Wakamoto who believes her story which is that the deaths are the result of receiving Death Cash. Wakamoto was there at the end of the second episode where her friend Kawabe was killed by a javelin, not an official team but they're working together on the deaths.
 Three friends down and a possible fourth one as Kazue has come into a small fortune or should we say death cash. Kazue is also a student but is very behind on her tuition plus her family, which consists of her mother and younger brother are extremely poor. She had been working part time as a waitress but was fired over an incident which she wasn't at fault for. Kazue had only 2,145 yen left in her bank account and withdrew 2,000 so she and her family could eat. But much to her surprise the ATM kept spitting out money for her but not yet in huge chunks.

 Those huge chunks of cash started appearing soon though as every day the bank envelope she kept in her purse would be refilled with money. Kazue wasn't too smart with the cash though as she started spending it like there was no tomorrow, soon there would be none for her. She bought herself many expensive outfits, her mother some jewelry and lipstick plus the family started eating like royalty.
 Yuka had no idea at the time what was going on in Kazue's life as she had stopped attending the university. But a big breakthrough came in the case as she recalled a camping trip her and her friends had taken the previous month. On the trip Ikumi(who died in episode one) had found a slightly burned 10,000 yen note in a tunnel. After their return home is when the deaths started and it always happened to the person who received that sudden windfall of death cash.
 Yuka surmised that their deaths were the result of something they bought with the money such as Kawabe dying from a javelin he had purchased. After working out the reason for the deaths Yuka learned from another friend that Kazue was living it up all around town, where had she gotten the money? Of course Yuka knew the answer to that, now she was off to save Kazue from a certain death if it already wasn't too late.

 It wasn't too late as Kazue was still alive and she had an evil plan for her mother. Her mother wasn't too old but with the abundance of cash Kazue now had she's about to send her off to a nursing home to live as she is a bit deranged. There was a mysterious incident which no one noticed as when Kazue was pushing her mother in her wheelchair the nuts and bolts to the brakes came off.
 Yuka made it just in time or at least before the van came to take Kazue's mother away. They had a talk with Kazue breaking down about how she couldn't stand being poor any more. Yuka is somewhat well off, her mother is currently in Africa but has left her and Yuka's sister plenty of money. As they were talking the nuts and bolts incident comes into play as Kazue's mother starts rolling down a hill. The pair of gals go chasing after her to no avail and looks like she'll be run over by a train.
 Out of nowhere Wakamoto jumps out to save the mother, appears the death cash this time was beaten. Only for a few seconds as Kazue picked up the lipstick her mother had dropped. As she was bending down the van to pick up her mother other appeared and ran over Kazue killing her instantly. There was nothing anyone could have done and now the death count is up to four with no end in sight. And with that death this episode came to it's conclusion.

 This was really an excellent episode and the next one was just as superb. Enjoying this series so much may  put the other two I'm watching on hold for a while as I can see finishing this up by the weekend. Seems most regular length dramas I only end up recapping about half of the series, these shorter length ones though I almost always recap every episode and will this one.
 A show is 23 minutes long which leaves no time for filler and to date there has been none. Did a quick check but couldn't find out what the ratings were for this drama but will do a better search soon, however many times the ratings for after midnight shows aren't released. Many more screenshots here for you to enjoy and the next post contains the recap for the fourth show.