Da Capo Shimasenka asks: "Do You Want To Play A Game?"

 Part Liar Game, part Squid Game, DA CAPO Shimasenka? tells the story of a mysterious servant named Ninomiya (Takeda Tetsuya) whom, at the behest of his Master, has found a series of despairing individuals pushed to the edge and about to commit suicide due to crushing debt.

Stopping them at the very last second of their demise, Ninomiya invites all of them to the home of his benefactor, where they learn that they have been invited to participate in a macabre and deadly game of chance.

Called DA CAPO, each individual is told to sign a life insurance policy to the host of the game, an unseen individual named only MR.X. The “contestants" will them participate in a series of dangerous games where each round is ended by the death of a member.

Once that person dies, his life insurance will kick in and there will be a payout. And after a fee has been paid to Mr.X, the rest of the money go to the PARTICIPANTS! The more people that die, the more insurance will pay out and the LESS people there will be to split the money with! That means that the more people that DIE, the more you GET!

Normally no one would even think about playing such a deadly game, but these are people whom debt has destroyed their lives, and for even the chance of paying it off and starting again clean, most won’t hesitate for a second to join! And in the end, ALL EIGHT of them take pen in hand and sign the contracts!

Once the legal papers have all been signed, the first of the "games" is introduced: Champagne glasses filled with water for the contestants to drink. But ONE of them is laced with POISON,  a deadly agent that will KILL the drinker soon thereafter!

...Are the guests brave enough to go ahead with such MADNESS???

The Contestants: Otawara (Makita Sports)

Shimon (Takaya Sakoda)

Sakuragi (Momoka Hasegawa)

Masumi (Kei Inoo)

Maeyama (Atsuko Hirata)

Mihashi (Ryoko Kobayashi)

Inaba (Tetta Sugimoto)

and Nagumo (Arisa Mizuki)

Each of them has their own dark reasons for being in debt, (which we will learn over time) and by hook or crook, each one has a determination to become the one holding the prize at the end!

So RAISE your glasses and make a toast, for the games are about to begin...and one is about to DIE!

CHEERS!

Let the Games Begin...

A truly BIZARRE show, kept loose and FUN by Takeda Tetsuya who plays Ninomiya with a particular ZEST!

Eriko Kitagawa Back with Another Romance Drama: "Yugure ni, Te wo Tsunagu"

 The latest drama penned from “Queen of Romance” Eriko Kitagawa, and as expected full of all the usual cliches and trappings of her most famous works.. Must say that after “Hanbun Aoi” I’m not super eager to dive into another romance drama from her so soon, but Suzu Hirose is SUCH a sweetie in the role of the addled Asagi that I just HAVE to keep watching and see what comes next!

Umino Oto (Ren Nagase) and Asagi Soramame (Hirose) are two individuals whose paths have crossed a number of fateful times, the first of which they had bumped into each other while listening to the same music on their airpods (a fact they get a kick out of when they accidentally switch pods and hear the same song!)

A few months later Umino (who is a singer-songwriter) is sitting at a park composing where a frazzled girl stops to refresh her face in the cool water of the fountain. He immediately recognizes her as the ipod girl from months back, but before he can say anything, his phone flies out of his hands and is about to go into the water!

Luckily the spry Soramame is able to intercept the phone and save it…but as she is handing it over to him…the fountain sprinklers go on, DOUSING her in cold water!!!!!!

A mortified Oto begs to pay for dry cleaning for her, but she waves it off, saying she’s much too busy and has places to be! Scurrying away, she steps out of his life once again…but not for long!

The reason for her rush is that Asagi is in town to meet up with her fiance, to go over details of their upcoming WEDDING! But, as these dramas usually go, he is only there to inform her that he’s fallen for someone else and that the wedding is OFF! She's been unceremoniously DUMPED!

A devastated Asagi tries to keep a positive outlook on things, but ends up going to a five-star hotel to blow the wedding money  on deluxe lodgings…and ALL the fancy food and wine she can consume in order to drown out her problems!

At the same restaurant some tables over, Oto is with his savvy manager (Wakana Matsumoto), who , after hearing his latest offering, tells him that while his songs are catchy enough, they lack feeling, and says that it’s because he’s never really been in love. (MAN, this HAS to be the BIGGEST cliche whenever there’s a struggling songwriter in a drama, huh?)

When Oto goes to freshen up, he comes across Asagi once more, who is now  a drunken mess. He reminds her of who she is and once again offers to pay for the clothes cleaning, but she cleanly says that she never cleaned the clothes so there ain’t no bill. Through her slurring, he learns that she’s been dumped by her fiance, and though he’s concerned about her state, she waves him off.

After saying goodbye to his Manager, Oto is alarmed to see the still inebriated Soramame teetering on the edge of a bridge railing. She’s taken off her engagement ring, and is pondering her future. When the ring slips away from her, she leans over try and catch it, sending her dangerously over the railing- where Oto luckily leaps in to grab her!

He tells her suicide isn’t the answer, to which she adamantly tells him she had no intention of killing herself!  She seems OK, but he is on alert to what she may do. As one of her shoes fell over the bridge when she was pulled back, Oto takes it upon himself to piggyback her back the the hotel.

It’s while on his back that the tears of all the frustrations of the tumultuous day that Asagi has been holding in come out, and Oto stoically carries her home without a word as she silently weeps behind him. 

Once back at the Hotel, Asagi is pleased to get a warm pair of house slippers and is seemingly back to her old outspoken and spritely self. But Oto is worried about what she may try to do, and decides to stay a little longer with her...

Though neither of them realize it yet, this is the beginning of a long and beautiful friendship!!

So far an entertaining but LOADED with cliches, and they’re even setting up the “Elderly Grandmother doesn’t know the Wedding is Off So We Need Someone to PRETEND to be the Fiance” cliche ... But as I mentioned, Hirose easily makes it well worth checking out!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com