Last Friends ep.02

April 20, 2008 | 17 Comments

Despite my initial reservation, the second episode entertained me more than I expected so I think I'll stick with this for a while. I do have to try to shorten the summary though since it's a killer on my time. The worst is probably the screenshots, which can take ages to produce but let's see what happens. Anyway, I still find it weird to Ueno Juri, Eita, and Mizukawa Asami playing characters that are so different from their characters in Nodame Cantabile. This is partly why I feel uncomfortable with the series. Everytime I see Takeru looking at Ruka like he's in love with her, I feel like this is all wrong because it feels like I was watching Mine and Nodame behaving in out of character manner. I have to keep reminding myself that Ueno Juri and Eita now play two completely different characters called Ruka and Takeru. On a more positive side, the soundtrack for this series is wonderful. It's not just the OP that sounds good but also the BGM. My favorite is the one that plays when Ruka and Michiru part ways in front of the train station at the start of this episode.

In the morning Michiru have breakfast with Ruka and Eri before going to her work right away. Ruka, who accompanies Michiru to the train station remembers that she saw Michiru cries in her sleep last night but when she asked Michiru if she's okay, Michiru claims that she's fine. On a hindsight, Ruka wonders why she didn't ask directly why Michiru cried that night. She feels that Michiru that she met for the first time after 4 years looks so happy and so sad at the same time. She, however, didn't know the reason for this. If she knew, she wonders what she could have done. Meanwhile, Michiru is back at work and is bullied by her co-worker as usual. If that's not enough, creepy boyfriend can be seen starring at her from outside the workplace. The same creepy boyfriend still waits for her that night, asking her to go back home with him. Michiru foolishly believes the guy but as soon as they go back to his apartment, the creep already tells her that he wants her not to leave him again. Because he says it politely, however, Michiru apologizes and accepts him back.

Meanwhile, Ruka is seen at the motorcross track, doing some killer jumps in record time. Later on, she's seen working at a garage when her father comes by to visit her. The two end up going to Takeru's bar and have a drink there. When Takeru goes to serve other customers, Ruka's father can't resist asking his daughter if Takeru is her boyfriend but Ruka denies this. After Ruka's father left, Takeru tells her that her father seems like a nice person. Ruka agrees with this and tells him that her father is her best friend who understands everything. Because of this, one thing that she doesn't want to do is to make her father sad. Meanwhile, Michiru is in the middle of cooking dinner for her and Sousuke when that creep decides that he wants to help. Because Michiru refuses, he accidentally cuts his hand. Strangely, however, he's not angry so Michiru goes off to find a band-aid for him. While doing so, however, she stumbles onto the missing graduation book that she was looking for. When she looks inside she finds that Ruka's name has been crossed out by Sousuke.

When Michiru asks him if he's the one who brought her graduation album, Sousuke doesn't deny it. However, he didn't actually got it from Michiru's mother. He basically tells the landlord that he's investigating the living arrangement in Michiru's house so the landlord gave him the key. Hi Sousuke, welcome to Creepsville. Population: you. Meanwhile, Eri has just finished her work when she notices that a colleague, Ogura Tomohiko (Yamazaki Shigenori) is sitting in a dazed state. When Eri wonders why he's not heading home, the poor guy admits that he thinks his wife has an affair and her lover is now staying at his house. Eri is surprised to hear this so the guy explains that he made a phone call this morning to his wife but a guy answered the phone and told him that his wife is taking a shower. At the same time, Ruka is in the middle of reading a website belonging to a hospital specializing in Urology. She is startled when Eri barges in asking for help. As it turns out, Eri offered "Ogurin" to stay with them and while his wife was out, the two took his 40 inch plasma screen.

Ruka wonders if he wouldn't be better off scolding his wife but Eri explains it's not in his character to do something like that. Because of this, Ruka, Eri, Ogurin, and Takeru are watching DVD together that night. The film shows a character saying "We want to share absolutely everything", Eri squeals, claiming that she wants someone to say that line to her. Ogurin, however, thinks that no Japanese man would say something like that. Ruka suggests that foreigners probably do. When the film gets to the part where two characters make love on-screen, for some reason Takeru becomes uncomfortable. Because of this, he bolts out of the living room and sits in the garden. He's quickly joined by Ruka, who feels that love story is boring. Because he's uncomfortable with the discussion, Takeru quickly diverts the topic by asking Ruka why she likes racing. She tells him she just likes the speed and when she's suspended in the air, it feels like time stops briefly and everything disappears. She also tells Takeru that she wishes Michiru can see her racing.

Michiru is at work telling Sousuke that she'll probably be back by 8PM but all of a sudden, her boss tells her that there's an extra customer. Because of this, Michiru stays at work and comes home late. When she arrives back home, she gets a slap from Sousuke who asks her why she didn't come home earlier. When her cell phone suddenly rings, Sousuke snaps it and orders Michiru to tell Ruka that she can't come to their party. Ruka is in shock after the call has ended and decides to retire to her room, looking at a motorcross ticket she was about to give to Michiru. She asks Michiru, or rather, herself, why she feels so lonely. She doesn't want this kind of feeling, this torment and pain in her heart. It'd be good if these feelings can be wiped away by wind and disappears for good. The next day at work, Michiru hears people talking about a cool-looking customer who turns out to be none other than Takeru. Michiru's co-worker asks her boss if she can serve Takeru but much to her disappointment, Takeru tells her that he wants Michiru to style his hair.

The co-worker is angry at Michiru and tries to step on her foot as usual but Michiru finally learns how to defend herself and moves her foot away. While Michiru cuts his hair, Takeru uses the opportunity to tell her that this Sunday, Ruka has a Kantou Motorcross Championship and she wants Michiru to see it. Michiru, however, gives Takeru a good luck charm, asking him to pass it to Ruka because she probably won't be able to make it to the race. As soon as she did this, Michiru realizes that Sousuke has been watching her interaction with Takeru. When Takeru looks at Sousuke, however, he pretends to be a good boyfriend and waves at Michiru. Takeru thinks that Michiru's boyfriend is nice since he's waiting for her. When Takeru leaves the store, however, he realizes that Sousuke's attitude has changed. That night after work, Michiru tells Sousuke that he doesn't need to wait because she often doesn't know when she'll finish work but he claims that he doesn't mind. Despite this, he starts questioning her about Takeru so Michiru assures him that he's just Ruka's friend.

All of a sudden, Sousuke asks her to cut his hair when they get home. When she's about to do it, however, she tense up. All of a sudden, Sousuke grabs her hand and and points the scissors towards his ear. Michiru freaks out to see this and promises him that she won't cut another male client's hair. The next day, Takeru meets up with Ruka so he passes on the charm. He also tells her that he met Michiru's boyfriend who looks kind but....Takeru, however, can't finish his sentence so he just tells Ruka that he looks kind. Ruka is glad to hear this since Michiru didn't have a good childhood. Ruka then asks Takeru if he still wants to move to the share house. Before, she thought having a guy living in the house will be bothersome but Eri already asked a guy to live in there as well. Upon hearing this Takeru reflects how just hearing her asking him to live at her house made him happy. Fast forward to the racing day, Ruka is surprised when Michiru shows up. Unfortunately for Ruka her bike goes sideways during her last lap. As a result, she gets knocked out and passed out on the field.

In the aftermath, Ruka finds herself in the hospital while Michiru and Takeru watching over her. She lost the game but at least she doesn't suffer from any serious injury. Their conversation comes to an end when Sousuke arrives in the room. Sousuke ignores Takeru's attempt to introduce himself and asks Michiru to introduce him to Ruka. Despite Sousuke's seemingly casual conversation with Ruka, both Takeru and Michiru know better and they can't help but looking at each other in horror. Later on that night, Ruka has a fun time eating snacks with her father, brother, and Takeru. She, however, has to go to toilet so she uses a crutch and walks out of the room. Outside, she hears Sousuke asking Michiru why she didn't keep her promise and Michiru apologizing profusely. Ruka is shocked when she sees Michiru being pushed down by Sousuke. When Sousuke grabs one of the chairs and about to hit Michiru with it, Ruka runs towards Michiru and asks Sousuke not to touch her Michiru. Sousuke's face becomes even scarier after he hears this while Michiru looks surprised.

Impression:

This turns out to be a lot more fun than I thought it'll be. What I mean by that is the show ends up being like one of those horror movies. It's kind of exciting to see how creepy Sousuke can be and much to my delight, he gets creepier and creepier with each appearance. Seriously though, I think he's a psycho through and through. Otherwise, what reason does he have for crossing Ruka's name? I mean at that point, he didn't even know that Ruka has feelings for Michiru. In other words, the guy just doesn't want Michiru to be close to anyone else but him. Most people do have this kind of jealousy when it comes to people that they love but usually, they are also sane enough not to do what Sousuke does in this episode. And wanting to cut your own ear so that your girlfriend doesn't cut the hair of a male customer is just beyond crazy. I wonder if the fact that Michiru is used to being bullied is the reason that she thinks her boyfriend's behaviour is normal? After all, if a person is being constantly abused by different people in his/her life, it's likely that the person thinks that he/she deserves it.

Having said that, it's good to see Michiru starting to take initiative so that she doesn't get abused by her co-worker. Now all she needs to do is to move out of Sousuke's house. Moving on to other characters, we start to see some story on Ruka's side. It looks like she can't be open with her sexual preference because she's afraid of disappointing her father. As for Takeru, he seems to have some kind of sex phobia. It'll be interesting to see what caused this. Maybe he was sexually abused in the past? He clearly likes Ruka but unfortunately Ruka likes Michiru and Michiru is with Mr.Creep. It's a good thing that Eri and Tomohiko provide a less depressing storyline in this episode. Although Tomohiko's story is also kind of sad. His wife has an affair and he doesn't even have the courage to confront her? Eri herself doesn't seem to have any kind of solid story at the moment. Judging from the OP, she seems to be someone who's afraid of being left on her own.

At any rate, kudos to all of the actors because they really show some remarkable acting skills here. Ueno Juri surprises me because she uses a soft, even voice while narrating the story. Nishikidou Ryou creeps me out everytime he's on screen. I wonder what his fans think of him now with this role. Eita is pretty okay in his good friend role and he does have a good friend chemistry with both Ueno Juri and Mizukawa Asami. Speaking of Mizukawa Asami, it's unfortunate that she doesn't seem to have a more defined role here but maybe that will change in the future. At any rate, the story moves on at a brisk pace, which pleases me. I am glad that the characters have met each other now. I didn't even expect to see direct confrotation between Ruka and Sousuke in this episode but the writers didn't waste their time.

Preview

On next week's episode: Sousuke believes Ruka is not a woman.

© memento 2003