Due to the delayed telecast of Part 4, FujiTV came up with a 4-part SP focusing on Kojima Kaede and some of the characters from the past 3 installments. The timeframe was set to be exactly one year ago before Part 4 starts. Frankly speaking, I can understand why they chose Yashima Norito (Tsuji) and Sudo Risa (Sakurai Yuki) to appear in the SPs but Miyasago Hiroyuki (Baba-sensei) and Inoue Mao (Kokubo Sae) seemed rather out of place. Especially for Miyasago, his role had absolutely no interaction with Matsushima since she was missing from the Part 2 lineup. It just felt awkward for them to be thinking back to the days with Shindo when Kojima was absent. Maybe that's why they arranged for Yamashiro (Kimura Tae) to be around so that she could be that missing link between Baba and Kojima. Likewise for Inoue's role, she wasn't that significant in Part 3 (in fact, I didn't even remember her from then.) and coupled with the fact that Inoue only became a household name after Hana Yori Dango, it was a challenge trying to recall how important she was to Part 3. On the other hand, Tsuji and Yuki-chan were closely related to Kojima who was the focus of these SPs. Tsuji worked with Kojima when she was an intern while Yuki was a close friend to Kojima. As such, it felt especially nostalgic to see the two of them meeting Kojima, no doubt the reunion was a very short one.Given that the fact that these SPs were merely fillers for the void left by the delayed OA, the bulk of the footage was taken from Part 1 to 3. I guess this was a cost-saving way to come up with the SP because it would be too time-consuming and expensive for the cast of Part 4 i.e. Matsushima Nanako and Kimura Tae to shoot the SP alongside with the filming of Part 4. They only needed to do a few scenes at the beginning and end of the SP. This resulted in a problem for the viewers. Those who have watched the past installments will probably have two types of reactions. Either we get bored at the huge volume of past footage or we get nostalgic as we run through the past events again. I admit that I was quite disappointed to see that there were so little scenes about the reunions of these characters but it was still enjoyable in a sense to see the past installments. It also gave me a refresher course on the huge number of actors and actresses who made up this successful series. To think I even forgot that some of them appeared in the previous parts! For example, I remember that Matsushima was missing from Part 2 because she was in the midst of her pregnancy or was still on maternity break but I just couldn't recall who appeared in Part 2 to be the female lead. After watching the SP, it finally struck me that Matsuyuki Yasuko was in Part 2.
Well, although it was unfortunate that Kyuumei 4 will have to be shortened to just 8 episodes and began much later than expected, I think of it as a blessing in disguise. Instead of screening all three parts (over 30 episodes) to refresh the viewer's memory, FujiTV used the opportunity to show heavily-edited scenes from the past. I think this may help the viewers to get into Part 4 more easily although I would say that the link between each part isn't that significant. It was said that the SPs would contain information as to why Kojima is sued for malpractice at the beginning of Part 4 but the description is really hazy. I would say that we are none the wiser as to what happened so if you are looking specifically for this information, I guess you will be disappointed. The first episode of Part 4 explains this clearly so it is probably best to go straight to Part 4 instead of watching these SPs first.
Given that the bulk of the SPs are filler-material, I will not give my ratings on them since there's limited new and original content. Do keep a lookout for the review of Part 4 instead on this website!
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