Ep 9: Ai wo yamenaide (Don't stop love)
O.A. 9 Jun 05
Ratings: 16.5%
Shimao becomes the CEO of Frontier with the help of Sakuraba from Lloyd Brothers. Sakuraba brings in a group of people to be the executives in the management board which Kamiya expresses concern over but Shimao refuses to heed his advice and thinks that Sakuraba is on his side.
Shimao meets Taneda, the director of one of Frontier's subsidiaries and commands him to improve his sales figures within one month. This is similar to what Takayanagi used to do but Shimao tells Sakuraba that he has his way of doing things and tells him to back off when Sakuraba tells him to sack that director immediately.
Mariko and Ryuta are having dinner at home and Shimao does not return home again. Due to his busy schedule, Shimao has not returned home for some time and is staying at a hotel near to Frontier. At the same time, Sakuraba brings Shimao to his new home and deliberately got this apartment because it is at a higher level than Takayanagi's.
A few days later, Shimao receives news from Kaori that Taneda had passed away suddenly. However, he is not interested in this and wants Kaori to get Kamiya to attend Taneda's funeral. Kamiya goes to visit Takanayagi and informs Kirino about the current situation in Frontier. Hearing this, Kirino decides to bring Takayanagi somewhere as he has been in a daze since he was hospitalised.
Shimao returns home after a long absence and tells Mariko to move in with him to the luxurious apartment in Roppongi. However, Mariko objects to it. Ryuta also asks why Shimao wants to move out of his family house since he accepted the post of management executive in the past just to protect the house. Shimao gets angry and insists that he will move out of the family home alone if Mariko wishes to stay put.
Kirino brings Takayanagi to the art gallery where they first met. At that time, Takayanagi was a very pratical guy but a painting there made him see the value of art from another perspective. That was also when they started seeing each other. However, after that visit, Takayanagi goes out alone thus leaving Kirino in a panic...
Shimao and Sakuraba go for a business lunch with a politician who asks for money so as to work together with Shimao. However, Shimao refuses to accept the deal and criticises the politician for trying to make use of his squeaky-clean public image. He also scolds Sakuraba for taking things into his hands which incurs the latter's wrath and he instructs the VP, Tachibana who is working for him to contact the other management executives.
Takayanagi returns to the hospital where Kirino is waiting for him anxiously. He had went to pay respects to his late father and wants Kirino to go to Frontier with him. Takayanagi meets Shimao and tells him to beware of Sakuraba but Shimao does not heed his advice and says that he should be wary of Takayanagi instead.
At the management meeting, Sakuraba rounds up the management executives whom he brought into Frontier and forces Shimao to relinquish his position as the CEO. Kamiya is helpless since the number of executives on Sakuraba's side forms the majority and Shimao has to leave the company crestfallen.
Mariko and Ryuta hear the news and tries to look for Shimao. After wandering around for some time, Shimao finally returns to his family home where he is welcomed by Mariko and Ryuta. Kaori also comes to look for Shimao who is so touched by Mariko and Ryuta's concern for him and starts to cry...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This episode is so fast-paced...everything happens in a flash. One moment, we have Shimao being at the top and the next, he's reduced to square one again. He was simply obnoxious at the beginning of this episode but when you saw how defeated he looked at the end, you can't help but sympathise with him.
If he didn't accept Takayanagi's offer to be a management executive in the first place, things would not have come to such a stage...On the other hand, if he had left Frontier then, he would not have managed to protect his family house. There are a lot of "what ifs" to ponder over...
In the next episode, both Takayanagi and Shimao are back to square one. The difference is that Takayanagi refuses to give up and he has the support of Kirino. However, Shimao chooses to avoid making mistakes again even though Kaori seems to be willing to help him...
There's only 2 episodes or so for this drama...I wonder how they will wrap this up. Surely these two guys can't make it big again in just 2 episodes?
No comments:
Post a Comment