Ep 10: Kokuhaku (Confession)
O.A. 16 June 05
Ratings: 16.6%
After being forced to give up his CEO position in Frontier, Shimao stays at home, moping through the day while waiting for time to pass. On the other hand, Takayanagi gets moral support from Kirino and goes around seeking financing and support for his new company. However, without the proven brand name, Frontier as his backing, Takayanagi discovers that he means nothing to those people and encounters lots of rejections. In addition, the enemies he had made so far take the chance to turn on him and subject him to further humiliation.
At Frontier, it is controlled by the puppet CEO, Tachibana who listens to what Sakuraba from Lloyd Brothers. As they force their way of doing things on the staff, Kamiya, Miyasawa, Kaori and Fujii lament that things were better when Takayanagi and Shimao were the CEO since they let their staff have independence in their work.
Mariko and Ryuta try to cheer Shimao up but he keeps wallowing in despair over the loss of Frontier to Sakuraba. Kaori comes to look for Shimao but he tells her not to come and look for him again. Shimao feels that everyone is pitying and mocking him for what has happened and continues to keep to himself. On the other hand, Takayanagi continues to be rejected by his prospective business partners and Kirino mentions Shimao to him.
Takayanagi comes to Shimao and says that if not for Shimao, he might not have undergone a change. However, Shimao does not appreciate his words and uses Takayanagi's past argument that money can buy anything to rebuke him. Takayangai does not get angry and simply says that he realises that money cannot buy everything. He also apologises to Shimao for causing unhappiness as a result of his visit.
Kaori comes to Shimao's home but he does not meet her. Kaori passes the metal robot to Mariko who had come home and leaves hurriedly. Shimao tells Mariko that he plans to operate the family nail and screw family business but she objects to it since Shimao is not really interested in this and just wants a place to escape to.
Kamiya quits from Frontier when Sakuraba and Tachibana tell him to follow orders just to do favours to some politicians instead of having the company's interests at heart.
Shimao goes out drinking with Ryuta who tells him that Mariko only wants Shimao to be happy when she objected to operating the family business again. Kirino also comes to Shimao and persuades him to help Takayanagi build a new business which Shimao agrees to after seeing how Takayanagi has swallowed his pride just to get help.
Shimao returns home and tells Mariko that he will join Takayanagi in setting up the new company. At the same time, Shimao sees the robot which Kaori brought for him and runs to apologise to her as well as confess his feelings for her...
Shimao and Takayanagi go to Roppongi Hills where Frontier is located in. They vow to regain what they've lost when Kamiya joins them and reveals that he has left Frontier.
The group sets up the new company in Shimao's place where the factory used to be. Kaori also quits from Frontier and joins Shimao and Takayanagi's new company...
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Again, the pace of this episode is so fast. I like it this way rather than dragging your feet over unnecessary things.
At the beginning, we see the contrasting behaviour between Takayangi and Shimao when it comes to handling failure. Actually, both of them have moral support in the form of Kirino and Kaori. However, Takayanagi welcomes his support with open arms while Shimao thinks that Kaori is just mocking him and turns her away. I really had the urge to thrash Shimao for behaving like a real make-inu (defeated dog i.e. people who wallow in despair after failure) and yet had the cheek to accuse Takayanagi of being one. There's nothing wrong with failure. Just look at Takayanagi. He's older than Shimao and yet has to start from scratch again. He also has to contend with criticism and sarcasm from the people he had treated badly in the past. Now who is having a more difficult time?
Luckily, this make-inu behaviour didn't carry on for long or else this episode would be so boring. When Takayanagi, Shimao and Kamiya stood at Roppongi Hills and looked up at the building, it was so cool! Next week would be the final episode and from the trailer, someone is getting married! They didn't show Shimao and Kaori in the audience so could it be them? It's definitely not Takayanagi and Kirino since they were in the audience.
Actually, I found that Kusanagi has done OK in this drama but what I don't like is the fact that he's so skinny and doesn't have the commanding presence when he was the CEO. I know this is something which cannot be changed but when he stands beside Matsushita Nao, the difference in their heights made the combination seem lop-sided and unnatural. I had never associated Kusanagi as being vertically challenged until I saw this drama. Does this combination look more awkward than the Kimura Takuya-Koyuki combination in Engine? I guess it's up to your own opinion...
My attention is on Tsutsumi Shinichi throughout the drama. He has performed so well that I think he deserves an award at the end of the season! Frankly speaking, he's the brightest spot in the cast and has a very good role as a CEO who was successful and arrogant to being reduced to nothing and starting from scratch. Seeing him looking so sad when he was being ridiculed by his past enemies made me feel for him.
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