Review of Umizaru Ep 4

Ep 4: Umi ni Kieta Omoi wo Sagase! (Search for the missing memories in the sea)
O.A. 26 July 05
Ratings: 13.7%

The Nagare diving crew is searching for a missing captain, Tokunaga Sakae whose ship sank during the typhoon. However, after a few days of searching, they are unable to find his body and the search operation is thus called off.

Senzaki gets a day off and goes to look for Kanna who is unhappy with him standing her up on a number of dates due to work. He brings Kanna to a restaurant for dinner and is trying to humour her. Senzaki tells Kanna that his birthday is coming and asks for a birthday present from her when he notices someone staring at him furiously. It turns out that the son of Tokunaga, Masaya is working in the restaurant and is angry at Senzaki who is enjoying himself. Senzaki returns to Nagare and tells his colleagues about it. They tell him to forget about this matter so as to prevent this from affecting his mood.

A few days later, Tokunaga's body is found some distance away from the sunk ship due to underwater currents. However, his son Masaya wants the coast guards to search for something for which the request is rejected.

Senzaki is curious about what Masaya wants to find and sees him diving near the location of the sunk ship. He pays a visit to Tokunaga's place and Masaya's mother reveals that her son is looking for a watch which used to belong to his father and that he had planned to give the watch to Masaya.

Senzaki returns to Nagare and tells Shimokawa and Ikezawa about this but they tell Senzaki to keep out of this matter as they should not associate too much with the family members of the victim.

Senzaki goes to look for Masaya and tells him about the danger of diving non-stop to look for that watch. However, Masaya ignores him despite his mother also calling him to stop. On his off day, Senzaki comes to help Masaya look for the watch at the expense of cancelling his date with Kanna who gets angry at him again. However, he has no luck in finding that watch.

Senzaki is told off by Shimokawa that he should be stopping Masaya from diving instead of searching with him. Senzaki says that he is feeling uneasy because Masaya saw his happy look when he was with Kanna even though he had just finished the searching operation earlier on.

Kanna finds out about what happened from Yoshioka and feels embarrassed at getting angry without knowing the truth. She tries to cheer up Senzaki by sending a message to him for their next date.

Senzaki goes to look for Masaya again to stop him when the latter faints and falls into the sea. Senzaki manages to save Masaya from drowning but he does not want to stop searching and says that Senzaki has no right to stop him.

Senzaki calls Kanna to cancel their date on his birthday as there is training on that day. Shimokawa had suggested to Katsuta to search for the watch as their training programme which he agreed to. However, the crew cannot find the watch after a whole day at sea while Masaya and his mother look on from the beach.

Senzaki apologises to Masaya for being unable to find the watch which Masaya has come to terms with after seeing how hard he tried to find it. He asks for something from Senzaki as remembrance so he gives Masaya his old diver's watch.

Senzaki finally manages to meet Kanna who passes him the birthday present. He is very touched when he sees that Kanna has bought him a diver's watch...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is kind of boring. There's not much action since they were only searching for a watch and it seems quite unrealistic to change the training plan and use a ship to find a watch. It felt kind of cliche to see this and this is the first time when I actually felt bored watching this drama so far.

The only development would probably be Kanna and Senzaki's relationship. Well, he has already warned her beforehand that he's going to stand her up and break promises often due to work. However, when it comes to experiencing it, Kanna gets angry everytime Senzaki calls up to cancel their date and yet doesn't know how to handle such frustration. She knows that it can't be helped but that doesn't reduce the unhappiness. At least we see that she's willing to compromise a little and think more for Senzaki but who knows how long her patience will run?

The next episode seems to be more interesting as Ikezawa prepares to quit due to his eyesight problem so that's probably going to cause more uneasiness in Senzaki now that his buddy is leaving.