Asian Addicts Anonymous

We have visited more in depth of most of the members so far save for our loveable over the top Cap and Yuki. We don’t delve too much into their characters or stories today, but the ending of this episode does leave room for Yuki’s story. Also, Yurine’s expression as she leaves…I wonder if we will get any of his story and just why he’s fighting so hard to save the ST and puts all his faith and trust in them. Matsuda is definitely fishing for something in what she asks him, but what exactly is it?

This episode swings the focus back to Samon just like the last episode brought more of Aoyama’s personal life and attitude into focus. This time we learn just what it was that caused Akagi Samon’s phobia that made him a shut in for several years doing cases by remote. I had thought that this was technically covered in the SP in which Akagi felt guilty over the suicide of the daughter of a couple who had committed suicide together, but I guess they are showing that was the trigger that finally sent him scurrying away from society while the buildup started when he was a resident doctor at Seiwa Hospital.

So here’s what’s going on in this episode. The police are sent a video of a young woman being held against her will while the kidnapper demands that the wrongful death of a man name Muto be exposed. The police are a bit stumped but Akagi is quick to assess that the woman in the video is not a nurse or a normal worker in the medical field, but a doctor because of what is written on her hands. He also quickly deduces that the hospital where she worked must have been sued over this death. Since it takes a long time for medical court battles, the case would have to be at least a year old and the outcome is obviously that the case was lost.

So the police team starts investigating and they learn the doctor, Koyama, is a resident at Seiwa hospital. Akagi immediately excuses himself to go home while everyone is discussing the case and possibilities and it dawns on our Cap that Seiwa was were Akagi interned at. He tries to get Akagi to stay and help, but Akagi just runs away. The rest of ST want to go home, too, but Yurine is firm. They only have 48 hours to save the woman’s life so his team needs to get cracking now that they have more information.

Tsutsui and Yurine go to visit the doctor in charge of Muto’s case—an internist named Hirato. Yurine pretends to be ill since the hospital refuses to talk to anyone or help with the case. He then reveals he’s a policeman and Hirato reveals what he knows about the case before the head of medicine Ogoshi comes in and cuts the conversation short and refuses to help. Yurine and Tsutsui go to leave when Akagi is spotted trying to investigate, but having no luck in confronting nurses. Enter Hirato and Ogoshi. Hirato seems surprised and pleased to see Akagi—they were residents at the same time. Ogoshi then has to make a play about Akagi’s big disgrace and how he told the man to stay, but he left and now he’s working for the police. How about that? Ogoshi goes to walk away followed by Hirato. Akagi has kept his back to the men this entire time, but he quietly asks if the medical records were falsified after the fact to show the patient had the rare disease SJS (makes a person deathly ill to certain medicines) to prove that the patient and his wife knew about the condition beforehand and did nothing. The doctor does not find this amusing at all.

Akagi runs away once more and Yurine follows him to Saegusa’s bar where he berates Akagi who is back in his costume from the SP. Yurine is right to scold him for acting like he is. You get that the hospital is the root of most of his phobias and problems with dealing with people on a whole (Ogoshi had the entire staff bully poor Akagi), but Akagi is not the same person he was in his past and his existence is proven important by all that mysteries and cases he solves. Yurine storms off and Akagi gripes about him being rude. Saegusa replies that no matter what Yurine says, he cares deeply about Akagi and won’t leave him alone. Yurine is also deeply connected to the ST team and is a rare man himself. Food for thought for Akagi.

Yurine then storms into HQ and completely ignores Takahashi who is once again warning that Matsuda wanting to dissolve ST has to do with Yuki and that Yurine should be on his toes with our woman with super hearing. Yurine starts fuming aloud wondering why Akagi can’t trust him and allow him to help him and all that jazz. He’s their captain, he cares for all of them, he then makes sure to single Yuki out who was working on a strange noise she overheard in the video of the victim and kidnapper. The woman seems to get a bit choked up and leaves the office to go home, worrying Yurine.

Our Cap plasters himself against the window of Akagi’s office where he sees boxes moving on their own. I thought it was Akagi sneaking in, but nope. Akagi calls Aoyama over who is excited thinking it is a poltergeist. Nope, no poltergeist. It’s just the wife of Muto. Apparently the strange man who she took off with earlier that day was none other than Akagi! Thus Kikukawa and his team are called in and they begin questioning the woman. Apparently Akagi told her her life was in danger and hid her in his office. Akagi arrives and stays outside the office and texts furiously for Yurine to be harsher with the victim and get straight to the point about whether or not she’s involved with the kidnapping since Koyama was one of the doctors who did oversea her husband.

Unfortunately they get no information out of Mrs. Muto. Kikukawa has a man follow her and Hirato makes an appearance to apologize for not being able to help Akagi now or in the past when he was shunned for no reason. Okay, it wasn’t for no reason. Ogoshi made a mistake and tried to pin it on a nurse. Akagi being Akagi couldn’t accept that and spoke out against this and thus Ogoshi pinned the mistake on Akagi and then had the whole hospital bully him—from the nurse he saved to fellow resident (and possibly friend) Hirato. The internist then begs Akagi to save the hostage. He won’t give out any more information than that. He then leaves and texts someone saying he’s gone to the police and that it’s all over now. We do see Mrs. Muto stop and check her phone. Nothing like having red herrings and trust me, this really is a red herring to shock you with the truth. Granted, I was not really shocked on a whole about part of that truth.

All hell breaks look the next day. Akagi and Yurine go to talk to the nurse Akagi saved and it turns out that yes, she did take part of the bullying, but at the same time, the whole nursing staff fought over the adorable and attractive Akagi. LOL. Anywho, the nurse wasn’t on that case so she can’t help as she has no information. After that Yurine and Akagi learn that the kidnapper uploaded a public video narrowing the time frame from the original 48 hours to 5, thus the team lost a whopping 20 hours.

But this time shift plays a great role in solving the case. Ogoshi is getting ready to head off to Washington to teach at a prestigious school. His departure was bumped up so he could escape what is currently happening. With this news, the kidnapper then changes the demand to have Ogoshi personally admit all of his crimes. Akagi notices something is different in the videos, but he doesn’t explain what. He brings four different views up on screen and tells the rest of the team to go investigate that stuff while he and Yurine rush off to do their own leg work. Speaking of, the nurse called and reported that Koyama was seen with Mrs. Muto before she sued the hospital—odd, huh?

After those left behind look at the shots Akagi brought up, they are stumped. All except Kurosaki. He whispers something to Yamabuki who tells the younger man to spit out the words himself. Kurosaki hesitates and eventually spits out that the ropes, gag, handcuffs, etc, on screen all come from a sex shop. This has everyone nodding their heads saying he’s got knowledge. LOL. I think he was trying to avoid that. So Tsutsui and Kikukawa go to a sex shop in the area that Yuki’s super hearing has narrowed down and they catch the alleged kidnapper! Turns out it’s a man who does illegal underground sex videos. Not likely to actually kidnap our victim and threaten to kill her to expose Ogoshi’s corruption, huh?

Everyone converges on the warehouse where Ogoshi is waylaid from his escape. Koyama begs them not to come in as she has a bomb strapped to her chest. Akagi doesn’t listen and even brings the press with him. He has Yurine bring Ogoshi in and Koyama gives the kidnappers demands for Ogoshi to admit the whole sordid mess. The truth is that Koyama was the one who did all the work on Muto since the doctor who was supposed to be overseeing her and working on the cases, Hirato, was too busy writing a paper for Ogoshi (to be published under the man’s name and not his own). After Muto died, Ogoshi ordered the coverup and Hirato falsified the medical reports to clearly state that the patient had SJS and was warned about it. Ogoshi never actually fesses up to his own crimes, but Hirato does actually appear and corroborate all evidence. It’s also revealed that everything was masterminded by Koyama. She was the one who told Mrs. Muto a year ago to sue the hospital and she faked her own kidnapping to expose the corruption at Seiwa. Like Hirato has promised to pay for his crimes, so, too, will she.

That last comment really catches Akagi’s attention. He then asks Koyama if she knew that Muto had SJS and kept it out of her report and treated the man with medicine that could potentially kill him. Koyama confesses she did just that. The hospital was not working like it was supposed to. She was bullied, ignored, and as an inexperienced doctor, the higher ups and advisors should be checking over her work. So that was her test. She misdiagnosed the patient and no one caught that and he died. Mrs. Muto launches herself at the woman, but Yurine holds her back. Akagi says that the girl wasn’t wrong in wanting to expose the corruption, but she is a doctor first and foremost—how could she kill someone to prove a point? She’s just a murderer.

So that ends that case. Takahashi bawls Yurine out for having reporters film all of that (Which was technically all Akagi’s doing) and Matsuda complains that she did not like being scolded for the actions of the ST. She then asks if Yurine is really capable of leading the team and utilizing their abilities. He’s silent for a long time before he answers that he is the one who understands his team the best. He then goes back to the office where he finds Yuki packing. He tells her not to clean too much or Aoyama will freak out. Yuki then drops the bomb that she’s leaving. Yurine demands to know why and she says she has no obligation to tell him. As her captain, yes, she does. She calls him disgusting and leaves and it looks like he’s been sucker punched. It’s a hit below the belt after how he went to bat for her and the entire team.

Saegusa and Akagi have a heart to heart about the recent case and how Akagi could understand the young woman’s desperate plea for justice even if she went about it the wrong way. Akagi then wonders why Saegusa stopped being an officer. Looks like Saegusa mists up a bit and we don’t get his answer.

Crazy ending. I’m sure we’ll get Yuki’s side of things this week. Or Cap’s. I’d like to learn a bit more about Yurine. Okada is a good actor and has some great depth, but when he goes totally crazy and over the top with Yurine…I don’t like it. But other than that, he does a good job as does most of the main cast as well.