I'm kinda glad that Japanese TV is in HD format these days so it's pretty pleasant for the eyes when watching the dramas. Anime quality is still wanting in that though.
Anyway I've been watching this episodic series called RESET, which is derived from a horror manga. It's not exactly scary but it explores more of alternate world and life-concerning decisions.
I'll just post an example of episode 4 today.
The story starts with Nodoka, some working woman whom her boyfriend breaks up with her because many 'weird things' have been happening between the two of them. (a lame excuse to break up)
Nodoka is walking home drunk when she breaks one of her high heels and falls. Since she just broke up and is pissed at her ex, she throws the broken stiletto at some man in front who happens to see her. And his name is Totani.
And blah blah, from the scene you can tell they are gonna become a couple.
The scene cuts to Nodoka in hospital, about a month later from the time she met Totani. She's now with her childhood friend, Ryuu. Apparently she can't remember a single thing for the past month i.e. she doesn't recall anything about being in a relationship with Totani.
Ryuu tells her that Totani and her were in an accident and she survived miraculously. But it was unfortunate that Totani passed away instead.
He tells her it was better for her to forget Totani to lessen her pain instead of trying to regain her lost memory of him.
The RESET man arrives in grand style. He tells her that he's totally alright although she insists that he should take a seat judging from his bandages and crutches.
The RESET man tells her that if she wants to regain her memory, she should press the YES buttom to reset her life. The option menu strangely appears on her handphone screen.
Nodoka 'resets' and she managed to get along with Totani again. She's with Ryuu where Totani comes to see her. Ryuu is her childhood friend as mentioned before and also her senior at university then.
During one of their outings, Totani brings a large variety of drinks and Nodoka likes the coffee can the most. And so he tries to take a photo of her posing with the can. That is until she hits someone by mistake while moving backwards.
The man isn't happy with Nodoka, telling her that she can't just solve this matter by just apologising. Totani gets into a fight with the man and wins apparently. He escapes though.
Nodoka realises that this could be the trigger to the accident later on.
A few days later, Ryuu tells Nodoka that he had seen Totani collaborating with the man to make up the fight scene to impress her. He tells her that she should avoid being with Totani.
Nodoka didn't call Totani for a day until he sends her voice mail at night. He suggests going out for a spin in his car the next day. Nodoka realises that that day he suggested was the day of the accident he was going to die in. She calls him immediately and begs him not to go for it. Instead she suggests that he comes over to her apartment instead.
The next day Totani didn't come but the police came instead. They were investigating a report that Totani had murdered the man he had supposedly bribed. Nodoka is perplexed and doesn't really know what exactly is going on.
Totani calls her as soon as the police leaves. He tells her to meet at the place where they frequently meet. She interrogates him causing him to turn hysterical. He tells her that she did not commit homicide in the first place and was framed. As he pushes onto the car, the boot's button is pressed by accident.
In the boot, Nodoka sees the corpse of Ryuu in it. She becomes clear of what has happened. The police jumps in time to arrest Totani.
Nodoka regrets sacrificing Ryuu's life for Totani's sake. The RESET man arrives in a stereotypical kimono worn by ghosts and tells her that she must make a choice. She has to either not reset and stay in a world where Ryuu is dead or reset where Totani must be sacrificed.
The RESET man places a coin in a water tube. Before the coin reaches the bottom of this water tube, she must choose to reset or not. Nevertheless, as most people can predict, she chooses to reset back to sacrificing Totani.
Nodoka returns to back where she was. She's glad to see Ryuu alive and sound again. He tells her that he'll come to see her again and gives her her favourite can of coffee.
As soon as he's gone, it's pretty fishy how Ryuu managed to know her favourite can of coffee since she only told Totani about it. Nodoka decides to investigate.
At the carpark, she gets the security guard to replay the video. Her guess is right. Ryuu has indeed being stalking her and Totani all along. And he has even gone to the extent of disabling the car brakes which caused the accident.
She is convinced when Ryuu breaks into the office. He tells that he has no choice but to strangle her.
Alongside stabbing the security guard with a knife. And that's the end of the episode.
Anyway, what this episode tries to tell is that there isn't a 100% guarantee that everyone will be safe and sound if a decision is made. If Nodoka wants to save Totani, Ryuu will die. If she chooses Ryuu, Totani dies and she will die as well. And choosing back a situation may result in one's bad end.
So far I'm impressed with this episode in managing to surprise me (though I did suspect that there must be something wrong with Ryuu but he really acted as though he had no designs on Nodoka at all...in fact, it was more plausible for Totani to instigate someone to make up a fight scene with him). The previous episodes were pretty normal enough for me to remain comment-less about them.
And in the resetted scenario, Ryuu was probably caught by Totani (in trying to disable the brakes) and killed by mistake. The bribing was perhaps only Ryuu lying and just to break up Nodoka and Totani.
Interesting choices.
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