The 15th episode of the popular detective drama "Aibou Season 23" (TV Asahi, Wednesdays at 9pm) titled "Casting" was broadcast on February 12th. The series of unexpected developments left viewers in awe.
◇The following contains spoilers.
This time, actor Shiro Sano will be making a guest appearance. This will be his first appearance as a guest on "Aibō" in about 18 years, since he played a suspicious wine critic in the 9th episode of "Season 5," "Murderous Wine Cellar" (broadcast on December 6, 2006).
Sano plays Okuda, a family member of a victim of an unsolved murder of a mother and child that occurred 15 years ago. At the beginning of the story, Ukyo (Mizutani Yutaka) visits a mountain lodge and engages in a battle of wits with Okuda while playing chess to uncover the truth behind the incident. At one point, Ukyo is stabbed by Okuda and collapses bleeding, and Kaoru (Terawaki Yasufumi), who was acting separately at Ukyo's instructions, also falls into Okuda's trap and collapses.
This turn of events has resulted in a flood of shocked comments on social media, such as, "What the heck?", "Wait, how much of this is true...?", "What does this mean?! Today's Aibou is different from usual!", "Is this a bad ending route for Ukyo?!" and "AIBOU - the end."
However, it later becomes clear that this was all just Okuda's imagination. The chess game at the mountain lodge was also something that happened in Okuda's head. And Okuda was not the culprit. The shock and sense of responsibility felt after his wife and child were murdered had led him to believe that "it's practically the murderer. I am the culprit."
The real culprit had already been caught by the First Investigation Division, and Okuda was called in for a "face-to-face" check, but due to his mental instability, the Special Missions Unit was providing him with counseling. Ukyo gently told him, "I haven't done anything wrong... and yet one day, all of a sudden, a complete stranger takes everything from me because of their malice. There's nothing more absurd than that. I think it's a hard reality to accept. With that in mind... and with that in mind, could you please cooperate with the investigation once more?" Okuda then returned to reality and cooperated in arresting the murderer who had murdered his wife and child.
Viewers were quick to respond to this turn of events with comments such as, "This episode was just about the Special Missions Unit playing chess this whole time...?!", "I thought Kameyama's death route was just Ukyo's imagination, but it was actually Okuda's delusion", "Today's episode was incredible, it really felt like a mystery", "So he'd been living in his imagination this whole time... it's too painful", "The family he lost was so precious to him that he couldn't bear it...", "It was almost a two-person play between Mizutani Yutaka and Sano Shiro, and I feel like if it wasn't just the two of them it wouldn't have been so emotionally moving", "The script and direction, and Sano Shiro's acting are incredible", and "It's sad, but I definitely think this episode is a masterpiece."
