The first episode of the drama series "Good Things and Bad Things" (NTV, Saturdays at 9 PM), starring actors Mamiya Shotaro and Araki Yuko, aired on October 11th. The episode depicted the suspicious death of a classmate of Takagi (Mamiya), a leader in the class, and caused a stir on social media, with many people speculating about the culprit.
◇The following contains spoilers.
The first episode tells the story of Takagi, a 34-year-old man who runs a small painting company in the suburbs of Tokyo. In elementary school, he was known as the "King" of his class and was the leader of his class. However, he has now mellowed out and is a father who takes over the family business in his hometown and supports his wife Kana (Tokunaga Eri), who is two years older than him, and their fourth-grade daughter Kanon (Miyazaki Ririsa). Takagi has long since forgotten about the time capsule he buried in the schoolyard 22 years ago...
The former members of Class 6-1 gather at their alma mater for the first time in 22 years to dig up the promised time capsule. They include Takeda (Mizukawa Katamari), nicknamed "Bin-chan" and Takagi's close friend, Yuki (Ayame Goriki), who is now a full-time housewife, Toyokawa (Inaba Yu), who has become a hairdresser, Sakurai (Kudo Asuka), who runs an izakaya (Japanese pub), and Saki (Fujima Sawako), who was the class representative.
Their homeroom teacher, Ms. Otani (Akama Mariko), is now the principal. And when Sonoko (Araki) becomes a beautiful reporter who is active on TV and in magazines, Takeda and Sakurai are excited and ask, "Do you remember me?!"
The time capsule they unearthed contained a drawing of "everyone's dream" drawn 22 years ago. Sakurai drew a "firefighter" and Takeda drew "flying in the sky." Each of them looked at their own drawing and reminisced. When asked, "What did you draw, Takagi-kun?", Takagi hurriedly hid the drawing.
Furthermore, inside the time capsule, they find a yearbook, but who put it there? Takagi and the others are stunned when they see the page for Class 6-1. The faces of six students, including Takagi, have been cruelly blacked out. "Why these six?" they all wonder, but Takagi is the only one who has a hunch that the six students have something in common. They all had bullied Sonoko in the past. Then, at night, Takeda is suddenly attacked by someone, falls from an upper floor of an apartment building, and loses his life... and so the story unfolds.
Later, Takagi, suspecting that Sonoko was the one who attacked Takeda, calls Sonoko. As Takagi and Sonoko are talking, Sakurai's store catches fire in front of them and Sakurai is taken to the hospital. Since the attack was based on a painting that Takeda and Sakurai had drawn 22 years ago, Sonoko suspects that the series of incidents was a planned murder. She tells Takagi that she will never forgive Takagi and his gang for bullying her, or the perpetrators of crimes that are taking advantage of bullying, and proposes that they join forces.
On social media, many people speculated as to who the culprit was who attacked Takeda and Sakurai, with comments such as, "Is it someone who knows the contents of the picture?", "Was bullying the motive really?", "The culprit knows everyone's dreams, right? Is it the homeroom teacher or the class president?", "The class president is really suspicious. It's also strange that she came to see King's picture", "The class president is the most likely culprit, but it's not that simple", "If the culprit is a teacher, it's possible that he has seen and remembered pictures of all six people he hates", and "Is it actually a firefighter who did the culprit? Bin-chan sent one too. Was the fire staged?"
