Piece Ep. 8 first impressions

Ended up doing this much later than planned, sorry about that.

Things are reaching the point where even though I can follow the main points of the episodes I know I am missing some key things as well that is in the dialogue. Hopefully the subs will be able to catch up soon, though I am happy to see they have completed episode 5 now, which should be a big help in figuring out Yanai's character more at least.

So Mizuho follows Narumi into the house and notices that everything looks exactly how it did three years ago. She shows him the painting and the initials, pointing out that they are the same as his. He laughs it off commenting that there are a lot of people with those initials.

With that past he leads her into his living room which is a pigsty, like usual, and tries to get her to help clean it up with him. She does a lot of thinking about things I could not catch that ultimately end with her leaving him.

Mizuho meets with Yanai and Madoka to try to figure where to go next to find a lead since they now seem to have all dried up. In the middle of it Mizuho gets a call from Narumi who asks her to come back over. I believe he promises to help her somehow if she brings some stuff with her for him, like toilet paper.

Mizuho goes back with the stuff Narumi asked for her to bring, or at least most of it, and after some bickering seem to fall back into how they were back when they were going out. In better spirits Mizuho ends up helping Narumi clean and everything and the end up napping on the floor. I do not quite care for this turn in their relationship honestly. It would be one thing if Narumi showed any signs of having matured in any way since high school but he still comes off as the same asshole he was back then. So for now I am side-eyeing this romantic plot in the series, hard.

When she leaves the house she runs into Nanao who is pleased to see her. The two go off to talk and Mizuho learns some key details, like it was Nanao that left the room unlocked back then. Also the big piece of information that gets her a big step in the right direction to solve the mystery is the fact that Narumi has an older brother called Hiro. So of course the initials on the painting could be his as well. When Mizuho asks about going to see Hiro she is given directions to the house he lives in by Nanao.

As Mizuho travels to the house she recognizes that the route is the same that she and Narumi took that day they had their impromptu date three years ago. She wonders if Narumi was not partly wanting to go to the other house that day on that day.

Meanwhile Yanai meets with an artist, that I believe is named Matsuura and is played by Watanabe Shota of the Junior group Snow Man. Yanai looks at his sketches and finds some of Origuchi. Unfortunately I could not catch all the conversation but I believe there was a mention of Origuchi frequently using a bus stop near where he sketched people.

Yanai calls Mizuho and I believe it is to tell her that he figured things out about the painting or found a solid lead he wants her to see but Mizuho is sure that the lead she is following is important and continues on her journey. She ends up reaching the house of Narumi's brother and is shocked to see that it is identical to the house Narumi lives in.

And that is where things end for this episode. The preview shows that it looks like we are going to find out more about Origuchi and Narumi's relationship and that is about all I could glean as it seems to be making sure that nothing major is given away. With only two episodes left in the series I can understand that as we are hitting the final stretch so things should finally all start falling into place.


Not sure how much I care for the secret older brother plot here, but I guess it does work considering that Narumi does not seem like the type to talk about himself much at all to anyone. I think it is going to depend how it plays out. Though it does seem like it is going to work well as the way to bring the two main plots of the drama together for the ending.