A dynamic Japanese woman and her circle of girlfriends execute a hostile takeover of her Father's corporation by killing her twin brother and then living a dual life as both of them. The girls create the first LBGTQ owned shipping corporation in the world, but only if the girls can keep their loyalty to each other intact.
Mini-Series:
Seven episodes completed for the first season. Each episode is one hour in length.
Synopsis for each episode of Season One
The synopsis covers the first season of seven episodes of one-hour length, similar to the first season of Big Little Lies. The format lends for a season two, but I can easily add the eighth episode to wrap up the series instead. The setting of this series is Tokyo, but it is an easy re-write for me to put the show in any city in the world.
Synopsis by Episodes
Season 1, Episode 1 - Futago "Twins" The story starts when a Japanese mother says a tearful goodbye to her 5-year-old boy and girl twins; then, she proceeds to commit suicide. Thirty years later, in Tokyo, Maegami Takeda, the female twin, is a dynamic, alluring alpha-lesbian and the chief legal counsel for Takeda Shipping. She is the natural choice for the new CEO, but her twin brother, Ichiro, an inept logistics manager, is next in line only because he's male. Their ultra-conservative Father, Eizo Takeda, the present CEO, follows the antiquated Japanese business model Ie (e-yett), which has the firstborn son taking control of the family corporation. Eizo announces Ichiro's promotion to CEO, which triggers Maegami's ruthless quest to avenge a lifetime of abuse by taking over Takeda Shipping at any cost to her or anyone else.
Ichiro's promotion sparks Maegami to implement a sordid plan for a hostile company takeover. She has a takeover team nicknamed the "Girls Club," which is Maegami's circle of LGBTQ women friends, that meets for coffee and lunch breaks in Maegami's office. The leader of the group is Hana, her secretary-assistant and right-hand girl. Reiko gives on-sight executive massages, and Ami is Ichiro's secretary. Jenny is the young receptionist Maegami enchants, and rounding out the group is Kai, a TV news personality who became a love interest of Maegami after interviewing her on the news. Maegami and Hana organize this group of women for a hostile takeover of the corporation.
Episode One seems to end with the ice-pick murder of Maegami by a jealous Reiko, who is upset with her budding relationship with Kai. (It was just role-playing as Maegami is mesmerized by Aisuai, a character from a movie, which we reveal at the start of Episode Two.)
Season 1, Episode 2 - Azamuku "Deception" Episode Two begins with the attack of Maegami by Reiko with an apparent ice-pick. We see that it was just a ballpoint pen, and Reiko taught Maegami how to murder someone with an ice pick, as shown in a movie they watched together. Maegami then goes to Sapporo to secure the takeover's financial backing and see her doctors about a procedure. Maegami has a condo in Sapporo, 500 miles north of Tokyo, and has a yacht there, which she uses for scuba diving with the handicap program.
Maegami first meets her mother's old friend, Hantanka Hayashi, to secure the takeover's financial backing. Hayashi will sell his Port of Sapporo to Takeda Shipping, and in return, he will have control of Takeda after the corporation's hostile takeover.
Unknown to the Girls' Club, it seems that Maegami must have cancer. She visits a doctor to schedule a double mastectomy and hip augmentation and purchases post-operational lingerie. Traumatically she has her hair shaved off and has several pre-operation wigs. Maegami means bangs and always differentiated her from her twin brother. The shaved head seemed only to harden her desire. She works out constantly in the condo to get stronger physically. She shows the girls through video how she assists the disabled in scuba diving.
The Girls' Club meets while Maegami is away to work on the takeover on their end in Tokyo and is in constant contact with Maegami in Sapporo through FaceTime. Eizo and Ichiro sense that something is brewing with Maegami and the girls and begin working on their counter plans. Ami allows Ichiro to worship her feet and shoe in his office to get control of him. Episode Two ends with Maegami maniacally practicing the ice-pick murder on a dummy.
Season 1, Episode 3 - Torappu "The Trap" Episode Three starts with Maegami sitting in her office at Takeda Shipping, and an unknown person is sneaking in the back door to her office. Maegami jumps the intruder and wrestles him down to the ground, but she sees it is only Reiko. Maegami then learns from Reiko that Ichiro has Yakuza ties, as Reiko spies for Maegami when she gives executive massages at Takeda Shipping.
Maegami is back from Sapporo and plans with Hana to persuade her Father, Eizo, to accept this deal she has worked out with Hayashi. Maegami wants Eizo to buy the Port of Sapporo from Hayashi and to put it in her name. Hana convinces Eizo to sell it to Maegami as a way to get rid of her and still save face. Maegami will then leave Takeda Shipping and run the little shipping port in Sapporo. Eizo agrees to the plan and sets his own trap.
Someone is stalking Maegami as she receives texts from an unknown sender who knows where she is and what she is going. Maegami shares this only with Kai, and they don't know if it is a prank by one of the girls. Kai's television partner, Kozo Takase, is set up on a double date with Ami. Still, Ami is entertaining Ichiro's sexual perversions by trampling on his back with her heels in his office.
The Girls' Club meets to review the detailed plans for each of them to set up a dummy corporation in which Maegami filters funds to them to purchase Takeda Shipping stock. They celebrate the dawning of their new LBGTQ-owned shipping corporation. But then Eizo and Ichiro recruit Amy to spy on the Girls' Club for them. The episode ends with Maegami, with her buzzed head, examining her postoperative body after the double mastectomy and augmented butt procedure. She looks more like a man than a woman.
Season 1, Episode 4 - Ichiro No Satsujin "Ichiro's Murder" Episode Four starts with Maegami looking in a full-length mirror at her shaved head, double-mastectomy chest, and augmented butt. The Girls' Club all think she just had a minor sports hernia procedure. They are all very supportive of her through FaceTime.
Maegami used Eizo and Ichiro's hatred of her to coerce their agreement to the port acquisition in her name, in Sapporo. The deal is a win-win as they can get rid of her to Sapporo, and the family can save face. Ichiro will go to Sapporo with Maegami to publicize his first act as CEO with a port acquisition ceremony. Maegami has surgical operations to remove cancer in secret that decimates her feminine body. However, she is still a muscular fit woman that uses padded bras and girdles to keep her sexy outward appearance. The port acquisition is reported on television by Kai. The girls' club celebrates as they plan to use their windfall from the takeover to form the world's first LGBTQ-owned and operated shipping corporation based in Sapporo.
Ami is controlling Ichiro by submitting to his sexual fetishes and perversions, as he bought him a lolita dress to wear and allowed Ichiro to spank her in his office. Ichiro promises Ami a big promotion when he takes over.
Maegami is still bothered by a stalker's text. Maegami has Kai using her connections to do a DNA test to see if Hayashi is her birth father. Eizo is thrilled that they are getting rid of Maegami with the Sapporo acquisition. Ichiro visited Sada Noboyoki from the Yakuza to get rid of Maegami for good.
We see Reiko with an unknown lover and Ami with an unknown lover. Jo Mikato, Kai's assistant, is introduced to Maegami, and she immediately flirts with Maegami.
Ichiro is staying with Maegami in her Sapporo condo. After the acquisition celebration, Maegami uses the Aisuai ice pick murder technique to kill Ichiro. None of the women in the Girls' Club know that she planned to kill Ichiro. She then puts a scuba wetsuit on Ichiro and dumps his body, in the same manner she uses when assisting the disabled to dive into the ocean. Episode Four ends with an unknown person standing on the dock watching Maegami sail at sunrise into the sea with someone in a wheelchair.
Season 1, Episode 5 - Nijuseikatsu "Dual Life"
Episode Five starts in Sapporo, the morning after Maegami murdered Ichiro. She is on her boat and dumps a weighted Ichiro into the ocean to get rid of his body. Maegami then receives a text message from her stalker, who says she saw her get on the boat with someone in a wheelchair. Maegami sends a picture of her diving dummy on the yacht, and the stalker is none the wiser. She will dispose of any evidence before returning to Tokyo.
The next day at Takeda Shipping, Ichiro walks out of the elevator to go to his office. It is Maegami, masquerading as Ichiro. She fools Jenny, Ami, and then Reiko, so she feels confident she can pull this off. As Ichiro, she learns more about everyone that she didn't know before. Hana goes through Maegami's emails as usual but panics when she sees the bill from the hospital in Sapporo for her double mastectomy. Hana calls the Girls Club to meet immediately in Maegami's office as she deduces that Maegami has cancer. All the girls are in the office with Kai on speakerphone when Hana shares what she learned. At the same time, Maegami uses the back exit and entrance and comes up to her office dressed as Ichiro. The girls hear someone at the back door, and Reiko opens the door only to see Maegami in her dress and heels. The girls all hug Maegami, and she realizes that they believe she has cancer. Maegami tells them there will be no more secrets, and she is fine, but they don't know that she killed Ichiro and is posing as him. The hostile takeover is only weeks away now that Ichiro is out of the picture.
Masquerading as Ichiro, Maegami finds out that Ami is into Ichiro and tells him that Maegami and the girls are planning a stock manipulation hostile takeover. Maegami, as Ichiro, tells Ami to keep playing along and don't tell anyone else about it. Maegami also sees the kinky side of Ichiro's life when he goes to his apartment, checks his phone, and goes to his therapist.
Maegami has Kai working on DNA samples as she needs to know if Hayashi is her Father and has Kai trying to track down who her stalker is. Hayashi is not her Father, and he tells her to ask her uncle Haruki. When she confronts Haruki, he breaks down and tells her that Eizo forced him to impregnate her mother as Eizo was sterile due to gonorrhea. Maegami goes ballistic at this "rape" of her mother and that Eizo gave her mother gonorrhea, which is why she killed herself. Maegami physically abuses Haruki and promises retribution to everyone. Haruki runs to Eizo, who tells Haruki that Maegami won't do anything and warn Ichiro to expect Maegami to try something like that before leaving.
Maegami as Ichiro signs over his 20% of Takeda Shipping over to Maegami, and the takeover is ready to take place. Just when Maegami thinks she has smooth sailing, Sada Nobuyoki, with two of his Yakuza goons, rough up Maegami as Ichiro because of a failed deal. They threaten Ichiro to make up for it by getting their imports around customs or else. Maegami will use this Yakuza deal to eliminate Ami and the Yakuza. They are the perfect patsies that the cops will blame for Ichiro's disappearance when Maegami stops impersonating him. The episode ends when Maegami, as Ichiro, tricks Ami into signing the deal with the Yakuza. These documents set up Ami to take the fall with Sada.
Season 1, Episode 6 - Mazushī Jenī "Poor Jenny" Episode Six starts with Maegami having her hands around Ami's throat, but then she thinks better of it and hugs Ami and tells her not to tell anyone what she told him and that he will take care of everything for the both of them. Complications keep arising as Maegami juggles between the two personas and glimpses behind the curtain into Ichiro's secret life. Maegami, as Ichiro, gets roughed up by the Yakuza due to his entanglement with this organized crime syndicate. Then, Maegami sees how deeply her Father despises her through Ichiro's eyes, substantiating her heinous plans.
On the takeover day, Maegami did not get a chance to complete her change into Ichiro before dealing with Hana and Ami. At Ichiro's desk, she wears a man wig, shirt, tie, and jacket but with her heels and only panties on under the desk. She pulls it off and hustles down the back exit to her office to get changed again. When she enters her office, she is surprised by Jenny sitting in her office waiting for her. Jenny is shocked by the vision of half Ichiro-half Maegami by the woman she adores. Maegami then cold-bloodedly throws Jenny down the rear exit staircase to her death to keep her quiet. Jenny is the sweetest person of all the people at Takeda.
When Eizo gets word of Hayashi's takeover, he suffers a heart attack and goes into a coma. Maegami curses his body at the hospital and devilishly laughs at him. Maegami then will use the Yakuza to her advantage to get rid of Ami and provides a cover when Ichiro goes missing. She has Ami sign documents that implement Ami in assisting the Yakuza in drug smuggling without her realization. Maegami then blackmails Kai to take the Yakuza documents to the police and implicates Ami on her newscast to teach Ami a lesson for her betrayal. Realizing the madness in Maegami, Kai does what she asks.
Episode Six ends with Kai meeting with Hana and Reiko. It seems to Kai that Maegami is getting rid of everyone connected with the takeover and that Ichiro and Maegami may be working together. Reiko found out from doctors she works with that Maegami is faking cancer. Hana and Kai are shocked that she mutilated her body to convince them she has cancer. Reiko has a hunch that she will explore tomorrow that can end this nightmare.
Season 1, Episode 7 - Chekkumeito “Checkmate” Episode Seven begins with Hana, Reiko, and Kai stunned that Maegami mutilated her body to fake cancer. Reiko says she has a plan to end all of this.
Reiko's plan includes a morning massage with Maegami and an afternoon massage with Ichiro. A jittery Reiko gives Maegami her morning massage and romantically gives her a hickey on her neck. That afternoon Reiko enters Ichiro's office unseen by using the private back entrance to his office for his afternoon massage, wearing massage gloves for the first time. When she starts the massage, Reiko is paralyzed with shock and sees the same hickey she gave Maegami on Ichiro's neck. This hickey confirms that Ichiro is indeed the psychotic Maegami living a dual life as both twins. Reiko, trembling, uses the Aisuai ice pick move to murder Maegami. The moment she drives the ice pick into her neck, Maegami's eyes widen as she recognizes the ice pick move. Reiko then slips out the back exit unnoticed. The deadly move that Maegami implored Reiko to teach her to murder Ichiro is then used to end her life as well.
Kai does the final news report that Maegami's murder, Ichiro's missing, and the discovery of Jenny's dead body is the Yakuza's work and absolves Ami of any connections with the crime syndicate. The Takeda Shipping saga comes to a grisly end.
Unknown to anyone is the Hana and Reiko love alliance. They are both celebrating in Shanghai as the two of them were working together against Maegami. Hana was seeking revenge against Maegami for breaking up their past marriage engagement. Hana's girlfriend, Reiko, was romantically involved with Maegami only to spy on her for their plan of embezzling funds into an offshore account and framing Maegami for it all. The couple is in Shanghai as China has no extradition treaty with Japan.
Episode Seven ends with Eizo Takeda opening his eyes as he wakes up from his coma.
Episode eight can bring the series to a conclusion if it is a one-season series. The eighth episode will be an easy addition to the seven already completed.
Final Episode Note: I have an alternate ending to keep Maegami alive if she needs to be living for Season Two.