Fumo Chitai 1.04

aka The Waste Land

Episode 4

Iki is questioned by the police. He tells them that Koike acted on his own. He tells the police that there are no documents to turn over. The police insist that there are and that they know that that they came from Gemeral Kawamata, Iki's friend. Iki continues to deny the existence of the documents or at least that Kinki Trading ever had them.

Daimon, the head of Kinki, makes a deal with the government to hand over all documents. Iki unsuccessfully tries to talk him out of doing that. Daimon explains that if they turn over all the documents then the Luckheed F-104 will be chosen be the government and Kinki will remain in good standing.

Iki is perplexed by the decision and worries about what will happen to his friend, Kawamata. Samejima is incensed when he learns that Kinki Trading is coming out on top. Kaisuka, the director of the Japanese Defense Agency doesn't tell Samejima, that he accepted a promotion in return for agreeing to green light the Luckheed F-104.

Kawamata gets blamed for turning over the documents to Kinki Trading. He has a contentious meeting with Kaisuka. He resigns after the meeting. His career is over. He goes to see Iki and then heads home. Iki is woken by a telephone call late in the night. Kawamata is dead, hit by a train.

Iki is called to identify the body of his friend although there isn't much left to identify. Iki and his wife help Kawamata's widow through the funeral. Director General Kaisuka shows up to pay his respects. Iki knocks the director general down when he suggests that if anything were to come out then Kawamata's widow wouldn't get her busband's pension.

Kinki Trading and the Luckheed F-104 get the green light from the government. Daimon is very happy. Hideo Tahara, the reporter, confronts Iki about the death of Kawamata but Iki has nothing to say to him. The episode ends with Iki, who has been promised anything by Daimon, saying that what he wants most is to resign.

Thoughts

Chisato Akitsu appears briefly in this episode. She does not share the screen with Iki in this episode but she does in the trailer for the next one.

Will Koike ever resurface? Will Iki do anything for Koike's family? He wasn't a friend like Kawamata but Iki still bears some responsibility for what happened to him.

Is Iki a good and honorable person? I'm starting to believe that he is not. 

This was another solid episode. It was very tense throughout. I wasn't very surprised that Kawamata killed himself. The ending to this episode leaves me wondering what comes next. There are some hints in the trailer for the next episode.