Scams Season 1 Episode 2 Recap

First day of training — Makoto reads the investment real estate script handed out to them. The manager, Dokugawa, hits them whenever they do something he doesn’t like. If they stay on the phone for a few minutes even after the customer ends the call, he hits them too. Dokugawa constantly shouts and throws his shoes at the trainees if they make even a small mistake. Makoto wonders why they are making calls about property investments. “The goal of this training is to get addresses to send materials to!” Dokugawa shouts at them. After talking to another trainee, Makoto realizes he’s the only one who knows what the training is all about.

Makoto receives a call from Yamada, asking if he has seen Shotaro. After what happened to them, Makoto swears he hasn’t seen his friend. “I’m doing training at that place. Who is it that wanted me? Is it Dokugawa, the manager?” Makoto asks. Yamada mentions something about a deal, but because there are many people, Makoto fails to understand. When he gets home, Makoto tells Misaki and his mother that he has found a job. “I have to do some training, but it’s a sure thing,” Makoto says. He adds that it’s about investment properties. Misaki is happy that Makoto landed the same job as his last one. 

On the third training day, Makoto asks Dokugawa if he has to follow the script. “I did operations at my last job,” Makoto says. Dokugawa agrees to let Makoto say what he wants to if he can keep the person on the line. One trainee asks what materials they will send to the customers. Dokugawa admits the materials and the property don’t even exist. He tells the trainees the job is fake, so they won’t have any profit from it. But if they can clear the training, they won’t be disappointed. “Never mind 300,000 a month! If you’re good, you can make ten million a month!” Dokugawa says. Dokugawa shows the trainees how to talk to people to get their addresses. So Makoto works hard until he learns how to do it himself. And on the seventh day of the training, Makoto clears the task and gets the address. 

Only five trainees manage to make it to the end of the training: Makoto, Seimiya, Goriki, Kurusu, and Mori. Dokugawa tells Seimiya that even if he didn’t succeed once in the task, it still takes guts to make it to the end of the training. Dokugawa takes the five of them on a road trip. The first stop is at a golf course. He shows them the old people having fun in exchange for spending a lot of money. Then he shows them having fun at swimming pools and eating at a restaurant. Then afterward, Dokugawa brings them to a place where some workers are having lunch. He asks them what they think the average age of the group is. “Somewhere in the 40s or 50s?” Seimiya answers. “They’re the same as most of you, in their 20s and 30s. Living in poverty has aged them,” Dokugawa says. He adds that the old people they saw earlier seemed much more youthful than the workers. 

Kanbe, the one in charge of the office, visits them. He tells them that the training was just a test to see if they’re fit to work the money transfer scam. “From now on, you will become players who make phone calls to our targets,” Kanbe says. He tells them that if they want to leave, they can. But they are not allowed to tell anyone about the job.

Our Thoughts

Do they badly need money? All of them? Are they going to stay even after they learned the truth? We understand Makoto needs money for his father’s operation, but we hope he gets out of the scam operation quickly once he gets the money he needs. The longer he stays and the more money he steals, the bigger his problem will be. It’s sad that he graduated but feels he has no choice but to do the gig. And where is Shotaro anyway? Did he really leave his friend behind? When Shotaro was in trouble, Makoto stole a car to help him. But then Shotaro chose to steal the money and leave Makoto behind. Can they still be friends after it?

Because our main characters aren’t heroes or people who can be considered doing what is right, it isn’t easy to try and relate to them. If we hear the word ‘scam,’ we will not continue the training and warn our friends about it. That easy money can land you in jail. And if Makoto goes to prison, things will be more difficult for his parents.