TV REVIEW: "Terrace House: Opening New Doors" Episode 5 gets heated! Did that just happen? (Spoiler Alert)

「TERRACE HOUSE OPENING NEW DOORS」の新メンバー6人(C)フジテレビ From L-R: Mizuki, Tsubasa, Takayuki, Ami, Shion and Yuudai

As a big fan of the “Terrace House” Japanese reality TV series, I was looking forward to the fourth series titled “TERRACE HOUSE OPENING NEW DOORS” which airs on Fuji TV, shown on Fuji on Demand (FOD) but also on Netflix Japan. And is a co-production between Fuji TV and Netflix.

For those not familiar with the series, the reality show provides a really awesome place for the houseguests (three men and three women) to live and provide them with two cars.

They have to get their own part-time job for spending money and be filmed for television.

Of course, there are things said by houseguests that may win them supporters (especially if they are celebrities or athletes) and new fans, but also some may draw the ire of the Internet by their actions.

With “Terrace House: Opening New Doors”, this latest series is set in Karuizawa in the Nagano Prefecture in Japan. Far from Tokyo, great for those wanting go skiing/snowboarding and wanting a chill place away from the concrete jungle.

The houseguests as of right now are:

Komuro Ami – A 20-year-old university student who wants to be a fashion model. She tends to like guys who are not attracted to her and she is not into things that most women are into. She is the youngest female in the house and because she’s graduating from college, it’s a touchy subject of what she wants to do after graduating, because she is unsure.
Arai Yuudai – A 19-year-old aspiring chef who is very immature. A mama’s boy who wants to experience freedom and grow up. Because of his childlike behavior (like sleeping with two stuffed panda bears), he is seen like a kid. He talks a good game that he can cook but so far, it’s not looking like he can cook all that well, just yet.
Haruta Mizuki – A 26-year-old freelance writer and interpreter who was living in Seoul, Korea before moving into the house. Mizuki is the most mature person of the house, she is also quite blunt.
Nakamura Takayuki – A 31-year-old professional snowboarder. Very mature for his age and living among younger people. Often asked which woman he likes and struggles with liking women much younger than him. He doesn’t like conflict and tries to keep things cool. Owns his own snowboard clothing line and wants to become successful.
Sato Tsubasa – A 24-year-old ice hockey player. Tsubasa is a woman with a kind heart, dedicated to her profession and wants to make it to the national team and because of how busy she is, she is not always at the house.
Okamoto Shion – A 22-year-old fashion model who is half American and half Japanese. He hopes the exposure he gets from “Terrace House: Opening New Doors” will lead him to more opportunities to become a runway model in Paris. He is the level-headed, peacemaker of the group.

And the show is hosted by You, Reina Triendl, Tokui Yoshimi, Babazono Azusa, Yamasato Ryota and Hayama Shono. They give their comments about the show during the intro, the middle of the show (after the first half) and then towards the second half before the main ending credits.

Young Yuudai has managed to make two of the three female cast members cry (not in a good way).

And so far, after five episodes of watching, I have to say that this is the most surprising. While it may not have the glitz, glamour or coolness of “Terrace House: Boys x Girls Next Door”, it makes up in drama.

So far, from episodes 1-4, young Yuudai has shown his interest towards the girl close to his age, Ami. Yuudai started to keep asking questions to Ami of what she is going to do with her life? Why isn’t she working hard to be a model if she wants to be one? And needless to say, it made her cry.

Yuudai is like a child and doesn’t understand what he did wrong but the blunt Mizuki let him have it.

Fortunately, Yuudai apologized and wanting to ask Ami out for a date, being a wingman, Shion is able to get Mizuki to go with him somewhere and leaving the two alone. But before they went to a shopping mall to hang out, Yuudai was telling everyone he had only a Y2000 limit (a little under $20) but then he started talking about how he could just use his father’s credit card.

Now episode 4 ended with Yuudai and Ami all cool, but it sets things up for episode 5.

Mizuki about to unleash on Yuudai

In episode 5, that night, Mizuki has drunken a lot of beer. She is pissed off because of how Yuudai bragged about spending his father’s credit card and wanted to go to expensive places like Gucci. She started to talk about her frustrations with Takayuki about how Yuudai doesn’t grasp the concept of being responsible. It frustrates her that he talked about wanting to spend his father’s money so recklessly while being unemployed. And his carefree attitude is pissing her off.

Well, Shion and Yuudai heard Mizuki’s ranting.

Mizuki confronts Yuudai about his comment “I’ll use his card and pay him back later”.

Yuudai tells her that he has things in mind of how to pay it back but Mizuki responds with if he thinks it’s better for him to pay for it himself. That he should stop borrowing from his father and pay for things himself.

[Side note: The hosts of the show were starting to look at Yuudai as a deadbeat because he went to a job interview wearing sunglasses and his carefree attitude of sponging off his father and grandmother]

Mizuki tells Yuudai that he shouldn’t borrow his father’s card if he has no means to pay it back.

Shion (on the left) playing it cool, while Yuudai (on the right) is getting ticked.

Things get heated and Mizuki (who is drunk and very blunt) tells him that if he’s a cook, why doesn’t he prove himself (why doesn’t he work on his craft at the house) and Shion has to interrupt and brings this back on track.

But the exchange is heated, Yuudai tells her they have different ideals and she shouldn’t force her own onto him. She tells him that she can’t stand that he’s using his father’s money recklessly, purchasing expensive brand products.

Yuudai tells her that he didn’t have the money to purchase it, so he used his father’s card because he wanted it.

Takayuki tries to interject and tells him that he should listen to Mizuki and try not to be a showoff (especially if it’s his father’s credit card).

But Mizuki (whether she feels bad for going at him or is just drunk) is left in tears. Personally, sometimes people need to hear the truth and glad Mizuki confronted Yuudai about his carefree attitude.

There is more to this series, which focuses on Shion taking Tsubasa to the Kusatsu area for onsen and Ami helping out Takanori but it’s this heated exchange that is being talked about on the Internet.

You can read the comments on Reddit (in English)

Even a video was created by host Yamasato Ryota about what transpired…