The Hot Spot – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review

Episode 1

Episode 1 of The Hot Spot begins with an introduction to Endo Kiyomi, a receptionist at the hotel. She narrates her typical day as her daughter leaves for school. The first thing she mentions is how she washes her uniform once a week, which is quite good—considering many of her colleagues don’t even do that. We meet her co-workers: Takahashi Kosuke, who is heading home after his shift, and Isomura Yumi, her fellow daytime receptionist.

Kiyomi then elaborates on how she treats her customers, particularly the importance of acting as if her regular male customers are new each time—since they always arrive with a different woman. Recognizing them would be disastrous. During the day, she and Yumi discuss how one of their regular customers always takes amenities home. Hilariously, hotel employees are also allowed to take these amenities—but only if the customers leave them behind. This fuels their resentment toward guests who take the freebies for themselves.

Later, Kiyomi meets up with her childhood friends and tells them about a strange incident. One night, just after she had left the hotel, a truck nearly hit her—but Takahashi saved her with super strength and super speed. He then asked her not to tell anyone, revealing that he is, in fact, an alien. The next day, when Takahashi realizes that Kiyomi doesn’t believe him, he goes to great lengths to prove it—folding a coin with his bare hands, for example—despite still insisting that she keep his secret.

Kiyomi’s friends, however, want to see for themselves if Takahashi is really an alien. Eventually, Kiyomi convinces him to demonstrate his powers. When they meet, Takahashi explains that his father was an alien while his mother was human. However, the friends are disappointed to find that he doesn’t have any miraculous abilities beyond enhanced sensory powers—like super strength and long-range hearing. They also discover that Takahashi suffers small inconveniences whenever he uses his abilities, such as getting a fever after saving Kiyomi the other day.

One day, a hotel cleaner reports that one of their regular customers has stolen the television, along with other amenities like razors. Kiyomi enlists Takahashi’s help to sniff out the route the thief took, and they eventually track down the stolen TV inside a car. However, the car turns out to belong to the cleaner herself. When Kiyomi confronts her, the cleaner pleads with her not to tell the manager, claiming she is a struggling single mother. Kiyomi empathizes and promises not to say anything.

However, the moment the cleaner leaves and the manager arrives, Kiyomi doesn’t hesitate to spill the beans—leaving Takahashi, who had been listening in, completely dumbfounded. She then reveals that the cleaner had lied—because Kiyomi secretly stalks most of the hotel staff on social media! Later, she and her childhood friends discuss how offensive it was for the cleaner to falsely claim she was a single mother—especially since Kiyomi herself actually seems to be one.


The Episode Review

The Hot Spot is surprisingly hilarious, blending deadpan humour with satirical comedy. The sheer absurdity of Kiyomi making a supposedly alien Takahashi sniff around like a dog to track down a stolen television is impossible not to laugh at. Even funnier is the fact that Takahashi actually complies. His obsession with proving his extra-terrestrial origins—despite wanting to stay hidden—only adds to the humour.

For those who enjoy deadpan humour and delight in sheer absurdity, The Hot Spot seems to be a highly entertaining watch. We have high hopes for this quirky new J-drama!

 

Next Episode

Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!

  • Episode Rating
    (4)
4

Leave a comment