Until the T-Shirt Dries Episode 5 Review: After Disappearing for a Year, Mitsuru Returns Just as Sakiko Is Finally Ready to Move Forward

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⚠️ This article contains full spoilers for Episodes 1 through 5 of Until the T-Shirt Dries (Tシャツが乾くまで), including the final scene of Episode 5. If you have not watched Episode 5 yet, I recommend coming back after you do.

Episode 5 of Until the T-Shirt Dries is titled “誰にも迷惑かけないなら” (“If It Doesn’t Cause Trouble for Anyone”). The story suddenly jumps forward to almost a year after the accident. Sakiko and Itsuki have each been living with one person missing from their lives, and little by little, they have grown accustomed to the way things are now. But just as Sakiko finally decides to sort through the things Mitsuru left behind, the man who has been missing for an entire year rings the doorbell, stands outside, and says the most ordinary thing possible: “I’m home.” Episode 5 aired on August 7, 2026, recording a household rating of 7.5% and an individual rating of 4.2% in the Kanto region according to Video Research, with both figures once again setting new series highs at the time.

At that point, it is difficult to feel surprised before feeling angry. Mitsuru has not come home for an entire year, and even when he occasionally calls, he refuses to explain anything. Sakiko has finally reached the point where she is willing to put his things away, and he chooses exactly this moment to appear. Worse, his first words are the most ordinary possible “I’m home.” The episode spends most of its runtime showing Sakiko and Itsuki slowly settling into a new rhythm of life, only to throw all of it into disorder with a single sentence at the end. Episode 5 probably has the most infuriating and baffling ending so far.

Until the T-Shirt Dries Episode 5 Basic Information: Air Date, Subtitle, and 7.5% Rating

Episode 5 aired on August 7, 2026, in TBS’s Friday Drama slot. Its subtitle is “誰にも迷惑かけないなら” (“If It Doesn’t Cause Trouble for Anyone”). Ratings continued to rise: the household rating increased from Episode 4’s 7.0% to 7.5%, while the individual rating went from 4.0% to 4.2%. For the second consecutive episode, both figures set new series highs at the time.

ItemDetails
EpisodeEpisode 5 (10 episodes total)
Subtitle誰にも迷惑かけないなら (“If It Doesn’t Cause Trouble for Anyone”)
Air DateAugust 7, 2026
Household Rating7.5% (series high at the time; second consecutive record)
Individual Rating4.2% (series high at the time)
Ratings by Episode6.9%→6.2%→6.8%→7.0%→7.5%
StreamingNetflix (Taiwan), U-NEXT/TVer (Japan)

It is also interesting to put the subtitles of the first five episodes side by side: “Until the Secret Is Noticed,” “The Scent of the Third Friday,” “Things I’m Not Good At,” “The Pitiful Person,” and now “If It Doesn’t Cause Trouble for Anyone.” The question has gradually shifted away from “What exactly happened in that accident?” and toward the people who were left behind. Sakiko and Itsuki have spent several episodes investigating Mitsuru and Azusa’s pasts, but Episode 5 brings them to something even harder to answer: the accident happened almost a year ago, and life really has continued. So if they now want to move a little closer to someone else, does that mean they are doing something wrong?

Until the T-Shirt Dries Episode 5 Recap: Nearly a Year After the Accident, Mitsuru Suddenly Comes Home

No Answer at the Nagano Address? The Resident Immediately Denies Knowing Mitsuru or Azusa

At the end of Episode 4, Sakiko follows the Nagano address left on Mitsuru’s phone and finds the house. Episode 5 picks up directly from there. But when she rings the doorbell, the person who answers says they do not know Mitsuru and do not know Azusa either. What seemed like an important clue finally leading somewhere is cut off almost immediately.

The drama has already used this kind of setup several times. Each episode ends by deliberately enlarging a moment that looks as though something major is about to happen, only for the next episode to quickly tell us that things are not quite what we imagined the night before. The service-area clue in Episode 3 worked this way, and the letter left at the end of Episode 4 had a similar feeling. By this point, it is difficult to fully trust any clue the script deliberately emphasizes. Still, Mitsuru specifically saved this address on his phone, and it hardly looks like information he left there casually. Episode 5 may not give us an answer yet, but that does not mean this thread is actually over.

Nearly a Year After the Accident: Sakiko and Itsuki Go to the Laundromat Together Every Week

The Nagano clue pauses there, and the story suddenly jumps forward. It is now almost a year since the accident.

Over that year, Sakiko and Itsuki have not become an explicitly romantic couple, but their lives have gradually begun leaning against each other. They sometimes eat at each other’s homes, and every week they meet at the laundromat, turning what was once an ordinary household chore into a regular routine neither of them has ever explicitly defined. Calling them friends somehow feels like too little, but if someone asked what exactly their relationship is, neither of them seems to have reached the point where they can name it.

The laundromat is an especially interesting choice. In Episode 1, Sakiko hated doing laundry, and Mitsuru was the one who handled most of it at home. A year after the accident, she is still doing laundry, but the person beside her is now Itsuki. The script does not need a single line saying “their relationship has changed” to explain what happened during that year. Seeing that they now wash clothes together every week is enough to understand how deeply each has entered the other’s daily life.

Itsuki Suggests Living Together: “I’m Lonely, but It Can’t Be Just Anyone”

While they are eating together, Itsuki suddenly asks Sakiko whether he and Sho could move in with her. He does not mention marriage and does not formally confess his feelings, but the question is already not far from a proposal. Both of them know that if he actually moves into the same home, they will no longer be able to pretend their current ambiguous relationship is simply about doing laundry together once a week.

Sakiko does not answer immediately. Instead, she starts pouring grated cheese over her food and keeps going until it is obviously no longer about seasoning. That is what makes the scene funny. She says nothing, but her hands completely give her away. She has no idea how to respond, so she finds something else to keep doing.

Itsuki eventually says what he actually means: “I’m lonely, but it can’t be just anyone.” Sakiko admits that she is lonely too, but says she cannot answer yet. In the end, they agree to talk again after the first anniversary memorial has passed.

The line from Episode 4 under the fireworks — “a pitiful person being with another pitiful person” — has already changed by this point. Back then, Itsuki still explained their closeness through loneliness, as though they were simply two people who had lost their spouses and happened to be keeping each other warm. Episode 5 is the first time he says it this directly: even if he is lonely, not just anyone will do. At least for Itsuki, Sakiko stopped being merely “another person who happens to be alone” a long time ago.

How Long Have Mitsue and Miyauchi Known Each Other? Another Part of Azusa’s Past That Itsuki Never Heard

As the first anniversary of the accident approaches, Mitsue, a staff member at the residential care facility where Azusa grew up, only then learns that Azusa has died and goes to see Itsuki. What stands out is not that she comes so late, but her obvious surprise when she learns that Azusa had married and even had a child, as though the life she is hearing about belongs to someone she barely recognizes.

The Azusa Itsuki knew was always cheerful, and after getting married, she had Sho. But the child Mitsue remembers clearly had more to her than that. Episode 5 does not rush to explain how much of Azusa’s story is missing. Instead, it first reveals something even stranger: Itsuki, who spent so many years living beside her, may never have heard every story from her past.

Mitsue later visits Koji Miyauchi, the owner of the secondhand bookstore, and it is obvious the two have known each other for a long time. In Episode 1, Azusa was seen flipping through Yukio Mishima’s Thirst for Love in that store. When Sakiko and Itsuki returned to ask questions in Episode 2, Miyauchi clearly had no interest in talking. Now Mitsue and Miyauchi are speaking directly about Azusa, making it difficult to continue treating the bookstore as merely somewhere she happened to stop before the accident.

The matcha-green notebook in Miyauchi’s hands is also hard to ignore. Some Japanese viewers noticed that its color is close to the bookmark Azusa left inside the book in Episode 1 and have speculated that the notebook may belong to her. Episode 5 does not explicitly say who owns it, however, so for now this is better treated as viewer speculation. What can be said with certainty is that Miyauchi probably knows much more than he appeared to in the earlier episodes.

Itsuki and Naoto Compete at the Soba Restaurant: Both Are Testing Where They Stand with Sakiko

When Itsuki takes Sho to leave flowers at the accident site, he runs into Naoto Yano again. The two were never particularly close to begin with, and with Sakiko and Mitsuru between them, the encounter is naturally still a little awkward. The genuinely funny part comes later in the soba restaurant. Neither man says anything directly about romance, but the entire conversation is quietly about checking just how close the other one is to Sakiko.

When Sakiko calls, Naoto deliberately makes sure Itsuki knows it is her. Itsuki does not pretend to miss the implication and casually replies that although he has never met Mr. Seo, he often hears quite a lot about him from someone who knows him very well. On the surface they are just chatting, but both are really reminding the other, “My relationship with this person isn’t ordinary either.” That bit of childishness makes the whole scene unexpectedly funny.

But by Episode 5, Naoto’s storyline is no longer only about quietly competing with Itsuki. When he speaks to Mitsuru on the phone, he asks whether Sakiko should be told. Mitsuru says no, but Naoto responds, “Then I need to go even more. I’m worried.” He confirms the time on Sunday and writes the address down in his notebook. That day, he is also wearing mourning clothes. Any one of those details could still have another explanation, but once they are all placed together, it becomes increasingly difficult to understand Naoto and Mitsuru as nothing more than an ordinary employee and his boss.

Sakiko Receives a Call from Mitsuru: She Only Asks, “Why Did You Take Azusa with You?”

Mitsuru calls the café again, and this time Sakiko is the one who answers. After waiting for a year, when she finally gets the chance to speak to him, she does not immediately throw every question she has at him. When they married, the two had agreed that “we cannot lie, but if there is something we do not want to talk about, we do not have to.” Even after everything that has happened, Sakiko still follows that agreement.

So she does not ask where Mitsuru is. She does not force him to explain why he has stayed away for an entire year. In the end, she asks only one thing: “Why did you take Azusa with you?”

And that is not even the question Sakiko most wants answered for herself. It is the answer Itsuki has been searching for all along. Why was his wife on that bus with another man? Itsuki has spent nearly a year circling that question without finding an answer. When someone finally has the chance to ask Mitsuru directly, Sakiko uses that chance for him. Mitsuru still does not answer.

Another line from the call that stands out is Sakiko saying, “Even if we’re only connected on the family register, we’re still married.” They have not seen each other for a year, and so much of what once belonged to their life as husband and wife has already become blurred. In the end, the only thing she can still use to prove that they have any relationship at all is their legal status. Somehow, that line is more painful than a direct argument would have been.

Episode 5 Ending: Sakiko Is About to Throw Away Mitsuru’s Things, but Mitsuru Himself Is Standing Outside

After that phone call, Sakiko finally makes a decision. She begins accepting something she had previously been too afraid to really touch: even if there is no official name for what exists between her and Itsuki, wanting to move closer to each other does not mean they are doing something wrong. So she starts sorting through the things Mitsuru left behind, as though she is finally ready to move the part of her life that has remained frozen for a year slightly forward.

And that is exactly when the doorbell rings.

Standing outside is Mitsuru, who has been gone for an entire year. He is even wearing the same clothes he wore on the day he disappeared. His first words are not an explanation or an apology. He simply says, as casually as if nothing has happened, “I’m home.”

The timing is what makes the entire scene so infuriating. Sakiko has spent a year reaching the point where she can finally put away Mitsuru’s belongings. Itsuki has spent a year before finally managing to say, “It can’t be just anyone.” The two of them have only just reached a place where they can begin considering the next step, and Mitsuru chooses that exact day to stand at the door again. With a single “I’m home,” delivered as casually as if he had just returned from work, he throws the life that had finally begun moving forward back into chaos.

What Does “誰にも迷惑かけないなら” Mean? Sakiko, Itsuki, and Mitsuru Are All Trying to Find Their Own Answer

“誰にも迷惑かけないなら” is especially interesting as the subtitle of Episode 5 because the same words sound completely different depending on who they are applied to. For Sakiko and Itsuki, they feel more like an attempt to find a reason why their relationship should be allowed to continue. Azusa is dead, and Mitsuru has been missing for an entire year. They are not betraying partners who are still beside them. They simply eat together, do laundry together, and gradually become used to having one particular person regularly present in their lives. If this is not hurting anyone, then perhaps wanting to move a little closer does not need to feel like something they are constantly doing wrong.

Episode 4’s “The Pitiful Person” still carried the feeling of being labeled by other people. How long are you supposed to grieve after losing a partner? When are you allowed to laugh again? How long must you wait before liking someone else without people commenting on it? It is as though there is an invisible timetable for all of it. By Episode 5, Sakiko and Itsuki seem increasingly unwilling to live according to those standards, but they still ask themselves the same question: if this really is not hurting anyone else, are they allowed to move forward?

But apply that same subtitle to Mitsuru, and it feels completely different. Mitsuru has disappeared for a year. He handed over his work, occasionally calls, and perhaps believes that as long as everything is taken care of and he is not directly causing anyone trouble, he can simply continue not going home and does not need to explain what he is doing. But the way Sakiko has lived through that year clearly does not become “fine” simply because Mitsuru himself believes it is. The person left behind has to keep waiting, keep guessing, and does not even know whether she is allowed to stop waiting. That is probably what makes the subtitle so uncomfortable: who gets to decide that no one has been inconvenienced or hurt? The person making the decision and the person left behind have understood that sentence differently from the beginning.

Seo and Sonoda Finally Appear: Why Does Episode 5 Begin Giving the Characters Their Full Surnames?

The surnames that the first few episodes deliberately kept hidden gradually begin appearing in dialogue in Episode 5. When the drama premiered, the official presentation did not immediately lay out all five characters’ full names and marital relationships, which helped create the Episode 1 effect where viewers only realized after watching for a while that they had initially paired the two couples incorrectly. Now that the story has reached Episode 5, those surnames begin returning to the characters one by one.

Itsuki refers to “Ms. Seo’s house,” placing Sakiko very clearly back under the surname “Seo.” Mitsue and Miyauchi’s conversation also introduces Azusa as Azusa Sonoda, while Naoto and Miyauchi’s full names gradually emerge as well. The surnames themselves are not major pieces of foreshadowing, but their use in this particular episode feels strangely significant because Episode 5 is constantly asking what these relationships now actually are. Itsuki has already asked Sakiko whether he and Sho can move in with her, yet he is still referring to her by the “Seo” surname she shares with Mitsuru. The two of them have become very close, but every time that surname is spoken, the man who has been gone for a year is brought back into the room.

This also connects neatly to a small conversation between Naoto and Mitsuru in Episode 1. Naoto asked Mitsuru why he still called his wife “Saki-chan” when talking about her outside the home, rather than using the usual terms for “my wife.” Mitsuru said those expressions felt strange to him. On first viewing, it seemed like a casual conversation between two men. But placed beside Sakiko saying in Episode 5, “Even if it’s only on the family register, we’re still married,” it feels quite different. Mitsuru once had no need to rely on the formal identity of “wife” when referring to Sakiko. But after their lives have been disconnected for a year, that identity is the only thing Sakiko has left to remind him that, at least for now, he cannot completely shut her out.

How Does Miku Ubukata Write Suspense? Until the T-Shirt Dries Keeps Changing the Answer in the Next Episode

By Episode 5, it is difficult to completely trust any image this drama deliberately enlarges at the end of an episode. It loves to close on something that looks as though the truth is finally about to be revealed, then return the following week and quickly tell the audience that things did not go in the most obvious direction at all.

Episode 2 ends with a call from the Nagano Prefectural Police, making it easy to assume Mitsuru was also involved in the accident, only for Episode 3 to reveal that he was never on the bus. Episode 4 ends with Sakiko finally finding the Nagano address, only for the resident in Episode 5 to immediately say they know neither Mitsuru nor Azusa. The clues themselves do not disappear. It is simply that every time we finally assemble a story that seems reasonable, the next episode reminds us that we still do not have enough pieces.

After a while, this style can admittedly produce a slight “here we go again” reaction. At the same time, it closely resembles the position Sakiko and Itsuki are in. All they ever have are scattered fragments — phone records, tickets, addresses, letters. The audience usually does not know much more than they do. Everyone is holding the same handful of information and trying to guess what happened in between, which means being wrong is almost the default.

That is also why it was perfectly reasonable for some viewers to wonder whether Mitsuru standing at the door and saying “I’m home” at the end of Episode 5 was an illusion. Sakiko is in the middle of sorting through his belongings, and the image resembles the way Itsuki saw Azusa while dealing with her clothes in Episode 3. Others pointed to the Episode 6 preview, where Itsuki confronts Mitsuru, as evidence that he really had returned. Reaching a point where even an image this explicit makes your first reaction, “Is the script tricking me again?” is probably a habit the first five episodes have trained into the audience.

Episode 5 Performances: Yu Aoi’s Grated Cheese, Ayumu Nakajima’s Confession, and Lily Franky’s Silence

The most memorable thing Yu Aoi does in this episode is not a crying scene. It is the bottle of grated cheese. Itsuki suddenly asks whether he and Sho can move in with her. Sakiko has not figured out what to say, but her hand has already started pouring cheese over her food and just keeps going. The image is funny, but it also makes her panic completely understandable. She genuinely has no idea how to respond, so she needs something for her hands to keep doing.

In the phone scene with Mitsuru, she becomes completely still. The call she has waited an entire year for finally comes, but Sakiko does not burst into tears or throw every question at him at once. She continues following the rule they agreed on long ago and does not press him about things he refuses to discuss. When she finally manages to ask one question, it is not even for herself. It is for Itsuki. There are almost no large gestures in the scene, which makes you pay attention instead to how long she pauses and which sentences she says more slowly. Almost everything Sakiko has swallowed over the past year is contained in those spaces.

Itsuki, played by Ayumu Nakajima, finally stops using “loneliness” as the only explanation for his relationship with Sakiko. In Episode 4, he was still saying there was nothing wrong with one pitiful person spending time with another pitiful person. By Episode 5, he can finally say directly, “I’m lonely, but it can’t be just anyone.” It is not an especially romantic sentence. In fact, he begins by admitting that he really is lonely. But the second half makes his meaning clear enough: the person he wants to live with now is Sakiko. It would not be the same if it were simply anyone who happened to be nearby.

Lily Franky’s Miyauchi still does not say very much, which only makes him more interesting. After Mitsue comes to see him, he lightly taps the matcha-green notebook in his hand several times without explaining what it is. Yet the impression of him from the earlier episodes has already begun to change. At first, he seemed like little more than a rude secondhand bookstore owner who refused to cooperate. Now he increasingly looks like someone who genuinely knows something and simply never intended to tell anyone.

Naoto, played by Fumiya Takahashi, also accumulates several more suspicious details in this episode: the mourning clothes, writing down the address, and telling Mitsuru, after being told not to inform Sakiko, “Then I need to go even more. I’m worried.” Taken separately, every one of those things might still have another explanation. Put together, it becomes difficult to continue treating Naoto and Mitsuru as an ordinary employee and employer. Takahashi does not deliberately play Naoto as mysterious either. In the moment, nothing seems especially strange. It is only afterward that the details begin to feel odd.

Until the T-Shirt Dries Episode 5 Review: Sakiko Gets Only One Question, and It Is Not Even for Herself

Sakiko Asks Only One Question, and That Question Is for Itsuki

This is probably my favorite Sakiko moment in the first five episodes. Mitsuru has been missing for an entire year. When she finally gets him on the phone, there are countless things she could ask. Where are you? Why did you leave? What have you been doing for the past year? Do you have any idea how the person you left at home has been living? She could even directly demand an explanation of his relationship with Azusa. Instead, she holds all of it back.

Because she and Mitsuru agreed when they married that “we cannot lie, but we do not have to talk about things we do not want to talk about,” Sakiko is still respecting that promise even now. In the end, she asks just one thing: “Why did you take Azusa with you?” And even that question is not for herself. It is the answer Itsuki has spent a year searching for. The moment makes Sakiko feel incredibly gentle, but it is also frustrating to watch, because whenever other people become involved, she seems to naturally push her own part of the problem to the back.

That feeling has been present throughout the previous episodes. In Episode 1, she does not even know that the washing machine filter needs cleaning because Mitsuru has always taken care of those things at home. The letter she receives after waiting a year in Episode 4 is still telling her how to clean that filter. Then in Episode 5, when she finally gets to speak to Mitsuru directly, she uses even this one opportunity to ask a question on Itsuki’s behalf. Sakiko certainly has thoughts of her own. She is simply very accustomed to dealing with other people’s needs first and leaving her own part for later. By Episode 5, that pattern is becoming increasingly obvious.

“Even If We’re Only Connected on the Family Register”: Being His Wife Is the Only Position Sakiko Has Left From Which to Ask

When Sakiko says on the phone, “Even if we’re only connected on the family register, we’re still married,” it initially sounds as though she is trying to convince Mitsuru. Thinking about it again, however, it feels more like she is trying to give herself a reason why she is still allowed to ask.

Sakiko probably already knows where their emotional relationship stands. He has not come home for a year. They have not maintained normal contact. The only thing in his letter was an explanation of how to clean the washing machine filter. Even in the phone call she has waited so long to receive, he refuses to say where he is. Almost everything that once made up their life as husband and wife has stopped. Only their legal status has not changed. So she brings that status forward, almost as though she is telling Mitsuru that no matter how little remains between them now, it has not yet become so little that she is not even allowed to ask this question.

What is most frustrating here is not really the idea that “all they have left is a piece of paper.” It is that after Sakiko finally claims a small position from which she is allowed to ask something for herself, she still gives that question to Itsuki. She is the one who has waited a year, yet when she finally speaks, the answer she seeks is still someone else’s.

Why Is “I’m Home” So Infuriating? Mitsuru Makes a One-Year Absence Sound Like an Ordinary Return

When Mitsuru stands at the door and says “I’m home,” it is very difficult for the first reaction to be emotional relief. It is much easier to feel angry. “ただいま” is an ordinary greeting when someone comes home. Normally, the person inside responds with “おかえり,” and the day simply reconnects from there. But Mitsuru has not been gone for a day. He has been gone for an entire year.

During that year, Sakiko has not known where he is, when he might come back, or even whether she is supposed to continue waiting for this marriage. She has finally reached the point where she is willing to sort through his belongings and admit that getting closer to Itsuki is not wrong. Then she opens the door and Mitsuru still returns in the most ordinary way possible. Before even saying “I’m sorry,” he says “I’m home.” It inevitably feels as though he assumes the house has remained exactly as it was when he left, and that Sakiko should still be standing in the same place waiting for him.

And then there is Itsuki, which makes it even more infuriating. This is the episode where he finally manages to say “it can’t be just anyone.” He finally stops using the fact that both of them are pitiful and lonely as a reason for getting close to Sakiko, and admits that he genuinely wants to live with this particular person. Not long afterward, the doorbell rings. The man who has not returned for an entire year chooses the exact day they are preparing to move forward to stand at the door again. The timing is almost designed to make people angry.

When Episode 5 first aired, some Japanese viewers also wondered whether Mitsuru might be an illusion seen by Sakiko. She is sorting through his belongings at the time, and the structure does resemble the Episode 3 scene where Itsuki sees his late wife while dealing with Azusa’s clothes. I was less convinced by that interpretation even then. Azusa’s apparition works because she is actually gone. Mitsuru’s problem, ever since Episode 3, has always been: if he is alive, why won’t he come home? If his appearance were ultimately treated as another illusion, it would feel like a waste of everything the drama has spent so much time building around that question.

What Has Episode 6 Confirmed? Mitsuru Really Is Back, and the Questions Left by Episode 5 Begin Getting Answers

Episode 6 officially confirms that the person standing outside the door at the end of Episode 5 really is Mitsuru, not Sakiko’s hallucination. Once the three of them finally sit down together, the year that Sakiko and Itsuki have only been able to reconstruct through phone records, addresses, and other people’s accounts finally begins to be explained in Mitsuru’s own words.

Looking back at Episode 5 now, that makes “I’m home” feel even more significant. Mitsuru really did come back, which means Sakiko really did spend an entire year waiting. The life she and Itsuki slowly built together was not some temporary illusion caused by losing her husband. Once Mitsuru reappears, the question can no longer simply be “Where did he go?” It becomes what they are supposed to do with relationships that have already changed during that year.

Episode 5 of Until the T-Shirt Dries ends at exactly this difficult point. Almost a year after the accident, Sakiko already has someone she meets every week to do laundry with. Itsuki has finally dared to say that he wants them to live together. Neither of them has truly forgotten Mitsuru or Azusa, but their lives have undeniably grown into a different shape. And just as they are preparing to acknowledge that fact, Mitsuru returns.

By the end, it does not really feel as though the previous year was wasted. If anything, the situation is harder precisely because that year genuinely happened. Sakiko is no longer the same Sakiko she was on the day Mitsuru left. Itsuki cannot take back the words “it can’t be just anyone.” Mitsuru’s single “I’m home” can throw their current lives into disorder, but it cannot actually turn time back one year. Episode 5’s subtitle asks, “If it doesn’t cause trouble for anyone…” By this point, the question only becomes more pressing: is that something the person who left gets to decide, or do you have to ask the person who spent the entire year being left behind?

FAQ

What Happens in Until the T-Shirt Dries Episode 5?

Episode 5 is titled “If It Doesn’t Cause Trouble for Anyone.” Sakiko rings the doorbell at the house in Nagano, only to discover that the resident has no connection to Mitsuru. The story then jumps forward to nearly a year after the accident. Sakiko and Itsuki have settled into a relationship where they occasionally eat together and meet at the laundromat every week. Itsuki asks whether he and his son Sho can move into Sakiko’s home. Mitsue, a staff member from the residential care facility where Azusa grew up, visits Itsuki and later reconnects with Miyauchi at the secondhand bookstore. Mitsuru calls the café again, and Sakiko asks only, “Why did you take Azusa with you?” Mitsuru does not answer. Finally, just as Sakiko decides to throw away Mitsuru’s belongings, the doorbell rings. Mitsuru, missing for a year, is standing outside and says, “I’m home.”

What Were the Ratings for Until the T-Shirt Dries Episode 5?

Episode 5 aired on August 7, 2026, recording a household rating of 7.5% and an individual rating of 4.2% in the Kanto region according to Video Research. Both set new series highs at the time, surpassing Episode 4’s 7.0% and 4.0%. The household ratings for Episodes 1 through 5 were 6.9%, 6.2%, 6.8%, 7.0%, and 7.5%.

Why Does Sakiko Only Ask Mitsuru, “Why Did You Take Azusa with You?”

Because Sakiko and Mitsuru made an agreement when they married: they cannot lie, but they do not have to talk about things they do not want to discuss. Because of that promise, Sakiko deliberately avoids asking where Mitsuru is or why he left. The only question she asks is actually on Itsuki’s behalf — it is the answer he has wanted most since losing his wife. Mitsuru ultimately does not answer.

Does Mitsuru Really Come Back at the End of Episode 5, or Is He a Hallucination?

Episode 5 itself does not explicitly confirm it, and Japanese viewers were divided at the time. Those who suspected a hallucination pointed out that Mitsuru appears at the exact moment Sakiko decides to throw away his belongings, structurally resembling the Episode 3 scene where Itsuki sees an apparition of his late wife. Those who believed Mitsuru was really there pointed to the Episode 6 preview, which showed Itsuki confronting him directly. The answer is revealed in Episode 6.

When Did Until the T-Shirt Dries Episode 6 Air, and What Happens Next?

Episode 6 aired on August 14, 2026, at 10 p.m. on TBS. According to the official synopsis, Mitsuru’s sudden return brings him, Sakiko, and Itsuki face to face for the first time, and the truth about the missing year gradually begins to emerge through Mitsuru’s account. Sakiko also looks back on the day she first met Mitsuru and on their married life.

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