Sakamoto Ryuji should be declared a national treasure of Japan. Remember when Renai Dekinai Riyuu declared that it was a true to life love story and turned out to be a boring 2D soap catering to the lowest common denominator? Remember how it spawned Kekkon Shinai? Thank the jdorama gods for putting Sakamoto Ryuji on this earth to give us real characters and sweet delicious dialogue.
WHAT I LIKED
- Hamasaki not changing throughout the series but still remaining an engaging character. A real difficult tightrope to walk and Eita and the Sakamoto's writing really pulled through. It would be easy to make Hamasaki change but I'm glad they took the difficult path.
- Ono Machiko's Yuka is the Matsu Takako of 2K10 jdorama era. Yuka is the most well developed nice girl main character in a romantic comedy I've seen outside of Hayasaka sensei from KDO. You just fall in love with her character not because she's nice but because of who she is.
- Sakamoto Ryuji has done it again. He is as good as Nojima Shinji in terms of rapid fire entertaining dialogue and he has the Ozaki Masaya ability to create dialogue where its more about the person speaking than the words being spoken. Lots of great moments jdorama moments especially in the last episode.
- Great quite moments as well where its just music and the facial expressions. To me this is the Love Generation of the 2K10 jdorama era.
- Maki Yoko finally showing us her moe face.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
- The ratings. Average of 11.8 which is less than Kekkon Shinai!!??? WTF Japan!
- Sometimes the plot does get a bit soapie and it has pacing issues in the middle but Sakamoto always pulls it back with his great dialogue.
- I didn't really care about the Ryo and Akari storyline at the end but they're effectively the supporting characters.
SUMMARY
Must watch. Do not miss this. Sakamoto Ryuji is a jdorama god. Thank you Sakamoto sensei for Saikou no Rikon and Soredemo Ikite Yuku. I guess I am going to have to try Makete Katsu without any subs and Sayonara Bokutachi no Youchien despite the fact I don't want to see Ashida Mana's face. I just wish someone had retimed the Japanese subs cause retiming is a pain.
