30-SAI MADE DOTEI DA TO MAHOTSUKAI NI NARERURASHII
Me, before starting this drama: yeah I’m going to try and watch it for science, but it’s probably going to be the usual BL bullshit Japan likes to give us blah blah blah
Me, an utter FOOL, from the 3rd ep onwards: KUROSAWA BEST BOY I LOVE HIM SO MUCH OH MY GOD KURODACHI NEW ETERNAL SHIP DEARL LORD GIVE ME THE STRENGHT
I am nothing but a clown.
I am obsessed with this drama and this ship more than I can express with words.
Before getting ridiculous about the main characters, let me say that this drama is, simply, like a very good, self-indulgent fanfiction about your otp. The plot is simple, the reading-minds thing is convenient and helps the plot moving forward, but, at the same time, I didn’t feel they abused it: it helped the protagonist, Adachi, connect more with the people around him, but he didn’t use it all the time.
More important, it’s a romantic story with 2 guys, however!! Their gender wasn’t the focus? I mean, they could have been a man and a woman and the story would have been exactly the same, and this is what I wanted and what I wasn’t expecting! Not the usual, dramatic last episodes where one decides that he wants kids, a “normal” family, that he wants to abide to society rules, to meet his parents’ expectations etc etc. No, the “dramatic” part in the last 2 episodes, the problem that arises between the two, makes sense and I found it was well put together. It wasn’t there just because there needs to be some climax near the end.
And this part was the one where I felt near Adachi the most. Yeah, for all the drama he’s a cute introvert who doesn’t really know how to interact with people (how not to emphasize with that lol), but towards the end? When he’s afraid to lose the magic because he feels that, without it, he’s an empty person who can't bond with other people? I felt that. I felt that so much and I wanted to hug him.
And Kurosawa. Oh, Kurosawa. I love him. I LOVE him. So kind, considerate, empathetic, sweet, selfless, loving, but at the same time somehow insecure about his own worth and afraid of showing his true self, and, when it comes to Adachi, a ridiculous loser. The poem in the bus? What an adorable dumbass, oh my God.
So, that’s it. I have been refreshing the subber’s page more times than I am willing to admit and rewatched each episode at least one time. I adore it, it was such a nice surprise.
2019 gave me The Untamed, and 2020 gave me this (and MIU404, God I love that drama so much). Not the same kind of love story, but, still, I am obsessed and one step away from buying Keita Machida’s photobook.
35-SAI NO SHOUJO
I don’t know what I was expecting from this drama, but it wasn’t this. I know I was sceptical, but, man, I was wrong.
Bittersweet, deep, moving. Almost every episode made me cry at least a little.
It’s about life and the people we love, about how often we live without thinking about the time passing, about we often “lose” precious time fighting or holding grudges, when we could have done better things, tell the people we love how precious they are and cherish the time with them. Nevertheless, the fights, the petty grudges are part of life too, and we can’t erase them, can’t avoid them.
Nozomi lost 25 years of her life in a coma, and when she wakes up, you feel so sad for her, because there are a lot of experiences that she’ll never be able to live, because she’s a 10-year-old girl trapped in a 35-year-old woman’s body, because, after 20 years, the world has changed, her family has broken apart, those who were her friends are now disenchanted adults. And I thought she would stay that way for all the drama, but she grows up, mentally, episode by episode, so we witness her becoming a teenager, a young woman, until reaching her real age. And all these phases were portrayed in a perfect way.
At the beginning I didn’t like her family and how they behaved, it was like they weren’t happy she woke up. But little by little, both we and Nozomi understand that in 20 years those people have lived, things have changed, and that’s normal, that’s how life is. Like Nozomi’s family can’t fully understand how she feels about the time she has lost, in the same way Nozomi can’t really understand them, because she hasn’t lived those 20 years, she matured, yes, she grew up in the span of a few months, but hasn’t REALLY lived.
I don’t know how to explain it and I’m probably not making any sense. Anyway, it was a beautiful drama and I did not expect it.
GOKUSHUFUDO
It was, probably, even more fun and stupid than I thought before starting. But still, it is one of those cases where yeah, everyone is ridiculous and over the top and you laugh a lot, but it’s never too much.
When there’s the danger of a somewhat serious moment, boom, something silly happens. And, at the same time, the message gets across anyway, about the importance of family and friends. It was both ridiculous and heart-warming? I don’t know.
And the last episode still destroyed me a little? Even though I kinda knew that something silly would happen, like always, I still cried lol. Also, the very ending was quite fitting for this year (I suppose it was intentional) and it made me cry once again.
NEECHAN NO KOIBITO
This was the only drama, this fall, that didn’t impress me that much. It was ok and I understand that some people might love it and find it heart-warming, but not me.
It was just... a “feel-good drama”, full of good people that love each other, good feelings and positive emotions all around, some characters had some sad experiences or hardships in the past, but we get to know them in a point in their lives where they have somehow moved on (Manato being the only exception). It was hard to emphasize with them, it was supposed to warm my heart but I found it a bit artificial, even cold. Everyone was too good, too perfect. Meh.
I get that some people could even need this kind of drama, in this period, but still, it wasn’t for me.
And it was probably a good thing that I binge-watched it once it was over, because, if I’d watched it one episode a week, I would have dropped it, because it was boring (in fact, I did a bit of skimming).
I’m still in the middle of Kikenna Venus because the subber did until the 5th episode. It seems ok, there’s a bit of mystery but nothing ground-breaking. Yoshitaka Yuriko’s character is unsufferable and suits perfectly her annoying way of talking.
Before winter season starts, I want to watch most of Suits 2, but dear lord, it’s 15 episodes long.
Me, before starting this drama: yeah I’m going to try and watch it for science, but it’s probably going to be the usual BL bullshit Japan likes to give us blah blah blah
Me, an utter FOOL, from the 3rd ep onwards: KUROSAWA BEST BOY I LOVE HIM SO MUCH OH MY GOD KURODACHI NEW ETERNAL SHIP DEARL LORD GIVE ME THE STRENGHT
I am nothing but a clown.
I am obsessed with this drama and this ship more than I can express with words.
Before getting ridiculous about the main characters, let me say that this drama is, simply, like a very good, self-indulgent fanfiction about your otp. The plot is simple, the reading-minds thing is convenient and helps the plot moving forward, but, at the same time, I didn’t feel they abused it: it helped the protagonist, Adachi, connect more with the people around him, but he didn’t use it all the time.
More important, it’s a romantic story with 2 guys, however!! Their gender wasn’t the focus? I mean, they could have been a man and a woman and the story would have been exactly the same, and this is what I wanted and what I wasn’t expecting! Not the usual, dramatic last episodes where one decides that he wants kids, a “normal” family, that he wants to abide to society rules, to meet his parents’ expectations etc etc. No, the “dramatic” part in the last 2 episodes, the problem that arises between the two, makes sense and I found it was well put together. It wasn’t there just because there needs to be some climax near the end.
And this part was the one where I felt near Adachi the most. Yeah, for all the drama he’s a cute introvert who doesn’t really know how to interact with people (how not to emphasize with that lol), but towards the end? When he’s afraid to lose the magic because he feels that, without it, he’s an empty person who can't bond with other people? I felt that. I felt that so much and I wanted to hug him.
And Kurosawa. Oh, Kurosawa. I love him. I LOVE him. So kind, considerate, empathetic, sweet, selfless, loving, but at the same time somehow insecure about his own worth and afraid of showing his true self, and, when it comes to Adachi, a ridiculous loser. The poem in the bus? What an adorable dumbass, oh my God.
So, that’s it. I have been refreshing the subber’s page more times than I am willing to admit and rewatched each episode at least one time. I adore it, it was such a nice surprise.
2019 gave me The Untamed, and 2020 gave me this (and MIU404, God I love that drama so much). Not the same kind of love story, but, still, I am obsessed and one step away from buying Keita Machida’s photobook.
35-SAI NO SHOUJO
I don’t know what I was expecting from this drama, but it wasn’t this. I know I was sceptical, but, man, I was wrong.
Bittersweet, deep, moving. Almost every episode made me cry at least a little.
It’s about life and the people we love, about how often we live without thinking about the time passing, about we often “lose” precious time fighting or holding grudges, when we could have done better things, tell the people we love how precious they are and cherish the time with them. Nevertheless, the fights, the petty grudges are part of life too, and we can’t erase them, can’t avoid them.
Nozomi lost 25 years of her life in a coma, and when she wakes up, you feel so sad for her, because there are a lot of experiences that she’ll never be able to live, because she’s a 10-year-old girl trapped in a 35-year-old woman’s body, because, after 20 years, the world has changed, her family has broken apart, those who were her friends are now disenchanted adults. And I thought she would stay that way for all the drama, but she grows up, mentally, episode by episode, so we witness her becoming a teenager, a young woman, until reaching her real age. And all these phases were portrayed in a perfect way.
At the beginning I didn’t like her family and how they behaved, it was like they weren’t happy she woke up. But little by little, both we and Nozomi understand that in 20 years those people have lived, things have changed, and that’s normal, that’s how life is. Like Nozomi’s family can’t fully understand how she feels about the time she has lost, in the same way Nozomi can’t really understand them, because she hasn’t lived those 20 years, she matured, yes, she grew up in the span of a few months, but hasn’t REALLY lived.
I don’t know how to explain it and I’m probably not making any sense. Anyway, it was a beautiful drama and I did not expect it.
GOKUSHUFUDO
It was, probably, even more fun and stupid than I thought before starting. But still, it is one of those cases where yeah, everyone is ridiculous and over the top and you laugh a lot, but it’s never too much.
When there’s the danger of a somewhat serious moment, boom, something silly happens. And, at the same time, the message gets across anyway, about the importance of family and friends. It was both ridiculous and heart-warming? I don’t know.
And the last episode still destroyed me a little? Even though I kinda knew that something silly would happen, like always, I still cried lol. Also, the very ending was quite fitting for this year (I suppose it was intentional) and it made me cry once again.
NEECHAN NO KOIBITO
This was the only drama, this fall, that didn’t impress me that much. It was ok and I understand that some people might love it and find it heart-warming, but not me.
It was just... a “feel-good drama”, full of good people that love each other, good feelings and positive emotions all around, some characters had some sad experiences or hardships in the past, but we get to know them in a point in their lives where they have somehow moved on (Manato being the only exception). It was hard to emphasize with them, it was supposed to warm my heart but I found it a bit artificial, even cold. Everyone was too good, too perfect. Meh.
I get that some people could even need this kind of drama, in this period, but still, it wasn’t for me.
And it was probably a good thing that I binge-watched it once it was over, because, if I’d watched it one episode a week, I would have dropped it, because it was boring (in fact, I did a bit of skimming).
I’m still in the middle of Kikenna Venus because the subber did until the 5th episode. It seems ok, there’s a bit of mystery but nothing ground-breaking. Yoshitaka Yuriko’s character is unsufferable and suits perfectly her annoying way of talking.
Before winter season starts, I want to watch most of Suits 2, but dear lord, it’s 15 episodes long.