0.5 no Otoko (2023)

Everyone has their reasons, but everyone has a reason.

In our world, every single human being, whether they be a newborn or someone in hospice, has their own story and reasons as to why they are in that position. But one thing is certain: all of us will find our purpose somewhere along our journey through life.

This drama, although rather short, tells us viewers the entire story of Masaharu's rather unfortunate-seeming life, along with the evolving lives of his extended family living with him. Without spoiling much, we see Masaharu go from a complete recluse to a functioning member of society who finally feels like he has meaning in life after he is exposed to and forced to deal with situations concerning his past, others' futures, or others. And although he is the main character, we do see similar developments in some of the other leads (again, I don't want to spoil much, so I won't say).

I find this style of storytelling amazing: a realistic plot with realistic characters and situations. Nothing is blown out of proportion for "drama," and no obvious plot devices are used—not even the addition of music to induce emotion is used often. All they relied on was the camerawork, acting, and story itself, which is absolutely beautiful.

From a more technical aspect, I can say that literally everything was perfect: cinematography, lighting, sound, etc. They even managed to include the rather unique element of a cross-sectional house set into the story without it feeling out of place or useless.

This J-Drama is rather peculiar to me because I'm neither used to this genre nor this level of production quality with J-Drama. Honestly, I think this surpassed many of the K-Dramas I've seen too!

Anyway, you already know I have to give this a 10/10. It's also now #2 on my list of favorite dramas—both incredible feats.
I highly recommend this to absolutely everyone.

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Reality Check

*** POSSIBLE SPOILERS ***

The story for this show was truly spectacular and one of the most honestly unique yet real "true-to-life" stories I have seen in a long time. Granted it may just be my personal bias since recently I've also moved and had to go through combining households, which is tricky for any situation.

The family in this story is relatively close and friendly with each other, however, you can tell from the beginning that each member also had their own worries and challenges they kept secret, making it even more difficult for them to fully immerse themselves immediately into the "2.5 household".


Watching each character find their own pace and place within the newly built home/family was gut-wrenching and even a little heartbreaking, yet also very relatable. Watching Ema-chan go through such a big family change while going through her own turbulent private, personal growth and change was extremely relatable and made me feel so very proud of her when watching her character grow. The same goes for Masaharu-san, too; I felt attached to both him and Ema-chan, they both seemed to bring to light sides of me from when I'm depressed or overwhelmed, and even sides of myself from when I was younger. I apologize if I sound like a broken record here.


Watching the family dynamic from an outsider's point of view was truly wonderful. While there were some relatable things, there were also some moments that felt like there was a "lesson" to be learned. Though, not so much so that it felt pushy or more prominent than the story or overbearing. It was nice to see a family gathering together, even while in their own spaces, to grow as their own person and to strengthen the family without such strong feelings that overtook the show or warped the story into something completely different.


I truly enjoyed this show. It was a very calming, relatable, genuine, open, honest, funny, and comforting show to watch, while also bringing up some questions for myself, and for society as a whole on how we treat people or help people different than ourselves. After all... "what is diversity?"

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