Irritating start, great rest of story

Just wanna say that I am probably more emotionless than most people who’ve watched (or plan to watch) this but I’ll just say that if you’ve watched other tragedy drama from the time (ex. Koukou Kyoushi 1993) then you probably won’t find it all that sad like what currently every other commend and review is hyping it up to be, still depressing don’t get me wrong, but it’s not crying gut wrenching sad, or to me at least, probably because of things I will discuss but I digress.
This was a very good watch, definitely in the current top 5 most tragic dramas I’ve watched (currently I haven’t seen many but if I include anime then still in the top 10 at least). Pretty much every single episode had some tragic happening whether that be as small as someone failing at regaining their footing in life or as big as someone dying, this drama had it all, but the way it originally set things up for the main couple (Maria and Shiro) was kinda forced in my opinion, like what person on earth would purposely take the unnecessarily hard route to leaving his old life behind instead of the simple option? I guess Shiro would. But after that arc (which was the first two episodes if memory serves me right) the happenings regarding their relationship more or less feel believable including the more irrational decisions taken by the two (don’t want to spoil it so I used a very vague word). The story had me rather invested the entire time, something that I certainly wasn’t expecting to happen in the first two episodes plus the fact that it’s very dramatic (a theme I ironically don’t enjoy much). The reason why this gets only an 8.0 though is partially related to the first two episode problem and partially related to that last point: It at times felt dramatic for the sake of being dramatic. Every last character in the story managed to at one point or another get the short end of the stick, and literally only two characters after 12 episodes managed to seem happy (Jun and Nana, will speak more later) this was a trope I identified pretty much in the first episode, so it did kinda take the joy out of watching some of the scenes because I just expected that to happen, I knew it wouldn’t turn out well.
Between the two main relationships in the show, Maria-Shido and Nana-Jun, the latter of the two I found a lot more enjoyable to watch; Nana being blind and Jun having his own legal and mental troubles somehow made their side relationship a lot more engaging than Maria-Shido’s but knowing me. This almost certainly stems from the fact that I could sense a happier ending with them but it is also probably because Nana was a lot brighter of a character (because of her disability) who never really dwelled on issues of the past and Jun just wanted happiness for her, so you could see it would be either a satisfying or happy ending. Not saying Maria-Shido’s was bad no, just it was obviously made out to be more depressing and also used more plot devices to achieve that goal (the last episode).
Technical things in the show were at the standard of 90s J-Drama: terrible lighting, decent cinematography, great music (the main theme song is up there with “Bokutachi no Shippai”), good acting and effects, etc. Only complaint isn’t related to the official production but the subs; they’re from a group that I’ve seen before, they are very lazy when it comes to timing lines and tend to drop words that they should have kept, but it didn’t really take away from the story.
Overall a good watch, I recommend this to any J-Drama enjoyer

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Lightweight series to pass time

This miniseries is based off of a manga by the same name and also has an anime by the same name, I've read/seen neither so I won't compare them. I watched this miniseries because I myself do carpentry and a bunch of other things thanks to the gift from God, YouTube. Because of this though I did spot several odd choices but that's beyond the scope of this review and most are nitpicks anyways.
Story was extremely easy to follow, so for an idiot like me that's very welcomed; no ridiculous drama, complex relationships, deep lore, etc. just a group of girls that enjoy making things themselves (a dying passion in the modern world I find). Each character was obviously written around a central trope but considering the simplicity of the show it's acceptable, just wish some of them didn't try and act like anime characters lmao.
The technical aspects of the show is apparently average for J-Drama of today: poor colour grading (ex. skin tone is the same colour as the wall in some scenes, orange tint, an obscene amount of bloom, etc.) Good music, good camera work, enthusiastic acting, and more; it balances out to be good by my standards.
Anyways I recommend this to other DIYers or those who enjoy 0 drama series. This is certainly a show I'll rewatch a few times

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Love knows no bounds.

What a rare spectacle it is seeing a J-Drama so far removed from the norm; a short story about the chance encounter and eventual love between a Japanese and a Korean despite neither knowing the other's language (nor a common ground language such as English).
I relate somewhat personally to this drama as it reminds me of how my parents met (Mom is Canadian, dad is Swedish, email pen pals for the longest time before meeting) so seeing all this in a drama format was really nice.
As I mentioned above, this is a very rare format, I've hardly seen any J-Drama where they leave Japan, let alone have true foreign actors/actresses (meaning not speaking Japanese), it as genuinely really cool to see this drama share practically half of it's screen time with a Korean setting and a Korean cast (who many of you probably know are all rather famous themselves). I like the themes presented in the show too, really gave me a proper grasp on just how bad the Korean Economy was at the time compared to the also poorly performing Japanese (I won't over explain any of it but yes I know the Japanese were MUCH better off still) along with the still present cultural resentment towards the Japanese.
I enjoyed the acting very much, I found the way Tomoko and Ji Hoon communicated through the language barrier very realistic and rather sweet at times.

Overall a very good short drama, I recommend this to absolutely everyone (especially Japanese learners, for obvious reasons, Tomoko uses pretty easy to understand Japanese most of the time)

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This sucks

This is possibly the only TV show in general that I've ever written and published a review for before finishing it but this show is just so hard to watch that I gotta take a break from watching (Not dropping, just it will take a while to finish, I will update the review when I do) but I need to get my words out there before I completely forget.
No need to summarise this show, read the synopsis and you'll understand (I'm probably stupid but I thought it was based off a real account, it isn't lol). Going into this I knew it would annoy me to some extent, but I figured Kazuma (ML) would get revenge, have development, or just something good would happen to him, but no, out of the 5 episodes I've seen Kazuma literally has zero wins, no development, and his "wife" is just getting worse and worse, like not ONCE has he stood up for himself, and his attempts at adultery (it's implied several times) never even comes close to fruition. As a western man I probably am missing some characteristics particular to Japanese families, but as a man with self pride it hurts me to see him being bullied so badly by his wife and despite all of his neighbours knowing, doing nothing to help him, and I really hate that one p***k that seemingly idolizes Sanae. I also do most certainly not like Sanae (FL) is raising their daughter, I don't think I need to explain why.
Like what someone said in the comments, it's not that funny that they wrote this drama about a very serious yet socially sensitive topic in a comedic way throughout the entire run. If you know me then you'd know I enjoy comedy as much as the next even in serious shows, but then they have to at the very least show development with said problem, in ~4 hours of TV, they've managed to not show any of that, not even accidentally.
Anyways, nothing is good about any part of this show but ironically the ONE thing most J-Drama from this period do wrong: the lighting.
The main 2 characters are bad for reasons above, everyone else is too minor to have real opinions on, though that Ryousuke guy seems to ALWAYS be the root of everyone failing their plans.
Don't watch this show, or at the very least don't binge it.


P.S. to dispel any of these comments:
1) I'm not suggesting for Kazuma to be overpowering and abusive and whatnot in return, I just want him to be more assertive and hold his ground like a man should. Marriage is a give and take relationship, not one or the other.
2) I although may be implying adultery is acceptable to do, i don't actually believe so. Just the other woman in Kazuma's life would be a lot more bearable for him than his current wife. The other 2 guys committing adultery is unacceptable considering their wives are what I'd say are common ideals in Japan.

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