If you want to watch this you should do it with an open-mind and not expect to take anything seriously. The story really hooked me in because I thought it was an interesting concept. A mix of sports and sci-fi is honestly the best thing media could give us. Plus, strange melodramatic twists in the midst of a drama about PING PONG? Absolutely phenomenal.

I wish this was a full-fledged series with a higher budget because all the characters truly stole my heart. Especially the found family dynamic of one of the rival teams. The friendships that formed between the main team and a couple of their rivals were also fantastic, I absolutely adored their interactions together. Even the "final boss" rival team made me cry. Again, my only true qualm with this series is that I wish it was longer so the show could focus more on the development of the characters and their relationships.

The acting is what you would expect from a drama acted almost entirely by boy group members but they tried their best, and you also have some extremely strong actors in the mix so it's bearable.

The soundtrack was so much fun, even though some of the louder songs put a damper on the mood sometimes but it was all in good fun. I listened to Shippu Jinrai on repeat after watching the show. I love EBiDAN groups a lot but I never really got into a lot of them properly, and this was the perfect chance for me to get to know more about them.

All in all who doesn't love a good sports story, especially when friendship is involved. If you like friendship, boy groups, and futuristic sports (lol) this is for you.

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This drama has its problems, yet it is really important to me and started airing when I wanted to give up on a lot of things in my life. Plus it brings up a lot of issues, both personal and societal. However, the plot was all over the place which created discord in a very mellow drama. A part of me might argue that the writers tried to make it feels "real" but it really disconnected me from the show as a viewer and made me put off watching it for a long time. While watching this drama I was very contemplative about my life especially since I want to enter a health profession in the future.

It's a very touching drama and shows you a lot of the harsh realities of life and the medical field while still maintaining some light-heartedness. Plus it showed the importance of friendship which I greatly appreciated. I loved the friendship between Rumi and Chinatsu so much and want to see more of it. There was no ~romance~ but there is the aspect of "love" which I can't really talk about without spoiling but it was surprisingly one of the better subplots in this show. A lot of the focus on the show was about Rumi's internal struggle, dealing with being rejected from school, her first love, and her friends. I would have ADORED it if it was given time, because she is such a great character and these were all such /real/ topics, but it was all dealt with too quickly in the midst of a show that tried to do more than it could. It was nice to see her grow a bit and she was a great character with a strong personality albeit an underdeveloped one.

Now onto the acting! I have a bit of a bias towards Yua Shinkawa, watching her on screen as Rumi gave me such a nice feeling, like she's the cool older sister I never had. I feel like she is still not an astounding actress but she has not gotten many chances to shine yet save for a couple supporting roles in some popular dramas. Itoh Sairi -though given a lot of screen time - felt very underutilized in this because her character was thrown under the bus in my opinion, she was amazing and I definitely want to check out some of her other works now. The rest of the cast were good as well I didn't see many well-known faces but they all gave more than decent performances. The drama had me hoping I would see some of the cast in better projects soon.

So yeah, objectively, I would give it around a 7 (and that's a bit of a reach too). It had potential but it was ruined. I would still give it a go if you're interested in the medical field (especially nursing) and want to see how people deal with patients. I would also watch if you have an internal struggle you would like to deal with because that is a huge focus of the show. I would not watch it again because it isn't really good enough for that in all honesty.

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