It was my first drama of this kind, this show was quite entertaining but the problem is in the few j-dramas that I saw the female characters lack personality, have 1 dimension character, always seems like a clueless girl who has 1 brain cell waiting for the ML to rescue her. This lack of depth truly harms j-dramas. Why the female lead still has to be mushy and naive even when she wants revenge for the murder of her mother?

The excessive use of the same flashback was unnecessary that I end up skipping them. I know for the plot, the characters end up doing some stupid actions like why Sakura would ask her nemesis to confess her crime?

The acting was great and no they are not emotionless.
The storyline has succeeded to make me curious about Japanese Culture. Each sweet was beautifully made to convey a great historic background. I really enjoyed everything that was related to sweets.
Props to Kyoko (Tsubaki's mom) I liked her character, she's a great actress!