I started watching Ashi Girl with fervor as soon as I ran across it. The premise was unique and fun for a Japanese drama, where we do not usually see a wide array of historical-fusion as we do with Korean and Chinese dramas. The characters were loveable and the story sucked me right in.

However, as the drama progressed, some plot points/character attributes began to bother me—most upfront was Yui’s almost instant infatuation with Wakagimi. I get it, he’s really cool. But in the beginning she didn’t really know that and spent such a short amount of time with him for her to suddenly exert so much effort to be with him…even to the point of being willing to risk her life for him. It was a little extreme, though more understandable as she got to know him more.

Wakagimi himself was somewhat of a flat character to me. There were moments when we saw some dimension to him but overall by the end I still didn’t feel like I knew him at all beyond “cool and caring leader.”

I will say Yui shocked me in the end as well with her decision. I won’t say what it was as you can read the comments for that spoiler if you choose but the way it was portrayed seemed really unrealistic to me. She didn’t even cry or seem emotional at all about the choice she made, which in and of itself didn’t frustrate me so much as her response to it.

Also, and I will spoil this because damn if I’m not pissed: we never get a kiss! WTF. There are a couple of close calls (where they “almost” kiss but then get interrupted) but then the show never went through with it. If you’re not going to give us a kiss…why bother teasing us with almost-kisses?? *fumes*

Overall I was left feeling like it was a good, fun watch that ultimately and unfortunately wasted a lot of good potential. Whomp whomp.