Better than I expected

This Drama is about 19 year-olds, and it is several decades since I was that age, so I wasn't sure how I'd react. I watched it after being impressed by the performance of Park Se Hyun in "Best Ending" and seeing her listed in the cast for this Drama. She did not disappoint, and nor did the Drama overall. Ms Park's character and her delivery were the standout for me, but the whole Drama was more nuanced and intelligent than I was expecting. The only letdown were the AWFUL subs. They were worse than most fan subs - full of typos and really bad, awkward English. Happily, the Drama's cast defeated the bad subs by shining despite them.

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Life is like a box of Nagamashi

Tokyo Sentimental centres around Karuri Takuzo, who is a maker of traditional Japanese sweets. The drama is best viewed like a collection of sweets, individually wrapped and testing better when not consumed all at once.

The structure of each episode is really simple: A hopelessly romantic dreamer in his mid-50s "falls in love" each episode and wanders around a specific part of Tokyo with his new love, before the episode and the new love end.

The drama is very well named. It is all about Tokyo, and about being sentimental. There is no central plot or story arc connecting all the episodes, they really are like individual treats. Because they are all very similar, watching a lot of them back to back can be a little much, in the same way that having too many sweets all at once can be a little much. Taken one or two at a time, they are deliciously sweet and enjoyable.

I really like this drama for a couple of reasons: first of all I had the pleasure of QCing the subs for the first five episodes, which meant lots of long lingering looks at each of those episodes. Second, I like the fact that Karuri-San is a man of roughly my age. A confirmed bachelor who never stops dreaming of finding "the one" he reminds me of Don Quixote, a man whose perceptions of himself are strikingly different to the way others perceive him.

This Don Quixote also has a Sancho Panza. Takahata Mitsuki absolutely shines as his very levelheaded shop assistant/reality anchor Sudo Akane. Their relationship is strictly platonic and a nice demonstration of how dramas can show warm close friendships that have nothing to do with romantic attraction. Akane-chan gets one episode in which she is the central character, and experiences her own crush, and that is one of the highlights, both for giving her the focus she deserves, and also as a break from the formulaic nature of the basic structure of most episodes.

There is one other episode in which despite conforming to the standard formula there is a lot more emotional depth. The episode in which Karuri-San interacts with a woman he knew as a child who now has dementia was very touching, and gave Yoshida Kotaro an opportunity to show more emotional depth and range and his character. The episode in which the actor plays the shopkeeper learning to be an actor was also one that stood out for me.

The other thing which makes this drama a success is the fact that each episode does feature the same object of affection - Tokyo itself. The episodes are actually named after the part of Tokyo in which they are set, and as someone who is unlikely to ever go, the languorous and loving look at the byways and alleyways and nooks and crannies of various parts of Tokyo is a standout. In the life of the lead, women may come and go but the city he loves remains, and he loves sharing his encyclopedic knowledge of that beloved city with each of his episodic dates.

So if you want to show that celebrates Tokyo, that embraces mature middle-age and that can be a lot of fun in small doses, do try an episode or two of Tokyo sentimental. Then, before "sweet" becomes "cloying, " put the box away and have a couple more on another day.

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Competent SP but over long

I watched this SP in preparation for watching Season 2 of Mikaiketsu No Onna. It was refreshing to watch an SP that matched the main series in terms of acting and story.
The story followed the template of the series well, with a strong focus on the two female leads. The SP opened with a scene described in a voice over as irrelevant but that turned out to be anything but.
The only flaw was the length. The culprit was obvious 15 minutes before the end, and much of the last 15 minutes was exposition that restated the obvious. Overall, a satisfactory warmup for Season 2

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NOT worth the wait

I held off watching Radiation House until this SP was subbed, and while the Drama was great and well worth the wait, the same could sadly not be said for this SP.

This was a 90 minute SP that was 45 minutes of flashbacks woven into a couple of interesting "case of the week" stories. It was clearly intended to "catch up" viewers in time for Season 2, and felt like a filler, way too much padding. Which is a shame because if the flashbacks had been cut out, or at least massively trimmed, the fresh content would have stood out more. I'm not sorry I watched this, but it adds VERY little to the series overall, and leaves me hoping that Season 2 returns to the excellence of Season 1

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Stunning debut

This was such a sweet, fun story, and qualitatively very much better than I expected. The dynamics of the story are reminiscent of Put Your Head On My Shoulder with the ML falling fast and hard while the FL remains oblivious for a long time. And what an FL! She is CLEARLY the alpha in the pairing, which is rare enough as is, but for an 18 y.o actress on debut to have such a role, and to excel at it, was a real joy to see.

With a few episodes to go I was going to give this Drama 8/10 but then noble idiocy made its expected appearance. The way the Drama handled it caused me to bump its score UP to 8.5.

So often in Dramas, noble idiocy is dragged on for ages, then brushed off as a passing irrelevance of no real import, but this Drama did neither. The noble idiocy itself was wrapped in a relatively short time (yay), but then the CONSEQUENCES were shown to be very serious, particularly the emotional impact on the injured party and those close to them(yay+). The person guilty of being the noble idiot even suffered physical pain as part of their penance. This was VERY refreshing, especially the dialogue given by the injured party, clearly explaining the reason the "noble" idiocy was nothing of sort, but was selfish and stupid.

All in all, this was a very satisfying and sweet watch, with a powerful romantic OTP, intelligent dialogue and bright and forthright FL and a great performance on debut by the lead female. Who also has a lovely singing voice :)

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This Drama was badged "OCN Romance", a nice reminder that OCN doesn't really focus on romance Dramas. It kinda showed. The story itself was pleasant, but the strongest moments for the OTP(s) were the sad moments. They were the sceness that made me feel most strongly.

Part of that was the overly-elaborate time travel recursion. I have absolutely no problem with shows that don't bother trying to come up with an explanation for time travel, because there isn't one. As the Doctor said, it's all just "wibbly wobbly, timey-wimey stuff", so Dramas can cook up whatever explanation they like, or none at all, which is how this Drama handled it. But I think the writers got a bit carried away the idea of Inception-style layers upon layers, like a Matryoshka doll version of the Matrix. The intricacies took some of the gloss off the OTP and made it easier to focus on and cheer for the single-timeline stories. The boy who became a celebrity so that his crush could call him Oppa was my favourite of those.

Overall, by no means an awful Drama, and it did have the virtue of being short, total runtime well short of 9 hours. I've definitely sat through much worse.

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"No drama" Dramas are very hard to do right - they tend to come across as boring. This one really showed how to meet the challenge. It was a simple, sweet story full of fun and light, with almost no angst at all. What made it work was the casting and the acting. The two leads especially really sold me on the story, and I lost count of the number of times I laughed out loud, then gushed "awww" at the sweetness.

The only reason I 'downgraded' this fine Drama to 8.5 is that it was a little too long. had it been somewhere between 25-30 episodes, I feel certain I would have given it a 10. As it is, it's still the second highest score I've given to any C Drama, and only the second to go over 7.5. A refreshing change from the current Korean obsession with the supernatural, psychopaths and serial killers - often all together. This one was an almost perfect confection.

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This Drama at first felt like a war between two initialisms: SARFT vs OTP. Happily, OTP won. For the first 12 or so episodes the frequency, intensity and crude unsubtlety of the political propaganda was so bad it was laughable. If you tried playing a drinking game to down a shot every time some version of the phrase "for the glory of China" was said in the first third of the Drama, you'd be at severe risk of fatal alcohol poisoning by the end of each episode.

BUT, after that flag-waving rarara start, The PPL (propaganda placement) was dialed right back, the story settled down, and go on with the important business of delivering a sweet, cute romantic Drama. The OTP sold the conventional story very well, and the supporting characters were great. Especially Niannian's BFFs, both of whom were adorable (and easy on the eyes) . Also a BIG shoutout for having the FEMALE lead being openly and repeatedly described and acknowledged as a genius. As I close in on three hundred K Dramas started, I am STILL waiting to see one where the female lead was the intellectual superior of the male, and where he was happy to acknowledge that

Most C Dramas I've tried have been underwhelming for me, but this one was a delight.

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Stupidly, I watched this SP to the unmitigatedly abominable series in the vain hope that it would somehow be better. That thinking was as annoyingly insane as Kahoko's monstrously maliciously mental Mother. If this Drama is "all about family", the message it's trying to convey is "don't have one, or be part of one, ever. You'll regret it"

The whole series and SP were manic and OTT and relentlessly awful. The Drama at least had the redeeming feature of the titular lead's own growth from 22 year old child to functioning adult, but sitting through all 11 episodes (inc this SP) is, perhaps ironically, enough to reduce sane viewers to gibbering wrecks.

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Saved the Best Till Last

After the first 20 episodes of this 44 episode Drama, it was already BY FAR one of the best C Dramas I'd watched. By episode 39, I was trying to decide whether I would give it an 8 or even go as high as 8.5/10 - a stratospheric score for C Dramas, only reached or bettered by three Dramas. Even while I was debating 8 vs 8.5 I kept telling myself "wait, they could screw up the final four". Instead, they did THE EXACT OPPOSITE and this became my very first 10/10 C Drama

I give it 10/10 despite niggles like the length (40 would have been better) and the irritating and inconsistent dubbing because they "nailed the landing". The final two episodes were sublime. The power of the emotion and the skill of the acting had me in tears, in all the right places and all the right ways.

Right from the start, the dialogue impressed me - and I say that as someone dependent on subtitles. Knowing how much is lost in translation, my principle is that if the SUBS are thoughtful, powerful and not trite, then the actual dialogue must be AMAZING. I did not roll my eyes ONCE though the whole Drama, and even when they added elements that often DO induce eye-rolling and or facepalming (especially in K Dramas), they handled them with the quiet realism and restraint that made this such an engaging watch.

The opening and closing songs were a joy to listen to, and the VERY end was simply perfect - absolutely flawless. This Drama was such an immensely satisfying experience I doubt I will come across another as good for quite some time.

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Toxic tsundere - pass

I gave this five episodes because of the bright, funny start. I genuinely laughed often in the first couple of episodes, and the concept displayed real promise. But it quickly settled into a misogynist pattern of abusing and mocking the FL while excusing the ML for being a thoroughly nasty piece of work. The "pranking" session coming after the FL was egged and floured was actually quite brutal, but it did not signal any change for the better in the treatment of the FL. With no improvement by the end of 5, it became another "life is too short" moment, and I was glad to dump it.

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Ran out of steam

This Drama started brightly and as a fan of Shen Yue I was hoping for good things. Sadly, it fell flat rather quickly.

In her EXCELLENT review
https://mydramalist.com/profile/8862033/reviews

Sandy Prater said in part:

"As for cons, the biggest is the script. At times it wants to take itself very seriously and tries to set up moments of intense realism/realistic issues but then uses the most ridiculous and fantastical scenarios to "solve" them. The conflicts are repetitive and (without revealing any spoilers) don't really show much growth in the characters - just a dull acceptance from the characters themselves or those around them, which I don't believe was the intended takeaway."

That 'dull acceptance' bit was a perfect summation. Two especially egregious examples spring to mind. The "geeky girl" of the 4 was treated VERY badly over several episodes (~14-17) by both the school authorities and her friends, but there was no proper resolution. In another instance, in about ep 15 the 'spoiled princess' deleted her BF's entire photo collection of sevreal years in a fit of infantile jealous pique and, at least by the time I dropped at 19, she had NEVER apologised, nor seen any need to.
Shen Yue's own role was a bit disappointing as her romantic fixation was one I found troubling. My wait for another Shen Yue Drama I can truly enjoy goes on

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I beg to differ

After reading the other reviews of this Drama I was hopeful that this might FINALLY be a C Drama free of the patronising patriarchal propaganda that poisons almost every C Drama I've tried to watch. Sadly, it was not. I stuck it out for 10 episodes, but by then I'd had enough - ESPECIALLY of the way the young rookie ML took over the FL's life

Other reviewers have praised this as a realistic office Drama, but I can' agree. The ML is a rookie, very young AND an intern on probation, but despite that, within a month not only is he quite insanely possessive of his boss, he's also compltely forgotten the concept of "personal space" If any PA physically intruded on their boss like that in any of the offices I know, that PA would not last long.

This is a 35 episode Drama, yet instead of taking its time to develop the romantic relationship, we already see the ML portrayed as the physical saviour of the FL in multiple occasions within the first 5 episodes. By episode 10, we're also "treated" to the sight of HIM telling her how to do her job. It's this which was the last straw for me, because it's SO depressingly common in C Dramas - no matter how skilled and competent a woman is at her job, she ALWAYS needs a man to teach her - in this case a man barely out of college and with zero prior work experience at all.

If you're after a Drama featuring a good looking OTP, then by all means try this one. If you want a Drama that gives token lip service to the idea of female empowerment while perpetuating Chinese chauvinism, this Dram would be PERFECT. But if you want Drama that ACTUALLY celebrates independent women who don't need to be protected and tutored by males, look elsewhere.

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