Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo (2016)

The concept of time travel has always been fascinating and that alone might be enough reason why you want to pick this, but that's not all there's more to it, and why this drama is worth watching. Unlike other dramas using time travel as a plot, this one totally makes sense at all, they have every bit of explanation to all our questions, and that is important because a plot that makes no sense is a big turn off.

The characters here act like real high school students unlike characters in other high school dramas which have tendency to act too mature for their age. As a viewer doing that hurts the experience, removing too much reality in my opinion is unnecessary and annoying. It's not hard to spot this we've been in high school once in our life and in this drama that scene on the beach was the best example on how to portray real high school characters in drama. The emotion in that awkward situation looks authentic and flashback came to me as similar thing happen during high school.

The chemistry of our trio is by all means great, one of the best chemistry I've seen in my years of watching Japanese drama. They are fun characters but what's more fun is watching their interactions together which make me think that they are real friends in real life. As for the romance, I'm no authority on this due to the fact that maybe I'm not a romantic person or I just don't give a damn, but I think you will get what you want in this drama. Five episodes for this drama is just perfect which makes the pacing not draggy at all, though I wouldn't mind if they made additional episodes for other side characters just like in episode 2. That episode was well crafted which makes me teary-eyed a bit.

Music, I love those 2 songs in this drama particularly the ending song. I've read the lyrics and it really suits the story and captures the atmosphere of this drama, they also insert the song at the most appropriate time. Those scenes as it plays were perfectly done, those transitions the effects added much to the emotions I've had.

No words can describe how glad I am to see Kuroshima Yuina back again. I always knew this girl is capable of great feats just that her performance in some drama or movies recently was average. When I said characters here acts like real high school students I was mostly referring to her. Every gestures of her character are just like you would expect if an innocent mindless high school student gets this ability. She uses time travel as if nothing and she's fun to watch every time she doing it. I even put myself on Shohei's shoes and thinking she pain in the ass for not thinking of the consequences. She has grown into a great actress far from that girl who continuously taps honoo-kun to get his attention.

I am particularly honest towards boy band members which IMO most of them suck, but I always give credit where credit is due. Kikuchi Fuma who played Fukamachi Shohei did well of portraying a guy from year 2122 who experience love for the first time. He makes the development of the character looks believable. Takeuchi Ryoma on the other hand had less screen time but that does not mean he's the weakest as he nailed those dramatic scenes convincingly and you could really feel the frustration from him. This guy has the dramatic chops to play more serious roles. Lastly Yoshimoto Miyu, you are so damn cute, I just wished that they make you appear more in this drama but anyway hope for more drama from you in the future.

So the ultimate question, Is the ending sad? Well it depends on your own perspective, all I can say is that there's a cute plot twist in the end that makes Mihane remain positive and that was brilliant.

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Having watched the anime, I've thought that there will be no surprises here with the plot. However, the drama gets more in depth with the characters and the romance. Plus, the story wasn't complicated, as it explained the whole time travelling very well. Also, the small cases that each episode took upon were interesting and entertaining. The love triangle was seriously well made, however, the main love story kind felt like it was one sided rather than a passionate young love story. The leading lady was really good, and she actually was very perky and cute, reminding me rather of a character in a Korean drama than in a Japanese, as in the later the girls mostly act shyly and innocent. The resemblance with the anime character was there as well. Maybe my only problem was the last episode that was kind of a let down. So, 7 out of 10.

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