Hakusen Nagashi (1996)

I found this drama when I was searching up music from spitz (Japanese band). I came across a song called "sora mo toberu hazu". I really liked this song and then I found a video of a drama that used this song for their opening. That drama was called "Hakusen Nagashi" and it looked like something I would want to watch. I looked it up and saw Nagase Tomoya an actor I enjoy watching with others that I didn't much know about. Most of the time, if theres a song in a drama that I really like then I know the drama will be good. Hakusen Nagashi didn't disappoint me.

Story: Nothing too out of the box for the plot. This drama is a mix of great things in it. The plot focuses on school, life, friends, and drama. One of the big plots in this drama is dreams/goals after high school. Realizing what you want to do after high school. Also it shows how two people from different worlds are able to connect with each other. I was hooked into seeing how Wataru and Sonoko were going to meet the first time and then on. I really liked that they didn't make Hasebe and Kayano the antagonists for the rest of the drama. I could have easily seen them trying to ruin Wataru and Sonoko's relationship in a lot of the episodes but they didn't because they learned to change. I'm glad that this drama showed how these two sort of change into better people. I wasn't a fan of the way they had to end Wataru and Sonoko's relationship. It just felt lazy and stupid like come on he did it because the other part time students made a bet with him, just dumb.
The first half of the show felt more of Sonoko and Wataru's relationship while the second half focused more on the friendship of everyone. I'm a little disappointed that Wataru didn't get a picture in with the group at the end. The importance of the things you do while graduation is coming closer was a key in this as they gave us a how many days are left for their graduation at the end of each episodes. Even though Sonoko is from a good family, shes not the smartest girl and has to work hard for things like exams and discover whats her dream. While Wataru is by himself hes not able to go and achieve his dream he has and works hard just to live. Later on Shinji easily becomes my favorite character. I like that later on in the drama theirs really no character that you despise. Its just seeing them grow and grow towards graduation. The title Hakusen Nagashi plays a role in the final episode.

Acting/Cast: I only knew Nagase Tomoya and some of the older actors but other than that this cast was new to me. Nagase was good in this role and I found Sakai(Sonoko) and Nakamura (Shinji) being good at theirs as well. Nagase was around 18 when this drama was filmed and I haven't seen a young Nagase in a drama/movie because most of his popular dramas are when hes a bit older.

Music: Music was excellent. It gives you that old classic 90s vibe to the drama. The music from spitz is awesome and they even used a different song by them in the last episode.

Re watch/ Final thoughts: I would highly re watch this drama. Its a good classic that will cheer me up when I'm in the mood for something old. I know that there are 5 specials made after this drama aired. I'm writing this review before watching them and hopefully those specials are as good as the drama was. If they end up making me feel upset of what they did to these characters after graduation, I can always look back at the drama and the wonderful positive ending it was. I'm a bit tempted to not watch the specials because they might ruin things but excited to see how everyone does later on. So after all Hakusen Nagashi is a drama you want to watch. If you like a drama about school, life, friends, and drama then this is the one to watch.

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One of my favorite dramas, and very nostalgic

I consider this to be one of my all time favorite asian dramas I've watched because it merely doesn't just focus on romance. It emphasizes on friendship, questions on future goals, many high school related topics I'm sure weall went through after our high school graduation. However, I first was here to just watch the romance behind this, but the story on graduating and discovering their purpose in life after high school allured me. It was also because I was familiar with Tomaya Nagase, that starred in My Boss, My Hero, another drama that is in one of my all time lists, and Takashi Kashiwabara I was familiar with him too in the classic Itzura Na Kiss. As I kept watching this, I realized this is a very calm, heartwarming and humbling type of drama that I havent' really seen before out of all the Jdramas I've watched. Barely any comedy in it. What made me love about this is the classic nostalgic drama of how the 90s were. That editing, the music, the acting, and even the type of story really was like how the 90s were like, compared to how asian romance dramas are like now. Especially the reason I kept watching was I really fell for the female lead's character. I began to admire her so much of the actress Miki Sakai, and fell for her character, Sonoko. She was very pure, innocent, and even though she lived well off in a nice stable family, she felt shes not enough as a person because she's not as smart and undecisive about her future. But she doesn't act spoiled at all. I admire that so much of her and that was the kind of girl I dreamed of being with. Her character is always selfless and always looks out for those she cares for, regardless of her own personal wants. And another reason why I love this is because I really do like the character behind the main male lead, Wataru, played by Nagase. He's a poor boy who lives on his own due to difficult circumstances, that he believes he can't reach his dream. And he is always isolating from everyone, even from Sonoko. You don't find many dramas nowadays that have a poor male lead and a rich female lead. Lately for years now, its always been the rich man and poor female type of romance, and that is getting tiring so I wanted to see something different. This drama was one of those rare type of stories. And the great thing is that the story focuses on the other characters as well, like they are just as important as the main characters. I really value dramas that really puts attention to that. I would say that this show has been really great, with many 90s nostalgic moments you remember, but at times there would be sudden plot twists that would throw me off, probably because of the pacing of the series, since its 11 episodes. But that is my only downfall of this show. I LOVE the music that plays in the opening, and the classical romantic type of music that plays in the background. It calms me down so much and really gives me vibes of traveling back to the 90s. I get emotional thinking about it. ESPECIALLY the very last song played by SPLITZ at the last scene of Sonoko and Wataru. That killed me hahaha. Anyways, to conclude this, I love this drama and it placed a huge impact in my heart just for me personally. One more that I love is that there are SPECIALS taking place through a span of ten years since the first drama aired, that really tells the story of their journey throughout life, especially that it focuses on the story between Sonoko and Wataru. Unfortunately, I cant' find ANY of them that have english subtitles!! Anyways, I love this drama and I keep rewatching it. I hope you feel the same way I feel too when you try.

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