This review may contain spoilers
A beautiful journey between dreams and reality.
I had no expectations when I watched this asadora because I read some bad reviews and saw the low ratings when it was still airing. BUT, I surprisingly really liked Mai Agare. I cried with a big smile on my face when I watched the last episode, the ending was really satisfying for me ♡Honestly, some asadoras are like a chore to complete, but for me Mai Agare was very light and easy to watch. of course there were times when I didn't like the heroine's decisions, but when I followed her journey until the end, I could see the point of the story why it was made that way.
WHAT I DON’T LIKE:
1. the first half and second half are like different stories, too different. it's a shame because the scene where the heroine learns to become a pilot is very well made, but it just stopped in the second half. I’m sure there will be many viewers who will drop this asadora here, but luckily all the differences will be one complete story when you watch this until the last episode.
2. seems like they ran out of funds in the second half because it was maximized in the flight scenes. they used the same place continuously and it really felt like in a studio. however, Mai Agare is still much better than Hiyokko in this regard.
3. like other asadoras, they will bring up a little more problems in the last 20 episodes, but fortunately it is finished well.
4. the bond between family relationships is quite good, but it still feels like there is a wall between them.
WHAT I LIKE:
1. although the heroine has some flaws in her character, I quite like her because she is always considerate about other people’s feelings, values teamwork highly, she is always able to see the good in people and passionate about whatever she does.
2. her family relationships. not the best, but I like how all her family members are willing to learn to help. although theres love-hate relationship with heroine's older brother, everything ends well.
3. her father is a hard worker and really loves his family, this is one of things that is quite rare in other asadora.
4. i really like when the heroine is learning to be a pilot at aviation school. the scenes here changed my perspective on pilots and the world of aviation.
5. i like the relationship between the heroine and the instructor during aviation school. how the instructor is shown as a tough character, turns out to be warm and well-intentioned.
6. teamwork! especially when the heroine is in the college club and aviation school. i really like the friendship between the female lead and her friends.
7. hero. yes, he has flaws and seems gloomy, but he is one of the best heroes. the thing I like the most because he is always gentle to the heroine.
8. the relationship between heroine and hero. i like how their relationship is two-way, discussing with each other every time they make a decision, compromising with each other's work, working together to take care of their daughter, and trying to always make time for each other while still giving space for themselves.
9. glad in the last few episodes the heroine begins to explore her initial dream, which is in the world of aviation. I like how she begins to explore again not as a cure for regret, but as an addition to the various chosen dreams that she has done and perfects them all.
10. i like how this story ends! for me Mai Agare is an asadora that ended very beautifully. I am really satisfied with the ending. the thing I’m most happy about is that all of the heroine's friends came to witness how the heroine fulfills her dream. the final scene is so beautiful and heartwarming.
Overall, even though this asadora has some bad reviews, i would still recommend you to watch Mai Agare! i remind you, if you want to be satisfied watching this, you have to watch it until the very last episode! the last 3 episodes are like keys that must be used to unlock in order to perfect the heroine's journey. I hope my review can help a little, happy watching!
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This review may contain spoilers
"...until the skies clear."
"Mai Agare" is the 23rd asadora I've completed. Like a lot of people, the negative comments about this asadora made me hesitate to watch it. I don't think the comments are unwarranted. "Mai Agare" actually really reminds me of "Mare" and "Hanbun, Aoi," which both have similar storylines (and caused me frustration at times). However, both of these asadoras are beloved in this community so I think "Mai Agare" should also be given some slack. Major spoilers follow!The first two weeks of "Mai Agare" featuring the childhood of our heroine, Mai, are hands down my favorite part. I really loved the child actress who played Mai and I was very happy that they brought her back briefly to play Mai's daughter in the final episode. The first half of the asadora I think is very strong. It shows Mai developing a passion for airplanes and then deciding to go to flight school. It starts to go down for me when Mai decides to help her family's factory instead of becoming a pilot. I personally wasn't particularly fascinated with the 'look how screws are made' thing at first, though I started to like the factory part later on. Thankfully, the plot starts to pick up when Mai and her second love interest, Takashi (Akaso Eiji), get together. From there, I really liked the asadora again. Mai discovers her real passion and even gets to complete her original dream.
I saw some comments about people not liking the actress, Fukuhara Haruka, who played Mai. Of course, that's their opinion. But I personally really liked Fukuhara as Mai. She played a bright, almost too positive character perfectly. Anytime she was slightly annoying was really the plot's fault not hers (lol). I also just really liked Mai's personality, which made me want to continue watching even when I was getting frustrated.
Sadly, the side characters don't really stick out for me besides Mai's family and some of her friends, particularly childhood friend Kurumi (Yamashita Mizuki). I wasn't fan of her brother's, Haruto (Yokoyama Yu), "arc." I did really like Mai's flight school friends, Rinko (Yamazaki Hirona) and Kashiwagi (Meguro Ren). The latter being her first boyfriend as well. However, once flight school is over, you maybe see them a handful of times. I think this is another big problem of "Mai Agare." Only Mai herself, Kurumi, and Takashi (and to a certain extent her family) have satisfying arcs. No one else really does, which is a shame. I will say that my favorite character is definitely Mai's grandmother Shoko (Takahata Atsuko). I love her so much.
In conclusion, "Mai Agare" is not a masterpiece asadora but I still enjoyed it. It had a solid first half. I'm sure everyone who watches it will love the flight school part in particular. And it has a very solid, full-circle ending, which made me cry. Though some parts were frustrating, I realized that "Mai Agare" never got away from its theme of taking flight. I even ended up liking the secondary focuses on small-town factories and Takashi's tanka poems. (Honestly, the poems were so pretty). I'm really happy I completed this asadora after all and it helped me through a difficult loss in my life.
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One of the weakest asadoras in the past decade
Mai Agare! was the winter asadora which started in the fourth quarter of 2022, and is the fictional account (as opposed to a fictionalized biography) of Mai who aspires to soar into the sky. She makes a lot of progress towards doing so in the first half of the series in which she grows up and heads to college where she becomes the pilot for a club which works on building human-powered aircraft, and then shifts to flight school where she successfully graduates and is all set to become a commercial pilot in Japan.And so, naturally, at that point the script turns abruptly from the exciting world of piloting to ... the manufacturing of screws and the plight of small production factories in Osaka.
Look. I'll spare you all the details, but I'm entirely the target audience for the second half. My Dad engineered parts for the B1 bomber in the 70s and the Boeing 767 and 777 jets in the 90s. He had his name on several process patents for the use of titanium. I have written tons of poetry. All of those things touch directly on plot points in this series. I should be the one person who should be eating up everything being served by this series in the second half, but let me tell you: the storylines in the second half are ... just ... so ... boring.
The scripts also suffers from tepid or nonexistent resolutions to many of the running story arcs. Are the Goto islanders able to recruit young people to establish lives in the islands and revitalize the community? Does Mai's brother face any real long-term consequences for his illegal investment activities? Can Takashi overcome his writer's block? Can local Osaka machine shops and factories band together to bring in more business opportunities? The answers will not surprise you, and are presented in ways that might well be a cure for your insomnia.
As other reviewers have noted, there also seemed to be real issues in the production budgeting for this series with no expenses being spared for the first half including at least one aircraft apparently specifically built for the production and lots of shots on location at a fight school and also at the reasonably distant Goto islands. After that the story is stuck in a handful of sets including the Iwakura family house which miraculously expands as needed over time. They splurged a bit more for the final two weeks where they still mostly skip over what would probably be a much more interesting plot than the rest of the second half with a couple of multiyear time jumps.
On the other hand, the cast consists of good, solid acting professionals doing what they can with the material. I have enjoyed Fukuhara Haruka in several other things, and would even recommend her turn in her two seasons of the live action Yuru Camp even though those series have even less plot than this one. Here she plays Mai as persistent and cheerful, and she handles the narrow range of emotions required for the role perfectly well. She has little to no chemistry with either of her love interests, but, to be fair, all sexual chemistry is apparently against the asadora style guide in general.
If you enjoy the asadora format, this series is one. If you've never tried an asadora, there are many I would recommend before watching this one with Amachan still being the best pure fiction series and the recent Tora ni Tsubasa being the best fictionalized biography in my experience and opinion.
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