Wow this drama is fantastic; really upbeat from start to finish with a very polished feel. It felt like a lot of thought went into it. I just loved the little animations in the opening & ending credits. Normally I skip over the credits after a few times but I watched it each time right to the end. Fukuyama Masaharu's "Niji" song fits so well with the overall mood as well as the shots in & around the school. The cast is a perfect fit too. Ichihara Hayato is great in this. He's such an enthusiastic actor. He brought a lot to Eikichi's character & made him very endearing to watch. This drama is such a great tale of optimism, perseverance, growing up & learning to work with others. Every single episode is entertaining & meaningful. There's no need to watch the first movie, drama or final movie to enjoy this. They are completely unrelated other than having the same theme as a base. I skipped the first series just because I wanted to watch something I hadn't seen with Ichihara Hayato & was only going to check out a couple of EP's before I had other stuff to do but I was hooked from the first episode & just couldn't stop unless I really had to. As much as I would have loved to see more the ending suited the mood of Water Boys 2 perfectly. This is how feel-good dramas should be. I really wouldn't change a thing. Well maybe I would XD. I'd add another 20 episodes LOL!!!