An excellent "hybrid drama" with aspects of psychological thriller, mystery crime, and deep romance!
This is only my 4th MDL review. I won't review any movie or drama if it isn't enough to move me. So, the reason why you can see my review here is because "25 Years of You" could, in fact, shake my gut so bad. It was a terrifying experience, yet so gratifying and delighting at the same time!
This 10-episode serial drama was produced by Nippon Television (NTV) and first aired on their network. NTV is known for producing interesting and "out-of-the-ordinary" TV dramas (highlights including 2025 dramas "The Hot Spot" and "Chosen Home"). It also streams internationally on Netflix, so in that case I'd use a "western-styled" naming arrangement (first-name followed by surname) in mentioning the cast, like shown on the Netflix site. As with all my reviews, I will not give spoilers and hints. I'll just put my impressions on the general story, directing, acting, camerawork and post-production, as well as how we as audiences can absorb — namely, any life lessons that may arise from watching this drama. Please note, I do not use AI in writing this review, so what I'm going to share is my own personal impression. My emotions are involved, even though it includes some technical analysis. If you want to know what kind of dramas and movies I have reviewed here, feel free to check them out at: https://mydramalist.com/profile/HomeScreenAlchemist/reviews
First of all, this is actually a "hybrid drama" with balanced aspects of dark psychological thriller, Japanese-styled mystery crime, and deep, heartfelt romance. I've seen quite a number of hybrid genres being utilized lately in a number of Japanese TV dramas, especially in 2026. Maybe because "normal/typical dramas" have become way too oversaturated nowadays and could easily become snoozefest. But, ironically, most of the time, the creative team would try to pull out a brave experiment by combining these genres only to end up failing in the execution. In terms of one that has a perfect balance of the entire aspects, with a storyline that can also manage to flow naturally without being too forced, I would say "25 Years of You" is the only drama that is able to do that, so far. Hence, the reason I was compelled to write this review.
NTV outlines this drama in their synopsis as "A love-suspense story that is both the purest and the most dangerous." Wow. Sounds intriguing, right? It follows the story of two individuals since childhood. One is named Sota, and the other one is Mariko. For 25 years, Sota managed to follow and observe Mariko in the shadows (some may consider that as "stalking"), all done without them interacting with each other. This was triggered by two events: one that happened earlier to Sota, and the other one that happened to Mariko. That's the start of the story. 25 Years later, as early 30s adults, they had their first exchange of conversation. The rest can be seen as spoilers, so I will stop here in terms of explaining the background story. You can also read the drama synopsis, which doesn't have much to disclose either. 😆
What makes this drama very interesting?
Much of the credit is due to the clever screenwriting. Kudos to the screenwriter, Mako Watanabe (she wrote another hybrid psychological thriller/mystery/romantic drama, "Murderous Encounter", starring Jun Shison, that I have yet to watch). She might become my second favorite J-drama screenwriter after the genius Bakarhythm. Huge respect also goes to the two different directors, Kosuke Suzuki and Takahiro Horie, one that specializes in more romantic dramas and the other one that specializes in thriller and mystery-suspense dramas. I love how they can blend these two aspects without colliding into each other. I can name certain dramas that ended up failing at combining genres to the point of a rather embarrassing outcome, which made me raise eyebrows and even do facepalm numerous times, even with high-profile award-winning lead actors that excel in acting. "Surname Confidential" (with 3 different directors) and "Silent Truth" (2 directors) are two of such examples. Those two have some forced comedic aspects, probably to ease the tensions, but fell short in terms of storyline and overall directing. On the other hand, "25 Years of You" is, in my opinion, the first J-drama that is successful in blending thriller, mystery, and romance together beautifully and cohesively without being forced. Take note, screenwriters!
The editing is tight and wonderfully done. Sometimes they shuffle between two scenes, to make the drama become more gripping and thrilling, without losing the pace and disrupting the thread of the story. The casting selection for the female-lead role is perfect. It's my first time watching Sae Okazaki taking the lead role. I was not familiar with her acting at all, so I had zero expectations of her. But my goodness, she's fantastic! She's excellent at using subtle facial expressions, even for showing multiple emotions at once. I don't think many other talents can do that. So, that's a plus! She is perfect for her role as Mariko Nose, a daughter born into a wealthy business tycoon family. The way she's able to express her constant agitation, anxiousness, suppressed loneliness, and distrust of others is exceptional. Her acting during various types of conversations is also very natural and never forced, but yet never becomes boring because it seems she embodies the character as Mariko (becoming the character instead of just "acting/playing it" like most actors do). I can see that she may get more main role gigs in the future just from this drama alone. Directors take notice! Knock, knock, Hirokazu Koreeda, where are you?
The male-lead role as the quiet and enigmatic Sota Yukimura, played by Hokuto Matsumura (the boy-band idol from SixTones), is also good as well, even though the characteristic of his role is very demanding to be multi-faceted and requires playing with nuance. To me, it's one of his finest in terms of acting, and his "stiff" facial expression also helps with the role. However, he could polish his expression a little bit to juggle between nerdiness and bravery, because right now it seems he had 2 separate personalities (maybe it has something to do with the specific directions of the 2 different directors). His acting in the previous Netflix drama "Sins of Kujo" is kindergarten compared to this. Also worth mentioning, he can develop a natural chemistry with Sae Okazaki even though their roles require them being mostly awkward with each other due to their supposed hidden feelings. It's really cute to watch how things develop between them (and I'm not even a romantic drama fan!). I guess their energies can click naturally, the kind of chemistry I felt to be missing in his previous romantic drama "Ensemble" (with Haruna Kawaguchi). Other supporting cast are also good, some of them are considered "veteran actors" with many years of acting experience. But I have to mention Miki Mizuno, who plays Sayuri, a rather demanding "villainy" character as Mariko's stepmother, as the one that stands out in the supporting role. She could pull out the acting very well and yet very natural at the same time. There are a couple of downsides, though. The actor that plays the police detective (I can't remember his name) terrifies me with his eyes and stares 😱, so my mental defenses were already "active" since the first minute he appeared on the first scene! It was tough for me to watch his scenes. His acting is also noticeably overplayed. The guy that plays Mariko's half-brother is visibly "inexperienced" and not that good at acting. OK, he's still relatively young, but many former child actors out there can act much, much better, so there's no excuse.
The pace of the scenes is steady, never too slow but also never too fast. There is a tendency towards the slower part because the overall atmosphere is leaning into the darker one, and this is not an action drama. It gives space for character development. The changes are more in intensity, some scenes are very relaxing and brighter, while other scenes are very gripping and full of suspense. The camera work and filtering in post-production also follow the atmosphere of the scenes. This is a dark drama that covers many aspects of human personalities, but it doesn't always focus on the darkness and negativity. There are also light and uplifting scenes that require bright atmosphere, so the cinematography needs to adapt to these scenes as well.
My only slight criticism is that the background music seems to be a bit loud in the mix. I assume the audio is already too compressed, so the loudness level seems "flat" with almost no room for dynamic range. When the mood switches from the supposedly more upbeat "romantic vibe" into the thriller and suspense vibe, the music also switches abruptly, almost to the point of telling the audience, "OK, the romantic scene is now gone, now go back to the suspense." Not that it is bad. The music itself, kinda jazzy at times, is wonderful at helping to identify the atmosphere, only that it's a bit too loud and abrupt to the point of being rather comical. Some conversations tend to be buried by the background music. If you're audibly sensitive, it could disrupt the flow because your attention to the story gets distracted by the background music. One example of the most outstanding background music used in a psychological-thriller drama is WOWOW's 2025 mini-drama "Sai" (check that out if you're a fan of thrillers). They use plenty of dynamics in the music, and the creepy part really creeps the hell out of me!
I consider myself a fan of mystery cinema, and to some degree, also psychological-thriller movies (not always, not those gore/splatter-fest, only the more realistic ones — remember, real psychos do exist and roam this world freely and unpunished. Your boss might be one of them. Ha!). I'm not into romantic dramas at all, especially those that are considered lame or timid with lots of tears and weeping, but to be honest, I found myself digging this one just because it doesn't give some cheap impression: "I like you because you look cool, so let's date or get married" type of dynamics. Love is way deeper than that. Many romantic dramas use physical sickness as the subject where true love can be displayed and tested. Nothing wrong with that, but that theme has already been way overused, especially in J-dramas, and now becoming too cliché. Even though in this drama there are specific "feats" that are typically used in romantic-comedy dramas (bumping into each other, unintentional holding hands, etc.), I assume that they use those just as puns — seemingly to "poke fun" of these over-used elements found in many of those types of dramas. There are deep underlying layers beneath the story here, most of them psychological in nature and are suppressed, like the sense of alienation, loneliness, and longing for acceptance, in which a shallow "I like you. Doki-doki. Suki desu." type of romance cannot possibly enter the picture.
One of the early comments here on MDL mentioned this drama as having a Hitchcockian style of mystery writing (Shoutout to user @jeoneungd for bringing Alfred Hitchcock to the MDL table!). I agree. Compared to many of the mystery J-dramas, this one has that unmistakable Hitchcock signature. His classic movies like "Rear Window" and "Psycho" seem to have a significant influence on this drama's storyline.
How do we approach this drama?
From reading other early comments, there are those who seemed to expect this as a typical "lively" romantic drama, and got freaked out upon finding that the drama also has a dark psychological thriller dimension to it. My guess is perhaps because Netflix put the tag "romantic" (among other tags), it appears in the results when one enters "Japanese romantic drama" into the search box.
Worth mentioning, this is also a drama that has a very high rewatch value, because we might miss numerous subtle clues when it comes to the "mystery" aspects of the story. Those into "detective-style" mysteries can also dig this because it has elements of "guess who did that?" thrown in the picture, and they provide numerous clues all over the episodes. If you're patient enough to watch until at least halfway through the series, you'll understand why. Episode 6 reveals quite a number of things. I have watched that particular episode 3 times already (not quite 25 times, but maybe should I?), and the real thriller aspect starts from that episode onward along with the unfolding of the mysteries and the buildup of intensities. I started writing this review after finishing episode 7, and the buildup en route to the climax is still ongoing while the intensity of the scenes remains intact. I do have feelings where this drama is heading for the remaining 3 episodes, but at the same time I wanted to be surprised too. However, I hope this drama will not fall into all the crazy and unrealistic plot-twists in order to fool the audience, because the main storyline itself is already rich and more important than its "mysteries" that need to be revealed.
"25 Years of You" is a drama for adults. It's never telling us what's right or wrong, and there's also never black or white. One person's "angel" can be another person's "demon", so to speak. It presents us with elements that only each of us audiences can figure out by evaluating the characters (from moral/ethical, psychological, and legal perspectives), and then decide which one that's actually more relatable to us. It's the kind of drama that can generate healthy conversations. It may even be used in Psychology class (any psychology professor here? 🤔). Questions like "what can be defined as stalking?" or "how far is too far?" can also be brought up for discussion. A movie or drama can be a good tool for introspection and self-evaluation. This is exactly what makes some J-dramas (not all) much deeper and more rewarding to watch. If, let's say, the drama-world equals to McDonald's with many items there that are basically "junk", but in Japan they also sell the unique and good-tasting Ebi Filet-O shrimp burger!
My final verdict: "25 Years of You" is one of the best-orchestrated J-dramas in 2026 so far, up there with "Lost & Found" (co-produced with Singapore, starring Anna Yamada) and "Reborn" (starring Issey Takahashi). It's not a perfect one, so I won't rate this 10/10, but in terms of storyline and general execution, it is exceptional!
8.5/10 (after 7 episodes*)
*My rating may be adjusted by 0.5 point max (whether added or subtracted) after finishing the entire 10 episodes.
This 10-episode serial drama was produced by Nippon Television (NTV) and first aired on their network. NTV is known for producing interesting and "out-of-the-ordinary" TV dramas (highlights including 2025 dramas "The Hot Spot" and "Chosen Home"). It also streams internationally on Netflix, so in that case I'd use a "western-styled" naming arrangement (first-name followed by surname) in mentioning the cast, like shown on the Netflix site. As with all my reviews, I will not give spoilers and hints. I'll just put my impressions on the general story, directing, acting, camerawork and post-production, as well as how we as audiences can absorb — namely, any life lessons that may arise from watching this drama. Please note, I do not use AI in writing this review, so what I'm going to share is my own personal impression. My emotions are involved, even though it includes some technical analysis. If you want to know what kind of dramas and movies I have reviewed here, feel free to check them out at: https://mydramalist.com/profile/HomeScreenAlchemist/reviews
First of all, this is actually a "hybrid drama" with balanced aspects of dark psychological thriller, Japanese-styled mystery crime, and deep, heartfelt romance. I've seen quite a number of hybrid genres being utilized lately in a number of Japanese TV dramas, especially in 2026. Maybe because "normal/typical dramas" have become way too oversaturated nowadays and could easily become snoozefest. But, ironically, most of the time, the creative team would try to pull out a brave experiment by combining these genres only to end up failing in the execution. In terms of one that has a perfect balance of the entire aspects, with a storyline that can also manage to flow naturally without being too forced, I would say "25 Years of You" is the only drama that is able to do that, so far. Hence, the reason I was compelled to write this review.
NTV outlines this drama in their synopsis as "A love-suspense story that is both the purest and the most dangerous." Wow. Sounds intriguing, right? It follows the story of two individuals since childhood. One is named Sota, and the other one is Mariko. For 25 years, Sota managed to follow and observe Mariko in the shadows (some may consider that as "stalking"), all done without them interacting with each other. This was triggered by two events: one that happened earlier to Sota, and the other one that happened to Mariko. That's the start of the story. 25 Years later, as early 30s adults, they had their first exchange of conversation. The rest can be seen as spoilers, so I will stop here in terms of explaining the background story. You can also read the drama synopsis, which doesn't have much to disclose either. 😆
What makes this drama very interesting?
Much of the credit is due to the clever screenwriting. Kudos to the screenwriter, Mako Watanabe (she wrote another hybrid psychological thriller/mystery/romantic drama, "Murderous Encounter", starring Jun Shison, that I have yet to watch). She might become my second favorite J-drama screenwriter after the genius Bakarhythm. Huge respect also goes to the two different directors, Kosuke Suzuki and Takahiro Horie, one that specializes in more romantic dramas and the other one that specializes in thriller and mystery-suspense dramas. I love how they can blend these two aspects without colliding into each other. I can name certain dramas that ended up failing at combining genres to the point of a rather embarrassing outcome, which made me raise eyebrows and even do facepalm numerous times, even with high-profile award-winning lead actors that excel in acting. "Surname Confidential" (with 3 different directors) and "Silent Truth" (2 directors) are two of such examples. Those two have some forced comedic aspects, probably to ease the tensions, but fell short in terms of storyline and overall directing. On the other hand, "25 Years of You" is, in my opinion, the first J-drama that is successful in blending thriller, mystery, and romance together beautifully and cohesively without being forced. Take note, screenwriters!
The editing is tight and wonderfully done. Sometimes they shuffle between two scenes, to make the drama become more gripping and thrilling, without losing the pace and disrupting the thread of the story. The casting selection for the female-lead role is perfect. It's my first time watching Sae Okazaki taking the lead role. I was not familiar with her acting at all, so I had zero expectations of her. But my goodness, she's fantastic! She's excellent at using subtle facial expressions, even for showing multiple emotions at once. I don't think many other talents can do that. So, that's a plus! She is perfect for her role as Mariko Nose, a daughter born into a wealthy business tycoon family. The way she's able to express her constant agitation, anxiousness, suppressed loneliness, and distrust of others is exceptional. Her acting during various types of conversations is also very natural and never forced, but yet never becomes boring because it seems she embodies the character as Mariko (becoming the character instead of just "acting/playing it" like most actors do). I can see that she may get more main role gigs in the future just from this drama alone. Directors take notice! Knock, knock, Hirokazu Koreeda, where are you?
The male-lead role as the quiet and enigmatic Sota Yukimura, played by Hokuto Matsumura (the boy-band idol from SixTones), is also good as well, even though the characteristic of his role is very demanding to be multi-faceted and requires playing with nuance. To me, it's one of his finest in terms of acting, and his "stiff" facial expression also helps with the role. However, he could polish his expression a little bit to juggle between nerdiness and bravery, because right now it seems he had 2 separate personalities (maybe it has something to do with the specific directions of the 2 different directors). His acting in the previous Netflix drama "Sins of Kujo" is kindergarten compared to this. Also worth mentioning, he can develop a natural chemistry with Sae Okazaki even though their roles require them being mostly awkward with each other due to their supposed hidden feelings. It's really cute to watch how things develop between them (and I'm not even a romantic drama fan!). I guess their energies can click naturally, the kind of chemistry I felt to be missing in his previous romantic drama "Ensemble" (with Haruna Kawaguchi). Other supporting cast are also good, some of them are considered "veteran actors" with many years of acting experience. But I have to mention Miki Mizuno, who plays Sayuri, a rather demanding "villainy" character as Mariko's stepmother, as the one that stands out in the supporting role. She could pull out the acting very well and yet very natural at the same time. There are a couple of downsides, though. The actor that plays the police detective (I can't remember his name) terrifies me with his eyes and stares 😱, so my mental defenses were already "active" since the first minute he appeared on the first scene! It was tough for me to watch his scenes. His acting is also noticeably overplayed. The guy that plays Mariko's half-brother is visibly "inexperienced" and not that good at acting. OK, he's still relatively young, but many former child actors out there can act much, much better, so there's no excuse.
The pace of the scenes is steady, never too slow but also never too fast. There is a tendency towards the slower part because the overall atmosphere is leaning into the darker one, and this is not an action drama. It gives space for character development. The changes are more in intensity, some scenes are very relaxing and brighter, while other scenes are very gripping and full of suspense. The camera work and filtering in post-production also follow the atmosphere of the scenes. This is a dark drama that covers many aspects of human personalities, but it doesn't always focus on the darkness and negativity. There are also light and uplifting scenes that require bright atmosphere, so the cinematography needs to adapt to these scenes as well.
My only slight criticism is that the background music seems to be a bit loud in the mix. I assume the audio is already too compressed, so the loudness level seems "flat" with almost no room for dynamic range. When the mood switches from the supposedly more upbeat "romantic vibe" into the thriller and suspense vibe, the music also switches abruptly, almost to the point of telling the audience, "OK, the romantic scene is now gone, now go back to the suspense." Not that it is bad. The music itself, kinda jazzy at times, is wonderful at helping to identify the atmosphere, only that it's a bit too loud and abrupt to the point of being rather comical. Some conversations tend to be buried by the background music. If you're audibly sensitive, it could disrupt the flow because your attention to the story gets distracted by the background music. One example of the most outstanding background music used in a psychological-thriller drama is WOWOW's 2025 mini-drama "Sai" (check that out if you're a fan of thrillers). They use plenty of dynamics in the music, and the creepy part really creeps the hell out of me!
I consider myself a fan of mystery cinema, and to some degree, also psychological-thriller movies (not always, not those gore/splatter-fest, only the more realistic ones — remember, real psychos do exist and roam this world freely and unpunished. Your boss might be one of them. Ha!). I'm not into romantic dramas at all, especially those that are considered lame or timid with lots of tears and weeping, but to be honest, I found myself digging this one just because it doesn't give some cheap impression: "I like you because you look cool, so let's date or get married" type of dynamics. Love is way deeper than that. Many romantic dramas use physical sickness as the subject where true love can be displayed and tested. Nothing wrong with that, but that theme has already been way overused, especially in J-dramas, and now becoming too cliché. Even though in this drama there are specific "feats" that are typically used in romantic-comedy dramas (bumping into each other, unintentional holding hands, etc.), I assume that they use those just as puns — seemingly to "poke fun" of these over-used elements found in many of those types of dramas. There are deep underlying layers beneath the story here, most of them psychological in nature and are suppressed, like the sense of alienation, loneliness, and longing for acceptance, in which a shallow "I like you. Doki-doki. Suki desu." type of romance cannot possibly enter the picture.
One of the early comments here on MDL mentioned this drama as having a Hitchcockian style of mystery writing (Shoutout to user @jeoneungd for bringing Alfred Hitchcock to the MDL table!). I agree. Compared to many of the mystery J-dramas, this one has that unmistakable Hitchcock signature. His classic movies like "Rear Window" and "Psycho" seem to have a significant influence on this drama's storyline.
How do we approach this drama?
From reading other early comments, there are those who seemed to expect this as a typical "lively" romantic drama, and got freaked out upon finding that the drama also has a dark psychological thriller dimension to it. My guess is perhaps because Netflix put the tag "romantic" (among other tags), it appears in the results when one enters "Japanese romantic drama" into the search box.
Worth mentioning, this is also a drama that has a very high rewatch value, because we might miss numerous subtle clues when it comes to the "mystery" aspects of the story. Those into "detective-style" mysteries can also dig this because it has elements of "guess who did that?" thrown in the picture, and they provide numerous clues all over the episodes. If you're patient enough to watch until at least halfway through the series, you'll understand why. Episode 6 reveals quite a number of things. I have watched that particular episode 3 times already (not quite 25 times, but maybe should I?), and the real thriller aspect starts from that episode onward along with the unfolding of the mysteries and the buildup of intensities. I started writing this review after finishing episode 7, and the buildup en route to the climax is still ongoing while the intensity of the scenes remains intact. I do have feelings where this drama is heading for the remaining 3 episodes, but at the same time I wanted to be surprised too. However, I hope this drama will not fall into all the crazy and unrealistic plot-twists in order to fool the audience, because the main storyline itself is already rich and more important than its "mysteries" that need to be revealed.
"25 Years of You" is a drama for adults. It's never telling us what's right or wrong, and there's also never black or white. One person's "angel" can be another person's "demon", so to speak. It presents us with elements that only each of us audiences can figure out by evaluating the characters (from moral/ethical, psychological, and legal perspectives), and then decide which one that's actually more relatable to us. It's the kind of drama that can generate healthy conversations. It may even be used in Psychology class (any psychology professor here? 🤔). Questions like "what can be defined as stalking?" or "how far is too far?" can also be brought up for discussion. A movie or drama can be a good tool for introspection and self-evaluation. This is exactly what makes some J-dramas (not all) much deeper and more rewarding to watch. If, let's say, the drama-world equals to McDonald's with many items there that are basically "junk", but in Japan they also sell the unique and good-tasting Ebi Filet-O shrimp burger!
My final verdict: "25 Years of You" is one of the best-orchestrated J-dramas in 2026 so far, up there with "Lost & Found" (co-produced with Singapore, starring Anna Yamada) and "Reborn" (starring Issey Takahashi). It's not a perfect one, so I won't rate this 10/10, but in terms of storyline and general execution, it is exceptional!
8.5/10 (after 7 episodes*)
*My rating may be adjusted by 0.5 point max (whether added or subtracted) after finishing the entire 10 episodes.
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