Gegege no Nyobo is brilliant. I finished it quite recently and could not consume the episodes fast enough. If you are not put off by having to watch 156 fifteen minute episodes then please go and watch this drama. If you love family dramas, watch this drama. For the rest of you, here is my opinion and I hope you decide to pursue this drama in the future. STORY: Gegege no Nyobo is based off the autobiography of the writer of Gegege no Kitaro (a popular old-time comic and anime). The settings and time periods evolve with Iida Fumie as it follows her from childhood, to young adulthood, to wife-hood, to motherhood, and to happiness. The main focus of the show is her relationship with her family, poverty, friends, success, and, most importantly, her husband. This drama starts out a little slow and at times I became annoyed with her younger self, but if you stick with it the relationships of her childhood continue to influence the entire show. I personally think the story is at its best when focused on Fumie and her husband. Their relationship is a complicated on that is very well expressed in the drama. Definitely a 10 for this story that will make you cry and laugh more than once and sometimes at the same time as you follow Fumie's life. CAST: Most of the characters are well cast, especially Fumie's father who gives a great performance. As for the two mains, Matsushita Nao has played similar roles before and performs a good Fumie. Sometimes she can seem a bit dull but that's partly due to the writing. Mukai Osamu is the wrong age to play Fumie's older husband, but his makeup as done well enough to suspend disbelief. His scenes tend to be the standout ones. These two mains don't have an incredible amount of romantic chemistry, but I think that given the plot, this is for the better. All the other performances are up to par, usually adding to the scene rather than detracting. The cast performs 'caring about each other' very well (which is good since a lot of the drama needs that emotion). The children can get wooden but they do a splendid job usually, especially considering some of their ages. MUSIC: Didn't detract but wasn't too special. Good at manipulating viewer emotions without the viewer realizing it. At first, I didn't like the opening song, but after a while, it really grew on me. Does its job without going beyond the call of duty. REWATCH VALUE: I would rewatch it, if I were in the mood. You really have to get into what your watching or it could feel like a chore. There are five episodes in a week with really only one story being covered per week so it is easily digested in small weekly chunks (5*15=75 minutes/about a movie a week). Some weeks are more interesting than others so on subsequent watches I may skip the slower episodes. I think the story is a good on and so expansive that rewatching will always make you remember or discover something. OVERALL: I really enjoyed this drama. Although sometimes I felt like I was only slogging through some episodes, at the end of each weekly story I was always eager for a new episode. I thoroughly enjoyed Fumie's life story and am surprised that it isn't more popular. Episodes can be extremely hard to find, but in the end I felt all that work was worth it.