Up to the last two episodes - which were THE WORST - this drama was pretty good, especially the characters themselves. I liked that it showed that everyone lies - to themselves, but especially to their friends - and that everyone is insecure inside and even hates themselves sometimes. It's what we do with that insecurity and self-hatred that really matters. If we use it to better ourselves and the world around us, then that makes it worth it. If we use it to destroy ourselves and the world around us...well, then that's not good, obviously.

I watched this for my faves - Kiriyama Renn and Yoshizawa Ryo and I was reminded that I really like Kojima Fujiko as well. (She was great as Mana - scrappy and loyal.) I liked their characters, even though they were all a hot mess of contradictions and each had a heaping dose of emotional instability. However, I could not stand Miki's character and I actually had a hard time watching her - that syrupy sweet naiveté made me want to scream. But the acting all the way through was really solid - the young actors all really delivered. And for this being seven years old already, the production quality was really good and the OST added the right touches when needed.

But even with the excellent acting, there were significant plot holes left open- like holes big enough to drive a truck through. Besides the obvious gaping holes which I won't spoil here, there were other smaller pieces that all added up by the end- like I kept wondering if they were producing extra food out of the air, like the loaves and fishes, to feed all those people for so long without going back to the grocery store. :-)

It's already been mentioned here that the ending was just the worst. At one point I wondered if the writer had been replaced at the end because everything sort of fell apart and nothing made any logical sense anymore. While it was a shame to have such a bad ending, the rest of the dorama was enjoyable enough to make it worth a watch. We'll just pretend that it all ended differently.