I'm not gonna lie, I was a bit skeptic when I started this drama. When I think of underground independent j-rock bands, Johnny's Jr (technically they aren't all Jrs now but you get the point) isn't what comes to mind (and neither is stage musical actors, I was surprised to see Kakizawa Hayato there). That being said, this is a very good drama.

The plot probably isn't something you haven't seen before: indie band trying to break through and find their place in a very strict and unfair industry while facing personal strife and group struggle. Still, the story advances in a well-paced speed that doesn't leave you bored or unwilling to continue. At least, for me, that wasn't at all the case.

The characters are all pretty interesting in their own way, given that there's always characters who aren't as developed as others in this kind of format, and the acting is, in general, ok. It's not great, it suffers from some inexperience here and there, but the heartfelt moments are well done and the soul of the story is portrayed well enough. I really liked Hirano Sho in the lead and I think most people do. He has a character that could easily be the most annoying lead ever yet he makes it very convincing and belieaveable and achieves some great dramatic moments.

The music was definitely my favorite part of the drama. It's really REALLY good and I never got tired of it.

I felt the ending was a bit too open but I'm giving it a pass for the time being, considering there's a 2nd season I haven't yet gone through (although I'm aware it doesn't feature the same band and that already makes me a bit uneasy because these guys were pretty interesting).

All in all, a good musical drama with good music but where acting and plot aren't out of this world. Still, I really liked it and, if I was being more subjective, I'd give it a higher score because this is my kind of drama, but I'm trying to be completely fair. Those who like j-pop alone and are here for the cast should know this is definitely a j-rock based drama and those who came for the j-rock and are surprised about the cast should know the music is good and the genre is, all in all, well represented. It's a strange combination but I think it works out for the most part. I'd recommend it.

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I should clarify that I entered this drama knowing nothing of the original source material in manga form or its anime incarnation. I also know very little of this period of Japanese history, which is why I watched it with a friend who does and she pointed me in the right direction at times. That being said, as a drama on its own, it's very good. If you don't know much about Japanese history in this specific period, you may lose some surprise elements and get a bit lost in some situations, so I advice you to check some source. However, you don't get completely lost without it, but it's much better for the whole enjoyment of the drama to be aware of certain things.
When it comes to acting, this drama has a great cast overall. Oguri Shun does a great job but I particularly enjoyed Shibasaki Kou a lot in this one, and Mizuhara Kiko is always a pleasure to watch. I also loved the production design, costume design and photography; it seems like an amazing production for a drama, I have high hopes for the movie on that regard. Whoever was in charge of the costume design has my utmost respect, honestly.
The pace, for me, was a bit slow at times, which is why I'm giving it an 8. I feel like the first episode put me in a mood that was slowed down a bit when the drama was half way through, to pick up again in the last 2.
And, as a last comment, I'll say that people who are very much into Japanese history and want something 100% accurate, almost biopic like, you should watch this drama with a different perspective. It does respect history but, being the plot as it is, takes diversions and freestyles some facts and characters.
That being said, it's a very recommendable drama and definitely a high point for last year's releases.

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I loved this drama. First of all you should know that, even though it's centered on tourism and covers many sightseeing spots of Kyoto, while also offering really good information, it has something of a detective drama in it, which gives it an extra something to look forward to in each episode.

I'm gonna start by praising Naomi Watanabe and I may be biased because I admire her a lot, but she did an amazing job in this (even while wearing an obvious wig, which I suppose was for character reasons, since her fashionable hair right now wouldn't have worked for the character). I entered this drama expecting Naomi to be a strong lead and to provide a view of a plus size woman, because between her clothing brand and her work in La Farfa, she's becoming an international beacon of diversity in media. And even though there are fatphobic remarks throughout the series and she is upset about them, she still breaks stereotypes that dramas tend to put upon plus size female characters. Kyoka is a smart, determined and resourceful woman who is finding the passion for her job after having lost it for some time and who proves once and again that, no matter where she's working or how people view her, she's the best in what she does; not for wanting to be so, but because she respects her clients and wants to make people happy. You go, girl.

The drama focuses on tours, but the key to each episode is a puzzle, a mystery that has to do with the personal reasons a client has for taking the trip and how the guides can help them achieve those goals and find what they're looking for (while also changing their lives for the better, no pressure). Hence, some detective drama goodness ensues.

The rest of the cast is great as well, Yusuke Yamamoto never disappoints and you know he's gonna give a 100% performance every time. Sara Takatsuki was amazing as well and her character is really interesting and fun to watch.

All in all, this drama has a lot of the things I love: good plot, mysteries, funny scenes, good performances and well developed female characters with a great female lead. I highly recommend it if you're into those things and even more if you'd like to see some amazing shots of Kyoto.

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Basically, it's good but it could have been great. I have no knowledge on the manga it's based off, so I'll solely judge on the drama (the review of the special will eventually go to the special's thread).
The first thing that you need to know is that there's plenty of action in this, I'd say it's a cross between a tokusatsu and a school drama, going more towards the "drama" side but keeping the action strong. So, if tokusatsus are definitely not your thing, I don't think I'd recommend it for you. If you don't mind the action, read on.
The school drama plot is basically the same you've seen a thousand times: school of delinquents, worst class of all, teacher comes in with goodness in his heart to change the hearts of the students and show them the path of light. The twist is that this teacher is secretly a masked vigilante who has government authority to inflict unrestricted violence on students as he deems necessary. Yes, you read that right.
Araki Gota, performed by Fujigaya Taisuke, is a sort of Kenshin Himura-ish character, who is trying to change his methods and use actual education (!) and understanding to get to the bottom of his student's problems and let them change by themselves and not through violence and fear. The whole dynamic between violence and understanding is the heart of the drama, and it's well represented. I didn't expect a drama with a masked guy on a motorcycle punching people to have such deep and turbulent emotional developments, but it does.
Still, the episodes are too short to dig as deep in the characters as I would have liked. There's an individual exploration of the characters to some extent, but there's not enough time for us to get as involved in the story lines as I feel the story had the potential to show.
But, if you like school dramas of teachers who change students' hearts, action sequences in every episode, Saito Takumi in a suit staring at folders and Fujigaya Taisuke wearing leather and giving heartwarming speeches, watch this. All jokes aside, it's pretty entertaining and unexpectedly emotional at times.
Oh, and you'd probably end up loving Tsukada Ryoichi's segments, even if initially you don't know what they're even for.

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This is a very good drama. Judging for the overall plot (a teacher moves into an apartment where he finds the ghost of a woman and has to go through his new teaching job while getting to know this very dorky lady ghost) and the promo pictures, I thought I was getting into a bizarre-ish comedy when, in reality, this drama is very emotional in many aspects. The problems and issues Katori Shingo's character, Koyama sensei, has to face with his students are of all sorts but go very deep into serious emotional cases: there's bullying (serious, scary bullying), isolation, harassment, violence and overall a lot of very complicated problems (take this as a trigger warning, since the drama doesn't really seem like it will showcase this), that go beyond many school dramas I've seen. Yes, the main core of the plot is for the class to get along and for the teacher to regain his will to get involved in his job, which is not new, but the things they face go further than a university entry exam or a troublesome group of delinquents, and it is very tied to the students' lives at home. That being said, I do feel it was a bit biased towards teachers and the side of the parents was rarely shown as positive, but I guess it was a conscious choice for the theme of the story. The relationship between Akane, the ghost, and Koyama sensei is one you end up growing to care for (the ending could be questionable, though, but that's up to the viewer), and Anne is splendid in this drama. Maya Miki and her, for me, steal the show with their performances. The young cast had its ups and downs, but I commend Maika Yamamoto, who was really convincing throughout the story. All in all, I really liked this drama, it's very smart and heartwarming, it goes deeper than many I've seen of its kind, not stopping into solving an issue with the students but finding out why they're having that issue to begin with and how they could solve it themselves. I highly recommend this if you want a school drama with both intense situations (well handled, for the most part) and dorky comedic characters.

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You know when you watch a drama because you like one or two actors and you're not expecting much, but then you get something amazing? That's what happened with this one for me. This is one of those dramas in which you have a team of untrained rookies trying to do something together while learning to get along, which is a plot that often happens in sports drama. Here, though, being a police drama, it not only opens up the possibilities to mix that with a few cases to solve and some training, but it also covers the deep and emotional reasons that lead each one of these characters to pursue this as a career and to keep going despite them being in so much pressure. It goes through very emotional aspects, it got me crying at one point, but it's also funny and easygoing most times. It's really well-balanced. I do find a problem in the plot, which is that there's one element in the protagonist's story-line (very well performed by Fujigaya Taisuke) that doesn't get as resolved as I would have liked (something that has to do with his father), but I really liked that they took time to make viewers understand and feel connected to each character as well as move the plot along. I watched it basically for Kitayama Hiromitsu, who gave a pretty great performance, especially in the episode centered on his character, but an unexpected surprise for me was Gouriki Ayame, whose character and performance I really enjoyed in this one. I especially loved how they contrast the police as a tainted idea with what they become, which is protectors of the people. If you want a drama mainly about friendship, a hardworking team of underdogs that comes together, a little bit of romance and a few mysteries to solve and tasks to accomplish, then this one is a good one to choose.

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I sincerely did not think this drama was going to be so good when I decided to watch it. It has become one of my favorite sport dramas of all time. It's emotional and sincere in a very believable way, it allows you to understand where the characters are coming from and relate to them in a very successfully. Each story-line is compelling and they all come together really well, the cast did a fantastic job in every angle and I can't recommend it enough. It isn't just another sports drama, it spends enough time with the characters for you to understand their motivations and root with them till the end. Very emotional, very approachable and very relatable kind of drama, definitely more than what it seems at first.

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I was extremely disappointed in this movie. Ai Yazawa is one of my favorite mangakas and her work has revolutionized shoujo manga as a whole, she focuses on characters and gives them a multi-dimensional take that creates complex relationships and realistic problematics. This movie took all of that away. They made a bland romantic comedy out of a complex and interesting story. By changing the ending, they let her settle with the person that Yazawa spent 5 volumes explaining in detail why she wasn't supposed to end with. They were bad for each other, very bad, and no matter how much they tried, they just were not good as a couple. This was never meant to be a cutesy romantic comedy, that's not what Yazawa writes, this was meant to be a manga about extremely different people with very complex walks of life coming to age and facing what lies ahead of high school. Yes, there is romance, but not in a fairy-tale happy-ending kind of way. Not to mention the aesthetic is way off and I saw more fashion in Runway Beat than I saw in this movie (I've seen cosplayers doing better renditions of that blue dress). I also believe the casting choices were very weird, casting an actor with the range of Yususke Yamamoto for a character that is extremely low-key and Osamu Mukai for a character that should be excessively over the top, I don’t know how that happened. I can only appreciate Shunji's performance as Isabella, who is my favorite character in the manga, and who should have had more time to develop herself as a transgender woman facing an unaccepting world, but Shunji did the best he could under the circumstances. I can understand that people who have never read Ai Yazawa could have enjoyed this, but I sincerely can’t look past what they did with a story that was so well written. Especially, after the NANA movies were so well-done, I was really expecting more. If you have read the manga and liked it, I recommend you watch this movie with a punching bag beside you. If you haven’t read the manga and loved this movie, the manga is probably not for you.

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I'm torn with this one. I really liked the idea of the animals and the characters that represented them, there were a lot of likable young characters in this drama, and Yamada Ryosuke is an extremely talented actor, he can pull off comedy as well as drama and it's great to watch him. But the whole relationship between mother and son did make me feel rather uncomfortable at times. The mother's character is extremely problematic and she never fully faces her issues and how she manipulated her son throughout his life, that for me is a no. There were some sub plots that I found much more interesting than the mother's tribulations, like Taipi's career and his mother (A+ for Taipi in that last scene he was in, really great handle of drama) or both girl characters with their extremely opposite yet very interesting backgrounds (we never get to know the resolution of one of those arcs, actually). I feel I would have enjoyed it more if it had been either more balanced in content or if the mother had actually faced half the things she did as problematic. Everything that had to do with Daichi's school life, I loved: the classmates, the fights, the coming-to-age aspect, the problems his friends had to face (including Yuto's character, which was complicated to get through at times but it did pay off in the end), the friendships, the school loyalty, the troubles between schools, the prejudices, everything. But the family aspect, which is supposed to be the central part of this drama, that's where they lost me. I felt the connection between them was so strange and co-dependent that I couldn't quite feel their attachment as something I wanted to root for. Maybe that's the point of the drama, maybe they want you to want them to get it over with, but with the mother never fully accepting that she did wrong (she apologizes for things she had no control over, like being poor or not offering him more but never for using him to try to get a house and economical stability through constant "brainwashing", as she called it), I can't fully say I completely loved it. The acting, especially the acting of the young cast, is reason enough to give it a shot, though.

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I loved this series. I never thought I'd find such an interesting take on female characterization and deconstruction of female stereotypes in this drama by the time I started watching it. I was faced with my own pre-conceptions of internalized misogyny more than once and I thank it for showing me better. The sisters seemingly represent prototypes of female characters, showing in the surface what the viewer can easily assume, whereas the only character who really knows them fully is non other than their mother, whose figure is extremely important. This drama works on the value that women give themselves versus the one society gives them in a lot of moments, especially in Takemi's character but also in every one of the sisters. Takemi superficially seems the careless gorgeous heart-breaker, Fujiko seems like the obsessive over-achiever, Sakurako seems like the girl who just wants to settle down in the most traditional way and Ume seems like the artsy teen with low self esteem. And they are that. Only in part. Discovering these characters throughout the series is like seeing the tip of an iceberg to then explore what's lying beneath. And, as a girl, I felt very deeply many of the worries and tribulations these girls go through. Yes, there are some plot-lines that could have been better taken care of and some characters that could have been more developed, but all in all, it's a drama where girls are the center and they're realistically portrayed, all funny exaggerations and caricature moments aside. I really loved this drama.

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