Talvalin

For real. This is the first drama that I’ve seen of his, and now I want to see if he has actual range and can play other types of character.

Overall I really enjoyed this drama. It kept me entertained throughout, and seemingly took joy in playing with my emotions. All of the characters felt three-dimensional and real, with their quirks and different sides (well, maybe just Sakiko , Mitsuru and Azusa - the rest of the characters were the same no matter who they were with), and I liked the fact that complex relationships run throughout the series all the way to the very end.

Sakiko and Itsuki don't get together, Sakiko separates from Mitsuru but they are still in a close relationship (based on the very last scene). Her boss has an affair with a guy who says his wife consents, they separate after he divorces his wife but then remain friends.

Some things that annoyed me:

1. The scriptwriter drawing an equivalence between Sakiko's multiple failed marriages and Mitsuru disappearing for an entire fucking year. Yeah, sure, Sakiko kept major secrets too, but at least she had a clean break each time. Mitsuru was a selfish dickhead, and no amount of childhood trauma gets to handwave that away. Dude deserved a proper kicking, and I will remain eternally disappointed that he didn't get one.

2. Mitsuru's overly comical reaction to seeing Sakiko's third driving license. That shit is acceptable in an actual comedy, but in a serious drama like this one, it had absolutely no place and ruined an otherwise excellent scene. I hold the director responsible for that one.

3. That final scene. It wasn't enough to leave it ambiguous, they had to put the pumpkin line in there. Facepalms all round.

Interesting point about book guy.

He said multiple times throughout the drama that people remain entitled to their privacy even after death, and then he read Azusa's diary. Hypocrite much?

Although being killed by Yusuke brought Beki joy, it came at the cost of traumatising his son even further. Beki, you douchebag.

Some thoughts on the final episode

So Nogi is skilled enough to shoot five people in quick succession at a range of 20 meters in a way that looks like he's killed them (and as was revealed later on, from a seated position was able to shoot a suicide bomb detonator out of someone's hand and concealed the gun), and yet with less enemies and at a closer range, can only shoot to kill in the final episode?

Also, "I can't let you kill someone responsible for Japan, even though we have proof that he sacrificed three Japanese citizens to save his own career"?

Really? :P

Not only Akira's coworkers, but the new graduate working with Kyoya who keeps on intruding into his personal life (eg: the start of episode 4 where he asks if Kyoya is hungover because he's wearing the exact same tie as the day before, then asks if Kyoya left his phone at Akira's place when he knows that both Kyoya and Akira lied to Kyoya's boss that they are living together. What a colossal dickhead) and also Shuri for opening up Kyoya's parcel from his mother and selling the sake that was meant for Akira. Argh.

Japanese has a thing called loan words where they just use a word from another language and modify the pronunciation so that it can be spoken more easily. Sure they could come up with a new, uniquely Japanese word but why bother?

For non-native speakers who decide to learn Japanese then they will gradually pick up these words over time and if not, then no problem because subtitles are your friend.