After reading a few reviews, I almost feel like this one will be a rebuttal against the masses but I guess it's all about personal preference, experience and perception so take from this what you will..

Personally, I think this was practically perfect in every way. Even those time where I felt frustrated or upset toward a character or situation, I could tell it was pretty intentional so I guess they did their job right. And, as my headline suggests, there were plenty of sad moments that had me tearing up which is not an easy task.

At the beginning, while I felt sympathy for Day because of his situation and I understood his frustration at the sudden disability, I couldn't quite get behind how bratty he was toward everyone. His attitude toward his brother and Night's obvious guilty attitude immediately hints that he was somehow involved with how Day became blind. We are given the impression that Night was a horrible person to Day in some way, shape or form however as far as the audience has seen, it just looks like Day is lashing out at him when Night simply wants to help. (more on the Night and Day relationship later because.. hoooo boy, do I have thoughts.)

As the series went on and we see Day from Mhok's perspective, it is clear that he is struggling with wanting to be seen as normal while also learning it's okay to ask for help with the things he simply can not do by himself. I definitely feel this one as someone with a sudden disability and coming to terms with the fact I can not do everything I was once able to while learning where my own limits are and needing help to achieve certain tasks. I feel like Sea portrayed the mixture of confusion, frustration and fear very well throughout the entire series.

Sea's performance as Day was damn impressive. Before going into this series, I was thinking it would be similar to the Vietnamese series Want to See You and thought I'd be comparing the performances but, really, there is no comparison. Both were excellent and I think Sea deserves all the recognition. I haven't been this impressed by a performance since Gemini as Heart in Moonlight Chicken. There's a lot of conflicting emotions that come with disabilities and Sea conveyed all of them effectively.

With Mhok, we are given insight to his own fears and insecurities with little tidbits here and there but I do wish we got more of his story because, while it is heartbreaking, it would have explained just that much more instead of having to piece together all the sprinkled hints. Since it was hard to really know what happened until way later in the series, it didn't give Jimmy much chance to convey Mhok's thoughts through expressions very often. We saw a little here and there which I think Jimmy did pretty well, but the lack of his story was definitely not helping.

Speaking of lack of story, I really wish they gave Night more as well. As I said before, it is obvious Day dislikes his brother although we don't find out why until later on. First he says "he's responsible for me going blind" then he says "I know it was an accident and that part I could forgive but what I can't stand is him pretending to be a good son in front of mom." Oh, so he's not allowed to change for the better after the accident? He's not allowed to try to be a better person without being chastised for it?

And here's my big gripe with Day and Night's relationship: It wasn't Night's fault in the slightest. Day was the one who was driving and took his eyes off the road because he didn't want a bit of vomit in the car. Why couldn't he just pull over instead of looking for a bag while the car was in motion? Or just let Night vomit in the car and he can pay to get it cleaned afterward. There really was no excuse for taking his eyes off the road for that duration of time while the car was in full motion. I almost wanted there to be a reveal that Night suffered injuries during the accident too and he held that against Day for taking his eyes off the road. It bothered me that no one seemed to ask or care if Night was okay after being in that car too... and they kind of touch on that a little with the fact Night felt ostracized within his own family. (Night was the biggest source of my crying, by the way, so prepare the heartstrings to hurt for him.)

On the subject of Night, I was so impressed with Mark's performance. I mean, it shouldn't surprise me because he is always phenomenal. But when he's sitting at the kitchen table and has a completely coherent inner monologue using just facial expressions, I just wanted to reach into the screen and give him a hug and tell him "it's okay, let it out." I'm glad they finally acknowledged that he was being neglected though I wish Day had taken more responsibility for what happened.

Here's where I disagree with the masses... a lot of people say that after episode 9 it was all unnecessary but here's why I think it is very important: Day and Mhok went through a "normal" couple's issue of lying and miscommunication. For all of Day's insisting he wanted to be seen as normal and Mhok insisting that Day was normal, this was the most realistic hurdle they came across that any couple could find themselves against. Mhok lied about being accepted for the Hawaii job and Day found out he lied. Simple as that. The fact he is blind has little to do with this fight besides the fact that Day accuses Mhok of taking advantage of his blindness to hide the truth. But, honestly, the truth would come out sooner or later one way or another so the blindness is barely even a factor. And it is in this fight that we see just how much Mhok needs Day and how petrified he is to lose him like he lost his sister. Up until this point, the sister storyline had only gotten a few mentions without really seeing the full toll it took on Mhok... now we see it when he completely breaks down.

Mhok needed to lose Day in order to see he needed to work on himself in order to not rely on someone else so much for his own self worth.. which makes the "thank you for breaking up with me" so poignant and important. Sure, the self discovery might not be the reason Day broke it off but the side effect of the separation made Mhok a better and self reliant individual. That being said, I don't think they needed the 3 years apart to get the point but oh well.. time skips mainly just show that nothing has changed and that the status quo is too boring to showcase, I guess.

Last but not least, the big upset for most people was the very end when Day gets his sight back. Really? We knew this was going to happen from the very beginning. In the first couple of episodes, it's pretty obvious that they were setting up for him to get his sight back at some point. From the very first episode, they mention there is a way to fix it with a transplant so they've already put the idea out there that it is "curable." They wouldn't do that if it wasn't an inevitability. I personally like to see his attitude and behavior afterwards. While we don't see much of the time with his sight back, what we do see is that Day is paying it forward. He had a reputation of being a self absorbed jerk before the accident and he became more compassionate while he lived without sight. Now that he has it back, he doesn't revert back to being a jerk, he instead becomes an advocate for the blind. More than the "happy ending" aspect, I see it as a huge part of his character growth, even if it would have been more meaningful if he never got his sight back at all.

As for the prominent side characters, I absolutely loved Phojai and I thought her friendship with Mhok was very wholesome. I loved that her and Night were together because they both deserved to have someone good next to them. I didn't really see the point of adding in the romantic aspect with August AT ALL. They were partners and there was absolutely no mention of it until a fleeting "oh, by the way, I had a crush on him. Surprise!" And then it's over just as quickly as it started. Everything with August happened in one episode.. that's it. Pretty pointless in my opinion. Gee was a good crossover from his former life to his new life and was very good in terms of showing Day that he could still have his friends from before if he just gave them a chance and was honest with them. She bridged the gap of time quite effectively.

Honestly, this may be one of my favorite series to date. It's nice to see more serious storylines that still balance the romance and feel-good moments effectively. I also like how there was really no "bad guy" or villain in the story and it was just the characters having to work on themselves. I would love more of these where the main setting is not in a school and the characters are more mature even if they are not much older than student age. More of this, please!