I never watch sad dramas. Never. But I couldn’t help it with this one. It just broke my heart in the most terrible of awful of perfect ways.

Now, I’ve never had an incurable illness. I’ll never know what it’s truly like. But I do suffer with depression. And there are definitely some similarities between ALS and mental illness. I don’t want to compare my situation to Takuto’s. They are not the same. But watching him struggle with his illness, struggle with communicating with his parents, struggle with being open and honest with his family and friends and co-workers, struggle with finding purpose in life, a part of me just understands.

It was hard to watch Takuto push people away. It was hard to watch as his parents refused to understand. It was hard to watch Shigeyuki smile to Takuto’s face then betray him behind his back. This was just a hard drama to watch at times. But I understood.

There is literally not one character in this drama that I hate. There were characters that I very much disliked, but that was because they were sucky people, not because they were poorly written, or they were impeding the story in some way. Everyone was so real and true to life. Takuto never felt like a caricature of a person with an incurable illness. He felt like a real person. Megumi was sweet and genuine and kind, but she wasn’t weak or helpless. She was a woman who could make her own decisions and who could change her mind. Their friends were aDORable, and I rooted for their romance from the beginning. Takuto’s family, as well as Megumi’s mother, while at turns frustrating and infuriating, behaved in a way that felt pretty normal. Sometimes families aren’t very good at being helpful, and you have to teach them how to be. But Shigeyuki was consistently my least favorite character.

Shigeyuki was so incredibly sleazy. He was clearly prepping Megumi for when he would finally make a move on her, but because he was so nice all the time, she didn’t even know it. Guys like him are the worst. When they just come out and say, ‘You should cheat on your boyfriend with me/break up with your boyfriend for me,’ there’s nothing to muddle a girl’s brain. The guy is clearly a jerk, and she can just kick him in the you-know-where and move on with her life. When he behaves the way this guy did, acting all nice and genuine and seemingly innocent, it’s very easy for a girl to get confused and fall for his trap. He is so true to life that it is frightening.

My only desire, up to the very last episode, was for him to get kicked off a very tall mountain and fall into the ocean where he would then be eaten by a shark.

But somehow, the drama managed to give him redemption without it feeling forced. When he admitted what we already knew about him, that he had been jealous of Takuto the whole time, and then he realized he didn’t want to be jealous anymore…I believed him.

Jealousy is a hungry beast, and it can make you do some terrible things.

This drama will probably make you cry. It is heartbreaking and tragic and yet incredibly hopeful. The performances are some of the best I've ever seen, and the story is incredibly real and honest. Nothing's watered down or turned into a cliché. If I have any complaints, it might be that the ending wasn't where I thought the writers were taking us, but that doesn't mean it's not good. I recommend this drama to everyone. It's a must watch!


Old Review:
Gah. Here. Just take my heart. You can have it.