Seishun Cinderella
(青春シンデレラ / Seishun Shinderera)
MyDramaList rating: 6.5/10

Hello hello! I honestly didn’t think I would be able to finish my next watch within a week of the previous one, but I keep pulling short dramas these days so here we are! Again, a nice switch-up to another Japanese show that came out not too long ago. I didn’t know what this was going to be about, but there was something about time travel in the summary so naturally my interest was piqued! Since I thought it was going to have a link to Cinderella (blame the title), I was really curious to see how time travel would come into play there. It turned out very differently from what I anticipated and I’m excited to share my thoughts on it. I also knew almost no one from the cast, which was refreshing – typically I recognize at least a few people in Japanese dramas. In any case, let’s just get on with it, shall we?

Seishun Cinderella is a Japanese drama series with ten episodes of about 25 minutes each. The story revolves around Hagino Shion (played by Kumada Rinka), a 29-year old beauty consultant. As a single lady who loves indulging in her passion for make-up, she is very content with her life. This content also has to do with the fact that she’s come a very long way since high school. Shion used to be an invisible gray mouse, with her big glasses and odd sense of fashion. She only had one good friend in school, Akiyama Mitsuki (played by Mizutani Kaho), with whom she’s remained close even into adulthood. She’s only ever had a crush on one guy from her class, Hasegawa Souma (played by Honda Kyouya), but faced a bitter rejection from him on the day she finally mustered up her courage to ask him out. His exact words were, “If you’re going to confess, at least do something about your appearance.” Despite the hurtful impact of these words, they also helped Shion in her determination to make something of her life and that’s how she came to pursue a career in the make-up industry. Even though she’s happy with things the way they are now, when Mitsuki surprises her with a group date, Shion is inevitably reminded of her painful rejection and has to acknowledge that she never got over Hasegawa. When she gets home she rips the only high school photo she has of her, Mitsuki and Hasegawa – but then something strange happens. There are blue lights and suddenly she finds herself back in time at the exact moment that picture was taken – for some reason she has returned to her 17-year old self. With her knowledge and life experience of a 29-year old beauty consultant, she quickly changes her high school image. In doing so, she’s able to become much more sociable in class, her friendship with Mitsuki deepens and she’s even able to make romantic progress with Hasegawa in a way she’d never deemed possible. Still, Shion needs to get back to her own timeline at some point, so is it really right to change the past like this?

When I started watching this show and saw how Shion had matured I couldn’t help but think about shows like True Beauty and My ID is Gangnam Beauty, in which the female leads also became interested in cosmetics as a result of a bad experience they had in the past that concerned their appearance. In Seishun Cinderella this was more of an indirect result, as Shion gradually came to discover make-up and not in the direct aftermath of being rejected and finding some way to become more beautiful for someone else. I liked that her passion for make-up was something she happened to discover as time went by and became something that made her really happy and distracted her from negative memories of the past.
When the time travel element hit, it reminded me of Somehow 18, where the male lead was made to travel back in time to save his high school classmate from ending her own life. In Shion’s case, since the time slip happened when she ripped the photo, it seemed to have something to do with Mitsuki and Hasegawa in particular, as they were in the picture with her. It’s not clear why she’s there or what she’s got to do to get back; Shion is left to her own devices to make something of it. She’s travelled from 2022 back to 2010, so a lot has changed and she needs to retrace her own footsteps.

One thing I liked about this story was that they utilized the fact that Shion was an adult in a teenager’s body very well. As in, it’s not like she was visibly uncomfortable in her younger body or anything, but they really played on her maturity and how much she’d grown since high school. It wasn’t always consistent – there were a lot of moments where she acted like a typical teenager in my opinion – but I did appreciate her calling people out on their behavior more. For example when she spoke up to that guy Mitsuki was dating for being a prick, or when she told Hasegawa to just call her cute instead of beating around the bush while complimenting her outfit. In those moments I really appreciated her boldness, because these were things that highlighted her more mature side.
I also thought it was clever to emphasize the fact that Shion was satisfied with the life she’d made for herself in her original timeline. No matter how well things went in this new past she’d created, she still wanted to go back because she worked really hard for that life and for securing her own happiness. Even getting together with her high school crush wasn’t worth leaving that behind, and I found that really strong of her. Apart from that, I liked how they put the effects of time travel in perspective by highlighting Shion’s growing exhaustion with living through a life where she already knew what was going to happen. I guess this also fed the way she preferred things and people to “get to the point” more directly than beating around the bush. She had to sit through a movie “for the first time” and fake being impressed while she’d already seen it a hundred times, she had to spend time with energetic teenagers while she already got tired after walking for a few hours (honestly, same). If I were to be sent back in time to my teenage years, even if it was for a good cause or because I had to change something important, I wouldn’t even want to think about reliving my life starting from that period all over again, from the final exams to the jobs I’ve had. These were all pretty practical things to consider in Shion’s situation, and I don’t think many time travel stories focus on that as much as on just clearing the mission, so I thought it was clever to add that to the story and Shion’s character building as well.

Speaking of character building, I’d like to add in some character analyses as I feel like I haven’t done that in a while. Because of the small cast, most of the characters were fleshed out pretty nicely without any rush, and I just want to discuss a couple of main characters in more detail.
First of all, Shion. Shion is an only child and from her parents it’s clear to see she grew up in a very warm and supportive household; she’s always been encouraged to pursue whatever she wants in terms of work. Honestly, her parents were so wholesome. I loved how, when Shion suddenly started using make-up overnight, her transformation didn’t change anything in how her parents treated her. Like, of course their love for her was unconditional but somehow it became even sweeter because her parents were just genuinely happy for her that she was happy and never even made any comments about her transformation. I really liked her parents.
Shion has always been quite soft-spoken, and even though she got less scared to call people out after she got older, she still preferred to remain in the background. She definitely had her strengths. I thought it was very empowering to see her grow into a beauty consultant, finding pride in how far she’d come and being content with being single as well. I also liked that it wasn’t even her goal to go back in time and get together with Hasegawa; this also became obvious from her attempts to distance herself from him and how she was even prepared to step back when she started suspecting Mitsuki and Hasegawa might have feelings for each other. I think she just needed to get over her trauma and realize that, even if her confession had succeeded, she wouldn’t have wanted to give up the life she made after facing such a harsh rejection. After all, indirectly it had helped her grow and find her strengths and passions by herself. Even though the main part of the series did focus on the growing romance between Shion and Hasegawa, I liked that in the end Shion realized that it wasn’t something she’d easily trade for the skills she developed to gain her own independent happiness.
Despite the empowering elements in Shion’s character, there were also some frustrations that I had which occurred mostly when Shion found out that Hasegawa’s reciprocation of her feelings was the key to sending her back to her own timeline. Sure, her situation was odd, to say the least, and of course she was worried no one would believe her if she told them. But the way she started acting hot and cold towards Hasegawa just wasn’t fair in my opinion. Like, where did that boldness from before go? One evening she runs after him asking him to kiss her, the next day she explicitly tells everyone in their class she doesn’t like him – heck, I didn’t blame Hasegawa for getting confused. Talk about mixed signals! Of course this was before she mustered up the courage to tell Mitsuki and Hasegawa the truth about her situation, but still, I feel like this wasn’t the best way to go for her. This is also what I meant earlier when I mentioned that I sometimes found her behavior a bit inconsistent; she had such surprisingly bold moments and then the next time she just ran away with an apology and no further explanation when she was clearly behaving strangely, even with an understanding of her situation. The fact that she actually lied about the curse being broken so Hasegawa would reciprocate her feelings and unknowingly send her away? Girl… That was low. I’m glad Hasegawa didn’t buy it either.
I think all in all Shion needed this time travel experience to appreciate and depend on her friends more, and maybe she just needed to see how things could’ve worked out. Still, I think the most important thing was that she kept valuing what she’d achieved by herself and wouldn’t even let a much-hoped-for change in romantic development influence that.

Besides the whole thing with Hasegawa, I thought the friendship between Shion and Mitsuki was very wholesome. They kept showing how much they valued each other time and time again. Even when it was suggested that Mitsuki might have had other intentions or was actually jealous of Shion and Hasegawa, I’m glad everyone’s perspectives were revealed. I liked that they devoted at least one episode to Mitsuki’s point of view, because it really helped me get a better understanding of her experiences.
Mitsuki and Shion became friends after Shion bravely stood up against a teacher for saying something mean to Mitsuki. Mitsuki immediately approached her afterwards to thank her and they became friends very soon after that. I loved that Mitsuki, as a more bubbly and popular girl than Shion, didn’t seem to have any kind of judgement towards Shion’s appearance – she was genuinely touched by that simple gesture of kindness. It’s kind of interesting to see how well she picked out her friends while she kept dating absolute douchebags. In the episode that featured her point of view, she mentioned that she just wanted to be liked by everyone even if she knew they had insincere intentions. I’m glad Shion and Hasegawa ended up protecting her from a couple of bad people, but I have to admit I found that aspect a bit contradictory to how she’d seemed to me from the start. It seemed to me like she picked out her true friends very specifically, especially when you look at how different she was from Shion and Kaoru. Even Hasegawa was depicted as kind of an oddball who couldn’t express his emotions properly. How did she end up befriending these people based on their genuine kindness when she herself was prepared to let herself be used by others she knew weren’t sincere about her? I found that a bit hard to understand. What I also found a bit complicated to comprehend were her exact feelings regarding Hasegawa, especially with regards to Shion. With Shion, she always acted as the most supportive friend, actively thinking of ways for them to get together. She even asked her fortune-telling friend Kaoru to cast a love spell on the two so Shion would have luck in her romantic pursuit of Hasegawa. Still, after doing all that, she seemed kind of upset whenever she saw Shion and Hasegawa hanging out together without her. When she went off at Hasegawa during the school trip, I really didn’t understand what went on in her mind. Like, if it was just that she was scared of her two best friends ending up together and leaving her behind, fair enough. But it seemed to also have to do with the fact that Hasegawa used to like her in middle school, even though she rejected him. I don’t know, maybe I didn’t pay enough attention or the way it was explained just went over my head, but I found it hard to follow her thought process. I was just glad that it didn’t lead to a break between her and Shion and she only became more and more supportive of her friends’ relationship after it was all resolved.
Seeing the friendship between Shion and Mitsuki kind of reminded me of Mitsuki and Ayaka from Sashidashinin ha, Dare desu ka? which I watched recently. There is this moment where you fear that something is wrong, but then as they talk it out it only reassures how much they truly value each other’s friendship. I love seeing these kinds of genuine (female) friendships in Japanese dramas, because I feel that in Japan, even between friends, it’s not actually that common to have particularly deep talks about feelings.
I actually would’ve liked to get an insight in how Mitsuki met Kaoru, in the same way as we got a flashback into her past with Shion and Hasegawa. They must have met somewhere in junior high or middle school judging from the uniforms they wear in their pictures together. It was mentioned that Mitsuki switched schools at some point and then met Shion. Looking at the two of them, you could say that type-wise they are a very unique pair, the bubbly sociable girl and the quiet occultist. In this regard, again, I can only say I just really liked Mitsuki’s non-judgemental personality. She really appreciated people based on their character and not on how they looked or what they occupied themselves with. When Shion started talking about time travel, rather than just laugh in her face or declare her insane, Mitsuki immediately offered to ask Kaoru about it. Even though she herself wasn’t particularly interested in the topic, she still went and consulted someone who knew more about it. It mattered to her because it mattered to her friend, and that simple thing was very definitive of her character. I really liked her.

Initially, Hasegawa was the least consistent character to me. First of all, because I’d identified him as this cool popular guy in school and he turned out to be quite an oddball in his own way. When he started acting like a child with the sulking and the pouting, I was like ??? That was such unexpected behavior and I’m not sure what I thought about it to be honest, lol. I get that it was probably the point to reveal sides of him to Shion that she never knew about, but it threw me off a little bit.
What I found interesting was that, from the start, it was clear that Hasegawa was interested in Shion. When she turned up at school with make-up on, he was the only one to recognize her immediately and he even made the remark that “she was always pretty”. He kept making complimentary and even flirty remarks like that, understandably making Shion even more confused as to why he rejected her confession then. I ultimately understood that he only rejected Shion (and others) because he thought very lowly of himself and that rejecting them harshly would make it easier for them to let go of their affection for him. But it was so clear that he was attracted to Shion that I was like, bro, who are you kidding? You can’t keep pushing yourself into a girl’s aura telling her how cute and interesting she is and then refuse to take responsibility for those words. It kind of pissed me off that Shion’s confession to him was just “another one of those” to him. I liked it when Shion called him out on that, only thinking about how he thought he would spare those girls’ feelings and not even considering the fact that his words might actually traumatize them for life, as they did with Shion.
Also, even though he acted all like, “I always found you pretty”, suggesting that he would’ve still fallen for her even without the time travel, fact remains that he only started approaching her more actively after she “became prettier” and started confronting him with his own problematic mindset. Like, I couldn’t help but wonder if her transformation really didn’t make him more aware of her charms, and I guess that’s what kept bugging me a bit as their relationship progressed. It shouldn’t have mattered to him that she dressed oddly in the beginning if he already liked her. I remember thinking the same thing when I was watching Abyss, if the romance between the two leads would have really bloomed the same way if they’d had their original appearances the whole time. In the case of Seishun Cinderella, we’d already seen that Hasegawa originally rejected Shion with the excuse of her appearance. So yeah, I guess that was one reason why I found it hard to warm up to him. Having said that, I can’t deny that I was on his side when Shion started acting all shady about not wanting him to reciprocate her feelings all of a sudden. I also appreciated that he reflected on his own selfish feelings of wanting to keep Shion with him in the end, and that he let her go when she told him how badly she still wanted to go back to her own timeline.
Additionally, despite the fact that the romance that bloomed between them was quite sweet and they had several cute moments, I have to say that I didn’t really feel the chemistry between them as much as I’d hoped. Funnily enough I felt that there were more sparks in the way they looked in each other’s eyes than when they hugged or kissed. I was kind of disappointed with the kisses, to be honest. I know Japanese kissing scenes usually don’t get as spicy as Korean ones, but I definitely hoped for more than just a dry pressing of lips. The expression of their love was more in their words than in their actions. I get that they were only 17 and experiencing a mutual connection at that age must be very intense, but I couldn’t help but sigh when they got more giddy about calling each other by their first name and holding hands than about the more passionate stuff. Even Shion’s additional twelve years of life experience didn’t contribute to any kind of maturity in this situation. I can’t help it, I’m a sucker for a good slowburn that explodes in a passionate outburst of physical intimacy, so this was a little disappointing.

The first time we meet Ito Kaoru (played by Yanai Yumena) is in Shion’s original timeline – she’s also invited to the group date by Mitsuki. From the start she seems quite apprehensive and avoidant of Shion, and she ultimately flees the scene when it’s clear that she’s the odd one out. In fact, she faces the exact same remark as Shion did from Hasegawa in the past: “You’d think that if a woman was coming to a group date she’d at least dress up nicely.” As it happens, Kaoru is more involved in Shion’s time travel than anyone anticipated. In the original past, Shion never even met Kaoru. She never knew that Mitsuki was friends with Kaoru, or that she asked her to cast a love spell on Shion and Hasegawa. What no one knows is that Kaoru didn’t actually cast a love spell – she cast a curse on them to make their romance fail. The curse was contained inside the photograph of the three of them and that’s why Shion time-slipped when she tore up the picture.
Honestly, when push came to shove and Kaoru’s feelings were revealed, I couldn’t empathize with her at all. It’s one thing to be asked to cast a love spell on a friend’s friend and reject it because you have nothing to do with that person and you don’t want to get involved (which is probably what I would’ve done in her position), but to actively decide to curse someone she didn’t know into becoming unlucky in love only because she was jealous of Mitsuki and Shion’s friendship? That’s a whole other level of bitterness. She literally looked at the picture and went, “She’s just as unimpressionable as me, why should she get lucky?” She even had the audacity to blame it all on Shion for “stealing Mitsuki away from her” which was very disproportionate. I remember getting genuinely angry while watching this scene. She could’ve decided to not cast anything, spell or curse, or she could’ve honestly told Mitsuki that she didn’t want to do it and talked it out right there and then. There were so many options and she actively decided to be spiteful. As a result, she ended up traumatizing someone into believing that they were never meant to find love. Admittedly, Shion managed to find her way through life so it wasn’t as if the curse ruined her forever, but it still was a very nasty thing to do.
I feel like Kaoru was forgiven quite easily by Mitsuki. Back in the future she just became a part of the gang and everything was forgotten and forgiven because Shion and Hasegawa still ended up together. She was even depicted commenting on how good they looked together. Like, okay, I guess I’m alright with the whole “all’s well that ends well”, but I would’ve liked a bit more reflection on Kaoru’s behalf instead of her just coming after Shion to urge her to go back to her own timeline.

Before ending my character analyses I just want to comment on Sahara. Sahara Masahiro (played by Wakabayashi Jiei), was the leads’ classmate and groupmate during their school trip. He also at some point started dating Mitsuki, although the only time we saw them as a couple was during that double date. Other than that, he really didn’t appear that much and honestly I was kind of surprised to see that they included him in the final reunion. The main part of the story revolved around Shion, Mitsuki and Hasegawa, and Sahara was really just a side character. Sure, he helped Shion get a lead on Hasegawa’s whereabouts back in the future, but the way they included him in the final reunion almost suggested that there was still a chance for him and Mitsuki or something. I don’t know, it’s not that he wasn’t a nice character or anything but it felt a bit random to me that he was there at the end, lol.

When time was set right and they all reunited in the original timeline, it was kept a bit vague how much Mitsuki and Hasegawa remembered of it all. Mitsuki initially didn’t seem to remember anything but then still invited Kaoru and Sahara because it felt somehow “nostalgic” to have them around for this. Hasegawa does say that he remembers Shion’s last words to him before she travelled back, that she would (probably) love him for the rest of her life. So yeah, it seems that even though the original timeline didn’t change, these two did remember at least an echo of that other timeline that was created when Shion travelled back in time.

I’m glad that at least the time travel phenomenon was explained through that curse, because I’ve seen enough time travel stories where the reason for the time slip is never clarified and I like to have a bit of clarity, even in the most farfetched of stories. I think the story was constructed and paced out well enough and I didn’t feel like any part of the storyline was rushed. I would’ve maybe liked a bit more insight in some relationships here and there, particularly in the case of Kaoru, but this insight was established very well in the main characters so it’s not like there wasn’t any clarity whatsoever. I mostly liked the friendship between Shion and Mitsuki and how Shion ultimately chose for her original hard-worked-for life rather than experience a full-fledged romantic experience with her high school crush. Honestly, even though it was inevitable that Shion and Hasegawa would be reunited at the end of story, I wouldn’t even have minded it if Hasegawa didn’t show up and Shion could just happily live her life with the good new memories she’d made. Some elements that I liked less mostly had to do with ambiguity regarding characters’ intentions and the lack of chemistry between the two leads when it really mattered.

Before I go on to the cast comments I’d like to comment on the series’ title. The original Japanese title is Seishun Cinderella, which can be translated to Youth Cinderella or Cinderella of Youth. In hindsight, I’m not exactly sure what the reference to Cinderella indicates. It wasn’t as if she was racing against a clock or needed to get back before a certain time, so did it have to do with her transformation then? I feel like Japanese shows sometimes use the word “Cinderella” in the title with a very different connotation, just like with Last Cinderella. If anyone can point it out to me more clearly that would be great, I just want to make better sense of it.
On another note, in terms of the poster, I don’t agree with the fact that Mitsuki isn’t on there. It’s just Shion (twice) and Hasegawa. They could have at least put the picture of the three of them at the bottom. If anyone deserved to be featured on the promotion poster it’s Mitsuki. Just stating facts.

It’s time for the cast comments! Since this series only had a small cast of characters, I’ll stick to the actors that portrayed the characters I’ve discussed in my analysis.
I really thought I recognized Kumada Rinka from something, but I guess not! I see that she’s played Yano in the most recent remake of Kimi ni Todoke, which seems like an interesting casting choice. Maybe I’ll check it out sometime (even though I’ve already seen like three versions of the story). I liked her as Shion in both versions of her high school life because it showed that she had the ability to transform. Apart from the unexpected bold actions that stood in such stark contrast with her original past self, I do think there could’ve been some more distinct difference to show she was actually a mature adult now. As it is now, I was only reminded of the fact myself when she spelled it out, but in many regards I didn’t feel like she acted differently from her teenage classmates. I also would’ve liked to see a bit more variety in her expression, because it kind of went back and forth between cute smile and worried eyebrows. I’m interested to see her appear in more stuff, so I hope I get to see another side of her acting in the future.

Mizutani Kaho also made me feel like I knew her from something, but the only show on her record list that I’ve seen is Koe Koi, and I don’t remember her from that. I did see another show that’s still on my list so I know I’ll get to see her in a different show. Anyways, as I mentioned in my review I really liked Mitsuki, and consequently the actress’ portrayal of her. I liked that they gave her an interesting – albeit slightly confusing – storyline. In a way, the fact that I found it confusing to grasp also proves that people have their own feelings that don’t always make sense to others. Sometimes feelings are just hard to explain, so in a way this also made her even more realistic as a character. I liked that the writers chose to make her the most loyal and supportive friend ever, to both Shion and Kaoru. Despite her friendship with Hasegawa she would always choose Shion’s side and she even found it in her to forgive Kaoru. The fact that she initially broke off her friendship with Kaoru because she hurt her friend, not even herself, was also very definitive of her character. It was nice to see how Mitsuki was always so touched when Shion gave back to her in their friendship or stood up for her. I really liked her performance, I think she did a good job showing the different layers of Mitsuki’s character.

I didn’t know Honda Kyouya from anything either, but he certainly made an impression here. I’m curious to see him in a different type of show where he can be less coy though, haha. As I mentioned in my review I was initially a bit confused by what kind of guy Hasegawa was supposed to be. As Shion got to know him better and better he seemed to stray more and more from the image I originally had of him. I thought he would just be this cool aloof guy, but then he started acting like a puppy and cornering Shion to look into her eyes and stuff like that and it threw me off a little, haha. Still, I guess that just means the writers did a good job establishing the characters as multidimensional and interesting. I felt like sometimes his expressions were a bit awkward, but I think he did a nice job all in all. My main issue with him and Kumada Rinka was just that their chemistry sometimes felt a bit wobbly. While I love getting a good heart throb just by the way two people look at each other, I would’ve liked them both to show a bit more passion in the kissing scenes.

Apparently, Yanai Yumena was also in 3-nen A-gumi! I keep revisiting that show and its actors and I love the throwback because it was so good. Anyways, maybe a part of me remembered the actress from 3A but her performance in this show will definitely linger in my memory for longer than any side character. I’ve already expressed my thoughts about Kaoru and her decision to do what she did, but I honestly would’ve loved a bit more insight into her character background. How did she end up getting into fortune-telling, for example? How did she and Mitsuki become friends? There was a lot to explore that might have contextualized her jealous feelings towards Shion at least a little bit. Without context her actions just seemed unnecessarily cruel, so I had hoped to at least get some more background that may have helped me redeem her at least a little bit. She was friends with Mitsuki after all, so she can’t have been a bad person at heart. I’d like to see more of her acting, because looking at the difference in the characters she played in the two shows I’ve seen her in so far, I’m sure there are more sides to her acting.

Funnily enough, Wakabayashi Jiei also appeared in 3-nen A-gumi and I do remember him because of his characteristic face. I also remember him from First Love: Hatsukoi where he played the younger version of the male lead’s best friend. I know him from quite eccentric roles and even though he was a fun enough character in this show, I know he has so much more up his sleeve. He deserved to be featured as more than just a side character who suddenly ended up dating Mitsuki (quite out of the blue, too) and then only made a random appearance at the end as if he was part of the gang. I like his acting, so I hope I get to see him perform in more stuff in the future.

I’ve reached the end of my review before dark again, it’s becoming a pattern, haha. I’m glad I got to watch this show, I’d seen some clips of it and I always love time travel-inspired stories. Although it was quite the complete story in itself, there were some plots and (side) characters that could’ve been fleshed out a little more, and I would’ve also liked to see a bit less awkwardness in the expressed affection between the two leads. Still, it drew me in from the start and the message I take away from it is quite nice. It’s okay to revisit the past and think about how different things could’ve been, but it’s important to live in the present and be thankful for how far you’ve come despite your endured hardships. The things that are meant for you will come to and stay with you, so all you can do is believe in your own journey. I think that in itself is quite a nice message to end this review with.

I’m super excited about my next watch, so until then!
Bye-bee! x