Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Perfect World
(パーフェクトワールド / Paafekuto Waarudo)
MyDramaList rating: 7.5/10

Hello everyone! It’s time for another review. This time I watched another Japanese drama for the first time since Nee Sensei, Shiranai no? I like to switch it up between dramas from different countries every once in a while, because of the differences in acting styles and stories. I don’t actually remember when or why I put this drama on my list, that’s how long it’s been on my to-watch list. When I told a friend of mine who also watched a lot of Japanese dramas that I was going to watch this one, she told me to keep some tissues nearby because I was definitely going to cry. With that advice in the back of my head, I was mentally prepared for a tearjerker, but in the I got mostly tear-eyed because I was touched rather than that it was super sad. I had also prepared myself for the worst to happen at the end, like dramas such as Koizora that you keep watching even though you know what’s going to happen, but luckily this one had a very happy ending.

Fun fact: I watched the first episode of this drama on Dramacool with English subtitles, but when I went back some days later to continue, I suddenly couldn’t find any subs anymore! Like, even that one episode that I watched with subs suddenly said ‘RAW’. And I couldn’t find any of the episodes with subtitles anywhere else, either!
So I ended up watching it without subtitles and I’m glad to say I could follow it just fine, it’s just a pity for everyone else who can’t understand Japanese without subs, because I don’t think it would even be that hard of a drama to sub. Anyways, it was a good exercise for me, because watching without subtitles made me have to focus on what was happening even more, rather than just putting it on in the background while doing something else.

Perfect World is about Kawana Tsugumi (played by Yamamoto Mizuki), who is working at an interior design company but even though she has had a hidden passion for drawing since high school, she only has a clerical position. One day, when she has to deliver some documents to another design team who is having a nomikai at a pub, she meets her former classmate (and major teenage crush) Ayukawa Itsuki (played by Matsuzaka Toori). He used to be very good at basketball, but when she casually asks if he still plays, the whole table falls silent. When it’s time for Itsuki to go home, Tsugumi realizes that he is in a wheelchair, that he was in an accident when he was 20 and that he’s paralyzed from the spinal chord down and will never walk again.
While initially mostly embarrassed about her brazen question, Tsugumi quickly finds herself attracted to him again nonetheless and they start hanging out more. Itsuki is an interior architect and starts motivating Tsugumi to pick up drawing again since she used to be so good at it (she just didn’t have the courage to take the entrance exam for art school) and Tsugumi keeps him company during several social outings. They grow closer and closer.
However, as they both feel their feelings grow deeper for each other, Itsuki initially holds back since he has sworn to never fall in love again since his accident. His high school girlfriend that he was going to be engaged to broke up with him and all his college friends also disappeared from his side, so he is too afraid that him being in his handicapped state will only cause trouble for Tsugumi. However, they keep overcoming obstacles and eventually confirm that they are, in fact, really in love with each other. And then the real drama begins.

First of all, I just want to say how much I appreciate this drama for its realness in depicting the difficulties that handicapped people have to face in their daily lives. Even though one might think of it as a minor inconvenience to be in a wheelchair, there are so many things we don’t think about. This drama really opened my eyes as to how wheelchair-unfriendly some places or streets can be, and how negligent and tactless people can be about it.
Maybe it also had to do with the fact that around the time I was watching this, there was also the Paralympics on TV, and for some reason I suddenly saw more cases of disabled people making the most of their lives and that really made me more aware of this. It wasn’t long ago that I realized that the reason that some disabled people sometimes seem so much more happy and positive in life than non-disabled people, is because nothing is probably going to be worse than their disability. That’s something they have to live with for the rest of their lives, and any other worldly troubles probably seem irrelevant compared to that. I’m not saying this is the case for everyone, and of course I don’t completely know what I’m talking about because I’m not disabled myself, but that’s how it seems to me sometimes.
Here, it also struck me how much it seemed like Itsuki also had accepted his fate, as he even made jokes about how he would sometimes wet himself and stuff. When he was denied entrance somewhere because of the wheelchair-unfriendliness, he would just smile and thank the person for their effort. But throughout the series, it became more and more clear how much he still struggled with this life, and most importantly, with the influence his life had on the people around him. This is one of the reasons why he initially keeps pushing Tsugumi away, because he doesn’t want to cause her any inconvenience and he’s also convinced he won’t be able to give her anything.
At one point, when they’re in a restaurant or bar with the wheelchair basketball club Itsuki eventually joins, some rude guys start cussing them out, saying things like ‘if you know you’re going to be blocking the way, why come here in the first place’ and stuff like that. Tsugumi also gets caught in the crossfire when these guys get physical and Itsuki blames himself for not being able to protect her, all he can do is just sit and watch from his wheelchair. Tsugumi doesn’t care about this at all, but it shows how much Itsuki is actually still bothered by his condition. And then, when Tsugumi starts overexerting herself by making sure to come visit him every day after work, she ultimately faints on a train platform and actually falls onto the rails. Here, again, Itsuki isn’t able to do anything from his wheelchair, and even though they undeniably love each other so much, he ends up breaking up with her purely because they can’t make each other happy.

Let’s move on to the external obstacles that their relationship faced. From Tsugumi’s side, there’s her family: her father (played by Matsushige Yutaka), her mother (Horiuchi Keiko) and her little sister whom she lives with, Shiori (played by Okazaki Sae). When moving to Tokyo, Tsugumi made a promise to her father that she would have to return to Matsumoto if she hadn’t found a partner by the time she turned 30. Now that that time has come, she’s mentally preparing for that to happen, but it’s put on hold when she meets Itsuki again. At the same time, Tsugumi’s childhood friend Koreeda Hirotaka (played by Seto Koji), who has had a crush on her since high school, has been biding his time to propose to Tsugumi. When Itsuki, his old rival, returns into her life, he is filled with anxiety. Tsugumi’s sister Shiori, who is secretly in love with Hirotaka, has already accepted that he will only ever have feelings for her sister, so she’s actually rooting for them to be together. Shiori is of the mind that dating a disabled person can only bring inconvenience to both parties, but mostly to Tsugumi.
As it happens, one of Itsuki’s work colleagues, Watanabe Haruto (played by Matsumura Hokuto), is also disabled but in his case he is able to walk. He was in the same hospital at the same time as Itsuki during his revalidation and that’s where they met. Haruto has a metal prostethic leg, and this has gotten in his way of seriously dating because all the girls get grossed out by it. Haruto actually meets Shiori as a ‘rental girlfriend’, as that is her part-time job. They click really well and have a great time together, but again, when she spots his metal leg, she goes silent. Eventually, they meet some more times and become friends and even though she initially refuses Haruto’s romantic advances, she ends up giving in to him at the end of the series, when she’s finally over Hirotaka and everyone moves on with their lives.
Tsugumi’s parents are not pleased when she tells them she’s dating a person in a wheelchair. Both of them, but mostly her father, only focusses on all the inconveniences the life as a wheelchair-bound person’s wife will bring her, that she might not be able to have children with him, this and that. A lot of external worries, the way they feel about each other is of no interest to him. When Itsuki and Tsugumi break up, he believes it’s for the best and when Hirotaka starts making new advances on Tsugumi, he’s more than happy to accept him as his future son-in-law.

I found it kind of surprising, to be honest. Hiro was always talking about how he was going to propose to Tsugumi, even though it was very obvious that she would say no, since she had no romantic feelings for him whatsoever. But he still just kept on saying it, as if him asking her to marry him was just a formality that she wouldn’t be able to refuse. Even when Tsugumi was single again and apparently she and Hiro were “together”, she still didn’t seem to be romantically interested in him. It was like she was his girlfriend but he wasn’t her boyfriend. He became a little forceful at some point in my opinion, like one time he even kissed her while it really didn’t seem like she wanted to kiss him back. It was like he was just playing house without even considering her opinion, she just had to go along with him if he said he wanted to marry her. So that put me off a little. I think he always knew that he was never in Tsugumi’s heart, but he just kept on trying to push his way in, and we all know that’s not how it works.
When Tsugumi eventually agreed to his proposal, he also seemed surprised and acted like a boy who’d just heard his friend would give him a toy that he’d asked for but didn’t really expect to get from him. It was like, ‘Wow, you’re actually agreeing to this?’ Almost as if, despite his own determination, he never actually expected her to agree to it. Which was kind of contradicting, so I didn’t really understand what he was thinking. xD

From Itsuki’s side, there was Nagasawa Aoi (played by Nakamura Yuri), his former nurse from when he was first hospitalized. She stopped him from trying to kill himself once and has been looking after him ever since. Itsuki doesn’t know this is also because she is in love with him. She is so used to always having been his caregiver that she’s pretty intimidated by Tsugumi – out of fear of Tsugumi taking her place in Itsuki’s life as the person taking care of him, she also does and says some spiteful things to make Tsugumi insecure and to keep them apart, even though she does have the humanity to realize what a petty person she’s turning into. I think you could see her as a kind of parallel to Hiro, the person who stuck with Itsuki for a long time, liking him without being liked back but just expecting to be by his side forever, and then suddenly feeling threatened by Itsuki’s actual romantic feelings for someone else.

Besides a couple of people such as Itsuki’s ex-girlfriend, his mom and the people from his work, everyone seemed to have a problem with their relationship. It was such an obvious case of heart over mind. As became apparent in Tsugumi’s father’s final talk with Itsuki, he believed that in a relationship, and definitely in marriage, it was about being able to support each other, both physically and financially, it was about securing a stable future for each other rather than the feelings itself. He is unable to accept Itsuki as Tsugumi’s boyfriend until he gets a heart attack and has to go into rehabilition after his surgery – aka he has to spend some time in a wheelchair himself. Going through that, and then seeing how Itsuki came from Tokyo to Matsumoto every single day to support Tsugumi emotionally, finally brought him over the edge. But apart from that, it really struck me as particular that everyone rejected their relationship so much just because Itsuki was in a wheelchair. In my opinion, Itsuki and Tsugumi were the ones that were the most aware of their situation than anyone, and so they would be perfectly able to decide for themselves if this was working for them or not. As long as they didn’t see the problem with it, why should anyone else take offense?
But I guess that’s the cultural difference for you. A man with a broken body was considered as damaged goods.

I really loved how gradual the build-up of Tsugumi and Itsuki’s relationship was. Like, it was so natural, but you almost immediately felt a spark between them. Tsugumi had some trouble accepting Itsuki’s situation in the beginning, but once she got over that she was a 100% willing to assist him in whatever matter, and I think Itsuki was kind of overwhelmed by that because his other friends had all left him as soon as he became an ‘inconvenience’. But for Tsugumi, it was just the natural thing to do. I loved how they both started supporting each other. How Itsuki encouraged Tsugumi to start drawing again and that it wasn’t too late for her to apply for a job as a freelance interior designer with her talent. How Tsugumi brought Itsuki to that disabled basketball club, showing him that he also didn’t have to give that up even after his accident. They gave each other so much, and the few intimate scenes they had, however pure, were so loaded with love that it didn’t even bother me that they didn’t get physical. The scenes where they were just sitting together and Tsugumi lay her head on his shoulder, the scenes where they hugged, the two scenes where they kissed… That delicate intimacy was really all that was needed.

I was a bit confused about Shiori’s anger towards Tsugumi when she ‘dumped’ Hiro to get back to Itsuki, but I guess it had to do with the fact that Shiori really wanted Hiro to be happy if he wasn’t going to be with her, and now that her sister had hurt him she took it out on her sister. But the thing I was confused about was that here it appeared she was on Hiro’s side more than on Tsugumi’s. She still thought Itsuki’s disability was causing problems for her whole family, and she didn’t think too much about her sister’s feelings for him. I would’ve expected her to be also at least partly happy for her sister that she was able to still follow her own heart and be with the person she really loved. I guess that was something that put me off a little about Shiori. But other than that, I liked her and I really wanted her to end up with Haruto, and with that, to get rid of her prejudice regarding disabled people.

Haruto was also struggling a lot, not only because he kept being rejected by girls because of his leg. In the beginning he seemed to be more sensitive about it than Itsuki, but I think he was just able to voice his true feelings better while Itsuki was still feigning that he was okay. I think these two had a nice bond in the series, like they were actually more than just colleagues. You didn’t really see them be real friends, as in, that they hang out a lot together, but I think they became closer after Itsuki also joined the basketball club that Haruto was in, too. And they just had a common ground, they understood each other in that way.

I was kind of dreading that they were going to pair up Hiro and Aoi after they’d come to terms about the fact that Itsuki and Tsugumi were going to stay together, but I’m glad that didn’t really happen. They both went on with their lives, Hiro even created a popular and succesful app to calculate people’s romantic compatibility and he seemed pretty happy. I’m glad for his sake that he got to talk it out with Itsuki after Tsugumi had called off their engagement.

All in all I think the series was wrapped up real nicely. Nothing was forced, there were a few dramatic occurrences, but they were placed in the order of events just right, and I’m really glad it had a happy ending where everyone just accepted that the feelings of the two mattered the most, that it was up to them.

I didn’t know Matsuzaka Toori from anything, but my friend told me that, because he was in Kamen Rider/Samurai Sentai, she was initially a little confused to see him in this role because all she could see was Shinken Red. xD
I thought he performed really well, he has a really kind face in my opinion and he definitely had a lot of different emotions to portray. And as always, I will give credit for the fact that he was allowed to cry.

Yamamoto Mizuki looks extremely familiar to me, but the only thing on DramaWiki I can see is that I probably know her from Koinaka, although I don’t even remember who she was there since that’s been too long ago for me. Anyways, even though I sometimes found her a bit angsty and fidgety, I really liked the warmth she could show in her expression as well as her body language towards Itsuki. And she definitely did show some guts in taking her life in her own hands instead of just following along with everyone else’s expectations of her future!

I was so surprised to see Seto Koji there! And by that I mean that, I only recognized him because I’d seen he was in this, but I barely recognized him! This was such a different role from what I’m used to seeing of him, but I guess that just proves he’s a good actor haha. As I mentioned, at some points I didn’t really like Hiro purely because he didn’t really ask for Tsugumi’s consent in anything, but I’m glad that he was able to let go in the end and also just follow his own path, with or without a partner.
I love Seto Koji <3 I think the last thing I saw him in was Watashi Kekkon Dekinainjanakute, Shinaindesu, where he was this young and carefree second male lead. I also loved him as Kuranosuke in Kuragehime, because he was such a great crossdresser. I want to see more of him now!

I remember Nakamura Yuri from somewhere too! Her face looks soooo familiar, but I just can’t figure out what I know her from. Anyways, I guess despite her role as a kind of second female lead that never stood a chance at romance with the first male lead, she still portrayed a very human and realistic character. Although I was mentally referring to her as Ms. Nightingale in the beginning of the series, she did become a better person.

Also, and I really can’t let this review end without mentioning it: CHAKOOOOO T^T The little dog that Itsuki started raising and that became a part of their family. The dog was so freaking cute T^T A little Chiba-inu. I want one too.

I really liked the ending theme song by Suda Masaki, ‘Machigai Sagashi’, as well. And I loved his tiny cameo at the end as the person who registered Itsuki’s and Tsugumi’s marriage xD

By the way, their marriage felt a little somber to me. I was thinking that this would be their moment to be the happiest, that they would be crying and laughing and celebrating, but everyone was so serious! I get that it was an emotional moment for everyone, especially the married couple, but I had actually expected a bit more of a festive occasion since this was the moment where they were finally able to be together. Or maybe it was just me.

So yeah, it’s a short review but I did enjoy this series. It was really real and raw at times, but it definitely shone a light on the difficulties that disabled people have to deal with in society. I’m glad they chose this topic to cover, because I think that, in general, we definitely could be way more aware of this.
I would say it was about true love and acceptance, about truly caring about the inside more than the outside, even if that means having to fight the external elements. It was a really beautiful love story about truly caring for each other despite the challenges of life and society. I’m up for more of this kind of realness!

Next up is another Netflix K-Drama that I’ve looking forward to watching. See you next time~!