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.

Yuugure ni, Te wo Tsunagu
(夕暮れに、手をつなぐ / Holding Hands at Twilight)
MyDramaList rating: 6.5/10

Happy 2026 everyone! After a little holiday break, I am back with a new review and I got to start the year off with this short little love story. It had very positive reviews on MDL, and despite the fact that I found myself getting frustrated several times, I did think the ending was pretty wholesome and I’m excited to share my feelings on it. Since I took some breaks in-between watching this and I’ll have to get back into the habit of writing reviews again, I’ll do my best to express my opinions as clearly as possible. Let’s get started!

Yuugure ni, Te wo Tsunagu is a TBS J-Drama with ten episodes of about an hour long. You can watch it in full on KissKH, as I did. The story is about the soulmate connection between two twentysomethings, Umino Oto (played by Nagase Ren) and Asagi Soramame (played by Hirose Suzu). They first meet by coincidence in Fukuoka, when they get their airpods mixed up and realize they were listening to the same song. Their next encounter happens some years later, in Tokyo. By then, Oto is a struggling rookie music producer whose lack of romantic experience keeps getting in the way of his work, and Soramame is a free-spirited countryside girl who’s looking forward to marry her childhood sweetheart, but whose life is turned upside down when said sweetheart suddenly breaks up with her. She and Oto cross paths again after this happens, and Oto decides to keep her company to make sure she doesn’t do anything rash, before sending her home to tell her family about the break-up. However, due to some circumstances, Soramame ends up staying at the same boarding house as him, owned by the eccentric landlady Yukihira Kyoko (played by Natsuki Mari). During their time together, both Oto and Soramame discover and explore their respective passions of music and fashion, and their friendship turns into something deeper. As they both head towards their dreams, situations and people keep popping up that try to drive them apart, to the point where they won’t be able to leave their true feelings for each other to chance anymore.

Before I dive into the characters and specific details of the show, I just want to make a general remark about this category of Japanese drama. While I understand and appreciate the sentiment of these types of shows, I often end up feeling a bit conflicted about them. I’ve seen too many series that establish a love story based on miscommunication and toxic behavior which is then brushed off by a casual redemption arc, which doesn’t leave me satisfied whatsoever. I’m not saying that this drama was as bad as Douse Mou Nigerarenai, for example (far from it); I thought the concept was pretty wholesome and it definitely had enough good and powerful elements to it. Still, I can’t deny there were a lot of parts that either confused the heck out of me, frustrated me to no end or just simply pissed me off. There were some typical tropes in there that really got in the way of me fully enjoying the story, such as the unnecessary misunderstandings and lack of communication. As such, as much as I appreciate the theme and vibe this show supposedly went for, I wasn’t very satisfied with the overall execution of it, and I found it hard to get emotionally invested in the characters, which is a bummer. The story was clearly written to make the viewer feel for the characters, sympathize with them and join in their emotional outbursts, but I wasn’t able to do that because there was always something that made me think: “there really isn’t a problem though, you could just be honest and talk to each other.” So yeah, unfortunately I wasn’t grabbed by this as much as I would’ve liked and as much as I know some other viewers were, looking at the MDL ratings. Just wanted to get that out of the way. Now, without further ado, let’s look at the main characters.

I’ll start with Soramame, as she’s the character that we get the most backstory from. After being abandoned by her mother at a very young age, Soramame was raised by her grandma Tamae (Kayashima Narumi) in the countryside of Miyazaki. She speaks in a thick dialect that’s explained to be a mix of both Miyazaki and Nagasaki, and one major reason why she doesn’t bother to fix it is that she has an aversion against the ‘proper’ Tokyo dialect, since that’s how her mother started speaking before she left. Her mother, Asagi Touko (Matsuyuki Yasuko) is a famous fashion designer who chose her work over her daughter and left without even saying goodbye. Soramame has always despised her for that, and swore to never reach out to her even if they’d meet again.
When we first meet Soramame she is engaged to Yano Shota (Sakurai Kaito), a boy she’s loved since childhood who promised to marry her after graduating high school. However, when Soramame goes to meet him in Tokyo he suddenly breaks up with her, saying he fell in love with someone else.
At this point I made the first pitstop in a line of many that weirded me out in terms of the writing and Soramame’s storyline. First of all, the way Shota broke up with her was casual as all heck. He literally went: “Remember that marriage proposal from high school? Yeah, pretend that didn’t happen.” Bro. She already got the wedding dress. You promised to take care of her family. What do you mean “pretend it didn’t happen”?! Dude sounded like he was ending a situationship rather than an engagement.
I also found it really weird that they showed us the break-up before the actual flashback of how Shota and Soramame met and got together. I think that if we’d gotten the flashback first, the break-up would’ve had a much bigger impact since we would’ve empathized with how out of the blue this was for Soramame. It would’ve made me go: “bro, WHAT?!” instead of “oh, guess their relationship wasn’t actually that deep”. It just felt like they immediately fumbled the impact of the inciting incident that led to Soramame meeting Oto. Also, as much as Soramame cried over losing Shota – her ‘raison d’être’ – it actually didn’t take her that long to get over him and agree to marry someone else – a random stranger, even – so that was kind of a weird development as well.
The second thing that annoyed me was the fact that Soramame refused to go home and tell her grandma about the break-up. Like, sure, it’s awkward to tell your family that the wedding’s off when you’ve already got the dress and everyone is excited about it. But Soramame was the one who got dumped. If she’d told her family, they would’ve just gotten mad at Shota for pulling this last-minute. Soramame wasn’t at fault here, so I couldn’t understand why she kept lying to her grandma about it, to the extent of putting herself in the position of buying that in-house elevator for her that Shota was supposed to pay for. Even if it was out of shame, her family would find out at some point anyway because the wedding wouldn’t happen, so what was the point of keeping it a secret and avoiding the topic? I actually appreciated Shota for being the one to visit her grandma of his own accord to tell her, because at least that meant he took responsibility for his actions. It really bothered me from the start how Soramame couldn’t bring herself to be straightforward about some things. I even remember her asking Oto to say something to someone for her at some point, like girl! You’re an adult woman, take care of your own stuff! In the end, it was Mrs Kyoko who called her grandma to reassure her not to worry and that she was taking good care of Soramame. Honestly, as free-spirited and direct as Soramame was made out to be, she was really bad at expressing her true feelings and being honest with people when it really mattered.
Looking back on the beginning of the show after finishing it, it’s actually kind of wild to me that Soramame was so bent on marrying at first, so much so that she even agreed to marry Mrs Kyoko’s son Sosuke (Kawakami Yohei) purely out of mutual convenience. I have to admit I didn’t really follow his story either, but I guess he ultimately went back to his foreign girlfriend? Anyway, in hindsight, the fact that Soramame was seemingly willing to enter a marriage of convenience with a stranger as a rebound from her long-beloved childhood sweetheart seems pretty uncharacteristic to me.
From my point of view, Soramame’s feelings and the way she expressed them were a major disturbance in the story that kept me from truly getting attached to her. Although both her friendship with and romantic feelings for Oto visibly grew throughout the story, she kept fumbling chances to be honest with him and took each sighting of him with another woman as a sign that he was dating someone else. It got pretty frustrating to see them drift apart because of misunderstandings like that, especially when, looking at their build-up at that point, there should’ve already been a strong sense of trust and understanding between them. Although I liked Soramame’s character development on the whole, there were a lot of bumps on the way there that made me grind my teeth in frustration.

Regarding Soramame’s character development in terms of career aspirations: while initially her entire life seemed to revolve around Shota, at some point she’s revealed to have inherited her mother’s genes to become a fashion designer. As much as I appreciated this being Soramame’s newfound field of interest, I was kind of thrown off by the fact that this was literally sprung on us randomly in episode 5. None of the first four episodes, including the whole high school flashback with Shota, showed even a single clue to Soramame’s talent or love for drawing. She never mentions it and we never even see her draw, but then suddenly in episode 5 she goes: “You know, I’ve ALWAYS wanted to know how clothes were made” and just produces one professional fashion design drawing after the other. Although, as I said, I liked that she went for that career and how they made it fit with her character, the way it was introduced and how things immediately went swimmingly for her within a single episode was kind of unrealistic.
I actually saw some comments pointing this out on MDL as well, and although they were often rebuked with things like: “don’t take it so seriously, it’s not real life”, I don’t really agree with that. This story is only fictional in the sense that it’s not based on true events, and maybe because of the destiny element of it. All the rest, including Oto’s and Soramame’s respective careers, deal with existing work fields based on real industries. I mean, they wouldn’t create a whole drama on weather forecasters only to completely reinvent the work these people do, just because the story is fictional, right? A story can be fiction and still include things that exist in real life. The way Soramame was hired at a professional studio seemingly a day after discovering her talent just wasn’t realistic. Even talented geniuses would have to hone their skills and climb up the ladder for years before getting the chance to assist in an actual collection. Soramame was somehow able to create genius-level fashion designs when she still needed to literally rip clothes apart to make sense of how they fit together. If you’re going to include an existing career field in a drama, I think it’s only normal to research it properly and make it line up with reality. In my opinion, the writers could’ve easily built up Soramame’s affinity with fashion way better, by introducing her talent for drawing and interest in clothes from the start, instead of having her fawn over a wedding dress in a shop window one day.
Anyways, that isn’t to say that I didn’t like Soramame’s fashion design arc. I liked that she got her own little side story with the people who worked at Ander Sonia, and how pursuing this new passion made her more serious and ambitious in life. I also thought the fact that she didn’t thrive in Paris was very valid and suited her character very well. Soramame was the kind of person who excelled at doing what she loved, in her own time, without having to keep up with trends. Her designs came from her heart and mind, her own experiences and associations. I think her free-spiritedness became the most visible in her attitude towards fashion and in how she fought to pursue it in her own way, without being tied down by society.

Let’s move on to Oto. Although we don’t get a lot of backstory on him besides the fact that he originally hails from Kobe and hides a Kansai-dialect, I liked that they introduced his passion for music from the get-go by having him walk down the street humming different tunes in search of something catchy for a new song. It immediately established the main ingredient for his character’s development and built on that throughout the story, something that I missed from Soramame’s side.
As a music producer, Oto goes by the name “Mr Decaf”, which I think was tied to the fact that he worked part-time as a barista. In contrast to Soramame, who would literally rip the clothes off someone’s back to satisfy her curiosity and wasn’t afraid to talk back to her superiors, Oto is a lot more timid and tends to let others walk over him to avoid conflict. Although he has very clear and valid feelings, he often retracts them or brushes them off in order to keep the peace.
Before Soramame’s fashion career kicks off, Oto already goes through a lot of things at Universe Records. While his manager Isobe Makiko – nicknamed “IsobeMaki” (played by Matsumoto Wakana) is strict, it’s clear that she really cares about his growth, and she keeps finding him new opportunities, like how she enables him to create a song for a commercial and introduces him to the label’s biggest duo ZUBIDAVA, which consists of the members Manbo (Masuda Takahisa) and Ariel (Uchida Rio).
Going on another segue, I was very confused about ZUBIDAVA’s storyline. I get that they served as a kind of gateway for Oto’s debut, since he basically got to take over from them when they quit, but it was never clear to me what kind of people they were and what their dynamic was. I was actually surprised to learn that they’d been a couple all along, because the way Ariel acted towards Oto during their first meeting strongly suggested otherwise. Seriously, what was up with her immediately jumping on Oto, saying things like: “You know, when I see someone I like, I want to touch and kiss them”?! That was so weird and inappropriate, I was actually worried that she’d start harrassing him or something. Apart from that, the whole thing with her allegedly becoming a duo with Oto and pretending to cut her hair before still bailing on him for Manbo and revealing she was actually wearing a wig didn’t make sense to me at all. Why would they make such a big deal of her getting over Manbo and turning a new leaf by assuming a new name and cutting her hair, which IsobeMaki even said was to prepare for her new image with Oto, only to make her leave anyway? That was so weird, and I honestly still don’t understand why that happened. I’m sure they could’ve thought of a more logical way to enable Oto’s debut, instead of using this weird transition. That didn’t really make sense to me.
For me, Ariel’s clingy behavior only contributed to emphasize Oto’s timidness. Despite the fact that he was clearly very uncomfortable with her touching him, he just let it happen and didn’t tell her she was bothering him. This behavior then came back with Seira, even though he did express his dismay with that situation a bit more clearly. Seeing how he dealed with being treated by the people around him, it only amplified how free and comfortable he acted around Soramame, and I’d like to think that that was at least part of the point.

One thing I quickly came to like about the main characters was that they were actually really similar but just expressed themselves in very different ways. They accepted each other’s quirks and supported each other’s endeavors like no other, and even if they fell out every once in a while, they were always each other’s go-to person when something happened. I honestly really liked the bond between Oto and Soramame, especially the scenes where they just sat comfortably in silence with that unspoken feeling of peace between them. Their dynamic was emphasized even more by the end credits sequence, which I personally loved because it brought out their character dynamic so well, from the bickering to the goofing and dancing around the house together. Those were the vibes I loved from them, and I guess it’s because of this that I got so frustrated when they started drifting apart. Although it was nice that they still managed to convey their feelings for each other properly in the end, I feel like it wasn’t necessary to drag it out to a last minute confession. I was honestly expecting them to start dating halfway through, because surely it wouldn’t take them that long to express their feelings for each other when they were literally living in the same house, right? RIGHT?
I think what irked me the most in the last couple of episodes was the fact that both of them expected the other to speak up if something was bothering them, but neither of them actually did so. I remember Oto saying something to Soramame on the phone like: “I don’t have to ask you if something happened, because you would tell me yourself, right?” Well, guess what, no she wouldn’t, and neither would you, because for some stupid reason you both assume the other’s too busy with their own stuff and you don’t want to ‘bother’ them, even when you should already know that your feelings are mutual. I know that this is a very Japanese thing and I might be taking it a bit too personal since I’ve recently broken off a friendship with a Japanese person for this very reason, as they used the assumption that I was too busy and they didn’t want to bother me as an excuse for not telling me anything anymore. So yeah, it might have hit me harder than it ought to at this moment in time, but it just became so excruciating to watch. Oto wouldn’t even call Soramame back after seeing 5 missed calls from her, just because Seira told him it wasn’t important. Ground rule: if you have 5 missed calls from someone, you call them back, especially when it’s your best friend. No matter what anyone else says, you call back and hear it directly from them. I also couldn’t believe that when he moved out of the boarding house, he was actually going to leave without saying goodbye to Soramame because he knew she’d still be sleeping at that hour. BRO. That doesn’t even count as being considerate anymore, that’s just stupid.
The part that made me scream out in frustration the most was the one with the unsent text messages. My goodness, this was annoying. At some point after Oto moved out and they became awkward with each other, one night they both somehow felt the urge to TEXT each other a love confession, only to unsend it before either of them could read it. As if telling each other this by text wasn’t bad enough, they actually made it a serendipity moment of “if they read it within an hour, it’s meant to be”, and then didn’t even give each other the chance to read it, let alone respond to it. It was infuriating.
Even though they kept promising themselves and others to be honest, they kept putting it off and then Oto left and then Soramame left and oh no, we missed another opportunity. I honestly started hating their mundane conversations because they weren’t saying what they needed to say. Let’s be real here: it should have been enough for them to hold hands at twilight and hug it out like they did before Soramame left for Paris. Those intimate moments said everything that they weren’t saying, but they still needed to hear each other utter the actual words in the very last episode to finally acknowledge what we already knew from the start. What the heck, man.
The part where Oto moved out was another one that completely missed the mark for me. They dragged out that goodbye so much it actually started to feel like they weren’t ever going to see each other again, and then they literally were back in a meeting together the next day. To briefly go back to my first general remark, these were all examples of scenes that I knew were intended to create an emotional impact and make you feel for the characters as they kept missing each other, but all it did was make me feel annoyed and frustrated.

All in all, while I liked both Oto and Soramame as characters, my main qualm with them was that they both resorted to keeping quiet and assuming things about each other instead of actually acting like each other’s go-to person. I really liked how naturally their friendship started, but then suddenly things became awkward for no reason except the fact that they just stopped talking to each other ‘out of consideration’. Sure, the timing wasn’t always right, but there should’ve been enough trust and understanding between them to work through that, and not just listen to what other people said without verifying it. While I really liked their dynamic, I didn’t like how long it took them to finally speak the words: “I like you.” It really shouldn’t have taken so long.
As a matter of fact, I honestly wouldn’t even have minded it if their bond ended up as purely platonic. I think things got complicated and awkward as soon as they started developing feelings for each other. I feel like it would’ve been much more wholesome and uncomplicated if they’d just become soulmate friends that supported each other in everything and always kept relying on each other, even if they both started dating. I just feel like they could’ve done so much more to honor their bond instead of straining it by continuously creating unnecessary misunderstandings and making it awkward for no reason.

I’d like to move on to some important side characters now, starting with Kanno Seira (played by Tanabe Momoko). I’ve already mentioned her before briefly, but Seira is the person who ultimately becomes the singer in Oto’s duo, BPM (Beats Per Minute), after ZUBIDAVA resigns. We already meet her before that though, under very peculiar circumstances.
In one of the earlier episodes, when Oto is still working part-time as a barista, Seira approaches him and gives him her number saying that she “fell in love with him at first sight”. Despite not really being interested at first, Oto eventually decides to give her a call and they end up going on a date at the aquarium. While at first it seems that Seira (here still going by ‘Nanako’) is a bit anxious since Oto’s mind seems to be elsewhere, the mood makes a dramatic switch when she suddenly asks him if he can lend her some money for her sick mother. Push to shove: she’s scamming him. Seriously, this whole scene I just went: “what? what?! WHAT?!” She just changed from an elegant lady who’d been brave enough to ask someone out in public to a completely delusional weirdo in seconds. She literally went from: “hi can I have your number” to “I’m a scammer” to “I actually used a fake name” to “I have no friends, so can I call you again at times I want to hurt myself?” Excuse me, Miss, you dropped this: 🚩🚩🚩🚩
From Oto’s personality, I knew he was going to say yes, but he really didn’t owe her anything. As sad as it was that she was troubled, the way she came out with it like that and used it to emotionally blackmail a random stranger she’d pretended to ask out was not it. I was glad Oto at least expressed his genuine dismay with the situation, and that he only halfheartedly agreed to her calling him again – I immediately sensed that she was someone to be wary of.
As far as representation of mental health issues go, I did have mixed feelings about Seira, even as she improved throughout the story. Fact remains that she was introduced as someone who got obsessed with people who treated her well alarmingly fast, and that didn’t just go away. She was one of the elements of this story that I was referring to when I said that Japanese dramas tend to brush off and redeem certain things and people way too easily. Seira actually cut herself and would guilt-trip people into talking to her so she wouldn’t do it again. She needed some serious help.

Don’t ask me why, but even before they introduced any kind of connection to music with Seira, I just had a gut feeling that she’d become the new ‘diva’. When Oto and IsobeMaki were waiting for the new singer at that pub, I actually remember saying: “Watch it be Seira.” And again, just like with Soramame, there she suddenly was, in the park, playing the harp and singing like an actual angel. I knew they were going to bring her back somehow because it would’ve been way too random to introduce her like that, but since they hadn’t given her any connection to music I wasn’t completely sure until they literally just tied two loose ends together, and she suddenly happened to have professional-level singing skills.
Having said that, I did appreciate the representation in the scene where she started hyperventilating during the MV shooting. The way Oto and Soramame comforted her was very touching, and it did make me feel bad for Seira that no one had told her these things until now. It would’ve been a genuinely wholesome scene if this is actually how she got better, but unfortunately these encouragements only led her to become romantically obsessed with Soramame, leading her to one final act of pettiness before the end.
Honestly, I’m so done with unnecessary misunderstandings. As much as she claimed to be ‘in love’ with Soramame, she literally hurt her more by lying to Oto that she started dating her co-worker. Soramame called her, audibly crying, asking for Oto, and she still couldn’t put her jealousy beside her. Being able to knowingly lie to and hurt the feelings of the person you claim to love, doesn’t count as love.
And while everyone might say: yeah, but she came around in the end! and I have to admit it was good of her to own up to it eventually, it still took her THREE YEARS to do it. Three whole years before she could bring herself to tell Soramame that she’d lied, and of course by then it didn’t make a difference anymore and it was all water under the bridge. A very convenient way to clear your own conscience, indeed. So yeah, while I did appreciate her apology in the sense that it offered some closure, it still didn’t feel right that she waited so long to come out with it.
Honestly, the introductions of both Ariel and Seira acting like they did around the same time made me so confused about the female side characters in this show. The fact that they were established as such ‘not okay’ characters and then got ‘redeemed’ in such a weird way still doesn’t sit fully right with me. For me, that wasn’t something I could just ‘brush off’ as an “Oh well, as long as they’re happy now” thing. If you’re going to represent mental health, how about not starting off by introducing them as disturbed delusional people? Just like with the break-up between Shota and Soramame, seeing this behavior from someone before getting the context of their mental state didn’t really work well, in my opinion.

To stay within Oto’s environment for a moment, let me talk a bit about IsobeMaki. Honestly, if I had to point out a favorite character in this show, it would be her. I loved her energy so much. She kept cracking me up with her genuine chaos and vigor. Even if she wasn’t really involved in the main story – or maybe even because of that – she was just living in her own world and sorting out her own stuff. It was really nice to see how genuinely she wanted to give Oto a chance. I don’t know for how long he’d been trying to submit demos and how many times she’d already told him his stuff lacked ‘heart’, but she didn’t give up on him and ultimately managed to get him the biggest break he could get and fulfilling his dream to perform on Kouhaku Uta Gassen, the biggest annual end-of-the-year televised music show in Japan. I really loved her energy and contribution to the story and Oto’s character development. I think her guidance, as chaotic as it could be, was exactly what he needed to keep going and not give up. She was the best.

Another great supporting character that I appreciated a lot was Mrs Kyoko. She was such a nice presence in the house and although she seemed to sense exactly what was happening between Oto and Soramame, she never got nosy about it and just encouraged them to talk to each other. Admittedly, they could’ve used a nudge, but I appreciated that she thought they were old and wise enough to sort things themselves, because so did I. Regarding her backstory, we don’t really get to know that much about her besides the fact that she has a son, but it was cool that she turned out to have connections to influential people like Mr Kuon. I liked her vibe and her endless collection of cozy knit sweaters and cardigans. I did wonder why they gave her that same two-braid wig for the entirety of the show, although I could guess why after seeing her picture on MDL, lol. No, but seriously, I really appreciated her as a supporting character. She was the best landlady Oto and Soramame could have wished for.

Two other recurring characters were Hanzawa Hiroshi (Sakou Yoshi) and his daughter Chiharu (Ihara Rikka) who ran a local soba restaurant near the boarding house. I loved the instant friendship between Chiharu and Soramame (I would’ve liked to see more of that, actually) and how they basically just became part of the fam together with Mrs Kyoko. They were good people.

Moving on to Soramame’s side of the story, let’s talk a bit about Ander Sonia, the studio that she starts working at after being recommended to the director by Mrs Kyoko, who knows him personally. Ander Sonia is ran by Kuon Tooru (played by Endo Kenichi), an initially very grumpy and stern man who nonetheless is quickly impressed by Soramame’s blatant talent. It doesn’t take long for him to warm to her eccentric way of working and allows her to assist him with the collection for an upcoming runway show, even allowing one of her own creations to become a part of it. However, despite being a supportive mentor, Kuon also has a dark side to him that stems from the insecurity that his best days as a fashion designer are behind him. While he should be welcoming new talent, he can’t help but feel jealous of Soramame for her fresh and unique designs while he constantly draws a blank when trying to think of new concepts.
As a result of this, he pulls a really low move: after encouraging Soramame to come up with her own brand, he actually steals her ideas for himself to use for the new Ander Sonia collection. Honestly, this hit me pretty hard, as well. I really liked Mr Kuon for being the grumpy yet appreciative mentor that he was, and it was just really sucky that he gave in to such a petty decision. Although I understood where he came from, and I was glad that he came around before it was too late (more than could be said of Seira), it was still a really nasty move and I actually groaned in disappointment when this happened. I really hoped for him to be better than that because this wasn’t just what he dismissed as “using an assistant’s proposal as his own idea”, this was actually Soramame’s personal project that stood separately from Ander Sonia. She came up with the concept “Don’t remember days, remember moments” all by herself, based on her own experiences and feelings. It wasn’t something she pitched to him or that he had ownership of, and that’s why it felt even more unfair. The impact this had on Soramame actually felt like stab in the chest, the unfairness and the anger that this was just passed off as normal after they’d supposedly built such a good work relationship together was palpable. This, and the fact that this was why she wanted to talk to Oto and Seira obstructed her from doing so made it even worse. It was a very impactful moment in the story, I honestly felt for Soramame here.
Luckily, she had at least one co-worker on her side, and this was Hazuki Shin (played by Kuroba Mario), the person Seira told Oto Soramame was dating. Hazuki had been friendly and welcoming to Soramame from the start, in fact he seemed to be the only person with no bitter feelings towards her and who actually respected her genius talent from the get-go. He immediately quit after Kuon pulled this, and even went with Soramame to Paris, where he stayed and thrived as a pattern maker. I really liked Hazuki. I loved that, more than a potential love rival, he became a really good and loyal friend to Soramame and ended up following her because he believed in her talent. Even when he suggested they start dating, he didn’t make any kind of fuss when she shot him down, and nothing changed about their dynamic as it was, which was really nice. I was glad that Soramame had at least one solid ally at Ander Sonia who kept encouraging her through everything that happened.
I wish the same could’ve been said for the rest of the team. I especially really disliked Kaori (Tanaka Makoto) at first. I feel like she may have had a crush on Hazuki or something, but she just couldn’t stand Soramame from the second she set foot inside the studio, and all the more when Hazuki became her biggest fan. She even tried to humiliate her in front of a VIP client, although she ended up making a bigger fool out of herself than Soramame. It was nice that she also came around, though – I got the feeling that she also disapproved of what Mr Kuon had done.

Finally, I’d like to say something about Asagi Touko, Soramame’s mother. First things first, despite the fact that she came back and Soramame ended up forgiving her, I don’t want to condone the fact that she abandoned her child whatsoever. She literally left her alone in an unfamiliar, public place after pretending to go to the bathroom. If you’re so bent on disappearing, at least make sure your child is at home or with people to take care of her. Seeing that little girl yelling for her mother inside that department store was just heartbreaking.
Despite this awful deed, I have to admit I was grateful that she didn’t turn out to be the kind of heartless mother that would keep ignoring her child’s existence forever. It’s later revealed that she sent a dress for Soramame’s fifth birthday (which grandma couldn’t bring herself to give her) and she even admitted that, as soon as she saw that Soramame had made that dress for the BPM music video, she’d wanted to scout her, knowing she was her daughter. She reached out to Soramame, knowing that she’d still be mad at her, but still took the opportunity to apologize and face her own mother after so many years. I feel like that must’ve also taken a lot of courage, and in the end I am glad that mother and daughter made up, although it did feel a bit rushed. I’m just glad that Touko was there to catch Soramame when Mr Kuon’s action made her lose everything. In the end, she wasn’t so bad as she was made out to be. I particularly liked the scene in the final episode when it was revealed that ‘Colza’, the name of Touko’s brand, was French for ‘nanohana‘, a type of flower she and Soramame shared a special memory with. In Dutch it’s called ‘koolzaad’, which sounds pretty similar to ‘Colza’. I just thought it was sweet when Soramame talked about connecting the dots about the name and how that again brought her closer to forgiving her mother. All in all, I liked how they brought the story about Soramame’s mother in right before they revealed Soramame’s own innate affinity with fashion design.

Overall, as is normal for short Japanese dramas like this, I liked the cast of characters and despite my mixed feelings on Ariel and Seira, I do feel like everyone contributed something worthwhile, even Shota and Sosuke, who I could barely remember after finishing the show, lol. I liked that Oto and Soramame had their separate social groups at Universe Records and Ander Sonia, and that they got to ‘regroup’ at the boarding house at the end of the day. It was cool that Soramame got to keep her promise of making BPM’s costumes for Kouhaku as well.

To give a final comment on the series’ title, I liked that it referred to possibly the most pivotal scene of the series, even though it only happened in episode 7. It’s when Oto and Soramame have both made a promising breakthrough in their careers and everything seems to build up to them finally admitting their feelings to each other. While they’re lying on the floor in the boarding house as the twilight sun seeps in, their hands slowly find each other and they promise to meet up the next summer to set off fireworks together, not knowing that things would only go south for them after that. I call it the most pivotal moment of the series not only because it confirmed the series’ title, but because 1) to me, this was their actual ‘confession’ and 2) everything would start going downhill from this moment. I think it’s cute that they named the show as a reference to a specific scene which seemed to sum up their true feelings for each other without it being spoken aloud. Still, I can’t help but feel like there could’ve been another reference to the title. You know what I would’ve loved? For Oto to write Soramame a song with the series’ title, and that would be his love confession to her. That would’ve been really cathartic.

Against my own expectations, I’ve actually managed to reach the end of this review within one day. It’s crazy how much I had to get the hang of it again, it literally feels like so long ago since my last one, even though it’s only been a month.

I’d like to end with a good old cast comment section!

I recently saw Hirose Suzu in the movie adaptation of Ishiguro Kazuo’s novel A Pale View of Hills and being in awe of what a beautiful and talented actress she is. It’s been ages since I saw her in a drama, specifically one where she didn’t play a high schooler. I remember seeing her in Gakkou no Kaidan and Kaitou Tantei Yamaneko, and in Koreeda’s movie Our Little Sister. She’s done a lot of manga movie adaptations as well, like Chihayafuru and Shigatsu ha Kimi no Uso. I really loved her as Soramame. No matter the occasional qualms I had with her character, she delivered a really heartfelt performance and it was great seeing so much emotional variety from her. I also loved how she did the mixed dialect and made it such an important part of Soramame’s character; she carried it instead of the other way around, which I think often happens when actors need to put on an accent or dialect that they’re not native to. Her energy was really great and I also liked her chemistry with her co-star. Well done, Suzu-chan!

I hadn’t seen Nagase Ren in anything else before. I didn’t surprise me to find out he’s a Johnny’s idol (King & Prince) and also participated in the end credits song. I liked his performance. While he was definitely less expressive than Suzu-chan, I think this actually fitted Oto’s character since he was supposed to be awkward and not have a lot of emotional experience or baggage. I think he did a good job at slowly uncovering Oto’s emotional layers through his deepening bond with Soramame. It was cool to see Oto grow in confidence as he became more successful, yet still never losing himself in his newly acquired fame. He would always get back to Soramame in the end, even if it took him some time. His chemistry with Suzu-chan was really nice, their final kisses in the last episode felt really genuine and tender. I think Nagase Ren did a great job, I wish him lots of luck with future acting projects, since it seems like he’s doing a lot!

As I mentioned, IsobeMaki was possibly my favorite character from this show, and it’s all because of Matsumoto Wakana. I kept thinking she looked familiar, and even though she’s appeared in a couple of things I’ve seen (Around 40, Mondai no Aru Resutoran and the movie His) I don’t actually remember her from those. I’m happy to see there are still a couple of her dramas on my watchlist, I’ll look forward to those. In any case, if there was any actor that kept jumping out to me in terms of energy and vibrance, it was her. I loved how she managed to go for it in her expressions and gestures without making a caricature of herself. The fact that she took herself so seriously only added to the effortless comicalness of her character, which I always appreciate. Seeing her in this just made me realize how important solid supporting characters can be, even when they don’t even get involved in the main plot too much. For Oto, IsobeMaki was an irreplaceable person who, despite her own schedule and professionalism, always kept looking out for him. I really loved the energy she brought to this character.

Apart from 11nin mo Iru!, in which she apparently had a guest role, I haven’t seen anything with Tanabe Momoko in it so far, and still she also looked really familiar to me. The tricky thing with characters like Seira is that you don’t want to make them feel too pathetic. I feel like Japanese dramas often tend to get a bit overboard with making sad characters even more sad by adding a tinge of craziness or extra trauma to them, and that’s why they typically turn out so exaggerated. I feel like this happened with Seira as well, to be honest. She was a troubled character from the start, but they kept emphasizing that by tapping into her dark and obsessive side, which caused it to become a bit on the nose sometimes. Still, I think Tanabe Momoko did a good job of balancing those different sides. Portraying a mentally unstable person can be really hard, so all in all I think she did a good job. I was actually wary of her at times, which can only be attributed to the actress. She made Seira feel like she could tip over at any time, which was pretty impressive.

I’ve seen Natsuki Mari before in Kimi ha Petto, Nobuta wo Produce and Kekkon Dekinainjanakute, Shinaindesu, although it’s been so long since I watched those that I can’t really remember her from them. I can’t help but wonder if they really did give Natsuki Mari that wig because of her blonde perm, or if the MDL picture is older than that, haha. That was something that bugged me a little. They made it so obvious that it was a wig, always keeping it in that same two-braid style, that it just stood out for no reason. As I mentioned, I really liked Mrs Kyoko’s character. I loved how open-minded and quirky she was and that her eccentric nature also gave her something mysterious. She and Soramame clicked so well in their energies, and it was nice to see her always look out for Oto, as well. She was like a granny to the both of them, but instead of coddling them she just let them do their own thing and only spoke her mind when she felt like they needed it, which was very comforting. I loved the warmth that she brought to the character in-between her quirkiness, she was such a unique person. I’m actually impressed the actress was able to portray such a genuine character despite that stupid wig, haha. Props to her!

The way I cheered when Endo Kenichi appeared on screen! I really love this actor. I’ve seen him before in Tokujo Kabachi!!, Tamiou, Chef: Mitsuboshi no Kyuushoku and one of my favorite Koreeda movies Nobody Knows). The gag with this guy is that every show he appears in at some point compares him to a crocodile, and this show was no exception. I really liked seeing him in this role, as a bitter fashion designer who had to face the reality of getting older and making room for the next generation. Endo Kenichi is one of those actors that I like so much that I’m not even bothered by what his character does, lol, it just makes me respect him. I had no idea he was going to be in this, so that was a nice surprise. I really liked his character’s chemistry with Soramame, how he’d respond when she talked back to him and how gave her a knuckle sandwich when congratulating her with Paris. He was a cool supporting character, and it was nice that he got a little development arc of his own.

Imagine my face when I realized Kuroba Mario was the Nekota guy from the Koi ha Tsuzuku yo Dokomademo special!! I couldn’t forget this guy even if I wanted to. His goofy dance and silly ‘nyaa’s have been printed on my eyes and ears for all eternity, lol. As I said, I really liked Hazuki. I loved that he became a solid supporting character to Soramame rather than just a love rival. It was nice to see him reciprocate her energy and immediately take her side when he realized how truly talented she was. There wasn’t a single shred of bitterness of jealousy in him, which was admirable in that industry, and especially since it seemed like a pretty hard pill to swallow for the rest of the Ander Sonia team. Even though he was only introduced halfway through the series, once Soramame started pursuing fashion, he immediately became a fundamental part of the fam, and I liked that he was so unproblematic. The story really didn’t need more misunderstandings or messy love triangles. I thought he was a very wholesome character.

I hadn’t seen Matsuyuki Yasuko in anything before, but she exuded a very graceful energy as Asagi Touko. I was worried that she might turn out to be a heartless ice queen of a mother, like the mom from Pinocchio (random association, I know), but I was actually glad that she turned out to be truly remorseful and immediately reached out to her daughter once she recognized her talent. Although I did think Soramame forgave her quite quickly, I also didn’t really mind it because I was just happy that there wouldn’t be another last minute emotional arc in which they slowly rekindled their relationship. With the situation that Soramame was in when she chose to reach out to her, I was just thankful that she immediately offered to help her out, not just as her mother but as a professional fashion designer who acknowledged her talent. I thought she was a nice addition to the cast, also to give Soramame some closure on her childhood grievance.

As I said, I appreciate the overall feeling of the story and how it brought Oto and Soramame together whilst also focussing on their respective dreams and paths in life. I could’ve done without some of the misunderstandings, the lack of communication despite their suggested ‘soulmate connection’ was quite irksome and it shouldn’t have taken them so long to confirm their feelings for each other. Besides that, I thought it was a pretty wholesome story about two people who, despite their outward differences, just couldn’t feel whole without each other. They both felt the fateful impact of their very first encounter in Fukuoka and never let go, even if it took them ages to actually talk about it.
I also appreciated the insights in the music and fashion industry, however shallow they remained. Keeping in mind the short duration of the show, I can forgive the writers for several things that I would’ve otherwise liked to have been explored a bit more. I liked the music, both the soundtrack and the songs that were featured in the series itself. I also really respect the work that went into creating the clothes and Soramame’s design drawings, those all looked so good. I really liked the ohajiki dress Soramame made for Seira for that first MV, it looked supercute.
The cinematography and the acting were probably the best things about this show: in terms of visual and performance quality it was definitely one of the better Japanese shows I’ve seen. The execution of the story and how they chose to convey the messages remained a bit ambiguous to me. It really felt like they could’ve done some things better in terms of build-up, and changing up the order in which they showed certain things would’ve probably made a couple of scenes a lot more impactful. Still, they managed to wrap everything up nicely in the end, everyone took responsibility for their actions and the main couple finally got together with nothing keeping them apart anymore.

And with that, I will conclude this review. I feel like I’ve said all that I want to say and summarized my feelings on the show clearly enough. While short dramas usually take me less time to process, it really felt like I had to get the hang of writing a review again, so I might want to keep practicing a bit more frequently, lol. For now, I’m still just gonna let my Spin-the-Wheel app pick out my shows for me, and depending on my mood I’ll probably watch some of my own choosing once in a while. I’m very curious to find out what I’ll be watching next.

Thank you for reading this until the end if you did, and I will be back soon.

Until then,

Bye-bee! x