Haru (2015)

Good Edutainment

It's funny because I really feel like there were two different aspects to this: one that was more serious and historical, and another that used some questionable tropes.

I really loved the political and historical part of this; I've never really watched any historical period dramas in this time and I actually learned a lot, about how people in different classes or of different nationalities were treated, and about how historical events impacted people's lives. For that, I really loved this drama and how it spanned a really pivotal time in world history (about 1925-1959) even though I did find it a little difficult to emotionally invest in at times.

On the other hand, however, I found that sometimes tropes took me out of it. Some subplots felt repetitive as they happened over and over again and I wondered why the character didn't learn from it and so sometimes characters made frustrating decisions. Other times, there were tropes that didn't really feel like they belonged even though they were still woven into the story fairly well.

There was an entire arc where the main character got amnesia — one trope that has always felt annoyingly forced to me and feels like an excuse to make big changes without having to explain them. While I felt like this drama did that arc better than other dramas have, I still didn't love it and it definitely felt dragged out longer than I thought it had to be. It was a turning point in the drama that I really didn't love and just felt like it was inserted for plot purposes. For that reason, the progression of the romance subplot also felt a little awkward throughout the show.

That aside, the OST is perfect and just fits the story and time so well. The acting is great, especially during emotional scenes, and so I still quite enjoyed this one and everything I learned from it.

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