MARS - Tada, Kimi wo Aishiteru (2016)

This adaptation was better than I expected though The 20min episodes were too short! I wanted to watch more of their story. Fujigaya really surprised me, because when I heard he was casted as Rei I was so worried, but he did a pretty good job here, and I really liked his Rei portrayal. He was rough but also had his cute moments. The girl that played Kira was new for me, I have never seen her on any drama, but I think she was ok in her part. Give it a chance after all is a light drama that moves fast and it's well made. It was a little tricky to watch because I couldn't find subbed episodes so I have to watched them 100% in Japanese, but gladly I could understand 85% and it also helped that I had already read the manga. Now I'm waiting for the movie release so I can see how they end the story.

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I didn't watch the Taiwanese version nor read the original manga. If my review makes you want to advice me to watch the Taiwanese version or read the manga, I won't do it. So my review will be based on my real thought for the first time to watch this series. (^_^)v

The first thing that stand out the most is the 'packaging'. The 23 minutes duration reminds me of Korean web-drama, short with beautiful editing, scene transition, color correction and the backsound music, even this MARS were presented in such a 'kawai' frame. It's kinda rare tho finding this editing treatment.

In the opening of each episode, there is always a highlight caption or something like a synopsis from each episode. For example in the episode 3, it's said "Kira's important drawing gets plagarized. That painting gets circulated and a side of Rei that has never been shown before is seen..." ==> ( I hope this doesn't count as a spoiler ;-)
I don't think that kind of synopsis is necessary. Even though the sentence leaves some mystery, some how I feel like "oh in this episode the character X will appear, doing something evil to female lead and then the male lead will be her saviour". I already can draw the story right after the opening credit (-_-)>. I think those caption were added in order to makes viewers keep drawn with the story. It's just too bad that a short duration but the story already can be pictured in the beginning. After 2 or 3 episode I skipped the opening to ignore those caption, for me it's more fun without it, no big deal.

Fujigaya Taisuke is good enough to played Rei's character, he can pulled double side Rei's character well enough (in whisper mode: he's such ikemen tho so I'm totally fine with it XD ). He always wear necklace with feather chain, whenever I saw it I expected that necklace will be an iconic item in this drama, but my prediction was wrong, LOL. That necklace looks really appealing so I though it could be main lead's important or memorable item, like you know that kind of typical drama always put something iconic stuff to makes the story more meaningful.

Kubota Masataka is my second reason to watch this drama, and his character is the most I anticipated. At first his fashion really distracted me. He always wear loose outfit, fine with shirt or sweater, but his pants is totally disappointing and reminds me about first generation K-Pop boyband [Please somebody bring the scissor, my hands is so itchy wants to cut that pants XD]. Kubota Masataka played as Kirishima Makio who obsessed to Rei. This! this is my favorite side story. His hidden true character really the best one. Now I'm sure that he has awesome murderous expression. I praised the writer to write his character really well, especially in episode 9 and 10 where his character at its peak. Those two episode woke me up who almost fall asleep. It can be counted as a twist but the reason behind it is just really deep. *thumbs up*

Iitoyo Marie is a new face, but I feel uncomfortable to watch her in this drama. Her character was the main reason why my rating dropped a lot. She looks awkward to me, she keep bowing her head and folding her hands. It's true that Asou Kira is supposed to be a timid girl but I don't think she expressed it well. Even her character in this drama was a little bit off to me. Let's see, Rei and Makio has strong past story and bold character. Their past story were told in backflash so it feels make sense and I can understand their feelings. But not with this Kira. Kira's identity was introduced as "High school girl who has closed off her heart" (it appeared in every episode opening along with Rei and Makio) but her character didn't through my feelings, there is no backflash story about her (well it's not a must tho) and the main reason why she closed off her heart was untold clearly.

Sometimes I think why Rei just randomly picked an introvert girl as her girlfriend, their fateful meeting didn't strong enough to make him fall in love with her. So it makes me feel like Rei-Kira's relationship was a bit off. So in the end, this drama visually beautiful and fast. I'm looking forward on the next movie on how Makio character will develop.

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