Damn this drama was a gut-wrenching rollercoaster. It tugs at your heart and won't let go! I cried so many times throughout, and I normally don't get that emotional. I guarantee you will shed a tear whenever Yutaka Ozaki's song "Oh my little girl" plays. The characters are so well written that you feel they are real. The two main leads played by Suzuki Honami and Mikami Hiroshi acted the hell out of their parts. Their transition and degradation of character is shown perfectly.

I had never seen a female lead quite like Mariya before. She was a chain-smoking leather jacket wearing tom boy bad a** by day and a beautiful hostess by night. Tough but with a heart of gold. It wasn't easy to pull one over on her because she was also street smart. Multi-faceted like people are in real life. Shiro was a male lead I had not seen before. He was everything Mariya wasn't, weak, prideful, and easily lead by others. A self described "Robot" until he met Mariya. They were the most unlikely pair coming from different worlds joined together by fate. Two lonely, tortured souls colliding into one another like a car crash. The side characters Nana, Jun, and Kamiya are just as well written as the leads. They are all flawed. In need of love like us all. Scarred literally and figuratively by this cruel world. I won't give any of the story's plot away since there are so many twists and turns. This drama is an experience that shouldn't be told but viewed.

Symbolism throughout including Christian imagery and a bird adequately named Blue. Everything has a purpose in this layered complex masterpiece. Haunting, dark, and raw similar to the 1993 drama Kou Kou Kyoushi (written by the same screenwriter),
Kono no Hate will leave you wrecked and thinking about it long after the final credits roll. I understand what people mean when they say the 90s produced the best Japanese dramas and they don't make em' like they used to.

Rating:
10/10