When I started watching this, I immediately thought of Himitsu (a novel that was adapted into at least 2 movies and a drama). This story might have been influenced by Himitsu, but it veered off into a totally different direction. Whereas Himitsu deeply explored the difficulties and emotional conflicts and jealousies that would realistically result from such a situation, Tsuma, Shougakusei ni Naru told a simpler story about family bonds and finding the strength to move on after the death of a loved one. Also, it avoided the eeriness and darkness of Himitsu. Even though the premise sounds creepy, and I felt a little bit of creepiness in the first couple of episodes, it ended up being totally wholesome and innocent.

One of the strongest aspects of the drama was the acting. I especially appreciated the amazing child acting by Maida Nono. I usually don't like child actors and wish dramas had way less of them (the previous drama I just finished was a Kdrama, Woman of Dignity, that featured a typically bad and annoying child performance that should have been cut way down), and a cringy, awkward performance would have sunk this show, but Maida really came through. She was a little bundle of energy and you could easily understand how she could inspire people to get out of their doldrums. Also, I was happy to see Morita Misato in a nice role like this, which she played perfectly (I despised The Naked Director, and thought she was one of the few good things about it).

It seems like these stories about loved ones coming back from the dead always have sad or bittersweet endings. But I was hoping for a different kind of ending. Even though Marika-chan's mom went through a drastic change and ended up being a sympathetic person at the end, she had been such a horrible human being who hated her life. So I thought a nice solution would have been for Takae to jump into Marika-chan's mom's body and stay there permanently. Then Keisuke could marry this appropriately-aged woman without any creepiness, and I'm sure that Marika-chan would have had a happy life as his stepdaughter, and with a much more positive person playing the role of her mom, who would have given her way more love than her real mom ever did. And Marika-chan's mom could have wandered the world as a ghost, trying to learn more about life, making amends for being a terrible mother, and trying to become a better person before moving on to the next world. Wouldn't that have been perfect?