Another year, yet another manga adaptation. I have seriously waited for this for so long you can't even imagine. Since I loved the manga, I thought a live action would be great to make it even more famous, but there were some things I enjoyed and some I didn't in this drama.
Overall, if you've read the manga the story follows the most superficial part of it. Hokuto and Chiwa get into a contract relationship and live as a couple so you see their difficulties as they try to get by day after day. But if you've read the manga, you know this is not the only main story. Besides the R-Rated scenes that it contains (that of course they'd never do in a drama), there is also a story of revenge from Hokuto's part that here was put aside and they only showed a part of it and resolved it quickly. It was as if he was never fully convinced of what he was doing or perhaps it was the actor who didn't fully convince me as Hokuto. So while I appreciate they did some changes to fit the story into a drama line, I think they should have dug deeper and shown more character development. Hokuto should have issues, look complex. Here he looked like he had layers to his personality, but most of the time I couldn't see them, it was as if the actor who played him was static. Now I don't know his other works, but here he didn't make me feel a lot for his character because he seemed superficial and not mysterious like the manga!Hokuto. The same happened with Chiwa's character, but less. She was more like her manga counterpart, even if at times shallow. In general, if you're looking for a romantic story with not much drama to it but never read the manga, go for it. But don't expect a super masterpiece, just an enjoyable series with some over the top moments that honestly could have been avoided.
The music is pretty cool though.
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