Hitorigurashi ReviewDrama: HitorigurashiScreenwriter: Aoyagi YumikoNetwork: TBSActors: Tokiwa Takako, Nagasaku Hiromi, Takahashi KatsunoriDuration: 45 min.90s Japanese dramas are known for having the best romance genre but I wouldn’t recommend this one if that is what you are looking for. Hitorigurashi is more of a coming of age, character study and the subject is the main lead Miho Hanabuchi who is in the phase of her life where she decided to be independent for the first time in her life. She moved to a new place away from her parents as she decided to live alone. This is a very relatable story as I imagine the demographic for Asian drama fans is the same age or same situation as the main lead of this drama.Living alone Miho realizes a lot of things that it is not the ultimate freedom as she thought it would be but there is unexpected loneliness and a lot of responsibilities. Sheltered by her parents for a long time, Miho desperately wanted to grow up fast. From impulsive buying to wanting to have a boyfriend felt like she was catching up on time. Then she met Shintani, a tall charismatic dude who didn’t take any relationship seriously. She fell in love or did she just like the idea of falling in love? There is also this developing complicated relationship between her and her best friend Kyoko who from all this time she thought she knew well.I appreciate the realism the story presented and how the characters are morally grey especially Miho who is not a goody two shoes character. She has this unlikable trait and she was aware of it. The lover and the best friend are also as real as it gets. There is a difference between the love philosophy between Miho and Shintani and that’s just reality tales like that have been told many times already. What I didn’t like is that it became too melodramatic for my taste. Kyoko’s psyche went downhill towards the end. I don’t like how the writing handled the character totally but it could be a product of its time as it is a story written in 1996. Since it is a coming of age there is a character development, great for Miho but not much for the other two.Takako Tokiwa (Aishiteiru to Ittekureh, Tonbi, Beautiful Life) is the queen of 90s Japanese dramas not just for her beauty but for her acting too. She is also great here; she is the best when it comes to expressing without saying a word. You wouldn’t realize but you already fell for her charm. Nagasaku Hiromi (True Mothers, Su-ki-da, Mai Agare!) is an actress I really like. I have never seen her in a role where she is bad. It is nice to see her during her earlier roles and to my surprise she is already great as if she was born to act. Takahashi Katsunori is a very competent actor right now but he is mediocre here. Probably he is still raw or just the way the character is written. Overall, a nice coming of age story just became too melodramatic towards the end. A very relatable theme, just bad execution. I am still glad I watched this. There are few hard hitting quotes here at times Hitorigurashi felt like the Nagi no Oitoma for the 90s.
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