Picture credit: asianwiki
The Gist: As Kai (Tsumabuki Satoshi) finishes up college,
his world revolves around the job hunt, a hunt that isn’t going so smoothly. While
on campus, he comes across a violinist playing outside. At first impressed by
her skills, that impression is compounded once Kai realizes the beautiful
violinist is deaf. He comes to know Sae (Shibasaki Kou), as he is fluent in
sign language from class courses, but she isn’t what he expected. Despising
pity and even help, Sae is brash and impolite, boldly doing things her own way.
Her increasing hearing loss is slowly chipping away at her dream and that anger
gets targeted at friends new and old. Kai, and his two friends, Keita (Eita) and
Shohei (Narimiya Hiroko), support her and her best friend Akane (Shirashi Miho)
to make their senior year the best one ever!
Love:
1.Sae
Picture credit: dramacrazy.net
Sae is such a lovely complicated character. She’s an
original leading lady, who has so much pent up aggression, but is just sad at
the core. She’s headstrong though and I have a feeling even if she could speak,
she’d still have trouble communicating with people. I love to see her coming to
terms with her problems and figuring out the relationship between her and Kai.
There’s this moment with her and Kai in a band room I think, where she says
something to the effect of “if the lights weren’t on I couldn’t even talk to
you.” There’s quite a few poignant scenes between them and the star power is
really in the moments where Sae is willing to open up, rather than throwing a
fit.
Picture credit: dramacrazy.net
Mad props to these characters who I believe are neither
death nor native signers, for acting their roles so convincingly. The thing
about sign language is that it’s not just about hand movements, but the
emotions of the body and face to convey meaning. I found it incredibly
intriguing to watch them communicate and the hurdles that needed to be overcome
when Sae interacted with people who couldn’t speak her language. This is really
a unique feature of this drama and adds an extra level to it.
3. The Music
While I’m not very familiar with Shabasaki as an actress, I
was very impressed with both her violin and piano. Between that and her
signing, I kept thinking, what a fantastically talented person! Even though it
is really a plot device, every time she was at an instrument, I was delighted.
4.Friend Love Triangle
Picture credit: dramacrazy.net
With Sae and Kai doing their own thing, that left the three
remaining friends to play amongst themselves. Keita quickly likes Akane, who is
actually interested in Shohei. Without being overly dramatic, this secondary
plot adds tension and a bit of interest. Akane is a little bit stubborn like
Sae, but the moments between her and Shohei are cute. Their camping trip is
particularly adorable as they really start to notice each other.
Meh:
1.Learning Another Language
Picture credit: dramacrazy.net
One thing that really bothered me was how quickly Keita
seemed to pick up sign language. Learning another language is difficult and as
much as they interacted, it just didn’t seem realistic. Shohei’s progress was a
little more practical, so I guess we can possibly just write off the fact that
Keita is freakishly smart.
2.Spoiled Sae
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As much as I love Sae, I feel like we were missing some
tension in the fact that her mom is ridiculously rich. It’s a nice touch that
her mom is the musician that Sae can never be, but there’s also this safety net
where Sae doesn’t really have to work because her life is comfortable. If music
doesn’t work out and she can’t find a job, then she could, theoretically, stay
at home and be fine. While that bugged me, the drama does a good job remedying
the situation by making her not want
to rely on other people, even if she could.
Hate:
1.The Split Up
Picture credit: dramacrazy.net
Not really a spoiler when the setting is senior year of
college. No matter what happens in the series, all your characters are going to
be somewhat spread out by the end of it. While I understand getting to the
point where you can be friends and not see each other every day, I wish the
drama took place a little earlier in their college days to give them more time
together. I hate shows that end with everyone separating!!! Most of them do,
but still.
So:
So…I love the originality of the romance of this show. The
music and the sign language left me totally intrigued, even if the relationship
isn’t totally unique. The characters are working through tough problems and
even though Sae is tough to deal with, she’s awesome.
Final Grade: B
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