Drama Review: Akai Ito (Drama Series)
Ok, so finally, I have the time to do the drama review for Akai Ito.
Basically, this drama follows a plot of destined lovers. It all starts with the Chinese legend of the threads of destiny, in other words, red threads, that tie destined couples together ever since they enter this cruel world. Atsushi Nishino (Mizobata Junpei) and Mei Takemiya (Minamisawa Nao) were destined to be with each other since birth. Both of them were born on 29th of February, the leap year and they once met each other on their 8th birthdays outside a cake shop. A-kun, Atsushi, whose mother was a drug addict, was cycling outside the cake shop when he crashed into Mei, who was holding onto her birthday cake. Mei, however isn’t your typical whiny little girl, instead, isn’t she waited for yet another cake (while A-kun waited for her) and gave him the chocolate on her cake, sealed in an envelope, to wish him a happy birthday. A –kun, touched, rode off on his bicycle, only to collapse from accidentally taking the drugs his mother took.
This incident was then linked to the present, where Mei and Atsushi once met again as classmates, total strangers. Atsushi then gradually falls in love with Mei after certain incidents and on a study trip organised by the school to romantic Nagasaki, they realise that they once met on their 8th birthdays. Without even a proper confession, they knew they were destined for each other. However, things didn’t go that smoothly. During the school trip, Mei’s best friend realised that her crush had been in love with Mei all the while. Misunderstanding the situation that Mei might return his feelings, her best friend tried to commit suicide. Although she did not die, she lost her memories of her dear friends. Atsushi’s mother was the best friend of the best friend of Mei’s mother, who was clear of A-kun’s family background. She pleaded with Atsushi not to see Mei anymore, fearing that Mei would get influenced. And Atsushi faced the problem of moving to somewhere faraway with his mother for rehabilitation and not meeting Mei anymore. Soon, however, the decision was made. Atsushi made this final decision to ‘dump’ Mei for his mother’s sake and he transferred schools, only revealing this secret to one of his best friends who saw him after his school transfer procedure. Meanwhile, Mei, still confused over Atsushi’s sudden ‘break-up’ forces herself to smile and go out with the guy who had a crush on her. The guy, who was rather possessive over her, took the harder way out with her and practically abused her whenever she supposedly ignored him.
But, it was not long before Atsushi came back after their graduation and Mei’s feelings for him returned twice as strong. Her crush realised that his place in her heart will never replace Atsushi’s, and he managed to get them together during a summer festival, however, sadly, he was knocked down by a car when trying to leave the two alone. In the end, they got together and the story ended rather happily amidst the tragic events.
Overall, I really enjoyed this series as like any cellphone novel from Japan, it stays close to any normal girl’s hearts. A pure love story with a few twists here and there. The main pull factor of this drama, I feel, was the great mixture between love and social issues (e.g teenagers committing suicide, drug abuse). Love was not overemphasized, nor was the social issues part, which makes Akai Ito a well-balanced drama, with the accompaniment of a really heartwarming plot and cast.
How successful this drama was, the cast definitely has something to do with it. There is no way a drama fanatic would resist the power of this cast. Mizobata Junpei’s acting as an aloof yet strong mentally person really struck me like all his characters do, as usual. Minamisawa Nao’s acting as Mei was not bad as well, although the parts where she self-depreciates herself were rather annoying. The visual effects of the drama was pretty good too.I adored how they would start each episode with a meaningful quote and end each episode with yet another meaningful quote. And each quote seems to summarize the content of its respective episode so well, it lasting leaves a more lasting impact on you than the drama would.
The supporting cast did a good job too, you can really see that there was some form of chemistry among all of them. The reason why the cast was able to act this well was also probably due to the reason the ages of the characters they were acting were somewhere near their actual age. It probably makes it easier for them to understand how a teenager in love would feel or how a depressed suicidal person would act when forced into a corner.
I never took note of the theme song for the first few episodes since I was too immersed in the plot and wanted to just move onto the next episode, but it was until the 7th episode that I realized how nice the ending song was and how related it was to the drama series.
The drama is well done overall, although I didn’t get the whole point of having the movie. Anyways, I don’t plan to watch the overly summarized movie, which will probably spoil my remaining impressions of Akai Ito.
Do you believe in destiny? I don’t. But do you?
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