Algernon Ni Hanataba O (2015)

I had been avoiding ANHO for a long time because I'd read reviews and many said that they cried watching it, and I surely wasn't in the mood for anything heavy and sad. However, I wound up watching it because of my mom and I can say we both genuinely enjoyed it.

So I'm going to review it from my point of view, but also my mom's because she's pretty new to Asian dramas and it's interesting to notice someone completely new to it slowly understanding and accepting all aspects of asian dramas as they come.

So story- Oh it was great! And I'm saying this not only because it has substance and material but because we(my mother and I) were completely immersed in the episodes, being vocal about our agreements and disagreements with the story and discussing things amongst ourselves as it progressed. I was really expecting a cliché story where Sakuto transforms into a super genius instantly after the surgery and everyone's shocked and in awe and he learns what it means to be 'human' in the following episode and ends on 'five years later' where we are shown Sakuto and the female lead married with a child on the way and Sakuto using his genius to cure cancer and all that jazz. However the story didn't do that in the traditional way, it progressed gradually giving us viewers explanations and reasons for everything that was going on, specially with Sakuto. I was thankful for the other characters and their side stories too, as much as I love yamapi I wouldn't want to just watch the main leads ALL the time in an episode so I felt like the side characters brought the much needed break I needed from time to time for the titular characters and all that science stuff!

I love stories like an 'alien visits earth', 'some kind of creature starts living among humans', 'robots living with humans' and what have you. It's fun to see a supposedly non-human entity conform to the lives of humans, feel feelings, learn about the depths of existence but I sometimes feel 'being human' is romanticised way too much in such films. Like all these non-humans are in awe of how humans feel and do stuff...and it's such a big deal when they cry for the first time and realise that life is bitter sweet. Ughh... Life ain't always pretty and being sad isn't fun when you're struggling day to day to work or study or just live a decent life, with a million emotions we humans have. So it was nice to see for a change how this character developed along the way. There weren't too many unnecessary tears or romantic, cringey dialogues about the pain and joy of being simply...."human".

Acting- Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Yampi. I've watched many of his dramas and I love his eyes, although some have called them dead fish eyes, which they kinda look like at times lol. Up until now his acting seemed passable... it wasn't anything extraordinary but I didn't find it monotonous either. But Yamashita as 'Sakuto' really impressed me. I 'believed' in his character. Before his transformation into a genius I couldn't stop talking about how cute he was, pure, like a child..like someone you wanted to protect from this big bad world. And after his transformation a genius, arrogant yet naive...just learning everything he's missed until now. Yampi did a really good job. The other characters were amazing as well. I must say though, the love story in this drama didn't really move me. I don't know if it was the circumstances surrounding these characters, or the chemistry(or lack thereof) amongst the actors or what. Everytime they appeared together on screen, I did feel like they cared for eachother, but it just seemed like friendly, platonic love and care and not romantic, genuine love. So the love story part of it had no effect on me. I really like how they dealt with the theme of friendship.

The music was okay I guess, nothing that stuck to my mind after I finished watching.

How could I forget Algernon, he was an adorable little mousey. Ofcourse he doesn't speak or anything but inspite of that Algernon's role in the plot is undeniably significant, as the very title of the drama suggests. Algernon was like an indication to everything that was happening or going to happen to the male lead and you could literally compare them and gain a better understanding of what was going on.

All in all, it was a great drama! The acting was good, the story engaging, did pull at my heartstrings a few times and turned my mom into a Yampi fan! I'd definitely recommend this drama.

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