I've just rewatched this and I came to up my score and even write a review.

I'm a Kdrama fan for all sorts of reasons - the production, the accessibility, the slightly more acceptable misogyny, the lack of reliance on sex. Yet there are some amazing dramas out there that only Japan can do! You find them slipped in between the slightly brutal, sexist, infantilised main stream fare but shining with a gritty, oh so strange yet oh so normal light.

This is one of those, not because of the subject matter but because of the way it is handled. Without the glam slick entertainment of Kdramas or the censorship and lightness of Cdrama or the terribly preachy brutality of a US drama this manages to put across it's message with a heartrendingly understated realism.

The story is well told, the casting and acting is superb, the music supports but never overpowers the emotion.

Kakihara Rinka deserves the honours but Ikuta Toma deserves your attention.

I thoroughly recommend it.