9.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2022 Japanese drama with 10, 45-70 minute episodes.

First I provide a unique synopsis then review

Synopsis

Kisara Hanae (Kiyohara Kaya) did not let being abandoned to an orphanage hold her back for long, she began self-teaching karate, until a local dojo saw her passion and took on her training.  Her career was just taking off when tragedy struck and irreparably damaged her career as an athlete.  After a long period of mourning the loss of her former self, she goes to work as a cleaner for a fellow orphan and childhood friend, Shingo Natsukawa (Fuma Kikuchi), who started a cleaning business.  As she re-emerges and begins living life again, she encounters Ashida Haruki (Shotaro Mamiya) who is known as a one hit wonder who so happened to write the song that Hanae credits with getting her through her difficult childhood and motivating her in her athletic career.  Haruki is about to lose it all, his management firm, his apartment and his career if he doesn’t produce a hit song.  Desperately trying to think of how to salvage his career, his manager suggests if he experienced love it might give him inspiration to write new songs.  Hanae caught his interest when she was shadow boxing in the courtyard and winds up at his house cleaning.  He asks Hanae if she will be his girlfriend to inspire him and she agrees as long as the relationship is over by a set date.  What she does not tell him is something life changing is going to occur for her on that date.  Will their fake arrangement result in real feelings?  Will their love experiment result in musical inspiration and also change Hanae’s life.  

Review

This was a predictable, but sufficiently complex romantic drama with a few comedic elements.  It was on balance happy and had a happy ending.  I would watch it again and would highly recommend it to those that like romance, sports dramas, idol drama, and shows where a main character has to overcome a major health challenge.  

Spoilers

I really liked Hanae but was really frustrated with her when he leaned in to kiss her and she basically told him he needed to ask.  To me someone asks in the slow approach.  You don’t want the kiss?  You just dodge it.  I mean naturally if someone grabs you unexpectedly and mauls you that is unacceptable but the slow lean has been the signal forever.  This “ask me” is such a modern thing and is likely why so few long term couples form these days. So, I was disappointed when that ideology was incorporated in the script.  It’s not romantic to me to have to ask“may I kiss you.”  So, that disappointed me in that character.  She made him feel bad, like he had done something wrong, and there wasn’t a thing wrong with him leaning in for a kiss.  

I got incredibly frustrated with her not telling anyone about her upcoming surgery.  I mean, you might be deaf afterward, that is going to be a little hard to hide.  When she did finally tell her family and they did the “punishments” I totally understood why they were like you did wrong, because it was wrong of her to keep that from the people that loved and cared about her.  And she only told them when they literally had her backed into a corner.  Only after they essentially already knew.  For her not to tell Haruki why she wanted to end it with him was not being very kind toward him.  She made the decision for both of themthat he should not go through it with her.  I mean tell him and give him that option.  I was upset she broke his heart a little and he was just such a nice guy.  I don’t like lies or selfishness and I felt like she was lying to him and being selfish in what parts of her life she shared.  

I was a bit surprised that none of the deaf characters used sign language.  It was all lip reading, voice to text or writing the message down.  They seemed to get along fine with a combination of methods which makes me wonder if that is a true depiction of modern hearing impaired.  

 #FightSong   #KayaKikyohara  #ShotaroMamiya  #FumaKikuchi