It seriously kept me glued to the screen even when I have to fight off sleep.

I haven’t watched Asian dramas in a very long time, but then I came about this video on Facebook and one thing led to another. Soon enough, I found myself watching J-drama after J-drama after J-drama. The latest, which I watched from midnight until morning (hence, the eye bags), is Gakkou no Kaidan.

Not going to lie: I thought there would be romance—kind-of why I checked it out in the first place—and there is a sprinkle of it, which is fine by me. Honestly, by episode 6 and 7, I was fine if nobody ended up with anybody.

The story begins with Tsubame Haruna, who presumably because of a prank, becomes student council president. Unbeknownst to her, there’s an unspoken rule that the student council is just a puppet of the Platinum 8, a group of rich, snobby, attractive students who think frowning and being a bully is an Olympic sport. The main character at the beginning has no backbone and is a people-pleasing peacemaker, which I think really hits home for me. When her friend, the vice president, who’s in the same situation she’s in, is unjustly blamed; she meets Shizukui Kei, a guy who mysteriously appears out of nowhere and likes to speak theatrically and cryptically. A brilliant speechmaker, he helps the quiet and naïve Tsubame to change the corrupt system of the school, one speech at a time.

As you can tell, Kei, who is played by Kamiki Ryunosuke, is a scene-stealer. He reminds me of Archie Costello, Elliot Allagash, and Artemis Fowl—all of whom are included in my “Weirdest Crushes I’ll Never Admit (But then, I just did)” list. What do they have in common, you may ask? They’re all freaking brilliant—genius masterminds who know of people’s interest, are skilled in the art of manipulation, and orchestrate and control all with the use of words. Kei, in a way, is kind-of like that. He helps Tsubame by reading people like a teenager would read a celebrity tweet. He reads them well.

Tsubame, on the other hand, may not be as conniving as Kei. They seem to have the same purpose, which is to change the school; but unlike the vengeful Kei, Tsubame just genuinely wants to help people and fight injustice. She keeps this integrity throughout. An example of which is when Kei asks her why she sympathizes with the enemy. But Tsubame doesn’t see people like Kei does, divided into allies and enemies. She sees them as capable of kindness and getting hurt. Even when people turn against her and she feels betrayed most of the time, she still tries to see the good in people. It’s quite funny because while she had no will of her own (and Kei literally had to coach her to take a few steps towards the stage) in the beginning, she ended up having a stronger resolve than Kei in the last few episodes.

I remember someone saying they don’t like anime because in anime, not everything is black and white. The same goes for the characters in this drama—no one is completely evil or wholly good. This drama shows these characters as humans, with flaws and motives that aren’t always callous behind their actions.

Spoiler: there’s a happy ending, and I can’t help thinking about the novel The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier, which is similar to this story, except good and kind intentions didn’t win against evil. Then again, evil wore the face of Archie, and humane Kei is no Archie.

So let me dive into the relationship of Kei and Tsubame, which is unique, lovely, weird, and sometimes downright funny. Honestly, the best scenes are scenes when these two are together. They complement each other so well: one is naïve and the other is a cynic, she is idealistic and he’s more realistic, he’s eccentric and she’s sympathetic, and when one loses hope, the other seems to have a glass full of hope to give. Don’t even get me started with Tsubame’s grandpa who’s one of the coolest characters in the series. I like how he thinks his granddaughter is interested in this mysterious guy from the start. While the pair was never lovey-dovey with each other, which I’m actually pretty happy about, they have this strong bond of trust (though tried multiple times) and friendship.

* It seriously kept me glued to the screen even when I have to fight off sleep.

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