Without a doubt (at least for me) this was a good one, but, you should be aware that it's going to be different from what you would have expected.
Story: it's kind of sad, but terribly realistic. Life it's like that. Things don't work as in k-drama , where there's almost every time a happy ending and good things happen to the leads. This does not mean the ending is sad, it's simply not what we could see as the best one (but for sure every audience it's different). Here you would see life as it could be. Life has goods and bad things, and your future would depend on how you are able to deal with them.
This is the main message you get from this show. Hard things happen, and you must continue living on. That's it.
Acting: I decided to watch this after 2nd watching (and loving) Chugakusei Niki, cause I wanted to see Akimura Kasumi again. In this drama, I liked her role very much. The female lead is really a strong and brave woman. Continuously, sad and really complicated things happen to her, and she is able to deal with them as best as anybody could.
Nevertheless, I'm not sure it's the same for the male lead. Ok, he suffered in Phillippines, but that's all. It seems that most of the time he doesn't care for anything. I can't understand he is so "cool" with having no news from the female lead. The least he coud have done is look for her, to know what was happening... It was the same for Hana-chan, in my humble opinion, she is the best exemple of an anti-friend. She knew all along that what she was doing wasn't right, if not, she would have contacted Toko the first moment she set a foot again in Japan. So, yeah, even if troubles come in the way of life, I really can't understand this part.
And yes, most of the time love is not enough and you need so much more to make it work. If you are lucky enough, you will live with the love of your live; if not, you'll always find something else that makes you happy. As the moral in this drama shows: "happiness should be grasped with your own hands".