Kimi ni Todoke: Llegando a ti

I'm a fan of both the OG manga and anime so I have some specific and biased opinions based off of those comparisons.

It's cute and fluffy enough to keep most romance-lovers entertained, especially those who are not familiar with the source material. For those who are, there are absolutely some things that may be lacking (as they were for me).

The lead actress plays Sawako well, but is absolutely gorgeous, at no fault of her own. However, Sawako is supposed to be a rather plain and ghostly-looking girl, with much of the plot pulling from that. Kazehaya is supposed to be extremely charismatic and I think they could have portrayed that better.

Larger than these smaller nit-picks though, is the humour that I feel was completely lost from the manga and anime. There were many truly adorable and funny moments that were lacking from this live-action adaptation. The attempted light humour that does exist in this version doesn't hit the mark for me at all.

If you're looking for a light and easy endearing high school romance, it still works. But if you haven't seen the anime, watch that first!!! Or even read the manga if you're feeling up to it. The anime is on Netflix though, so easy-peasy.

Oh well, k-dramas are something that westerners may become accustomed to, however Japanese movies/series may be a little too much. If you are educated in this spirit, you may very well end loving this series, because it's genuine, sentimental, powerful, visually stunning (a characteristic of Japanese movies/series). If you liked it, I strongly recommend 5 cm per second (oh well, it's an anime, but a very powerful one). Don't expect for one second a westerner type of show. Oh, no! It's a completely different artistic approach, with lots of introspection, genuine feelings exposed in a shocking way, and a completely new culture. I loved the show!!!!

This is the live-action version of Kimi ni Todoke and just as heartwarming. This is the first time I watched manga series adaptations back-to-back with each other and was bemused at how the live cast members match their animated versions, embodying their characters so well that it was easy to tell who they were before they opened their mouths. Shota Kazehaya's (Daisuke Namikawa) smile is just as refreshing. Mamiko Noto captured Sawako Kuronuma's shyness, quiet grace and inner strength.

With 12 30-minute episodes compared to the 38 25-minute episodes of two seasons of the animation, it's a compressed version with less of the angsty musings of Sawako. But it delves deeper into Yano Ayane's (Miyuki Sawashiro) and Yoshida Chizuru's (Yûko Sanpei) love lives. It also deals more with the young people's struggles in deciding what to do after high school. My favorite part is knowing what happens when Sawako and Shota finish college. The closure is truly sweet after their angsty romance.

I'm in episode four. I like it. It's a cute show. I like the cast. The only problem I have is the dialog. Young kids these days don't talk like they do. Or resolve differences so quickly. Maybe they do in Japan. Maybe it's the translation for dubbing into English? I'm not sure which. It's a nice mellow show. I would still recommend watching this show at least so far. If things change I will update.

So now for the space I have to waste because reviews have to be a certain length. The length you want is entirely too long. Nobody will have that much to say about a movie or show. No wonder this only had 3 reviews. No one wants to write that much. Please change it.

If you havent read the manga or watched the anime it might seem kinda fast and the characters might be kinda confusing at times. The manga ran for 30 Volumes and 123 chapters and even the anime had 36 episodes but only went to chapter 47 so 12 episodes at 30 minutes a piece doesnt really do the story justice. If they would have made the episodes longer and added more from the manga I think it would have been perfect.

At the end of the day it is a live adaptation of an anime so it can be pretty hard to nail certain characters and how they act in certain scenes. I feel like its a double edged sword. Either you follow the character to a T and the acting is a little awkward at times or you have to change the character a bit and potentially more to fit how real world people act which I feel like can be tough. I do feel like they had a good mix of both in this and were able to portray the characters how they were portrayed in the manga/anime pretty good.

All in all, I feel like they did a really good job with this show and the actors fit the character pretty well. Wish certain scenes that were pretty big in the manga/anime were also included in this but oh well.

Loved the show!