From Me to You: Kimi ni Todoke

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.

Ever since seeing young actor Oji Suzuka in the Japanese drama Silent I've been searching out everything else I can find that he has done, dramas and movies, because I think he is wonderful! I found From Me To You with excellent English subtitles and began watching it, and was so touched by the sweet wholesome story of two very different teens falling in love with one another against all odds. I actually watched it twice in a row because I missed all the characters so much when it ended. I sincerely hope they make a season two. I would love to see the characters working at their first jobs, being successful, getting married, and experiencing the joys of youth and growing maturity. This drama reminded me of what Korean dramas used to be like two decades ago when I first started watching them. True wholesome love stories that are unforgettable. Today too many of them are dark themed and I can't watch those. If I want to see dark themes I can put on the nightly news! When I go for entertainment I want to see sweetness and light.

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.

As the summary says, watching this live action series was like watching a Cliff's Notes version of the story. It's very high level with little detail, so it's hard to fully buy into any of the characters' emotions or motivations. Fortunately, I had just finished the 38 ep, 2 season anime series, so I knew a lot of what was going on in the background, at least for episodes 1 through 7. Once the series got to where the anime series ended, everything seemed rushed and a bit confusing, which stands to reason when you consider they were averaging 5 anime episodes per live action episode. This series definitely would have benefitted from being either a full 25 episode season or two 13 episode half seasons. I don't want to spoil anything, so suffice it to say that there are some character relationships that seem to come out of nowhere, and are really tough to accept, because there wasn't enough time to develop them, which is a shame. Still, it's a nice slice of life/coming of age story.

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!