Manatsu no Cinderella (2023)

Sweet and slightly addictive.

This is one of those dramas you watch firstly for the friendship and secondly for the romance. As this Japanese combination of Dawsons Creek meets Cinderella with something more in between offers us a whole lot of broken dreams, beautiful friendships as well as some pretty interesting characters and some decent lines.

"Isn't it pointless to be together if we are all the same"

One thing was very clear in this drama, the characters were definitely not the same, while some were more lovable than others. I will admit there was something in this group of people that had me hooked from the first episode all the way to the end .I also found myself falling in love not only with the character Natsumi with her extremely bright smile but also with the name Natsumi.

Besides the lovely friendships, the drama also offers some really nice gestures and depictions of silent longing. The gaze in the male lead looks like he is constantly longing and about to break out in tears, offers great contrast to the female lead who seems to be able to smile though pretty much anything... Her family is overly kind one may wonder how they could survive in this world. And there are some twists that felt a bit off Ok very off so off that I felt secound hand emberrresed and felt oh come on not that trope... . However the overall feel to this is nice and cozy...

So what can I say it was a good watch, not perfect but pleasingly awkward with a hint of nostalgia...

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A summer I wouldn't want to remember.

Initially, I didn't want to watch this drama while it aired. But after I knew that Okada Kenshi is in it, I wanted to check it out. .... And I regretted it. And since no one has written a review about it yet, I'm writing this one. Be forewarned, I may be brutal and biased in this review. And it might be longer than expected.
Story:
The story is character driven. The characters have their own stories and love triangles. And my problem is, every girl or guy is in a love triangle somehow. I don't mind if a series has multiple pairings. But when everyone is in a love triangle, I just end up not caring for who ends up with who. It's bogus at that point. They messed up the "childhood friend having unrequited love for the main character" trope. At first, Natsumi was in love with Takumi (which was fresh and interesting cuz it's usually the other way around), but Takumi was chasing after his high school teacher (who is already married). Weirdly enough, they somehow made it seem like that Takumi loved Natsumi all along, even after he told Natsumi in episode 1 that he didn't see her as a woman and he spent the first 3 episodes or so chasing after his teacher. But after meeting Kento, Natsumi's feelings changed and she got over her feelings for Takumi. Not to mention, that even after Takumi realized his feelings for Natsumi, which happened around episode 4 or 5, he hesitated for many more episodes, and finally confessed to her (the friend who he had rejected 6 episodes ago) around episode 9. And the results were not surprising at all. Oh, and it gets worse. Takumi saves Natsumi from a (completely avoidable) road accident and ends up getting injured. I don't even get how that accident was so bad that the doctor told him that he has to quit his construction job even after he heals. So that just adds to Natsumi's guilt. Takumi also tells her to support him in what I understand a platonic way, as a platonic friend. There was nothing romantic involved in that request, as far as I understood. And for some ridiculous reason, Natsumi thinks that she should break up with Kento in order to platonically support her platonic childhood friend. Yeah, that's bogus to me. So the main pairing is a total failure in my book.
The love triangle centering Airi is pretty weird too. I don't know, I probably should have liked Airi's story more. But I didn't. And I was so sure she would end up with Mamoru. Not that I cared either way. Like I said, this drama has one love triangle too many. At least Airi's reasoning for choosing Osamu made some sense. She was looking for honesty, and apparently she got it from this snob who has zero emotional intelligence. Why she chose a jerk over a sweet guy- that makes comparatively less sense.
Risa also (kinda) had her own love triangle. She was struggling to decide what would be best for her and her kid, Haruki. What surprised me is that she was willing to get involved with someone else despite having a kid, even if it was a one time "no strings attached" thing. I mainly watched the drama for the Risa-Hayakawa pairing. But too bad, this drama ruined this story too. It was messy. I wish Risa and Hayakawa's first meeting was different. They made it seem like they slept together even if that route was totally avoidable. Then after that actually happened, Risa hesitated the whole time, even if their attraction was mutual and Hayakwa was truly a sweet guy. Obviously, this pairing was the least important pairing in the drama, but even so, it was handled poorly.

Cast/characters:
I liked Natsumi. Her family wasn't rich, but they were a happy family. She took care of her father and brother really well. She was an amazing girl and friend. I don't have any complaints about her character traits. But definitely don't like all her decisions. I wish she was honest and straightforward about her feelings towards Takumi. But maybe it's expected that she would be afraid of rejection. I didn't like that instead of facing Takumi properly, she ran away from him to Kento. Say whatever, I don't think that was the right call. Now being with Kento itself, that's a different story. And I already talked about the part where she broke up with Kento just to support Takumi and how that makes no sense. Takumi is one of the characters I didn't like at all in the drama. He is a good friend to Natsumi, and maybe there was opportunity for him to be more. If only he didn't waste his screentime being the guy watching from the sidelines. I thought it was refreshing to see Kamio Fuji as the second lead for the 3rd time, since he's mostly the first lead in dramas where I always end up rooting for the second lead. And in this drama, I ended up not caring for anyone at all. Oh, well. Kento was meh. Mamoru was probably the best guy in the drama, aside from his lying habits. He was always sweet towards Airi. And I was almost 100% sure he would end up with her. Airi was a decent character too. She willingly tried to befriend and date the most unsociable character, which was nice of her. But I don't understand why she was annoyed because Osamu would call her every day. Osamu was literally the least likable character with (again) zero emotional intelligence. But we did see his growth. Credit goes to that bit at least. That should be a good thing. Risa was a mom. So that's the biggest aspect of her. I wish she didn't hesitate when making up her mind about Hayakawa. He was a good guy. But he rushed things too much, which is overwhelming for a woman with a kid. Not to mention he was not considerate of Risa's situation and circumstances. The acting was alright. They're all experienced actors, they delivered just fine.
The Music:
This was probably the only good aspect of the drama. The theme song and endings were both sweet songs, very catchy, stayed stuck in my head for a while. The BGM was also alright.
Rewatch Value:
Not worthy of a rewatch. Like I said in the title, I'd much rather forget about this drama.

Conclusion:
I think I had high expectations from this drama, mostly because the cast was promising. But this was a big letdown. I won't recommend this drama. 3/10.

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Just Kyun!

This is a real "summer show": there is no depth, but it has nice views, beautiful and very skilled actors.
As somebody commented here, unlike another shows, every single moment could happen
in real life, well almost every. It is full of "kyun" moments, pleasant music. There is practically
no action beside the silly love triangles and each episode is rather self contained.
Only the episode 11 is very forced and extremely deceiving.

The best thing about this approach is that the used language is very simple. Since the
actors are great and the situations are lovely, this is an ideal show to be seen again and again
in order to practice Japanese listening for very simple rather causal language. There are
not many dramas like it!

The three FL are excellent!

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Unoriginal and uninspiring

A short premise: I consider myself quite a romantic person, but I'm not a big fan of the "romance" genre, or rather, as I'm used to calling it, "what passes for romance these days"...^__^;
So, to give you an example, I think Kumada Rinka's "Marry Me" was a marvelous and truly romantic drama, whereas this "Manatsu no Cinderella" is just the Nth Déjà Vu Fair, (ab)using all the genre's clichés and then some (seriously, 5' into the last episode I thought to myself "The only thing missing is someone running desperately"...and bang! few minutes later, check! we got to see that one as well...), with the last straw being the ultra-lame dialogues (now, not every writer can be Michel Audiard, all right...but still, there's all kinds of shades between that and this....and this is just abysmally uninspiring).
Mixed performances from the cast (though if you're gonna watch it for Mori Nana, she won't let you down, I promise), a catchy-but-nothing-more-than-that OST and a pretty decent production value complete a package that doesn't get the passing grade.

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Why so serious?

For a program that is set primarily in a beach front town and featuring a cast of young, single twentysomethings searching for romantic entanglements and with no serial killers or zombies or alien invasions or natural disasters or economic catastrophes or even a mild food allergy, a viewer might expect "Manatsu no Cinderella" to be nothing but start-to-finish hijinks and giggles and cartwheels.

It's not.

There's few jokes that land. The romances are lukewarm. The dialogue is cliche. For some reason, most conversations between characters are blocked so they're standing at unnatural distances away from each other. Most of the cast has a single facial expression (pout, giant grin or shocked face). There's also a single entry on the soundtrack that is repeated nonstop. Twists though? None.

So not recommended?

There is one thing. Nana Mori puts on a clinic of taking a tissue thin character and imbuing it with enough charisma and an easygoing, natural air that when she's on screen, it's a worthwhile watch.

But that's it. And for those that might appreciate Nana Mori here, the recommendation is not this lifeless, empty summer yawnfest. Instead, flip over to Netflix and check out "Maiko-san Chi no Makanai-san".

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