Honestly, this was one of my first J-dramas, but I was a huge manga and anime fan anyway.

It follows the original story perfectly, the acting and casting are brilliant and it really captures the expressions and emotions and creates tension and tugs at your heartstrings. It's Kimi Wa Petto as a drama, to the letter. If that's what you want, that's what you're getting and I cannot find a fault with it in that respect.

However, it literally cannot help but fall into the "cliche" tropes since it's so faithful to the source material, which is a pretty old, original manga (which is still good, and the scans/translation and drawings are still very clean and not outdated art style if you haven't read it). In a way, it wasn't cliche as this was one of the first manga doing this kind of thing. But if you were to only watch the show, you may see it that way.

Still, I think people who had never watched the anime would still enjoy it.