This drama shouldn't work. Truthfully, I'm not even sure if it does. It's odd, strange, confusing, sweet, humorous, light-hearted, quirky, illogical, satisfying, perplexing; a real head-scratcher. There are lots of really great messages about life and love and loss and purpose. There are sad events that really pull at your heartstrings and make you feel all the emotions associated with them. The leads are all Intensely likable and precious and wonderful. The dad wins dad of the year for Life.

There is also a lot of odd.

Akiko is like a block of wood 90% of the time with her expressions and mannerisms. Which is 100% intentional but you also never get used to it. They kill Miyuki's father off halfway through the story, which I knew was going to happen because spoilers, but it still was jarring (and devastating) to experience for myself. Once married, Akiko quits her extremely high paying job in order to be a stepmom then instead of going to back to her job after the father dies, she......stays home and does day trading. Then later on starts working at a bakery??? (I really don't understand her career trajectory.) They set up a potential romantic pairing for Akiko in the second half only for them to cut it off at the knees, lol. (And just when I was coming around to it!) Miyuki is like a completely different character as a teen compared to her child version, and it sticks out the entire time, but both versions are extremely likable, so I don't know what to do with that.

The story switches track multiple times, and every time on purpose, and I don't even know if I can criticize it for it because they clearly had a vision and went for it with all cylinders firing and even in the midst of my confusion, I was feeling all the feelings.

This drama's just an odd experience, and it does it in a way that only a Japanese drama can.