Minami-kun no Koibito

I feel like this show is likely to be a hit-or-miss show for most people. Its one of those unconventional "pure love" stories about a pair of high school sweethearts who are faced with an impossible set of circumstances.

For me, the story was precious. Completely and utterly adorable. I loved it. I laughed so much, and had some tears, and yelled at the characters sometimes--signs of a wonderfully balanced drama for me. I watched this entire show within two days. I thought that the two leads were both precious, their families were well cast, and our villainous female was just obviously manipulative enough you disliked her early on, but not so much you completely discounted her feelings as they were unraveled. Everything was kept at a relatively believable (as much as it could be, I suppose) level for two people put into this situation, and the characters developed nicely as the story continued.

Now, I will specify right now, that the special effects are not amazing. If you are a stickler for awesome quality, then the green screen merging will probably drive you nuts. I think they did very well considering the sort of budget a television show would have to do it--it would be one which would be great to see remade even now, nearly ten years later, just to see how much better the ability to merge the two "worlds" on that sort of budget would be. Furthermore, I did find the music amazingly unremarkable. It was complete unmemorable. Fortunately, the show was memorable enough on its own.

Finally, I foresee that a lot of people will have conflicting feelings on how the show ends. I personally thought that it was a somewhat apt solution all things considering, but I did wish that it had been different. But I found it to be beautiful ending, even if it wasn't the fairytale end I was expecting.

So, with those things in mind, I would recommend this drama to anyone who wants a relatively light, cute, romantic comedy, and who will get lost enough in the characters and plot to be able to forgive the shows weak points.

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Non traditional happy ending. Story not exactly the same as the 2015 version

I watched the 2015 version:"My Little lover "before I watched this & so I was expecting this to be the same story (with the same ending). The 2015 version does NOT end the same. It took awhile for me to get into this version as the male lead looked (to me) like he was in 6th grade so imagine my confusion when he invites his girlfriend on an over night (intimate) getaway ! Much later they reveal that he is supposed to be 18. I deducted points for things in this drama, like :

1) The grandfather ,a father & a male teacher are physically abusive to highschool aged kids.

2) A female student makes bold sexual statements to a boy student. I think the point was to show a test of loyalty.

3) too much talk about sex & then a young girl mentions (to her brother)that an older girl has big breasts . All that just was uncomfortable & unnecessary.

I did not like the girl lead in the 2015 version, but I think I still like it better because it was a nicer story with a MUCH better ending. This version's ending really left me annoyed. If you like traditional happy endings, this is will leave you frustrated.

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