Aramintai

It's not bad, but not as interesting as, for example, Revenant.
I also didn't get some things - under spoilers:

Gaus was way more funnier. Here it's mostly weird cringe.

Rather mid so far. Also, why FL is a writer when she's clearly doing a producer's job, they don't have any where she works?

FL tries to reach the ideal "Steins Gate" timeline here, but no luck yet, lol. But unlike Steins; Gate she only has one chance left (?)
I hope this drama won't end with her going far back all the way and make it so they never meet or smth like that so that ML may live, sort of like in The Butterfly Effect movie. ML is very cute here and has to live, but it's not gonna make a good ending. But then again, if it does get a happy ending with marriage and stuff ML's gonna be off the market. Literally, cuz he's a product. He will have to find a new career again, because fans are brutal.

P.S. The killer plot kills the vibe here though, I hate it.

So what do you guys think about the killer plot? I think it doesn’t belong here. Would have been better if ML really did commit sudoku and FL was the one to help prevent that. The healing drama, you know? Certainly a more relevant topic nowadays.

But where it’s going it looks like there’s just some rando serial taxi driver who’s fixated on FL and is out for revenge in the future. Kinda cheapens the whole premise.

Also, what’s the point of those mega expensive apartments, btw, if security is trash?

How dumb FL is exactly? Going outside on the day of the accident, running on the well lit roads to be easily found by a killer driving a car instead of running for the fields and forests? The ridiculous situations she constantly gets herself into throughout the episodes are just becoming too cringe. And she's not even her careless teenager self here, no excuses.

I don't think he would want to get a Catholic looking cross. But if he wanted to, he could have taken Mariko's as a keepsake instead of dumping it in the lake.
The rest of what you've written I think adds even more fuel to the dream theory. He got a concussion and dreamt of home he left behind.
But personally I think it was just a dream. The book didn't rewrite main character's fate from his irl counterpart, so I don't think there's a room to headcanon a different one for him here.

No, the protagonist here is based on the real historical person. In the book they just loosely follow historical events. In the book at the end it was said that it was the protagonist's fate to never leave Japan, so the book didn't change this.
Go read about the real historical person on wiki:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Adams_(pilot)

Irl Anjin never left Japan. He later married a non-noble woman from a wealthy family, was given a house and ship building job. Ships that Tokugawa used in his war efforts. His kids were half-Japanese.
So that scene of him being old in some Western looking room with clearly full European kids must be some dream. Also, the cross he was holding was Mariko's, but he dropped it into the lake.

It only gets worse.

Yea, that muted ending and furniture of a protagonist didn't do it for me. Never once was he shown to be actually needed by Toranaga and he wasn't even funny to be his pet clown, because they communicated too seldom here. And many important scenes about the protagonist were cut to make time for a parade of side characters.
And too many times it seemed that Toranaga was just plain lucky and adapting, not megaminding everything ten steps ahead. Yea, he was a ruthless liar who surrounded himself by people he could easily manipulate, but he wasn't omniscient to predict all random things. Like, what happened to his son, or his brother betraying him, or what happened to Mariko.
And speaking of Mariko, she was more of a protagonist in this show than ML or Toranaga combined. MVP, but disappointingly way too suicidal.
My favorite character in this drama is not her though, but Yabushige - the most human and entertaining one to watch. He was squirming on the frying pan for the whole series trying to get the most profit, but failed expectedly :).

Anyway, it's still a good drama. Production quality, especially the costumes were great. Too bad they didn't show the epic battle of Sekigahara, but it wasn't in the book, so ok. I'd give it an 8. But old TV series in terms of the plot and characters were still better, imho.

I'm not talking about the rejection, but all the other dumb moments.

Do they? I've read other commenters who read it that it's a happy ending, with marriage even.

She doesn't think it will last because she'll return to the future again and then it's gonna be her dumb teenager self who doesn't even know ML and pines for SML.

Yea, at times it's just too dumb. You can say that's how teenagers behave, but FL is actually 30+, no excuses for being a walking miscommunication generator like she doesn't understand what's going on.
And ML's also rather inconsistent, sometimes he's very bold, sometimes can't even speak normally.

Why the very selective memory loss then?
Also, since she seems to be running around in the future again in the preview it doesn't look like it's just lost memories. She's changing the past. Just like with that photo appearing on ML's table earlier.

What about her younger self acting completely different when she's not in her younger body?

I'm not liking this stalker killer taxi driver sub-plot at all. Just why?

I agree with you, he's plain unlikable. Especially compared to his counterpart in the old TV series.

I already know all there is to know about the plot, so I was there mainly drooling over gorgeous costumes. Though I think they've made them too expensive in this drama, for some characters at least, with many of them having gold embroidery and very expensive textiles. I get the heir's family swimming in gold, but the rest of the samurai families and especially vassal families? I doubt that.
Still, the production quality's through the roof.