StrangeDerivation

Very good. Wasn't expecting that from a japanese tv series, but i really enjoyed it. In my opinion it's like japanese version of Heroes (US TV series), but a really crazy one. Good acting for a drama, good characters, very interesting story, quite ingenious visuals and effects even with a low budget. It's a refreshing drama, which really caught me by surprise. Now it's one of my favorites. I recommend it if you like Erika Toda or want something really different in jdrama section.

It wasn't bad at first. Episodes focused on some serious issues of school life, which i think was a very refreshing and interesting. Story was very good too in the first episodes, really darker and more serious than i expected. But yeah... then it got worse and ended as a disaster. Second half was really bad, it completely crushed the potential that these series had to be darker and serious take on school life. It became very generic romantic drama that ruined Erika Toda's and Miura Haruma's characters, especially Shuji became just pathetic. I was furious after seeing what this series became and what it could have become if keeping the direction of first episodes. One good thing, that this drama is beautifully filmed - this is how you do the cinematography for a drama. If you are going to watch it do it in HD, visuals are worth it. But that's actually only one of the few good things here, i wouldn't recommend this drama to anyone.

Don't really understand where much of the hype comes from. Well i think it's not bad TV series, but the pacing is so excruciatingly slow and the many of the events that take place in the first episodes are useless and quite boring. The political background is just not interesting and not well explained. Bad humour and bland dialogue don't help either. Also the visual side is quite not impressive. The series looks very cheaply and there literally isn't any cinematography, it almost looks like people went into streets and started shooting the series without much preparation. The action choreography isn't very bad, some moves were really nice, but that's all. The fights are really unpolished and badly directed, but that i can understand knowing that this is tv series not a big budget movie. I'll keep watching cause i guess Bridal Mask can improve later, cause the story has potential, but i really can't understand the hype this drama has. Sorry for the rant and excuse me if the opinion infuriated someone.

I began reading manga recently, but after vol. 1 i noticed, that it's not completely translated (there are missing chapters that aren't available anywhere)so the only choice is to start watching TV series, i guess. Did the creators invented much of the stuff or did they were faithful to manga?