BrightestStar

The essence of the story is interesting, I liked the ending but I a lot of how we got there didn’t make sense to me. The drama was full of long dialogues, yet they lacked spirit and felt shallow, especially after the second half of the show. From Kujo’s relationship with her husband and friends to her relationship with her students, it felt cold no matter how close they were supposed to be. Her reaction with her husband felt as if they were newly roommates. Her friends were just a convenience without much depth.

Except for Ugumori, her students are horrible and cowards. Her character was the only one that showed growth. All the rest were more of a switch but I think it was more of an issue of writing than performance. That switch made the drama feel too forgiving when that is the usual when it comes to “teacher-type” drama. It is ironic considering how unforgiving Japanese society actually is.

The dialogues were too long and repetitive, but rarely got to the point and was more dancing around it. What does “facing what happened” even mean? There was no constructive active advice given.

That being said, the drama was good at portraying how cowardly bullies are, no sob story to excuse it which is refreshing. Students realize they were the ones giving bullies power by being on the sidelines, too scared to be the next target. THAT can be applied on a macro level. So many wars around the world could have been avoided and innocent lives spared if people, nations and governments stopped being cowards and had a stance.

I loved the music, it really set the mood of the drama and elevated the setting.

In short, typical teacher centric school drama with an interesting setup that probably could’ve done better with more capable writing and/or directing.