Nell

Our Youth isn't a bad drama. It's a perfectly decent watch, but it quickly went from "Oh this is interesting" to "Oh. Okay." for me.

My main gripe with the story is that Minase wasn't really allowed to be a person. As a pov character he felt more like a blank slate than anything. We're told that his grades matter but he never gets in trouble for slacking. We're told that it's bad that his grades are getting lower but nothing comes out of it at all. We're told that he doesn't want to go abroad to study, but he ends up going anyway and we don't see his feelings on going after all. He gets no new friendships or relationships and doesn't grow as a person in the five years we don't get to see.

Haruki gets development. He gets to decide to not be like his father, he gets to choose to go to school, he gets to choose when the relationship starts and ends. Minase is passive throughout it all. The plot happens at him but nothing changes. He still gets the job his mom wants, he doesn't get a better relationship with his father, we're told his parents' divorce weighs on him but that's all. Nothing happens to him that isn't Haruki, he doesn't fight for what he wants and he doesn't overcome his outsider pov of his own life. He's a vessel for Haruki's story and character growth, that's about it.