Gigi

Here's my list of pros and cons:

Pros: the relationship between Kyoko and Reiko, the way they walked this fine line of enemies, friends and acquaintances, and never truly felt close as sisters theoretically should. But above all, the relationship between Kyoko and Moriyama, in every corner when I thought he'd disappoint me, he always managed to surprise me, meaning the writers did a great job with his character development despite him not being one of the leads. The ending in particular was my favorite part of their relationship, it's not always that we see men be supportive of their girlfriends not only being great at what they do, but being better than them, and it's also not every day that we see a couple decide to follow an alternative way of being together and it be successful, and I'm a firm believer that if more people decided to not stick to the norm of living together, sleeping in the same bed, having kids, etc., they'd be much happier.

Pros and cons: The world of Shogi, which is something I didn't know about and loved to learn, and how Kyoko broke into its patriarchal system. However, I wish we had seen her open the doors not only to her, but to other women too, the teen Shogi player we see near the end of the story could've been a girl, or one of her nieces could have followed her path, especially the one who resembled Reiko so that it wasn't too obvious, or maybe we could have seen her start training female Shogi hopefuls.

Cons: the relationship between Reiko and Masao. I was already weirded out by the fact that Masao had feelings for Reiko since she was a child, then add that to the fact that he hit her across the face and the whole thing completely lost me. I didn't feel any comradery or understanding or any love between them, it all felt from beginning to end like she settled for him. And speaking of settling for a man who doesn't deserve you: the story between the girls parents Chiaki and Kyoichi. I was livid that after all the abuse she endured by him, not only did the story brough them back together, but it was all heavily supported by their daughters, who themselves were also victims of his behavior, who were also abandoned by him, ignored by him, mistreated by him. And when I put that plot together with the rest of the drama, the respect Moriyama had for Kyoko's ambitions and decisions for their relationship, the way women's participation in professional Shogi was at the forefront of the story, it just doesn't add up to the writer purposely advocating for a woman to allow a man who played in her face to return to her life. It was embarrassing and disgusting to watch, and that's the reason why my rating, which initially was a 9, ended in an 8.