Editorials 
Very touching cases about romance and love
What you would thought to be lawyers arguing in court -- instead each episode is a life lesson or lesson about love.The music is top tier, especially at the times that it plays, it is so fitting and hits so hard, i.e. Norah Jones "What am I to you?" for romantic emotions and Keri Noble "How far you've come" for tough times.
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Very addictive, can't stop watching
Great acting and great casting.The male husband and the best friend he cheated with, both have such annoying and slappable face and personality, they really fit the role well and did well to be hated on.
Very well planned resolution and good build-up. Through the series, the female lead gains a group of supportive friends through helping them or clearing up previous misunderstandings. And they get together to talk, chat, and support each other in times of crisis.
After watching Deep Revenge, I have a greater amount of appreciation to what makes a good revenge show. This show has more cunning and no unncessary twist and turns to build up suspense. Instead, the twists are expected-ish and meaningful when revealed.
Maybe the shows with a source material that is from a novel instead of manga, have better story in general?
I sneaked a peek at the Korean one but I couldn't stomach it.
Also, adapting the Korean story to Japanese to involve a dagashi-ya shop is quite clever. I think kudos to the person who did the storyboarding and adaptation from Korean to Japanese.
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This review may contain spoilers
Disappointing story-telling, meant to be a casual watch
The story seems to be meant to surprise, with unexpected twists and turns.I came in expecting a chess game of calculation and deceit, but towards some point it became all about "Surprise, I did this beforehand, you didn't see it coming!" and "Oh yeah, I got something better!"... There's no buildup to each move. For example, when the bomb was planted in the car, no clues that there was a bomb or why the character would think to plant the bomb. Or when things are caught on camera, there's no build-up to each character's thought process to placing a hidden camera, just suddenly "Oh, I've got footage of this and this happening, here's the evidence-".
I suppose it might have something to do with the source material being a manga. There's no writing to what each character plots that much, and more focused on the action.
The cariacature of each character is also overly done, for example the Mido boss, he is shown to be a very exaggerated character that only belongs in manga. The villain girl is an interesting baby-face villain, which I disagree with the other reviews that it can't be made to work, but the story feels lacking to show any more cunningness or plotting.
The acting I think was good by the main girl. The first episode also built up a lot of suspense, from the way the housekeeper was calm and composed yet seemed to be scheming something. But unfortunately, it gave way to a whole lot of nothing. All I do note is how she has a lot of time and measure to open up a freaking visualizer for a map of the character relationship diagram, but no serious planning or plotting being done, just for flair only.
Watchable for laughs, but not for a serious drama. Maybe it's actually a drama comedy in how they act so exaggeratedly.
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No strong cohesive plot, but good cases
No strong overarching plot, but we see how a doctor works in different cases against the medical monolith and their office politics.The pain acting by the child and how the doctor found the cause of the pain was very good, loved that case.
Everytime Michiko says her lines and basically says she won't do things is so good. Very carthartic 'fuck u' to stiffy old managers and bosses and the blind obedience and following of rules.
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This review may contain spoilers
I feel they could have done so much more with a clearer focus. Despite the hype, not impressed.
I wish Minato and Yori appeared more, and would prefer a better ending.--- Vague Spoilers --
Story: Director tries to put in a few themes, bullying, being different, societal conformity, japanese apologising/taking responsibility culture (even if not at fault), gay treatment therapy, felt a bit too many... Kind of drew the focus away from what (imo) should be the main theme, aka loving the same gender.
There is additional screen time given to the teacher and his lover to characterize him as a good teacher and set his character, but we don't see much of him in the Minato and Yori plot. Why do they have to combine the parent-teacher power dynamic and the Minato-Yori-classroom bullying plots into a single story? It feels like both deal with very significant issues that take a lot of emotions and shouldn't be so easily combined. I can see "What happens if they try to make their relationship official in their class, how do they cope and how do they overcome bulyling?" as one story, and "How does the teacher overcome this scapegoating done unto him, and how to deal with what is alleged vs what is actually true?" as another story with the teacher at the focus.
Ending: Giving an ambiguous ending is fine and all, but it left me feeling unfinished, would prefer an epilogue of Minato moving on or the aftermath, aka any change in classmates behaviour? teacher behaviour? Feels like they shown a spotlight on all the dark issues in the Japanese classroom and society and said "Ok, go think about it" and then left us with it.
Actors: Hinata acted so well as Yori the bumbling silly kid, a lighthearted facade with some dark thoughts, but I wished the characters could have been written with more emotional support -- like they're struggling but how do they come to terms with it. Minato's avoidance is only one part of the "gay panic", what about denial/ trying to like girls, what about acceptance, what about coming out?
--- Spoilers end --
I just feel they could have done so much more with it, and despite all the hype, not impressed. I think they could have done better with a clearer focus rather than so many themes, that only get brought up briefly but are never addressed (characters don't tackle or try to solve).
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This review may contain spoilers
A story of how an antisocial doctor becomes more tuned in to a patient's emotional needs
A story of how an antisocial doctor becomes more tuned in to a patient's emotional needs through a stint as a elementary school health room nurse after he gets transferred out of his hospital temporarily for not caring enough for his patient's emotional needs/ scaring the patient kid.---
I especially liked the cases at the start, the first few were really interesting injuries and hoped more will be like that, but the next few cases seemed more mental. Nice that they covered those as well though.
Miyano-sensei's and the female teacher's banter is quite fun to watch as well.
A lot of the child actors here are so cute!
I like how they went through how Miyano develops through his interactions with the children and how that helps him face his past patients, and we see how much he has developed from the experience to become more capable at handling his patient's emotional needs. Especially the last episode, where he very tactfully uses a story-telling method. Don't get me wrong, he has always been very dedicated, rushing to patient's house etc, but it's amazing that he goes through a roundabout method in this last episode instead of directly telling to their face, which might be how the old him might do.
Of course, maybe that's just loyal to the source material, the manga, the manga is probably written really well. The acting by the actors is good too, an aloof doctor, an enthusiastic sociable teacher, even the classsmate politics of the girl clique queen or the boys playing around. All very fun to watch.
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Wish there were more like this...
The way the story unfolds, we learn more of this young boy and why he is living alone.The neighours and characters all add to the warm environment that we can enjoy as we watch Kotaro grow.
It heals the soul.
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Story: The writing is superb, expected of a (manga?) that definitely has a plot backstory, yet the day-to-day feels slice-of-life. We learn why Kotaro has certain habits or does certain things, and we learn more about him with each episode.
Acting: Eita was 7 or 8 when he played as 5 year old Kotaro. I suppose they need to be older to have acting ability, and Eita's looks make the age difference unnnoticeable. As the main character, he needed to play the role of a kid emulating his favourite samurai in speech pattern and personality, and wisdom beyond his years from his experiences. I think he did that very well.
Music: Nothing noticeable, but in the more emotional moments, I find myself coming back to play it in the background.
Rewatch value: Slice of life has rewatch value. I like watching the characters interact and talk to each other.
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