So...the story so far...Chiyomi and Minami-kun were childhood best friends but have grown apart. Actually, mostly he's grown to be sorta taciturn and grumpy, probably stemming from his dad abandoning him and his mom. Chiyomi has grown up to be sweet and shy and misses the days when they were friends. So...for this fateful day...1) she sees the popular rich girl cozying up to him and it makes her sad; 2) she gets confessed to by a good guy friend who seems, let's be fair, really quite a good match for her; 3) Minami says some awful things to her; 4) she gets into a fight with her parents about wanting to not go to university and how she wants to go to Tokyo to try out for a dance group (as a parent...um, yeah...I'm kinda with them...). After running off in a storm, she winds up in this cave in the park that was their special place. She makes a sort-of wish that things were back how they used to be when they were young. (This is my one disconnect so far...she's just had this lovely nice cute guy confess to her and Minami has treated her pretty shittily for the last few years...why is she dwelling on him? I suppose that's the story but ah, well).
When she wakes up, she's tiny. Minami happens to be the one who finds her (as he's out searching because he feels guilty) and she talks him into hiding her because she can't face her parents as she is. There's an episode where the whole town thinks something horrible has happened to her but she finally calls and tells them she's in Tokyo for the tryout just to get them not to worry. So they're mad instead of horrified? I dunno about that logic. But, hey, plot-wise it thrusts them together as he continues to hide her in his room.
There are only 10 episodes and it's definitely a teenybopper drama. But so far it seems pretty cute and like I already mentioned, I haven't yet wanted to burn it with fire like most of the Jdramas I have tried. So we'll see. I have hope.
Edit: Okay, I finished this while taking a break from Birth of a Beauty. It's the best Japanese Drama I've tried so far and I did enjoy it. It's not groundbreaking or amazing or even incredibly well acted, but it has a good heart and is very sweet. Taishi Nakagawa as Minami-kun is very sweet and definitely shows the most character growth...actually, he's probably the only one who shows any significant character growth. Chiyomi grows up (haha literally, in a way) a bit but she mostly stays the same as she started out. He's the one that changes and in that way this is really more a story about him than it is about her. Of course, he wouldn't have grown without her. I suppose you could think of her as the catalyst.
He's best in the quieter moments -- his gaze upon her slowly softening as the show progresses...particularly well done considering that he was likely staring at nothing in those scenes or some kind of doll stand-in. Or in the very emotional ones. Though he (and the rest of the actors, especially the young ones) doesn't fare as well in long conversations where a lot of his dialogue was literally "What?" and "Uh...." The lead actress, Maika Yamamoto, was okay as well, though again not amazing. She was better than the "other girl" Erina Nakayama as Sayori...who was quite awkward, especially in the scenes where she had to show a sense of humour. She was ok in the crying bits. Though I was glad they didn't turn her character into standard drama bitchy girl and instead gave her some pathos. Mirai Suzuki as Riku (the guy who didn't stand a chance with Chiyomi) was actually quite lovely and did a good job in his emotional scenes. At any rate, they all showed promise and I wouldn't mind checking them out again sometime. Taishi is also in a live action version of Your Lie in April but, honestly, I don't think I could ever watch it because the anime was heartbreaking enough as it was. He plays Ryota, which I can totally see. He has a nice heart.
And, amazingly, they even did okay as far as the touchy-feely scenes where they were more believably physical (kissing, hugging) than in any other Japanese drama I've seen (and many Korean ones). There weren't any of those super slow motion super awkward scenes that a lot of them have that make me cringe.
And bonus that this one was actually a good length. Ten episodes was perfect. It wasn't too long. It didn't drag things out forever. It was long enough to have some character development beyond just the leads (Minami's father, Sayori's family drama, Chiyomi's parents...) but didn't dwell on the side stories so much that it would overshadow the main story.
So...am I glad I watched it? Yes. Would I watch it again? Hmmmmm, maybe in a few years. Overall, it was very satisfying and provided enough closure. They even got married at the end after graduating high school -- unusual in any teen drama, but it is kind of a fated love story thing so it didn't even weird me out. They were always the only ones for each other.
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