Algernon Ni Hanataba O (2015)

To be dumber for a day or To be smarter for a day

Which would you choose?

Obviously, I would guess that the majority would have chosen the latter...

but, what if you had to sacrifice something important, something precious for it... are you still willing to take a risk?

Everyone wants to be smarter, it's normal. But what happens when you become too immersed in accumulating knowledge?

Sooner or later, you start to neglect the people around you, just as depicted in the show.

An epiphany, where you begin to think you have risen beyond human comprehension.

In the show, Sakuto was born a fool, and everyone treated him that way. But just like everyone else, he had a goal; something he wanted to achieve. Some might say that his goal is impossible for someone like him, and under normal circumstances, it would be the truth. But the show tells us what happens when a chance, a miracle is given to him, allowing this dream of his, to come true. While he's getting smarter, he's also losing something that he has yet to realize or come to understand: his emotions. Rather than seeing things from the fools point-of-view like he used to, he's come to realize that his so-called "friends" were just using him. He begins to see the people close to him for who they really are and not what he perceives them as.

To become smarter is something that we all would want. But what we fail to realize, is that depending on how we use that accumulated knowledge, it is nothing but a double-edged blade.

But, the previous Sakuto had something important, something that even some people do not have: his pureness.

Because he sees the world in the eyes of a kid, he does not have the negative emotions that we teenagers, adults, and elderly, have experienced. And even if he does experience those emotions, he doesn't suppress nor repress them, rather, he cries, just like a kid.

This show taught me that: if you do not know something, then you don't have to worry about it.

Just like the foolish Sakuto, he didn't know anything, therefore, he didn't have to worry about anything.

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I am really confused after watching this drama. Like what is the point of the drama? Why everyone want to sacrifice everything for the daughter of the rich businessman? And the end? Ugh. I want my 10 hours of my life back, like seriously. Ok let's get to the point. I'll start with the negative first:
1. Why Yamapi? Clearly Sakuto's character is too big for his. His acting made me cringe every time, esp when he was still "stupid". When the drug work (later episode), he is back to his comfortable spot as a "cool" kid.
2. All characters beside Sakuto, Haruka, and the bad Doctor guy seems redundant and have no impact whatsoever. At first, I thought Hiyama Kousuke character will have some meaningful impact to the overall story as he was the only one had a solid background, but as the story progress, he was disappeared as a background. And the 2 girls (koide &kawaguchi)? Why they even exist?
3. Ending? sucks. I really felt that the ending is one of the worst endings I have seen so far. And to be honest, I don't feel the connection of good friend between Sakuto, Yanagawa, and Hiyama at all. Esp Sakuto character was portrayed as an ass after he became clever. I mean after he became clever basically he just becomes Haruka lover's and ditch all his friend! Like, come on dude. He treated his friend worse than his friend ever treats him. But amazingly, in the end, Hiyama and Yanagawa somehow are willing to leave everything behind to be with Sakuto? And haruka, who convinces everyone that she loves sakuto did nothing when sakuto leave her? I guess she only like clever sakuto, huh?
4. Slow paced drama. Since the material & story is not a lot to begin with, you will feel that the story progress really slow in the middle. I almost gave up 3 times after episode 3.
5. Casting? I like most of the actor except Yamapi and Tanimura. I knew these people can act, but sadly they just dont have enough material to shine. I feel the MVP of this drama is the Ishimaru Kanji, His character development definitely is the most interesting compared to other including sakuto. And he can act!


Positive:
1. Tear jerker drama. If you like heart-wrenching story you should watch this.
2. Music was OK-ish. nothing special not bad either.
3. Sorry but i can not find anything else.

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You won't have a chance to do a fangirling thing to Yamapi or Masataka or Asuka or whoever your idol is. You'll be absorbed into the whole story in a level you don't care anymore who's the actor.

"When a person gains something, they also lose something."
Sakuto INDEED gain an intellectual he wished for ever, but he INDEED lose the important thing for human (and what I love about him), purity and kindness.

"People in love will sometimes blindly devote themselves to something."
I can't agree with Haruka's action which keeping Sakuto for herself, even draw him from his friends. She also lock away his kindness so that he won't (at the beginning) help one of his friend.

"Friends are equal."
What is equal? Same level of intellectual? Wealth? No. I can't agree with this statement made by Yanagawa. But I really glad that in the end he and Hiyama declare themselves as an equal friends of Sakuto.

Such a great, shining, shimmering, splendid dorama. A little bit heavy and complicated, but in the end you'll be heart-warmed and you don't even realize you have a teary eyes.

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I had been avoiding ANHO for a long time because I'd read reviews and many said that they cried watching it, and I surely wasn't in the mood for anything heavy and sad. However, I wound up watching it because of my mom and I can say we both genuinely enjoyed it.

So I'm going to review it from my point of view, but also my mom's because she's pretty new to Asian dramas and it's interesting to notice someone completely new to it slowly understanding and accepting all aspects of asian dramas as they come.

So story- Oh it was great! And I'm saying this not only because it has substance and material but because we(my mother and I) were completely immersed in the episodes, being vocal about our agreements and disagreements with the story and discussing things amongst ourselves as it progressed. I was really expecting a cliché story where Sakuto transforms into a super genius instantly after the surgery and everyone's shocked and in awe and he learns what it means to be 'human' in the following episode and ends on 'five years later' where we are shown Sakuto and the female lead married with a child on the way and Sakuto using his genius to cure cancer and all that jazz. However the story didn't do that in the traditional way, it progressed gradually giving us viewers explanations and reasons for everything that was going on, specially with Sakuto. I was thankful for the other characters and their side stories too, as much as I love yamapi I wouldn't want to just watch the main leads ALL the time in an episode so I felt like the side characters brought the much needed break I needed from time to time for the titular characters and all that science stuff!

I love stories like an 'alien visits earth', 'some kind of creature starts living among humans', 'robots living with humans' and what have you. It's fun to see a supposedly non-human entity conform to the lives of humans, feel feelings, learn about the depths of existence but I sometimes feel 'being human' is romanticised way too much in such films. Like all these non-humans are in awe of how humans feel and do stuff...and it's such a big deal when they cry for the first time and realise that life is bitter sweet. Ughh... Life ain't always pretty and being sad isn't fun when you're struggling day to day to work or study or just live a decent life, with a million emotions we humans have. So it was nice to see for a change how this character developed along the way. There weren't too many unnecessary tears or romantic, cringey dialogues about the pain and joy of being simply...."human".

Acting- Don't get me wrong, I LOVE Yampi. I've watched many of his dramas and I love his eyes, although some have called them dead fish eyes, which they kinda look like at times lol. Up until now his acting seemed passable... it wasn't anything extraordinary but I didn't find it monotonous either. But Yamashita as 'Sakuto' really impressed me. I 'believed' in his character. Before his transformation into a genius I couldn't stop talking about how cute he was, pure, like a child..like someone you wanted to protect from this big bad world. And after his transformation a genius, arrogant yet naive...just learning everything he's missed until now. Yampi did a really good job. The other characters were amazing as well. I must say though, the love story in this drama didn't really move me. I don't know if it was the circumstances surrounding these characters, or the chemistry(or lack thereof) amongst the actors or what. Everytime they appeared together on screen, I did feel like they cared for eachother, but it just seemed like friendly, platonic love and care and not romantic, genuine love. So the love story part of it had no effect on me. I really like how they dealt with the theme of friendship.

The music was okay I guess, nothing that stuck to my mind after I finished watching.

How could I forget Algernon, he was an adorable little mousey. Ofcourse he doesn't speak or anything but inspite of that Algernon's role in the plot is undeniably significant, as the very title of the drama suggests. Algernon was like an indication to everything that was happening or going to happen to the male lead and you could literally compare them and gain a better understanding of what was going on.

All in all, it was a great drama! The acting was good, the story engaging, did pull at my heartstrings a few times and turned my mom into a Yampi fan! I'd definitely recommend this drama.

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This drama surpassed all and any expectations I had; I laughed, I worried, I got angry, I cried, I sympathized, I hated, and I loved. The acting talent, skill, and personality, and uniqueness that Yamashita Tomohisa possesses is marvelously portrayed throughout this series; as is Kubota Masataka and Kudo Asuka. Don't get me wrong... the entire cast is fantastic, but, Kubota Masataka and Kudo Asuka and Yamashita Tomohisa just stuck out to me more so. I encourage anyone and everyone to watch this series. This review is my shortest only because I do not want to risk spoiling this superb, spectacular, wonderful drama.

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I remember watching this about 2 years ago, I liked the story a lot that I read the actual book and made my brother read it, he isn't stupid, but he's on the path of thinking that emotions decrease your intelligence, and waste time, I told him to read this book to prove him wrong, or as a way of telling him that you can love and know, they don't contradict each other
It's a very good story, I loved the male lead, I am always critical about Japanese drama because even though they own anime, it's not the same for tv and drama, I don't know why to be honest, but kdrama and even cdrama are way ahead of them, the acting is always lacking, I like the male lead but as for the other actors and actresses they weren't good, I liked the book more than the drama, it's more emotional and it has more information, they don't give away how heartless the character became after the surgery, but in the book, you'll feel his emotionless actions and thoughts, I wish this could be remade well, as a korean or a western drama, I don't feel like they gave it what it deserves

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I think "Flowers for Algernon" is REALLY worth watching. I love the acting, especially the main character Yamashita Tomohisa. He is a really good actor and I love how he managed to do the role so GOOD. I think the plot is very good, It´s about how he wants to become smarter but he can´t because of his condition. I love the way the main character is so peaceful and wants to make friends with everyone and is so innocent.
There are of course complications and REALLY good stuff happening in every episode that made me wanna finish the series in one day. I really wish there would be a second season or an extra episode to see what happens next, it ended pretty good but I want to know what happens next. I love when the main character gets hurt (which happens in most films) because I love to see others reaction to it. Well, there is of course betrayal in the movie and friendship and of course love.
The thing I didn´t like was the part where he fell in love, but that´s just my opinion. I don´t like when the main character falls in love, It kind of makes the series less interesting for me. But it´s still SOOO worth watching!!!

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It's definitely the best Asian drama I've seen alongside "1 Litre no Namida". As the story is adaptation of a wonderful novel by Daniel Keyes, the plot is absolutely perfect. And also, precisely in such dramatic but not mawkishly sentimental stories unfolds the incredible Japanese aesthetics, which makes you feel an interesting feeling of painful beauty and unaccountable nostalgia. Besides, the acting of Yamashita Tomohisha is really flawless: he fully incarnates a mentally disabled character and does it with absolute delicacy and sensibility. I also was impressed by the actors playing his friends as they really managed to create a perfect "friendly chemistry". By the way, the soundtrack really suits the scenes and you can see a lot of brilliant and touching moments created by their fusion.

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I was able to avoid having to read this in high school but I did know it by reputation and really wasn't interested in it.  But being the completionist that I am I wanted to bring my Yamapi watched list to current.  I am now sorry I waited as long as I did to see it because Yamashita Tomohisa totally owned the main part in this.  His mannerisms in the beginning are spot on, we have a friend of the family who is autistic and I recognized the signs. As the story and the character changed so did the acting and you believed it.

Yamapi has been criticized in the past for his "wooden acting" but this work just blew it out of the water.

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Emotional

From start to finish I was moved emotionally.
The acting was beyond perfection and throughout I felt a rollercoaster of emotions come flooding out, especially through the final episode in which I cried the whole way through!
This is definitely something I would watch again and again and also teaches an important lesson that no matter how or who you are, you are perfect as is.
This is the first drama I've watched with this particular male lead and I can say I look forward to binge-watching all his dramas after this!
How he was able to play a mentally challenged character and an intelligent one all throughout and so believably blew me away.
Thank you to the creators!

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