Kasa wo Motanai Aritachi wa (2016)

First of all, this is what you need to know straight away: this drama is very short, it's about a writer trying to write a story (and mostly failing at it), his emotional connection to a friend that will aid him in more ways than he thinks and it's based on a book, which is a compilation of short stories, what results in various genres and outcomes in the same drama.

Now, let's move on to the specifics. As far as I'm concerned, the book this drama is based on groups 6 short stories, which are unrelated to one another. This drama uses, in one way or another, 3 of them (the protagonists of the drama being characters from the last story) and make a small reference to another story, which is not fully covered. The other two are, as far as I can tell, nowhere to be seen. So, if you read the book, don't worry, you don't yet know how this is gonna turn out because the plot twist in this drama has nothing to do with the book.

I find it strange that, being the actual writer of the book involved in the drama (and performing in it), he'd choose to make such big changes as to end with a resulting different story than any of the others, but maybe it was taken as an opportunity for people who had read the book to still be surprised and for people who haven't to still have a chance to read it and find out other perspectives. Still, I find the resulting story of this drama a bit lackluster in comparison to the ones in the book, in the sense that the plot twist of the drama is not the most unpredictable one you'd see, which contrasts with a story that was pretty heartfelt and trying to be very honest.

I enjoyed the performances, especially from Renn, and I think the drama is enjoyable as a whole, yet it may have benefited from either following the self-conclusive aspect of the short-story style the book has, picking one and going with it from start to finish or providing more episodes for this style they chose to really take flight. As it is, I like the idea of the "stories inside a story" style they pick for the first part, it's a good narrative device when used well, but being the amount of episodes so little, I found the change of perspective a bit forced and it didn't allow the self-discovery and emotional-fulfillment aspect the drama was trying to go for at the end to fully show.

There is a speck of LGBT representation in this drama, not as well handled as in other dramas of 2015 I've seen, but it is there and it's more than just a BL-ish fanservice note, it has to do with character development, so it's worthy of noting. In the book, though, the outcome of that character seems to be better.

All in all, it's an interesting format and it deserves a go. It has a bit of mystery, a bit of fantastic and a lot of emotion. To me, it was interesting in a narrative level, as to see the use of different devices and how that worked (or didn't). I'd like to see what other stories can Shige bring in the future.

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I feel kinda weird about this. I have no idea if this has some other souce material (I read here that's a book or a compilation of short stories) and because it's so short we don't really get that much character development. The story is about Hashimoto Jun, a writer that lives in Tokyo and his editor is asking him to write a love story, since it's been two years and he haven't been able to complete and publish anything. Suddenly Murata Keisuke, Jun's childhood friend arrives at his house. Jun haven't seen him in 15 years, but he is nice and cool, cooks for him and encourages to write the love story.

The story at the beginning has a big comedic touch into it but then it gets really dark and sad. The performances and good and the music and technical aspects are ok. I don't think it should have been longer but I think it could have been handled better with the emotional punch. maybe two episodes more. Overall, I liked it and it broke my heart.

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Too Short to be Good.

Ants Without Umbrella is a short Japanese series where a writer is experiencing a writer’s block when he was told by his publisher to write a love story instead of his usual sci-fi. While having problems with his writing, he was visited surprisingly by a friend that he had not seen for a very long time. The story is conveyed in four different stories as the first two episodes were Jun’s attempt to create a love story but I feel like the last two is a love story that he had when he was younger. To be honest, I was able to finish the show and I am not completely sure if he did fell in love with his friend or not but I feel like he did especially when he said that he is not sad because his friend fell in love with another man but not him. I feel like their friendship is so much more than what we expected and this is the usual story of how these two grew apart without resolving the issues that they have with each other leading to them not talking about it at all so when the final twist is revealed and that Keisuke is already dead and that he saw just a ghost of his friend, there is something so sad about it especially with how he treated him quite badly. It is such a sad story and I was not expecting this kind of love story about friendship that really is not talked about a lot. I am torn with what I feel about the story because the LGBT aspect is the most interesting part of the story and I will have to give it to Jun for trying to understand his friend but I am a bit disappointed with how it is ultimately handled by him. I know he is young and he did not have guidance at all but he really went away from his friend and really did not do anything at all for him. I mean, he already knew all this when they met again but he still was a shitty friend to him. I would not say that this is a really strong story but it could have been so longer and they would have more time by then to explore more themes that they opened to further explore them in a much better way. It is not bad but it could have been so much better.

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ANTS WITHOUT UMBRELLA (Japanese Movie)
I will give a short overview of the story first. There was an author who is known for writing sci-fi stories where he became famous. Now for almost 2 years he experienced this what we call "writers block" where a writer can't write anymore. Now his editor-in-chief asked him to write a love story which is not of his genre and he found it difficult to do so. Five days left for him to submit the story to his boss but still he was not able to finish even one story.
One night somebody visited him which came out to be his childhood best friend. This friend gave him advises and ideas which enabled him to finish a story but the said story did not passed the standard of his boss. He write another story to the point where he can no longer differentiate what's real and what is not. He almost died in the process but was saved by his best friend because of this his boss asked him to take some rest. Still his friend encouraged him to never give up but he got angry to his friend for pestering him and asked his friend to leave.
One day he decided to visit his hometown and he reminisce the past. It was soon revealed through some flashbacks that his best friend fall in love with a guy and him (writer) as a friend tried to understand it but it never happened putting a distance in there friendship. He even think of committing suicide but he we saved by his friend.
When he returned to his hometown he met his first girlfriend and they had a chat. At the end of their conversation he mentioned that his best friend visited him days ago. The girl was shocked. She said how is it possible when he (writer's best friend) died more than 2 years ago . He was stunned upon hearing the revelations, and he then remembered that it was his best friend who became the reason why he decided to become a writer. At the end of the movies he was able to finish a good love story, using his best friend as an inspiration.
The End.
REVIEW :
I did not expect the twist in the end, and it made the story wonderful. Acting skills, just so so but I was drown in the story more. If I would give a rating, I will give 7.5/10. Worth watching for.
PS. There's a little touch of BL though.

Friendship / Best / Relationship

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O Japão sempre traz histórias diferentes, instigantes, e essa não seria diferente.
Tem muito sentimento transmitido pelos atores nos momentos de flash back onde se fala de homossexualismo pela primeira vez, a sinceridade do Hashimoto Jun ao afirmar que sentia nojo (sem militância, na série ele estava apenas reproduzindo o comportamento esperado para o ano e o local representados, a Ásia é um dos lugares mais homofóbicos do mundo). A fotografia, mais uma vez impecável, e a atuação dos atores idém. O momento em que Hashimoto Jun descobre que Murata keisuke está morto há vários anos, é de uma força, um sentimento sem explicação.
Com certeza indico essa série.

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