Shigatsu ni Nareba Kanojo wa (2024)

The scenery is pretty to look at, but the story and emotions are lacking

First of all, let me praise the movie a little. This movie has a beautiful opening shot, in Bolivia, and all of the travel shots are absolutely breathtaking to look at. The travelogue part of the story was quite enjoyable. Bolivia, Czechia, and Iceland were unique and special locations to visit. If you paired this beautiful scenery with a good story it would be a hit for sure.

Unfortunately, the story was not good. The story is supposed to be romantic... but what kind of romance is this? The story is about the FL running away from the ML so they are apart from each other for almost the whole movie. Most of the flashbacks make their relationship look mediocre. So what kind of romance is this? They don't seem like they share real love together. There are very few romantic scenes. The movie is mostly just the ML moping in bars and complaining he can't find her.

The acting was also surprisingly bad. I thought the ML Satoh Takeru did an okay job but both FLs were quite bad. Mori Nana was trying too hard to act cute and Nagasawa Masami (the main FL) seemed very fake in all of her emotional scenes. For example, when she was pretending to cry I thought it was very unbelievable and bad acting.

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Love comes in different shapes and forms.

This story is about the 2nd love that comes later on in life, from the perspective of the ML.

When you fall in love for the first time it’s deep and profound and everything feels right. But if somehow it ends suddenly, together with your plans and dreams, you remain with nothing else but a deep hole, unanswered questions, lack of closure, bitter taste and a broken heart. Then life goes on. In a mechanical way. Later you meet someone new, someone who stands out from the crowd, so you get another chance at love. But by being stuck in the past there’s no room for magic, there’s no deep nor profound nor anything else but living and acting mechanically, thinking it’s the normal thing to do. You also start compromising hoping the relationship will not have the same ending as the one before.

The big question of this drama is : How can we prevent love from coming to an end ?
The answer is : Nobody actually knows. What you can do is something you haven’t done before. In this scenario it will be holding on. Just don’t let go.
Did the ML get the answers in time to save his 2nd chance in love ? Let’s say it ended in an optimistic note.

A NO NO for romantics. A great drama for it’s kind.
I personally watched it because of the actor Takeru Satoh. If it’s Takeru Satoh it’s just great, no matter if it’s a drama, a rom-com, a live action anime, psychological or not, it’s a 10/10 for me. Because he is proving it every single time. He also chooses great scripts, all his movies have a great execution to the minimum detail. And this drama is just another example.

The female leads were chosen perfectly, both of them. One is the first love (young, dreamy, sweet, happy, taking love for granted, not prepared for obstacles), the other is the 2nd love (mature, deals with depression because of past experiences, scared that she will lose her partner, wishing to be happy and loved). They might get misunderstood or fade away because there are not many details about them, although the information is there. And that is done on purpose. Because those details are irrelevant. The accent is on the ML and only him. His life, his choices, his memories, his actions.

As for the ratings, I always score high because I only score the dramas that I enjoyed watching. I refrain from scoring something that I can’t understand, nor something that is not on my preference list. As for the rewatch value I would say if you get it from the first time that’s more than enough.

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