Aishiteru ~ Kaiyo

Based on the popular manga, AISHITERU does quite a few things right. The striking premise: a middle-school boy kills a younger child - an action that angers some and mystifies pretty much everybody else.

The camera lingers over Izumi Imamori in her role as the mother of the incarcerated son; her character is almost sacrificial in her prayerful humbleness. The immortal Misako Tanaka delivers a standout performance as a case worker cum harried housewife who has a certain way with chidden. The actors and writers show a obvious sympathy for the life of the departed child, as well as an appreciation for the equally hard lives of the guilty boy's family. But AISHITERU is less skilled at showing a lighter side, and the immutable attitudes of the grieving parents gets a bit tiresome after a while.

AISHITERU is consistently interesting, with good performances all around. The court hearings are unexpectedly effective. But the potent emotional content leaves hope that the plot will move beyond emotional correctness and dorama formula; it rarely does.

Wow this is an amazing drama. Such fantastic acting from all the cast. Itaya Yuka was especially amazing in this. I was not sure if I wanted to continue after watching the first episode because I could not imagine that after such drama in the first episode that they could maintain a decent story line for the remaining episodes and honestly I was not sure I could take much more as it was so moving and sad but I hung in and it was amazing. A little slow at points and they could have done this in less episodes but I loved it.

This is the kind of drama you do not just watch to pass time. It really makes you think and look at the world a little different. Bravo.

For me especially this year has been really dissapointing of Dramas, what is with all these bland boring dramas filled with nothing but pretty faces?! However aishiteru is diffrent this drama has real people in real situations about two diffrent mothers a mother whos son killed the other mothers son and how they react and society reacts.

With everything going on in the world this drama brings family and people back together back to talking to eachother..

I highly recomend this drama its such a sad and hopefull story