duckboat

Unbelievable! this is the best JDorama I have seen ever! I guess it is all personal taste, but I like the sad ones better then the comedy dramas. If you like tear Jerkers there is no better one then this. And to think it is based on a true story of Aya Kitou.
She is trully amazing, I have read some of her Diary which has sold over 18 million of copies and it is very true to the drama which I think is fantastic. Erkia was amazing, I was captivated by her acting throughout the drama, I have never watched a drama where the cast was so well matched for their parts. I also want to give a shout out to Riko who portrayed the 13 year old sister, though she did not get much screen time she was amazing, I hope to see more of her in the future. Aya said "Just Being alive is such a lovely and wonderful thing" The drama really makes you think, If you love the drama you should check out YouTube they have videos on the making of it and about the real Aya Kitou, it would help if you can understand Japanese.
The songs are perfect for the drama and complete it, with other songs it would just not be the same. K's song Only Human was amazing, I saw a video where they shot in a shopping Mall K singing he song to Erika who was dressed in her school uniform, very emotional and must have done an awesome job to promote the drama. YOU MUST WATCH THIS DRAMA!

I know everyone loves this Drama and I feel the same way.
The story was very simple and beautifully portrayed by Tomoko and Takuya. Tomoko was and still remains one of the best actresses ever for Jdorama's. Every song in the drama was very well selected and created a great upbeat atmosphere for the show. What made the Drama for me was that it did not seem like they we acting at all, everything seemed to flow so naturally. And I have to give props to the rest of the cast too, they all did an amazing job portraying their characters. My only grip would be to Takako, She seemed a bit to innocent to me, I guess there are girls out there that dont have their first kiss until 23 or 24 but I find it hard to believe a character as beautiful would wait that long. Anybody that likes Jdorama's you have to see this one, it is not a choice, you must watch it.

I hear a lot about this drama and would still like to read the book.
Maybe because I have watched this in 2006 and not 2004 so it affects my what i think. But I thought it was just ok. I thought Ayase Haruka did an amazing job portraying her character and heard she lost weight and everything for the role over the 3 months of filming to make it more believable. She was perfect for the role. I thought the scenery was very good to, I believe it was shot in IZU, makes me want to visit there some day. Now on the negative side I thought the 2 main male actors Yamada and Ogata where not good at all. Ogata was to dramatic and I did not really understand in the begining of the drama why he always falls on the ground and can not walk straight, I guess he was missing his other half, so that it why he keeps falling down?? not sure and also Ogata after awhile to me seemed not right for the role, I thought his character was to weak and after awhile I was annoyed by him. And for hevean's sake I think he never told her that he loved her once...which I thought was strange. I have the DVD version so it has behind the scenes and short speechs by each character after the shoot if complete, and I did not think that Ayase and Yamada got along to well.. in person they just shook hands and walked away from each other after the last scene and when thanking everyone for the hard work they never mentioned each other which I thought was strange.
Maybe if I saw it in 2004 my option would be different.
I think the book would be much better