Meet Me After School

I'm not sure how to feel about this drama. For one it really is an excellent drama with some of the best chemistry I've seen and great performances. The obvious issue though is the ML is a 15 year old falling for his 25 year old teacher. For the life of me I'll never understand why they didn't make the ML 18 instead of 15 and avoid controversy altogether, I mean why even go there? But they went there. The drama does not glorify or condone this behavior, but it definitely romanticizes it and that's what a lot of people understandably have a problem with.

I suggest you watch for yourself and see what you think, there is a lot to be felt in this drama.

In the drama about a student-teacher love relationship, female teachers are generally very weak, pitiful, and very feminine. They are the incarnation of truth, goodness, and beauty, but they are often misunderstood. As a result, in some ways, they are not happy. At the same time, they are kidnapped by society's expectations of women. Although they often choose to tolerate, in fact, deep in their hearts, they are still very rebellious. Breaking free from all shackles and falling in love with students is a very "rebellious" choice.

The audience would like to think Hijiri is so good, why should people bully her? Why is the love process of these two lovers so complicated and difficult? If you like each other, why can't you be together? Finally: what did they do wrong? Nothing wrong. But if we set aside these settings, will the audience really support them? Not necessarily. I think that it is okay to have this kind of relationship in artworks, but it is a bit difficult to do so in reality.

I don't personally like the ending. In reality, the possibility of always liking someone without contact is very low. However, this is a fairy tale anyway. The village flowers are beautiful, and Kuroiwa-Kun is handsome. The breath of youth, the perfect fairy tale accompanied with Uru's beautiful BGM, and Du Fu's Delighting in Rain on a Spring Night are a perfect match. Who has heard of fairy tales that are hurtful? Well, it's called a fable......

At least all the teacher-student relationships I know are fairy tales. But fairy tales are also good and average. At least it's worse than "High School Teacher" and "Majo no jouken". But it's definitely better than all kinds of movies adapted from other comic books.

Another May-December or Noona romance story, but I would like to comment on parent-children relationship depicted in this film that stood out for me. What kind of a frustrated parent it takes to deliberately inflict pain on their child? One parent deliberates on depriving their unborn baby of the father, another parent torments their child prioritising the parent's own emotional needs, the third parent torments their child by hiding father's letters and prohibiting the budding feelings of love, and the fourth parent at some point alienates their own adult child. Are we dealing with some massive phenomenon of emotional abuse of children in the family or is it a cultural "thing" or perhaps generational? "You aren't wrong about this. You only did what any parent would do. [...] It's OK. People always grow stronger through hardships. They are all precious experiences. It's sure to help in his life ahead." What kind of philosophy is this, furthermore, coming from the lips of a teacher? What is OK or precious about it?

So the story develops against this backdrop with the hope for the future that somehow children who go through this will acquire cognitive sophistication to navigate interpersonal relationship.

In my 24 years of existence, I've never experienced romantic love... but somehow I feel like I just did after watching Meet Me After School.

Watching this has been an absolute emotional roller coaster for me. Despite the fact that I have different views regarding the topic that it tackled, the story managed to make me sympathize for Hijiri and Akira. The way the story unfolded was very realistic. The theme wasn't glamorized at all and both of the main characters dealt with the repercussions of being in such predicament, and the supporting characters' reactions were all logical and fairly reasonable.

There were 3 things I truly loved the most about this series. First would be the stellar performances of the cast members (Kasumi I'm a new fan!). They all brought something to the table and I really loved their chemistry with each other, especially Kasamu with Kenshi. There were scenes between their characters that were so arresting (no pun intended lol) and melancholic that I kept replaying. I also loved Haraguchi and her empowering speeches to Hijiri. Second would be the gorgeous cinematography that showcased the picturesqueness of rural Japan that made me wish I resided there. And last but definitely not the least, would be the catchy OST and melodious background scores that captured the scenes- the series overall- perfectly.

10/10 for all the distress and butterflies. Will definitely be rewatching.

Second Japanese series I watch that a woman falls in love with an 15-year old. It feels uncomfortable. I have nothing against an age gap but a 15-year old guy (boy!)?! I just can't understand... It made the series very burdened. I totally don't get why the script writers made this decision.

That being said, I hoped when he became an adult, it would become a more lighthearted series but it didn't. We almost never saw them smile with/at each other.

11 episodes weren't needed, it felt dragged on.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad but I would have liked it more if the romance became more lighthearted.