Drama title: The Soulmate No. of episodes : 24 Duration of watching: 6/6/2026 - 7/6/2026 (this is a mini drama with episodes spanning around 13 to 15 minutes each)
I decided to watch this drama on a whim because my mind was so restless and I wasn't able to focus on a lot of the things I usually do in the past couple of days. Basically I was feeling bored and wanted to do something to get rid of the boredom but I also don't have the mood to do anything much hence the restlessness of my mind caused by the conflicting feelings. It was much worse on the day before I decided to watch this drama though so I'm glad that my mind was calm enough to watch and enjoy this drama.
What's the drama about?
Nan Yu and Gao Han - 2 NPCs from different games - suddenly find themselves transported to a murder mystery game set in the Republican Era. With Nan Yu's background as a matchmaking NPC in the dating sim game where she originally belongs to and Gao Han as a detective in his original game, the two must work together to solve the murder of the Grand Marshal of Rongcheng Town, believing that solving it is the key to coming back to their respective games...
Duration of watching: 24/5/2026 - 25/5/2026 (I managed to finish it in 2 days because this is a 12-episode drama with each episode lasting around 20 minutes)
This drama is just something I picked up as my next watch after the The Epoch of Miyu, and also because I had my eye on it since Netflix released it around last year. The story is simple and sweet, and the medium length format makes it easier on the brain and eyes for me after something as drama-heavy as The Epoch of Miyu. With that being said, I will try to keep this entry simple as I realized my previous entry on The Epoch of Miyu is way too lengthy that even I don't think I would read it myself.
After her groom, Asakura, left her on their wedding day, struggling model Minami finds herself homeless and penniless after she gave away all her money to her ex-fiance in preparation for their now failed wedding. As a result, Minami decides to move into Asakura's now empty apartment room, much to Sena's — Asakura's housemate — confusion and surprise. Minami promises Sena that she will move out as soon as she is financially stable or marries another man — essentially becoming his housemate until she achieves either one of the two things. Hence, begin the story of Minami, a jobless and struggling model, and Sena, a pianist who often broods about his music career, as they navigate through life while slowly becoming each other's confidants and eventually realizing their love for each other.
Who should watch this drama?
— Fans of Takuya Kimura/Tomoko Yamaguchi
— Fans of the slice of life and romance genre
— Fans of 90s drama or just someone who wants to watch a nice and relaxing 90s drama
Characters
— Hidetoshi Sena, played by Kimura Takuya :
A reserved pianist in his mid-20s who is currently teaching music to children at a music school. A skillful and talented pianist, Sena is often encouraged by his professor to pursue his career further and realize his full potential as a pianist. However, true to his reserved character, Sena often broods and overthinks about his career as a musician. While not explicitly shown, it does seem that Sena is cautious about his future, afraid to mess up whatever opportunity that he gets which is why he initially prefers to continue teaching at the music school, explaining that he is not quite ready to grab those opportunities and would like to gain more experience from his job when in fact he is afraid to take that step forward, leading him to lead a mundane life. It wasn't until his encounter with Minami and the experience that he gets from his interactions with the other characters that Sena realizes that he actually wants to move forward in life and be a better version of himself.
Sena's arc is about a reserved person being too comfortable in his shell, afraid to take another step forward but eventually feels stuck in a mundane life. His relationship with Minami and the others change him for the better as he learns how to break the wall between him and the world around him, which later help him become a better version of himself.
— Hayama Minami, played by Yamaguchi Tomoko :
A woman in her early 30s with a sunny personality and often wears her heart on her sleeve. After her ex-fiance left her on their wedding day, Minami ends up living as Sena's housemate in order to rebuild her life. Early in the series, Minami becomes a struggling model with little to no job offers, mainly due to her age (31 isn't that old, though). She later gets fired from her agency as she got into a violent argument with a junior model that she was managing. Since then, Minami did her utmost best to a get job, going to more than 20 job interviews but failing every single one of them. Despite that, Minami always remains optimistic though she still has moments where she is sad, considering that she is still healing from the heartbreak of her ex-fiance leaving her for someone else. In the times when she lives with Sena, she learns a lot by Sena's insights on life as well as becoming sort of a confidant for him.
Minami's arc is about how an optimistic person with a sunny disposition like her still has her own worries and sadness. In Minami's case, she has to deal with and heal from her heartbreak and realize that she doesn't need to rely on anyone else first to be happy.
— Hayama Shinji, played by Takenouchi Yutaka :
Minami's younger brother who is the same age as Sena. His personality is almost similar to Minami in that he is rather friendly and outgoing. Shinji's part in this series is mostly to give Sena somewhat a love rival and the push that Sena needed to approach Ryoko. Ryoko ultimately falls in love with Shinji though it did not last long as Shinji has his own issue that he must overcome — he is unable to fully commit himself to her as he realizes that despite his feelings for Ryoko, he is still unable to fully let go of Rumiko. His issue with commitment is also reflected in the important moments of his life which he mentioned in the series, whereby he always fails during those moments (eg: he failed his college music entrance exam because he had to backed out, blaming his upset stomach). Deep down, Shinji realizes that he is a coward who is not brave enough to see something through to the end.
— Okusawa Ryoko, played by Matsu Takako :
Sena's junior in music college, possibly in her early 20s. An up and coming aspiring pianist, Ryoko's skills and talents seem to surpass Sena's for the most part (or at least, that's how they show it in the drama). Ryoko is pure-hearted, likely due to her young age, which is probably the reason why Sena had feelings for her in the first place. While Ryoko is shown to reciprocate (or at least tried to) Sena's feelings for her, she eventually finds herself falling in love with Shinji, which created quite the drama between the main cast. All in all, Ryoko's part in this drama is similar to Shinji's, where she is there initially as Sena's love interest, only for her to disappoint him (which helped him learn and understand more about his own feelings) and eventually going through a heartbreak herself as she calls off her relationship with Shinji for good because she realizes that their relationship will never work out. Those experiences help mature her a bit though.
— Oishikawa Momoko, played by Inamori Izumi :
Minami's junior colleague from her modeling days. She is probably around Sena's and Shinji's age. Momoko is a ditzy woman who is surprisingly pretty attuned with her friends' feelings, particularly when it involves troubles between a man and a woman. However, she can be rather tactless when approaching the subject, which sometimes lead to tense moments or an outright argument between the friends.
I have seen Inamori Izumi in Keiji Yugami and Mada Kekkon Dekinai Otoko where she is much older in those dramas, so it's a pleasant surprise to see her in one of her earlier works! (it doesn't seem like she aged much though)
— Himuro Rumiko, played by Ryo :
Shinji's girlfriend. Her role is pretty small compared to the other supporting roles so there isn't much to write about her other than the fact that she is mostly there to add a bit of drama between Shinji and Ryoko. I wish the drama had fleshed her out just a little bit more.
Things that bothered me/I don't like/feel that there's room for improvement
— Momoko's belief that a man and a woman can't simply be close friends :
I disagree with Momoko's views on this matter, though I guess even the situation that Minami and Sena found themselves in is quite uncommon (at least for me), which is the main factor that they had some kind of situationship for the most part.
— Sena and Minami ending up together in the end :
I don't hate them ending up together — in fact, I kind of ship them. It's just that I think I like their dynamic better as friends and I think it would make for a fresh ending if they just remain close friends in a platonic relationship, because not all friendships between a man and woman has to end up becoming a romantic relationship. But in the end, the drama decided to stick with Momoko's views while I wish they had challenged that notion.
— The supporting cast getting little to no character development :
The main cast is actually interesting for the most part, because every one of them has their own distinctive personalities. However, due to the limited number of episodes, a lot of the character development is given to both Sena and Minami, who are the core characters of this drama. This is something that I often see happen in J-dramas where they usually focus a lot of development for the lead roles by sacrificing the side characters' growth and it usually pays off for the most part because the lead roles became very well developed and because they are basically the face of the drama, I can easily accept this kind of shortcoming more often than not because I ended up enjoying the leads' growth by the end of the series.
On another note, this is perhaps one of the reasons why I enjoy C-dramas a lot because with so many episodes, they have room to explore and develop the supporting characters.
Things that this drama made me think about
— The feeling of feeling stuck in a mundane life, wanting to achieve more in life but doubting that we are capable or qualified enough to take that next step — which is exactly what Sena is going through the most part of the drama
— Long vacation :
When I first saw the opening clip, I really thought that this drama is about a group of young adults meeting each other while they are on an island trip or something and eventually forming friendships along the way. I mean, with a title like Long Vacation and an opening clip like that, someone would bound to think something like I did. However, the drama subvert my expectations as it brings me through the daily life of mainly Sena and Minami, which is mostly mundane but very relatable.
More importantly, the drama is title Long Vacation because it is just like one of Sena's views on life. I'm mostly paraphrasing here but at one point in the drama, Sena told Minami that sometimes there are times in life that we just end up failing or not getting the result that we wanted no matter how hard we tried, so when things do turn up that way in life, we just have to think of it as god giving us a long vacation — a time when we don't have to panic, don't have to rush and don't have to try harder, and to just take your own time and let things take their course — which is essentially what happens in this drama as a whole for both Sena and Minami, two unlikely souls who have their own challenges and struggles to overcome and eventually getting things in their lives in order after numerous attempts and failures.
Things that I absolutely love!
— The dynamic between Sena and Minami
— The OSTs :
I absolutely love the opening theme song, the BGMs and I especially love the song titled Little by Little! The OSTs evoke this nostalgic feeling as well as setting the perfect atmosphere for the drama.
— The conversation between the characters :
They all feel so natural and relatable.
— The series ending in full circle :
The drama starts with Minami running across town in her traditional Japanese wedding attire and ends with her running across town in her wedding gown with Sena. And of course, the fact that Minami stated that she's not into younger men but ended up marrying Sena in the end anyway.
All in all, I enjoyed this series for its relatable leads and the conversations that feel natural. I'm giving this a score of 8.5/10. I'm currently watching Nodame Cantabile and am really enjoying so far that I'm watching it at a pretty fast rate, so I'll probably be writing an entry on it pretty soon. Until then, see you in the next entry!
It's been a while, I think. Just want to write a quick update. I've watched The Epoch of Miyu up to episode 22 but man each episode feels like a chore to finish nowadays. I had already expected this to happen as the genre of that drama is not my cup of tea. However, the first 10 episodes or so were pretty good and engaging which is why I thought that I might not drop it after all. But lately, I keep getting bored when I watch it and I suppose it's mainly due to the pacing?
When I look at it objectively, though the drama is predictable, its execution is pretty well done as all the events that happened so far in the story fall in a coherent and neat way but the presentation itself leaves much to be desired at times. This is quite disappointing for me as the earlier episodes laid a path for the series to be good. Unfortunately, halfway through the drama, it became quite dull at times and against the backdrop of a large hotel, Miyu's growth feels painfully slow (though I understand this is how she is written).
Anyway, my brain clearly wanted a change so I decided to check out Long Vacation, starring Takuya Kimura and Tomoko Yamaguchi, just for fun. This series is also in the slice of life genre so far (which is what The Epoch of Miyu also is currently, in a way) but wow it felt refreshing to watch it. The heroine, Minami, is such a fresh change from Miyu (although, I understand that these 2 characters are very different in their personalities and goals in life, but still) and I suddenly find myself interested in the lives of the main cast. I'm currently on episode 2 of this drama at the time of writing.
I Am Nobody is another drama that is on my watchlist for quite a while, and I finally watched the first episode just to see if it interests me and boy it had such a strong first episode that leaves me wanting more. So now, I ended with 3 dramas currently in progress....I may or may not drop The Epoch of Miyu for good. I really want to watch it until the end though because I love the cast, so I'll probably take some time to finish it. As of now, I'm more keen on watching Long Vacation and I Am Nobody, so I'm sure that I will finish either one or both of them before I finished The Epoch of Miyu.
On another note, I have just finished watching Cells at Work live-action movie today. I don't think I'm going to make a review about it but I'm just going to say that it is an OK movie with touching scenes and ending. I'm gonna give it a rating of 8/10.
So, that's all from me for now. See you in the next entry
It's not exactly my plan to write an entry each time I finish an episode of The Epoch of Miyu — I'm just doing it to pad out my time between episodes so that I don't binge-watch all the currently available episodes and end up having to wait for the remaining episodes to drop. Other than that, I just want to write something on episode 3, just because.
In this scene, she had just left Nie Yucheng who was enraged at her for ruining his reputation in front of all of his business partners at the celebration banquet where she asked for a divorce. Miyu expressed a kind of melancholic relief after she stood up for herself against Nie Yucheng and finally divorcing for good. Despite the relief and satisfaction she felt, her mind still drifted to Nie Yucheng's words just a few moments ago, making her distracted despite her relatively calm exterior — hinting at her wavering spirit as she thinks about Nie Yucheng's terrible words and the uncertain future that comes now that she has asked for a divorce.
I'd like to think that the scene around her then reflects her concern about her future moving forward from the divorce. This time, because she was initially distracted, she started crossing the road late and finds herself stuck in the middle of the road when the vehicles start to move with no way back to safety or rather, she finds herself unable to move either side — parallel to her life at that point in time where she can't go back to her old life, but the uncertainty of her new reality made her unable to fully step forward with ease.
Miyu was still literally and figuratively stuck in that chaotic moment when her childhood friend, Li Qiaoqi, recognizes her in the middle of that road (which is a mysterious to me as to how this is actually possible). Li Qiaoqi's timely appearance provides a sort of spiritual anchor for Miyu as she offers Miyu a ride — giving Miyu a choice to move on from that moment, even if just for a little bit.
The motorcycle ride with Li Qiaoqi makes Miyu reminisce their carefree life as childhood friends together in the past — of the days when she could dream about anything, when the possibilities were limitless. Unfortunately, those days were long gone the moment she gave herself up for Nie Yucheng. However, with the upcoming divorce, Miyu now has a chance at living a new life, and it's good that she meets Li Qiaoqi again at this point of time in her life, because she now at least has a good old friend that she can rely on in this new chapter of her life.
Those are my thoughts on this episode. I may have been overthinking about the whole crossing the road scenes but I still think they are kind of nice symbolisms (also because it's a bit weird for me how the second scene of Miyu crossing the road just feels a bit more prolonged for some reason). I'm off to watch episode 4 now. So, that's all for this time, see you in the next entry.
And it's none other than Kang Zi Qi's "The Forgotten", which is the ending theme song for The Epoch of Miyu. The opening theme song comes at a close second though. I knew the ending theme is going to be an earworm for me sooner or later because I can see that it's a beautiful song the first time I heard it. My mind just kept on playing the chorus on repeat. And the song just gets more beautiful and profound after I read the translation. Here's where you can listen to the song and read the lyrics : - https://michelletopham.com/what-is-that-gorgeous-the-epoch-of-miyu-ending-theme-song-and-who-performs-it/
Drama title : Matori to Kyoken No. of episodes : 9 Duration of watching: 13/4/2026 - 14/4/2026 (got pretty busy with work or I would have been able to complete the whole series on the same day)
I ended up watching this series just to pick my mood up to watch dramas again. My mood for watching dramas and gaming has been pretty low for the past week and it kind of sucks when that happens because it makes me feel rather conflicted at times because I know I really want to watch a certain drama or continue my progress in Genshin but I just feel like I don't have the energy for it. Hence, I spent the past week doing Linnea's story quest bit by bit (and only managed to complete it yesterday) and watched some movies (Inspector Zende and Mercy).
It was only yesterday that I finally had the urge to watch a drama again. I was actually contemplating on watching The Epoch of Miyu while it's ongoing (which would be a first for me as I usually wait for a drama to be completed before I start watching it) but I figured that maybe I'll wait until a good number of episodes are out. Besides, I don't think my mind is ready for a drama of that genre. Thus, I picked Matori no Kyoken for its short episode length, straightforward storyline and fast-moving plot and I'd say that this drama does a good job of sparking my interest in dramas back up again.
What's the drama about?
When Umezawa Kyonosuke, a former child star turned drug dealer, gets caught by narcotics agent Kurosaki Toru, he is suddenly offered an unexpected proposition by Kurosaki — become his spy for the Narcotics Control Department (NCD) or get arrested by the NCD for his crimes if he refuses.
Umezawa reluctantly accepts the offer to ensure his survival only to get caught by Katsuragi Akito from the MPD's Narcotics and Firearm Division while carrying out a mission for Kurosaki shortly after their first meeting. During the interrogation, Umezawa faces yet another startling offer, this time from Katsuragi — to become his spy for the police and leak all of NCD's intel to them, essentially making him a double agent, or get arrested for his crimes.
Hence, in order to increase his chances of survival in his already messed up life, Umezawa, an underling drug dealer, becomes a spy for both the Mad Dogs of the NCD (Kurosaki) and the police (Katsuragi) — both of whom want to take down a drug organization for their own personal reasons.
Who should watch this drama?
— Fans of Nishihata Daigo/Hosoda Yoshihiko/Mukai Osamu
— Fans of action-packed dramas with a fast-moving plot
— Someone who wants to watch a short drama with a good plot and morally gray characters
Characters
— Umezawa Kyonosuke, played by Nishihata Daigo :
Umezawa is a former child actor whose life spirals downwards after he got suspended from acting for causing an incident while drunk, leading him to do illegal gambling before eventually getting blackmailed to become a meth dealer in order to pay off his debts from gambling. Despite his bad choices in life which led him to the path of drug dealing and smuggling, he still has a rather decent personality as he doesn't do drugs himself and even warned off young customers about the consequences of taking drugs. In order to survive his current life that's embroiled with crimes involving mainly drugs, Umezawa is shown to be pretty adept at street-fighting, quick-witted and resourceful, though he does have his fair share of his plans failing.
When he first met Kurosaki, he is only offered to become Kurosaki's spy because Kurosaki wants to use Umezawa's connection to Matsubara, Umezawa's direct boss. Umezawa carries out every single one of Kurosaki's orders as best as he could mostly out of necessity for his survival but seems to have a closer bond with Kurosaki by the end of the series as they went through a life and death situation together as opposed to his relationship with Katsuragi, which started off a bit more friendly in the beginning but grew more distant by the end of the series as Umezawa saw him for who he really is.
This is my first drama of Nishihata Daigo. He actually looked familiar to me when I first saw his face in the poster until I found out that he's a member of the boy band Naniwa Danshi, which explains why he looks familiar to me. Now, I'm not a fan of his boy band but I do remember watching one of the recordings of their live shows, where the members performed a song, all dressed in pink. So, I was pleasantly impressed with his performance as Umezawa, whose personality is quite rough around the edges despite his somewhat petite size (he looks pretty small when standing in between Kurosaki and Katsuragi) and soft facial features.
— Kurosaki Toru, played by Hosoda Yoshihiko :
An agent of the Narcotics Control Department (NCD), Kurosaki Toru is known as the NCD's Mad Dog for his single-minded obsession on eradicating all drug and drug-related organization from his country. His fixation on his goal makes him take any means necessary to make sure that his targets are arrested by his team, causing him to often take actions on his own — all of which are risky most of the time and sometimes ignoring existing rules altogether.
His deep hatred for drugs originated from his childhood, when meth essentially laid waste to his family. His mother was fed meth by the yakuza, causing her to become an addict, and was eventually forced into prostitution by them after she got knee-deep in debt and could no longer pay for her meth supply. As a consequence, Kurosaki's parents often argued and they became a broken family. An incident happened one day when Kurosaki's mother violently stabbed one of the yakuza member's lover out of rage, where she later committed suicide because of this and Kurosaki, who was still in middle school, came back to find her corpse hanging from a noose. His father, overcome with despair, drowned himself in the sea half a year later.
His personality actually reminds me a lot of Kageyama from Haikyu! due to how single-minded both of them are and how they prefer to act alone most of the time as they believe that they have the means necessary to achieve their personal goals. They also like to deliver deadpan humour. The way Kurosaki treated Umezawa for the most part is also a lot like how Kageyama treated Hinata with their little banter and wrestling moments. However, beneath his aloof personality, Kurosaki does show that he cares for Umezawa in his own way. A lot of his actions, though risky and sometimes rule-breaking bordering on madness, are well-intentioned and righteous, which are proof that he shows a lot of heart into his work.
This is actually my second drama of Hosoda Yoshihiko. I only noticed that I saw him in The Promise : The Truth From 16 Years Ago as Fuwa Sho after checking out his list of works just now. I think his performance in here is great.
— Katsuragi Akito, played by Mukai Osamu :
Katsuragi Akito is a detective of the MPD from the Narcotics and Firearms Division. He acts as a foil to Kurosaki's character in which he cares more about the optics of the situation and achieving accomplishments from his work, unlike Kurosaki who's driven by his personal vendetta against drugs and wants to eradicate them once and for all. This stems from his single-minded obsession in upstaging his father and brother, who were both Tokyo University graduates, by bringing his career to greater heights through meritorious accomplishments. Much like Kurosaki, he would use any means necessary to achieve his goal, earning him the title of the Mad Dog of the MPD.
His personality is vastly different from Kurosaki where he seems a lot friendlier towards Umezawa (despite all the nasty stuff that he says), often sharing intel and giving orders to Umezawa over dinner at their usual okonomiyaki place, and actually utilizes his subordinates for their operation (in contrast to Kurosaki who mostly works alone). Despite his friendly facade, Katsuragi is actually a cold-hearted and ruthless person, who only uses Umezawa as a pawn to get to his goal of capturing the organization first.
Mukai Osamu is the reason why I knew about this drama in the first place. While he is listed as one of the main characters, his character feels more like an important support role since I feel like both Umezawa and Kurosaki got a lot more focus compared to him.
Things that bothered me/I don't like/feel that there's room for improvement
I don't think there's much to scrutinize since the story is pretty straightforward and the episodes are very short. The story is fine with the way it was told. I'm thinking that maybe there are some mistakes regarding the drugs part and the way the NCD and police work but I'm not familiar with them and the drama itself doesn't really focus deeply on the inner working of these two organizations. So, there's not much for me to comment here.
Things that this drama made me think about
— Drugs ruin lives :
When people rely on something as toxic as drugs, their lives will become toxic as well be it physically, mentally or emotionally. This in turn makes their lives spiral downwards until it becomes hard to go back to when things were normal. So, moral of the story, never, ever take drugs or even get involved with them unless you want your life to become a living hell.
Things that I absolutely love!
— Those funny moments between Umezawa and Kurosaki
— Everyone's acting
— The straightforward and fast-moving plot
All in all, this drama is a good drama to watch as a filler or when you just want something simple and straightforward to watch. I'm giving it a score of 8/10 since the story is just decent with nothing too remarkable that makes it stand out from other dramas. Now I'm trying to decide if I should watch Lose My Heart to You or The Epoch of Miyu after this.
That's all I want to write for this entry this time. See you in the next entry!
