Piece review

Here is a full review of Piece, a mystery/school drama which aired in 2012.
I started watching Piece because it had actors and actresses that I have never seen before.

Synopsis (from Jdramas):

Three years ago, Narumi Hikaru and Suga Mizuho were in love and would meet in secret for several months in the second year of high school. It started casually and ended casually. Hikaru and Mizuho were alike in their inabilities to grasp their distance from others or to be interested in another person; poor at the way they get involved with other people. The two of them should not have met again, but the news of the sudden death of a high school classmate Origuchi Haruka from cancer brings them together again. Mizuho undertakes the search for the unknown boyfriend from high school to fulfil the wishes of the Haruka’s mother, who believes that she is her daughter’s good friend. Hikaru and Mizuho are now university students, and changes have come upon their relationship. They look back at the past, meet many people again and as they pick up various pieces of love, they get close to the true face of the unseen person.

Cast:

• Nakayama Yuma as Narumi Hikaru
• Honda Tsubasa as Suga Mizuho
• Matsumura Hokuto as Yanai Takashi
• Suzuki Airi as Setouchi Madoka
• Nozawa Yuki as Sugawara Yu
• Yasui Kentaro as Koike-senpai
• Arai Moe as Nishida Remi
• Mizuno Erina as Origuchi Haruka
• Nakamura Kumi as Origuchi Haruka’s mother
• Takahashi Tsutomu as Miyamoto
• Kino Hana (木野花) as Nanao Kimiko
• Toda Naho as Narumi Risako

Review

Story

I started watching the series by knowing two main complaints. One was that the ending was not satisfying, the other was that by half of the series is would become very predictable. This drama aired in Fall 2012, but at that time, the manga is was based on was still ongoing. Now, the manga has been completed since April 2013. I wonder if there is a difference in both endings.

Everyone hold a piece of the puzzle, everyone holds a piece of love. Looking for clues, Mizuho is on a quest to find a classmate's boyfriend. 

Piece receive ratings around the 2% (this is not abnormal considering it was playing very late). It is a drama with many young actors and it seems to be aiming for a teenage audience. I would call the type a "school mystery romance". The focus is not really school or mystery but a bit of both. The mystery is not the typical searching for criminal type, but a search of a classmate's boyfriend. The first episode was not so good, but it got very interesting from the second episode. Every episode, you learn more and more of each character, you learn a piece of the mystery. The story was the strong point of the drama. The mystery really intrigued me and watched many episodes in a row. There is a lot of romance too. The story was so good I wondered if it was based on novel or something. I then discovered that this is based on a shoujo manga, so it is more for girls. The romance part is not presented like what we are used to, but I enjoyed it. It is a bit different from other romance drama, I do not really know how to explain.

As for the two main complaints, the story was not predictable, for me, until the 12th episode on 13. There would be no way for me to predict the ending at the half. However, I understand why people may be dissatisfied with the ending. It was really weak compared to the rest of the series and I wonder if it's because it was not following the manga at that point.    

Acting

Lots of new actors and actresses here. I think that did all did a very good job, especially main actress Honda Tsubasa.  I think that she acted very good and felt sucked in by her character. I love how you can hear often her inner thoughts. It gives you a prospective of the story from her eyes.

I also think that Nakayama Yuma did a very convincing act at what I find could be a challenging role.

It seems like there is a lot of talent in this group. I am looking forward for more from Honda Tsubasa. I think that she can become quite popular in the future.
I have to say I did not read the manga, so I cannot compare the two. I might be less critique because of that.

Music

The music is mainly Johny's type of songs. Nothing extraordinary, but after a while it just becomes catchy. 

Recommendation

Sadly, no recommendation I can do this time. It was quite a different kind of drama for me.

Overall, I finish this drama with a good feeling. I do not regret watching this even with the weak ending.

At times, it had nice fresh and relaxing feeling

In summary,

• good story
• promising new actors and actresses 
• weak and unsatisfying ending