First of all, I was very skeptical about the whole idea of mashing 3 different stories into one, I think that damages the individual ideas. I do think that it's possible to do well but this was certainly not the case here. Unfortunately, I have only read one of the 3 stories that went into the sсript of the drama but I read about the other two so I have some idea of how much they were fucked up.

The "Intercept" story was more or less intact since it was inserted into the main story. Sure, it lost some of its depth, but still it was good. I didn’t read it but I want to applaud Shige for his female narrative. I remember him saying that he read “dating” books but unlike Tegoshi it was for a very valid reason. I did, however, really hate the general mood of the first two episodes. They pretty much made it a comedy and needless to say that changes the mood of the stories within it as well. If I didn’t know better, I’d say it was really bad acting, this exaggerated speech and gestures look so primitive. This semi-comic style ended abruptly halfway through the drama which was good on one hand but ruined what little consistency there actually was.

If Episode 1 left me annoyed, Episode 2 left me pissed. I actually happened to read the story used for this one and though I knew they’d change it, I didn’t expect it to be this much. I mean there was hardly anything left of it. First of all, I was really angry about changing the plot in a way that the whole “affair” only happened with the virtual perfect girl. I then realized they replaced Yukie’s character so they could use Mai instead but this killed this separate story completely. As if this wasn’t bad enough, they changed even the remaining parts of the story making it dumb and vulgar. I’m not even talking about the awful acting.

Episode 3 made me hopeful. They kids' acting was pretty good and there was no dumb humour in it. The overall atmosphere seemed pretty good too. I wasn't too hopeful though because the "Nibemonaku" story continued in Ep 4 and thus could be ruined easily. Basically, the story wasn't distorted much, the events in it were preserved. However, it lost all point because of basically the rest of the drama and its shitty plot. When it was revealed that Keisuke was a ghost the whole time (pretty touchy ghost though) I scowled. Not only was it lame, it was pretty dumb. I was imagining several ways for it to end - Jun reconnecting with Mai, or even Jun realizing he were gay for Keisuke all along. Anything would have made more sense that this. They took away the ideas of 2 of the stories and tried to fashion a new, much lamer one. What a failure. Even with this length and with these characters one could do a much better job, seriously. I kind of feel sorry for Shige, I'm sure he had a lot of internal struggle to see his precious stories butchered like that. I have to say though I enjoyed Shige’s concerned looks. However, instead of Keisuke being concerned for his friend I just saw Shige thinking “Damn, did I really create this fucking moron?” But of course, in the end I'm sure Shige knew that drama adaptation will give him a wider audience and help him reach out to more people and hopefully those who felt something from this pitiful mess of a drama will go and buy the book.

One more thing I want to say about this drama, or more like one more way they fucked it up. When I realized Shige's character were gay, I thought it was really cool. Gay characters and particularly gay characters in Japanese media, are very underrepresented and misrepresented. It's mostly 1 of 2: either's they're flashing gay, flirty and amusing or they suffer and die. I haven't seen an awful lot of Asian dramas but I can't remember any that had a gay character outside of these two roles (I'm thinking Shitsuren Chocolatier and Sunao ni Narenakute). That is why I was excited about Keisuke, even though it was a minor role. I mean I think it's really a great thing what Shige did with this story. He made it about the straight guy, showed that it was a straight boy who had issues, who was unhappy while the gay boy just continued with his life normally. "This is good, this is important" is how I felt. When I realized what they did I was like "Okay, so you kept the girl and killed off the gay guy. Good job". I wonder what actual gay people thought about this though. I'm secretly hoping Shige is on his way to becoming an icon for LGBT community.