Coronary soul bypass Japanese TV shows are an area as underrated as they are controversial.
Yes, a lot of naive obscurantism, a lot of passing inadequate.
But.
Just a butt.
The US-British version received 175 reviews. Japanese zero. And that's a shame.
It is really a shame, given that there is almost no information on the Internet, and the series is more than worthy.
I highly recommend it to those who liked the book and the Western version.
Because the Japanese “Don’t Let Me Go” is not a repetition of the past and not a twist of the original, but a kind of “augmented reality of the book.”
For all my warm feelings, the Western version - above all - is a touching story about a love triangle in the scenery of anti-utopia.
And the Japanese series, thanks to its more solid timekeeping, step by step unfolds before us pictures of this strange world of the novel. Good and good. With frightening authenticity. And most importantly, without losing the lyrical intimacy of the narrative.
The accents are shifted, but the series does not contradict either book images or the realities of the novel.
The world of the series, like the world of the book, is realistic, everyday-terrible and brutally soulless. Disgusting, soulless things happen here, but the heroes continue their movement, pass the tests assigned to them, moving to the very end. Which may still be delayed. Or not...
The most amazing thing is that the characters with surgical precision, subtly and delicately, are transferred from British reality to Japanese reality. Moreover, the transplant was so successful that their personalities and actions remained unchanged, but the motivation and some nuances seemed to be refracted from a very Japanese angle. Involuntarily thinking: maybe it was intended? A gene, as they say, cannot be spread with a finger. After all, the author of the novel, although he lived all his life in England, having been awarded, by the way, Booker, remains a pure-blooded Japanese.
And finally, let’s not mention the actors. Being a subjective person, I cannot help but mention my favorite, the wonderful Ayase Haruka in the title role. But it is fair to say that all three main characters approached the work with all seriousness, giving more than 100 percent. And yet, Miura Haruma stands out from their trio, thanks to which the image of Tomo (or Tommy) played with new, even more interesting colors. However, at the height of not only this three, secondary heroes are actively stepping on their heels in terms of charisma. I assure you, they will often cause you a whole range of feelings, from sympathy and pain to outrage and hatred.
If you watch this series. Which I highly recommend doing.
10 out of 10