1 Litre of Tears

I had promised myself that I wasn't going to watch this drama until after I had finished NaNoWriMo and the short, but apparently I can't go for more than a few days without watching something Japanese, so I was about a quarter way through by the time NaNo was over and half way by the time I had finished the short. None the less, I finished NaNo (yay! 7500 words on the last day) and the short (45 hours work, not including the 6 hours it took to get there and back, in 3 days.) and have just watched the last two episodes and a somewhat pointless special today.

My expectations of this drama were that I would literally cry 1 Litre of Tears, as the title suggests. I probably did, although only in the last episode. Sure, the whole thing was super sad, and I did feel my eyes prickle a fair few times, but no tears until the end.

 The real Aya. You can see the determination that kept her strong in every inch of this photo.

Asou and Aya. From Google.

 

1 Litre of Tears is based on the true story of Aya, a young girl who, at 15, suddenly starts falling over for no reason, and discovers that she has a rare condition called spinocerebellar degeneration. Basically, one by one, she will lose the ability to talk and move freely, until she is even unable to eat without choking. Imprisoned in her own body, her mind is still completely her own, and Aya has no choice but to watch as the disease slowly robs her of her freedom. The idea of having to go through something like that is truly horrifying, but the story focuses on Aya's optimism and the strength of her family and friends, how she fought on to stay at school, to keep walking until it was utterly impossible; the whole time documenting her thoughts in a dairy that was published before her death at the age of 25.

Obviously there was a couple of romantic interests that I am not sure actually existed for the real Aya, but it is an Asian drama after all. Asou was Aya's main pillar of strength through out her illness, and even became a doctor to try and cure her (also, he was hot, almost as hot as Aya's doctor).

Yes, it was sad, and yes, I pitied her, especially when you are constantly reminded how this is a true story by photos of the real Aya over the closing credits, but it just didn't make me as heartbroken as I had expected, nor as hooked. I was quite content to only watch an episode every few days, instead spending most of my time watching Shinee's Hello Baby instead. Maybe I have just been in a mood to be cheered up rather than needing the opportunity to cry. Nonetheless, it was a beautiful story, well shot and very touching.

I was very concerned that there wasn't going to be any connections, not even a Gokusen link.
BUT FEAR NOT.
I don't know who any of them are in the other shows, but Kawamoto, the douche that broke Aya's heart because she was ill, was in Gokusen, Asou's friend Kouhei was in Gokusen 2, Nakahara, another of Asou's friends, was in Nodame Cantabile, Hot Doctor Mikuno was in the Hana Yori Dango movie and Nishino-sensei was in Ouran High School Host Club.

Next is the Kimi ni Todoke movie. I know this is a hugely popular manga and anime, but I cant say that I have ever been particularly bothered to read or watch it. I think its just a love story about a shy geeky girl and a super popular hot boy, nothing that hasn't been done a million times before.

<3x

Drama: Kimi ni Todoke
Manga: Same (not reading much, other than keeping up to date with new chapters of ongoing manga)