Castella (2013)

I feel this drama is a very good one. It deals with many life problems that children and parents face indivdually and as a family unit. I think there wasn't much of a story in a way, but don't let that scare you off. This is very focused on life, so of course the plot elements have to do with life experiences.

The way everything comes together (the flow of the plot, setting, and whatnot) are similar to the books My Father's Glory and My Mother's Castle by playwright and author Marcel Pagnol. The narrative voice isn't really that of an adult looking back on his childhood, but it still gives off an idylic and nostalgic vibe. This may partly be due to certain contemporary pop-culture references (one of which is the song known as Sukiyaki in the US, or Ue o Muite Arukou, refrenced, admittedly a little too much , in the first few episodes). Watching each episode I came away with a feeling that the staff tried their best to make everything as accurate as possible in terms of what life was like at the time this takes place.

Casting was great. Sometimes it may seem like a family made up of actors may not really mesh well together, but that isn't the case here. The child actors seemed as if they could be real siblings to me. And the parents (as characters) were perhaps a little typical of Japanese families, but that only adds to the actors' performances. Everyone just makes this feel like a real family. The grandmother was played very well and I feel the actress added a lot of life and warmth to her character. These people made this family a completely belivable one to me.

The music overall was quite good. At times it felt like a mixture between Japanese and American musical stylings. The only thing was that it felt just a tad over orchestrated as Japanese music always seems to me (and I'm not entirely sure why). Overall though, the music really added to the atmosphere of the whole work which is always a plus, and I feel that is one thing Japanese composers as a whole are usually very good at. This drama does a good job of emitting emotions and empathy (as well as sympathy) for the characters. So if you like being able to imagine yourself as a part of a drama, I personally think that this a good choice. Because by the end, you may start to feel as though you were a part of the family whose lives you just witnessed. I did, and I was actually a little sad when the whole thing ended.

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