This is definitely not a typical Cinderella story. The synopsis (neither here nor on Viki) doesn’t really give it away either, but although there is romance and fate encounters and funny moments, there is also an originality to the story.

I liked Fumi Nikaido (FL) in “Eye love you”, and I think she is good here too.
Gordon Maeda (ML) seemed a bit too old for his role, even though I see he was only like 4 years older than his character when this was released. Other than that he acted well too.
Takanori Iwata (2nd ML) was kind of anonymous - I wished he could have had a bigger presence.
Matsui Rena did a brilliant job portraying Akira/Kikuno, which was a very interesting character adding a lot to the originality of this series.
Grandma and the “butler” added both warmth and humour, and some elderly wisdom.

The length was good; episodes were not too long, and it wasn’t dragged out over too many episodes.

What bugged me a little bit, and I see others too, was the ages. Not so much the 10 year age gap, but 17 and 27. It would have been better if it had been just a few years older, say 20 and 30. But then I guess the storyline with his games wouldn’t really have worked…?

So to sum it up:
Not a typical romance, but entertaining, and a nice little break from my usual C- and K-dramas.