Pin to Kona

I had to raise the rating to 4 stars after the second viewing. Probably what had the most to do with it was the brilliant music – it totally captured the situation and you could see that the composer was really playing with it, and it gave the series a new swing. The story isn't too bad, and the acting isn't bad either. Of course, don't look too much for kabuki in this; it's true that it might give you some rules, "family traditions", and so on, but they are still just actors, not kabuki actors, so an actual kabuki performance looks just a bit different than what they show us here. Except that the show is more likely to be watched by lay people who may never have even heard of kabuki, so it's all fine and everything is totally convincing. It's a nice Japanese high school romance spiced up with the aforementioned world of kabuki and various betrayals. The last episode is admittedly a bit too full of flashbacks for my taste, not to mention a lot more naive than the previous episodes, but it still doesn't spoil the overall impression of the series. While it does feature high school students, thankfully this time the focus is more on their lives outside of school, which is a pleasant change of pace in this genre. I definitely wouldn't be afraid to give the series a try if you're in the mood for something relaxing, with twists and turns that don't hurt, and featuring one of the best TV dads I've had the pleasure of getting to know in all the time I've been watching TV series. (02.08.2014)