Buzzer Beat

 

Synopsis:

Kamiya Naoki is a young player from a professional basketball team. But due to his relatively smaller size and his tendency to crack under pressure, he is unable to show his true skills on the court. Meanwhile, Shirakawa Riko is a cheerful, strong-spirited music college graduate aiming to become a professional violinist. One day, Riko finds Naoki's lost cell phone on a bus, and their meeting begins a friendship that eventually turns into love. However, Naoki was already considering marriage with his current girlfriend. And it doesn't help matters that Naoki's coach has fallen in love at first sight with Riko! 

My opinion:

In basketball a buzzer beater is a shot taken just before the game clock of a period expires, when the buzzer sounds. The shot still counts if it goes in. Often, a buzzer beating shot will be released from long range (even from beyond half court), making for a spectacular play if it connects.

With that kind of title, I am expecting a sport genre dorama!! In addition, the main character is Yamapi, I am expecting it to be a school life genre to attract the hoarde of teenage fangirls. This time, I am doubly wrong. It is more of a love story since the basketball matches are only featured in like first and last episode because the story goes during the break in between the basketball seasons. And the characters are aged mid 20s to 30s, so it is an adult love dorama. Lol!!

I don't normally like love stories because they tend to be cliched, boring, and mid-way of the story, I can tell what the ending will be. And for deviation from the usual love story, I would say that I love this show!! Perhaps it is because the characters are already adults so the story is also more adult and realistic. The relationship between the characters is also more mature and realistic. That's why I don't hate the antagonists here because in real life, there are people who are like that. More importantly, everyone has their own good and bad sides. This is clearly shown here: the antagonists are irritating, yes, but they are not devil. The protagonists are not angels too, they also have their irritating moments.

As expected for a love story, there will  be break-ups, new relationships and jealousy. But hey, the dose of jealousy is realistic. The dose of chasing the rejected love is also realistic. In the end, I think it's cool that they respect each other for having relationship with whomever they choose. Jealousy is over and life goes on as usual. No endless catfights, jealousy, ploy, etc. People can still be friends after breaking up/getting rejected. Moreover, it is very cool indeed to see people putting their relationship on hold to support their loved ones achieving their dreams. After all, in real life, some will 'sacrifice' relationship for stable jobs bla bla bla right? 

As other Japanese shows, it is never far from the theme of chasing dreams. This dorama manages to make the dreams more realistic. Naoki dreams to win a championship and Riko dreams to be a violinist. We all know that it is not easy to sustain life with these professions. And this is realistically portrayed.. The "ending" is also more realistic. It is by sheer hardwork (not by luck or miracle) that they reached their dream. Naoki struggled to get confidence (he got the skill but no confidence.. so it is not that he sucks but somehow becomes very good in basketball) while Riko still need to practice a lot and struggle hard to get a chance playing violin in  a shopping mall, a club, before finally playing for a small orchestra. Sounds very realistic to me!

In summary, the theme "Love makes you stronger" is presented in a more believable way here.. It is not a fairy-tale live happily ever after kind of story.

In fact, some of the petty details are very realistic too. At the start of the show, Riko and Naoki were actually on the same bus. But they didn't know this even after getting to know each other! Naoki lost his phone at that time and Riko found it and returned it to his coach. So they never met. Riko only knew after sometime when she saw the phone and realised that she was the one finding it and then she remembered that they met before previously. Certainly it's better than miraculously remember "aah you are that guy who chased after the bus when you dropped your phone" the first time they meet. At the end of the show, Riko was allowed by her boss to skip practice to watch the basketball match. Certainly, it isn't a cliche to have a nasty/unreasonable/unrealistic boss to have her choose either one so she has to sacrifice her job for relationship bla bla bla. So I am glad that there is more realism than dramas here.

There are many other "smaller" things which make me love the show. Firstly is the music, the music (and background music) featured in the show is also damn good. In fact, there are 2 versions of the soundtrack, one is for the emo occasions while the other one sounds more victorious. I am amazed that a few songs can be used for both emo scenes or romantic scenes. That's cool! Haha.. Well the similar thing between emo and romantic scenes are: they are tearjerking! Lol.. So touching songs ba.. (Okay, I am gonna find the OST now!! Lol)

Secondly, I love the clip for the opening song. I just think it's quite creative. And many of the scenes in the clip are not in the show actually. So it is not a spoiler. I wanted to share the opening clip and opening song but Youtube copyright issue is such a pain in the ass! Thus I cannot share anything =x

Thirdly, I like the casts. Haha.. There are so many pretty girls here... Even the irritating ones are quite pretty.. And I love Maya Miki as the mother haha. Lastly, the kissing scenes can be considered quite good. Kisses in Japanese shows always look very 'icy' as if the characters have to kiss because it's part of their job. Here, the kisses are 'warmer' and show better chemistry. 

One thing that I don't like is the fact that these few people end up liking each other and/or related to each other somehow. It's just so weird to have everyone you know (for example, your family, your friends, your colleagues) end up knowing each other and having relationship among one another. Certainly in real life, our social circle is not this small!! Haha.. That's my only irritation.

My afterthoughts:

I am 24 soon. I need to think about a girlfriend and getting married soon. Fullstop!! :p

And I guess non-high school dramas can be quite cool too eh? Hoho.