This review may contain spoilers
Slow, Quiet, Simple
My Strawberry Film is a Japanese series about a group of friends. The story follows them as they are trying to investigate who is the mysterious girl that they found in the film as they are also trying to navigate the heartbreaks of falling in love and getting rejected by your first love. I actually watched this show because it was recommended to me as a BL but it was clearly from the very beginning that it was not and that it really is about that feeling that you get from falling in love and getting rejected. The friendship of Ryo and Hikaru are the main thing here and little did Hikaru know is that Ryo is actually in love with him while they also met two girls who were added to their friend group that are important members of this now. Chika likes Ryo but Ryo likes Hikaru likes the new girl who looks like the girl in the video named Minami. This dynamics will lead them into awkward moments while trying to understand what it means to fall in love and get rejected. The story highlighted the importance of friendship as it trumps any other emotion that they have for each other. I actually liked the show. I know that the story may not be as strong as one would hope for it to be but I like the message that they are telling and how they handled such sensitive topic without over analyzing or complicating things. At the end of the day, the characters felt like individuals who are in a bind and they have been more honest with how they truly feel with each other. I love the moment that Ryo and Hikaru spent at the end where they held hands and that even though Ryo said that it will be the last selfish thing that he will ask for, Hikaru still held his hands. This was such a sweet moment that really resonated with me. I just wish that every rejection can be as sensitive and mature and lovely and considerate and as beautiful as that moment that they shared together. Well, they are really good friends so there is that and I think another thing that I enjoyed here is how human the show felt. It is a very simple show and we only have a few characters here but there is so much care in the writing that you can really see them handling the vulnerability of the characters so well that it is just interesting and fun to watch. It is a good show with the ending highlighting who these four characters are and what this moment felt for each and everyone of them.
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