Age of Youth is yet another fabulous drama that proves that 2016 was an amazing year for dramas. Also, it's another drama that proves that K-dramas are starting to progress in new directions. Directions I want to keep going. The common mistake going into Age of Youth is that this is a carefree comedy, and a story we've seen before to make viewers laugh at the hijinks of youth. Instead what we get is pretty serious, one of the closet slice of life dramas I've seen. Oh, don't get me wrong they're are plenty of laughs! Warm hearted moments and hijinks of youth indeed. All balanced out by the realities of life. This is a story of 5 girls ranging in ages in their twenties—though more early—and they're struggles to deal with life. For me I found something in each girl to sympathize with. They're all different, but I understood and could relate. The drama starts out with showing Eun Jae first coming to college and the hard ship of something new. The fear and soon realizing that the other girls have struggles. Sometimes one episode focuses more on one character, but each girl has a story to tell with where they are in life. I will admit that I liked it starting off as a simple slice of life drama following the every day ordinary girls on their journeys. Of course we had to have something more drama worthy and the girls ended up all having be secrets that need to be revealed. Each girls past and secret had very strong and important messages. Sometimes subtle others a bit heavy handed. Addressing ones' self worth and what you need to do to live for yourself. A bigger overlay is that one girl claims to be able to see ghosts and this sets off how the other girls secrets slowly begin to come to light. The question of whether this girl can actually see ghosts is fun to ponder about. One thing that bothered me is that the more outgoing and in your face girl could never find a man. I really wonder if this is such a problem for this type of personality in Korea? Here I know they're usually the ones to get dates first. At least in my neck of the woods. That aside I think the writer did a great job of taking the “usual” suspects for female characters and making them real. Totally relatable. More realistic is that these girls do start out as strangers. They don't always like each other, but in the end become friends. Even realizing that they've lived together for sometime and really don't always know each other. The friendships that grew are amazing, and I love the womance between many of the characters. I also loved the older woman who owned the apartment they were renting. I love how she looked out for them and silently supported them from the sidelines. She didn't judge. However, I think that the most important message is that no one is normal. We're all weird and the events of our lives are what make us who we are. Age of Youth delivers an ending that gives us closure, but I do feel like it leaves their lives moving forward. Forward enough for a season 2 please! With it only running 12 episodes I do feel like a few things got cut out or rushed a tad to fit it in. I'm sure they didn't know if the show would catch on. I still applaud the writers for not wasting a moment and creating a well paced work. The music, cinematography, and writing was all brilliant. Most importantly that each girl was wonderful in their own way, even if certain traits my have grated on nerves. That's what made them more real and relatable. In the future I know I'll be revisiting my girlfriends again from Age of Youth.