Name: Great college drama with mysterious supernatural elements but average romance
Item: Remake Our Life!
Rating: 81
Author: sim

Waifra

Great college drama with mysterious supernatural elements but average romance · Waifora

I've had many thoughts prior to diving into this series, thinking "it's definitely going to have one of those endings where the main character realizes he can not change the future and ends up exactly where he left off", but nothing could have prepared me for what actually happened. At first, I found the first shift to the past very unexpected and sudden, I really hoped there would be something more than just him crying while falling asleep, though this may be forgiven since it was not the "main" focus of the story, so it also makes a little sense for it to be rushed. I enjoyed seeing how his view on the world and general behaviour differed from the rest of the students, it gave a little more depth and emphasis on the fact that he is mentally 10 years older than anybody else, while also not making it too obvious. Really important was seeing Kawasegawa in 2016, because with that context, seeing her excel at the college made much more sense and gave the viewer a nice perspective of what it takes to get where she ended up.

What I wish was more fleshed out though is the romance, and specifically the love triangle between Nanako, Aki and Kyouya. In episode 7, when Nanako said to Kyouya that "she won't lose", there was no elaboration and development on that storyline what-so-ever. I also wonder what happened between Aki and Kyouya before the second shift, given they ended up getting married and even got a child.

I was at the verge of dropping this right at the end of episode 7 when he got into the future, thinking it was too random and nonsensical, though finishing the series made me realize it did have its meaning and was actually very beneficial for the character development of Ryouya, and you could see how he tries change his behaviour and approach towards other people now. Additionally, while I do understand why he wanted to return back in the last episode, I can't believe he just abandoned his child like that. :(

His return also brings us to the next very important character of this series, and that is Keiko. Who is she? Why did she pick Kyouya out of anybody else? She definitely isn't an ordinary person, and we could've seen that by her indicating the second shift by saying "Y'know, I wonder what would happen in the future at this rate." in episode 8. And also her literally being the person who shifted Kyouya back in time in episode 12. It all gave out some sort of eerie vibe to the series, what I personally liked very much.

A nice touch to the story and something I did not realize until after I finished the series, was that the future has already been set in stone long before he even got back to 2006. This can be seen in episode 8, when Tsurayuki first revealed his pen name "Kyouichi Kawagoe", and said that it was inspired by Kyouya's name (the first "Kyou" part). The funny part is that he actually worked under this very same pen name as part of the "Platinum Generation" when Kyouya was in the year 2016. How did he come up with that pen name then? They did not graduate from the same college at that time, thus had no way of knowing each other.