Sprout final impressions

And I am finally done with this drama! Now I can let myself move on to better dramas and not feel guilty for not finishing this one. Though honestly I probably should have dropped this around the midway mark.

Needless to say this is one of the few dramas that I watched all the way through despite not liking it. I rarely make myself do this unless I can at least find enjoyment from being able to mock it, but this drama was so boring I was not really able to do that. This series should not have been twelve episodes and would have probably been much better as a eight or nine episode series instead. There was just too much that got stretched out over the episodes that made it hard to get through at times for me.

In the end I watched this series because of the actors, mostly the Johnny's of course. I think for a young actor with little experience with acting a series like this is not a bad place to start. Romance is a common enough theme across all types of genres and there does seem to always be a lot of focus on it for teens. But an actor can only improve if they are acting so I hope that those that are on the weak with it will improve over time. I mean I was surprised with how well Chinen Yuri did in this as I remember him being much more stiff with his acting from past roles. I only hope that Jesse will also improve over time as he came off as rather stiff himself in this.

Despite this not being a drama I liked there were moments here and there that I did surprisingly enjoy. I liked how Narahashi Souhei (Chinen) and Uzawa Miyuki (Kojima Fujiko) broke up, not so much all the humming and hawing it took to get there but the actual break up itself was not bad at all. So I will give credit for the series for being able to have a couple break up without making one side the "wrong" one. Even with Ikenouchi Miku (Morikawa Aoi) and Katagiri Hayato (Jesse) no side was the "bad" side for the break up, even though that scene really showed how weak Jesse's acting is.

I am very glad that Hashimoto Ryosuke has another drama (Bad Boys J) he is a part of that I can watch. I found him to be a bright spot in Sprout even though his character was not in it often. Not to mention the character suffering from what the rest of the supporting cast did with not really being characters in their own right but rather being around to prop up the main characters to make sure they heard the right things at the right time to ensure they would get together at the end.

The only joy I felt from Miku and Souhei getting together at the end of the series was mainly from the fact that it meant the series was finally ending. Still hate the whole, "he's my fated person, so we will be together if it is fate," deal Miku clung to. Relationships do not work because of an idea as simple as fate, they work because the people involved put the effort in to make them work. And it is the fact that so much shoujo ignores that fact that turns be off of the genre.


For all the bashing I give for Sprout I will say that at least I do not hate the series. It may not have been my cup of tea and the way everything was dragged out with there being little to no tension whatsoever with the story but there was nothing that made me want to just give up on it. Outside of forgetting about it at some point because there is not a lot there to make it memorable. In fact I would say that this drama is best for those who want to kill time and are fine with a series where very little happens over a long period of time. Or perhaps if you want something to help go to sleep with.