Of all the things I rave about, Japanese musician GACKT is likely the most prominent. Naturally, I try my best to follow up on what he’s up to besides releasing music. One project of his was a Jdrama titled Time Spiral (2014) where he stars as a mysterious architect, Shuya Tatsumi, who has a peculiar fascination with a physics TA named Natsuki Aizawa.
As the name may suggest, we find that Shuya is in fact a time traveler. His motives are continuously shrouded however, making him ever more suspicious to Natsuki as she spends more time with him. With how complicated time traveling stories can be, this series was written well in that only a small percentage of what was discussed flew over my head. In fact, a professor character, Prof. Chubachi, is continuously presented to share his fascination with time and the various philosophies and theories that go along with it. Chubachi’s dialogue does an excellent job of portraying the complex ideas with examples so that they may be easier to understand.
Chubachi isn’t the only side character that is helpful, having tactfully been kept in the background while still being useful to the main plot. Each character, from the main love triangle to the surprisingly sage-like friends, are well written, each of them serving their purpose. The music is another strong aspect that drew me in, having made me nostalgic of JRPGs and the whimsical air they create. The main story was exceedingly well written as it kept things suspenseful, revealing small bits of the full picture a bit at a time. What was also helpful was to focus on Natsuki while occasionally jumping time with Shuya, allowing us to be placed in the same confused situation with Natsuki.
One downfall of the series was it’s eventual repetition as clues were replayed before leading into new information. Of course, this practice is commonly used in live action dramas and doesn’t misdirect or water down the story by much.
Overall, I’m incredibly pleased with how this series turned out, and I’m not saying that simply because GACKT was involved. I grew to really admire actresses Meisa Kuroki (Natsuki) and Kayoko Kishimoto (Prof. Aizawa, Natsuki’s mother) over the course of the show. I’d highly recommend watching this series for yourself as it’s only 8 episodes at roughly 30 minutes each. Hopefully I’ll get the chance to watch Akumu-chan (2012) another well received Japanese television series staring GACKT.
Sakamichi - It's all Uphill from Here 