Captivated, By You

Hello drama family!

Today, I am blogging about a drama that I feel like has created some confusion among its viewers. Let's see what it is!

Title: Captivated, by You

Apps: Viki

Release Year: 2021

Region: Japan

Episode Count: 5

Genres: high school, drama, comedy, slice of life, short story, bromance

Plot: This drama follows the stories of several high school students as they navigate being teenagers. Watch as they make new friends, deal with rumors and negativity, as well as figure out what it means to create new relationships and be truly connected to one another.

Captivated, by You is a really interesting drama. The first interesting part about it is that there isn't only one or two main characters that the story focuses on. The plot is driven by a number of young people and their stories, as well as how they are all interconnected with one another in some ways. The synopsis given on Viki gives plenty of details about two of the characters featured, almost making it sound like the drama is just about them, but in reality it is so much more.

The first character we run into along this short journey is Matsuya Megumi (Fukumoto Riko). She is a lovable book nerd who is introduced to us by her love for a novel that she is reading and how she makes friends through her online persona. She seems to have a tendency to overshare and begins to wonder what it truly means to be friends with someone.

Thanks to Megumi's love of books, she meets Hayashi Miyoshi (Ryusei Onishi). Hayashi is a care free student who likes to play a word game by creating words out of different letters that he happens to find. He does all sorts of eccentric things and just wants to live life doing whatever he wants to do. He is very carefree. At one point in the series, he says that it helps him realize he has free time. It made me want to try out doing some crazy and useless things, too.

At this point, we have been introduced to two characters, all within the first half of episode one. We continue to meet our cast when it transitions to a new setting. The colors change from warm and inviting to cooler tones that give off this creepy vibe. The creepy vibe is not present throughout the whole series, but it is noticeable here and there. I love when shows take colors and use them to set the tone of the scene because it makes the scene feel even deeper. It makes the viewer really focus on specific feelings. In this change of tone for the drama, we are introduced to our next character.

Nikaido Akira (Fumiya Takahashi) is a character that I kind of felt bad for, but I also somewhat understood him. He is gloomy and undesirable to the other students. They even view him as cursed and have set out to spread rumors about how just looking at him could cause them harm. This has led him to be alienated by others and left him in isolation, which he is perfectly content with. There is one student who tries to break through his shell, though.

Medaka Yuichi (Bando Ryota) became very curious about Nikaido. He's the type to have plenty of friends, wants to go have fun, just the typical youth. He also fell into believing a lot of the rumors about Nikaido, at least, until he noticed there was something different about his classmate. He spends most of his time attempting to become friends with the odd boy.

There are other characters involved in this story, but the ones above are the main four that there is a general focus on. All of these characters don't go to the same school, either. Megumi and Hayashi go to the same school, while Nikaido and Medaka go to school together. You would think that this drama revolves heavily around all of them knowing one another, but it doesn't. In some ways, I would consider this drama to be a rather abstract understanding of friendships and connections.

Have you ever watched a drama that just confuses you, at first? Maybe it confuses you the whole way through. This drama seems to be fairly abstract in the plot, so I can see why it's possibly that way. The reason I say it's abstract is because all of the characters are connected, but in the slightest ways and they may never actually interact with one another. I fully expected each character to become fully involved with one another throughout the series, but it definitely differed from that. These episodes are not long, so you really have to pay attention to the details and how they are explained as you watch, too. Each episode explains further what was explored in the previous episode. I feel like the main point of confusion revolves around the way the synopsis on Viki described the show. The visuals given for the show also create some of that as well. It makes you feel as if two polar opposites, Hayashi and Nikaido, are going to come together to become close friends and that the plot focuses solely on their relationship. This isn't the case at all, so don’t go into it thinking that this is all about the eccentric extrovert adopting a gloomy introvert to be his friend. In reviews I read about this particular drama, a lot of people seemed to be unable to fully understand the plot. What I gathered from this show is that it gives the overall idea that everyone is connected in some way or another, whether they know each other well, if they've only seen each other in passing, or even if they only have mutual friends and acquaintances. So, each episode is a short story of sorts relating to each character and the relationships they closely develop, while connecting them in some way to those they may never even meet or get to fully bond with. Somewhat hard to follow, right? I had a hard time trying to explain this concept when I was thinking of it for today's blog, honestly.

Also, another misconception regarding this show is the idea of romance, especially of the BL genre. For those unfamiliar with the abbreviation, BL stands for Boy Love - a romantic relationship between two men. I can see where there might be this thought since the synopsis seems to point that way. There is zero romance involved in this. It is a short, sweet, and to the point drama about friendships and that's all there is to it. This drama is based off a mnaga of the same name, but I have not read it and am unsure of whether or not that has BL overtones. I did label the genre as including "bromance", but that isn't romance in the typical sense. For those who may not know what bromance is, it is a really close friendship between guys that is non-romantic. I feel this misunderstanding about it being a BL or having romance of any sort has given people the wrong idea, so when they go to watch it they end up disappointed in some way.

This definitely isn't like your typical drama. What I mean is there are no characters that have had a shared past or have been friends for a long time, all of these characters are strangers to one another from the beginning and they don’t all become a close group of friends tied together via some shared experience by the end. I highly suggest watching it to see what exactly I'm talking about. It was a very heartwarming series about defining what friendship really is as well as breaking down barriers between people. I loved how all the characters developed and how meaningful friendships were created between some of them, but not who I had initially expected. Definitely well worth the watch, especially since it was easy to do in one sitting. There are only five episodes and each is only 24 minutes long, so the time you would be investing it rather minimal.

Drama Mama rating: 7.5/10 (Short, sweet, to the point, but really need to pay attention!)