Seishun Cinderella

This was a cute drama. It’s not a new or groundbreaking story, but it is charming. It has just the right amount of teen angst to be enjoyable without making you want to pull your hair out, and it is often very thoughtful and heartfelt in how it presents its characters and themes. I do think the second half of the story veers a little too far into the angst and drama department at times, but it’s not to a degree that is excessive.

I’m also mostly pleased with the messages the story conveys. The female lead lives with a lot of shame and regret as an adult and traveling back in time provides her with an opportunity for a do-over. But eventually, she realizes that she doesn’t really belong in the past trying to fix all of its mistakes. Her life is back in the future. In coming to this realization, she decides it’s time to make peace with her life rather than trying to change it. What she experienced in high school is part of who she was, which in turn influenced who she became, and she chooses to embrace that. My one complaint is that this realization and decision should have been accompanied with the acknowledgement that she is an adult, and that makes her different from her teenaged friends. As a 29-year-old woman, she’s at a very different place in life then a 17-year-old would be. She has more wisdom and maturity, and her goals and desires are very different. It is simply not tenable for her to date a 17-year-old boy and have a 17-year-old best friend. Even in her 17-year-old self’s body. So if there were one aspect of this drama I would change, it would be that.

Admittedly, the writers did create a plot hole in their story and their time-travel mechanics in the last couple of episodes that has already created some confusion for some viewers. My recommendation is to ignore the plot hole and just go with what the story gives you. For some stories, the science fiction/fantasy elements are meant to follow strict rules as part of the storytelling/world-building. For other stories, they are meant to serve the narrative, and if some rules are broken in the process, it doesn’t really matter. This drama is in the latter category, and for my part, I think that’s fine. The plot hole is not enough to break the world or the narrative, so I don’t consider it a major flaw.

This drama was sweet and easy to watch, and I would recommend it.