Sunao ni Narenakute – The Twitter J-Dorama

I’ve been missing from the Japanese drama scene for a while now but for the last couple months I have been sneaking in an episode or 2 of a couple series I am watching. Completed watching Sunao ni Narenakute or Hard to Say I Love You recently and decided to try my hand at reviewing it and sharing my thoughts on it after watching.

The main cast of Sunao ni Narenakute

Firstly let me say that I still very much a J-Dorama newbie so unless it’s Maki Horikita I couldn’t care much about famous guest stars from some other form of entertainment like music. Sunao ni Narenakute’s reference to Twitter is the main reason I wanted to check this series out but was it worth my time?

Nishimura and Mizuno

Plot Synopsis

Sunao ni Narenakute is a story about the blossoming friendship of five young people all dealing with their issues who were brought together by Twitter – a popular social networking site, and their journey to finding honesty with each other and with themselves.

The gang meeting up for the first time

Main Cast

• Nakajima is a photographer whose father was a wartime photographer and is his idol. He works as an assistant for gravure magazines.


• Mizuno is a little quirky and is a assistant high school teacher with dreams of becoming a full fledged teacher after passing the necessary exam.



• Nishimura is Mizuno’s best friend, she is the owner of a small clothes store. Her loneliness has caused her to be very promiscuous.


• Ichihara works for a popular magazine in Japan where he is being blackmailed into sexual favours by his chief editor.


• Park is originally from Korea and works at a company that sells medical equipment. On Twitter he lies about being a real doctor.

Ichihara's boss is an evil witch, seriously...

Love Pentagon

Sunao ni Narenakute is a Japanese drama of the highest quality to cast was top notch and the story undergoes many twists and turns by the time it ends in the 11th episode. It is very deep with the different characters complimenting each other while still being interesting individually. Mizuno and Nakajima were excellent leads but if I had to pick a character I liked the least it would have to be Park. The first couple episodes does well to hook you on the series but there were 1 or 2 episodes that left a lot to be desired. The whole love pentagon (I would have said triangle but trust me it was way more that that) become annoying after a while as everybody seemed to fall in love with multiple people for one reason or the other.

Mizuno's mother runs into a ghost!

Where did Twitter go?

I was disappointed that somehow Twitter eventually faded out of the memory of everyone, though I can understand it’s role became unnecessary after a while. Another of my concerns were the repeated scenery – I swear I can now recognize every grain of sand, light fixture and rock in that park Mizuno and Nakajima walks through just about every episode. All things considered though this is a good drama to check out, just be prepared for the occasional awkward moment and a whole lot of running back and forth on screen.