Bromance is Good: 'Pending Train - 8:23, Tomorrow, With You' up to Episode 8 (Japan/TV Drama/2023)

I started watching this drama because I like Eiji Akaso. I was so surprised by the ending of episode 8 that I wanted to write down my thoughts up to that point.

A typical morning commute scene that could be anywhere. A portion of the train that people have boarded suddenly warps into a devastated future that looks as if humanity has gone extinct. This is a survival story about those passengers. Before watching, I felt it was such a massive premise that it might have been better suited as a movie rather than a drama.

Watching without obsessing over the 'future' setting

While warping to the future is not something one can easily experience, the harsh situations that threaten lives and mental states are unfortunately things that actually happen close to us through natural disasters, wars, and pandemics, so I cannot think of it as someone else's problem. Before I knew it, I started watching this drama by replacing it with the real world.

Since people of various circumstances, positions, thoughts, and values just happened to be placed in a harsh situation together, conflicts are constant. Some try to survive by helping each other, while others think only of saving themselves first. Some break down in tears wanting to return to their original world, while others are delighted to be freed from their burdens. Conflicts arise between groups, sometimes leading to a state of war.
The relationships between each of the passengers and the families they left behind are also depicted in various ways.

Dramas with this kind of premise are prone to being criticized for having cheap CG or sets, not looking like a future world because the scenery is somewhere in Japan, glossing over things and turning a blind eye to the ugly parts of humanity, or having a plot that is too convenient and lacking depth. Surely, the content this drama tries to handle is very large and deep. If it tries to depict everything, it could end up being broad but shallow, with everything remaining only on the surface.
Considering the buzz around the drama, it could have depicted the ugly, cruel parts of humanity even more intensely, but I don't think that is the goal of this drama. It might be called idealistic, but I think it really wants to depict 'living positively and not giving up hope.' I am watching it as that kind of drama. The cruelty and ugliness of real people are overflowing in the daily news, and honestly, I am already sick of it. I don't want to see scenes of human-made brutality again, even in a TV drama.

I think what is depicted most carefully in this drama is the love triangle involving Naoya Kayashima and Yuto Shirahama over Sae Hatano, and the bromance between Naoya and Yuto. Recently, rather than a survival story of the passengers, I have been watching it mainly as a love story of three men and women living in extreme conditions, and the bromance between two young men of different types, Naoya and Yuto.

The love triangle involving Sae Hatano also changes little by little each episode, and the interactions between Naoya and Yuto well depict their changing feelings for her and their different positions. It is heartbreaking to watch Naoya every time he cannot fully convey his feelings to Sae.

Akaso-kun looks like an illustration from a shojo manga

There are many actors I like who are beautiful (like Machida-kun or Yusei-kun...), but not everyone looks like an illustration. Is it that Akaso-kun has a shojo manga-style face? At the end of episode 6, Yuto is told by Naoya, 'It's about time you noticed Sae's feelings,' and he stares at Sae in the distance with a look of surprise. I was thinking, 'What a great expression,' and then he started looking like a beautiful illustration again, and I inwardly chuckled to myself. Why does that happen...
In the last scene of episode 8, Yuto, who persuaded Naoya to stay in this world with all his words and passion, also had a very good expression, and he, wearing blue clothes, suddenly looked like 'Young Nausicaa.' That's right, he also resembles a Ghibli drawing.

The bromance between Yuki Yamada and Eiji Akaso is very good

I started watching because Akaso-kun was appearing as Yuto Shirahama, but the acting of Yuki Yamada, who plays the lead role of Naoya Kayashima, is also very charming. The connection between the two, who are by no means compatible, that does not melt into sweetness, makes for a quite good bromance.
Although they disagree, clash, and argue, if they are to survive in the extreme situation they were suddenly thrown into, they have no choice but to cooperate and help each other. While clashing, they naturally begin to understand each other, and sometimes they even talk calmly and thoroughly just between the two of them. However, since they are two people who were not compatible to begin with, they don't always become happy, close friends. This feeling of always maintaining a certain distance is very good as a bromance. I really like the conversation scenes between the two, such as the scene where they talk while having a bonfire in episode 6 and the scene where they eat fish at the waterfall in episode 7.

Yuto gradually became a leader among the passengers. When talking to other passengers, he probably chooses his words because he needs to propose, persuade, and encourage, but with Naoya, he has come to blurt out his true feelings from the bottom of his heart, sometimes in a rough manner. He does not hide his wild and emotional side from Naoya, which he does not show to other passengers, including Sae Hatano, or to people from hostile groups.
In the last scene of episode 8, I was moved by Yuto's acting as he pressed Naoya, who said he would 'stay in this world without returning to the original world.' I was touched by everything: Yuto's feelings, expressions, and words as he poured out his raw feelings in plain language to bring Naoya back no matter what, and Naoya's expression as he faced them.
Yuto looked at Naoya and said, 'Trust me.' That might have been the words Naoya had wanted someone to say to him for a long time.

At the end of episode 8, I was surprised by the unexpected development. Will they return to the original world...?