With the Light Drama

(This is something I wrote up about the With the Light drama and how it differs from the manga. I wrote this during the summer, before I read volume 7 or heard about volume 8. It's a bit long and probably doesn't make too much sense, but here y'are anyway.)

Since I posted something about the With the Light manga series, I might as well talk about the TV show.

A few years ago (I'm thinking 2004, but I could be wrong about that), the With the Light manga series was adapted into an 11 episode live-action drama of the same name.

And it is a good show. It's one of three anime live-action adaptations that I think did well (the other two being the Detective Conan live-action specials). It follows the story pretty closely and stays fairly true to the source material, unlike other adaptations I've seen (*coughDragonballEvolutioncough*). I grew attached to the characters in the show, same as with the manga, and when something good or bad happens to them it's hard not to react along with the characters. So, in my opinion, it was all very well done.

Having said that, there are still some things I don't like about it, and other things I've noticed. There are a lot of things that are different from the manga, which is the original story and what I read first, so I feel that the manga is the superior version, but that's more of a 'book-before-the-movie' argument.

First of all, the length. The manga goes from when Hikaru is born to about junior high or high school (or wherever volume 7 ends). The drama takes place over the course of one year (or one school year, not entirely sure) with a bit of background of Hikaru as a toddler, but aside from Hikaru at about 4 or 5 years old climbing a building to get at an aluminum balloon (which didn't happen in the manga), it's told in flashback.

So the manga covers a longer period of time. And it happens in real time so none of it is really told in flashbacks because we'd already read it when it happened. In the manga, flashbacks were used to show things from before Hikaru was born, and to remind us of things that happened in past volumes. In the drama, flashbacks are used to remind us of what happened in past episodes, but they're also used to explain what happened before Sachiko met Rio-sensei.

In my opinion, I like the way the manga handled that better. Reading about it as it happened gets you more emotionally invested, I find. Then if there's a flashback about it, you can look back too and be all like 'I remember that, that was great/gunny/creepy/whatever'. But the drama is only 11 episodes long, where the manga had no set length (as far as I know), so the manga had the time and space to move as slowly or as quickly as it wanted to.

Second is the place difference. In the manga, the Azuma's live in an apartment a 5 minute walk from Hikaru's elementary school. I also got the idea that their apartment building was in or nearby some kind of shopping district. Or maybe it's like that in the drama too, I never really got that. Wither was, Shichigatsu-cho Elementary is, in the manga, in some kind of suburb, or something. It's definitely not as isolated as the drama portrays it. I mean, the school in the drama seems to be on a back country road, or something.

But the biggest difference between the manga and drama is the difference between the characters. And this is a pet peeve of mine. The characters are all there in the manga, it shouldn't be that hard to write them into the drama, or at least make the ones you do write in who they're supposed to be.

Sachiko and Masato, Hikaru's parents, are written in. And their characters are pretty accurate. Sachiko in the manga is more preachy, and Sachiko in the drama is more... spineless? I dunno. She's more sensitive and apologizes way more than Manga!Sachiko, I find. And Masato is more of a workaholic asshat in the beginning of the manga, than he makes a complete 180 and is Best Father in Teh World. As great as that is, it's kinda extreme. Drama!Masato strikes me as more realistic. He doesn't really come off as a workaholic either, just a hard worker. He's a good father to Hikaru both before and after the diagnosis, and he was never really unlikable to begin with. He doesn't change personalities overnight, and it takes him a bit to accept that Hikaru will never truly be like other children, but he does come to grips with it on his own time and he then decides to be more involved.

Hikaru's little sister Kanon does not make an appearance in the drama. And that sucks because Kanon brings her own brand of humour to the series. She doesn't treat Hikaru like he has a disability at all. To her he's just 'Onii-chan'. If he bothers her, she'll bother him right back. They learn from each other and they're there for each other. They behave like a real brother and sister would. Since the drama really only consists of Hikaru's first-grade year at school, Kanon wouldn't really be in there much, since she's born near the end of the school year (I think).

Sachiko and Masato's mothers make it into the drama. Sachiko's father is absent for some reason. Sachiko's mother is pretty much the same in both mediums. She's there more often in the drama, so she has more of a personality there. We don't see her much in the manga. Sachiko talks to her when she has problems, which took place in a time before the drama covers, and Sachiko moves back in with her parents when she temporarily separates from Masato, which never happened in the drama. Masato's mother is portrayed pretty accurately in the beginning of the drama, then she becomes less unlikable. In the manga, Masato's mother is a proud woman who cared a lot about image. When Hikaru was still a baby, before he was diagnosed, Masato's mother would often show up, while Masato was at work, and berate Sachiko for 'cutting corners' by using store-bought baby food and disposable diapers. She often compared Sachiko and Hikaru to Masato's sister and her daughter Noa (who don't appear in the drama). When she learns that Hikaru is autistic, Masato's mother blames it on Sachiko and the way she raised Hikaru. This creates much tension and intense emotions between everyone. Eventually, Masato's mother learns a bit about autism and is less of an ass in general. Then Kanon is born. Throughout the series, Masato's mother flops between accepting Hikaru and pushing him away. She does love him, but its obvious that she prefers her granddaughters Noa and Kanon, who are well-behaved and aren't disabled. In the drama, Masato's mother is still critical of Sachiko, and she does blame Hikaru's autism on her. But unlike the manga, Masato's mother seems to finally accept that Hikaru will never be cured of his autism, but he is not a burden or a lost cause. Masato's mother in the manga gives off the impression that Hikaru is a bother more than anything else.

Hikaru's friends seem to be missing from the drama, or they have been re-named. Hiroaki and Oyamada are absent from the drama. Since Hikaru's life before Shichigatsu was barely glanced over, that's to be expected. Sachiko met Oyamada at the welfare centre, since that wasn't in the drama, neither is she. In the place of all that, we get Megumi and Hotomi at some kind of hospital. Sachiko goes there to get a diagnosis for Hikaru and that is where she first meets Megumi, whose daughter Hotomi is also autistic. To me, Hotomi is a combination of Hiroaki and Miyu (another autistic girl who went to school with Hikaru). Hotomi has a different kind of autism than Hikaru, like both Hiroaki and Miyu. She's the same age as Hikaru (I think, or she might be a year younger, although she has an elementary student backpack). Like Hiroaki, Hotomi goes to a different school that Hikaru, but like Miyu she is in Hikaru's class (for a bit). Hotomi is mild mannered and smiles all the time, like Hiroaki, but her family situation is like Miyu's. So I'm convinced she's cross between the two of them.

Nobuaki, Kanata, Ooki, or that fat kid with the glasses whose name I can never remember, are also missing. We don't get replacements for them, not direct ones anyway. Hikaru's classmates at school could fill in for them, but they aren't specifically named. Speaking of classmates, Hikaru's classmates from Special Ed, Nat-chan and Isao (or something) are also missing from the drama.

In the place of Moe and Eri, we get another combination, Moe. In the drama, Moe lives in Hikaru's building, but it's basically Eri with a different name. You've got Eri's overbearing, perfectionist, useless, asshat mother and her abusive, distant, asshole father (thought I don't thing he's abusive in the drama). Also, when Hikaru gets locked in the storage locker (this happens in both the manga and the drama), it's Moe who watches it all happen. In the manga, it's Eri who sees it, but she's not in the drama. Drama!Moe and Manga!Moe are alike in the way that they both want to look out for Hikaru and help him, although Manga!Moe does it more often.

Ishida, a boy who is older than Hikaru, has been replaced by Wataru, who is one of Hikaru's classmates in the drama. In the manga, Ishida was Hikaru's buddy (from the buddy class) and it was his job to help Hikaru water the tomatoes in the garden and take a picture of them every day at recess. This happens after Hikaru's first grade year, so it really shouldn't be in the drama anyway, but it is. In the drama, the tomato growing is used to get Hikaru to interact more with his classmates, and most of the episode is devoted to teaching Hikaru how to water the plants and the steps leading up to it. In the manga, Hikaru already knows how to water the plants since he'd been gardening at school for a while (read: years).

Oki, an older boy who once made fun of Hikaru, was replaced by Kenta, who is another of Hikaru's classmates and one of Wataru's friends. In the manga, Oki's mother has abandoned him and he lives with his father, who is an alcoholic. as a result, Oki is severely mistreated and he is jealous of Hikaru, who has two loving parents. Oki makes fun of Hikaru and seems to be an all around mean child. But one day after school, Hikaru follows Oki home and then he gets on a bus by himself. Worried, Oki follows him and they have a small adventure around town while Hikaru's parents are worried sick. It all ends well though. In the drama, we have Kenta, whose mother is dead and who lives with his father, who is not an alcoholic but works a lot. Kenta doesn't make fun of Hikaru, exactly, but he's not the nicest boy in the world. Like the manga, Hikaru follows Kenta home and then gets on a bus. Kenta follows, but we don't see what they get up to, instead we are with Sachiko and Masato and Hikaru and Kenta's teachers as they try to find the boys. Personally, I like the manga better because it showed what everyone was up to. Also, in the manga, this takes place after the tomato project, so it wasn't during Hikaru's first grade year either.

Hikaru's teachers are also different. In the drama there are four teachers we always see: Rio-sensei, Hikaru's special ed. teacher, Sakura-sensei, who teaches Hikaru's first grade class, Kawami-sensei, the music teacher, and the principal, who is probably on something but we love him anyway. These four teachers are not in the manga. Hikaru's special ed. teacher is Aoki-sensei, who is a man (unlike Rio-sensei) and whose hobby is making learning tools for disabled students. Hikaru's first grade class is taught by Wakabayashi-sensei in the manga, who is female, instead of Sakura-sensei, who is male. The romance between Rio/Aoki-sensei and Sakura/Wakabayashi-sensei is present in both mediums, but the manga just sort of springs it on us while in the drama, it's always there. There is no music teacher in the manga, that I know of. The principal in the manga is also a different gender than in the drama. But thehy are basically the same person, they are both very kind, understanding and accommodating. But Drama!Principal is more nuts and hyper than Manga!Principal.

And finally, we have the main character, Azuma Hikaru himself. There is a difference between the manga version and drama version. I don't know which version most accurately portrays an autistic child, so I'm not basing anything on that. Anyway, Manga!Hikaru is more animated than Drama!Hikaru, in my opinion. In the drama, Hikaru's facial expression doesn't change. Every once in a while he smiles, and people can make him laugh, but other than that he just stares. That is probably consistant with autistic children, but not really with the manga version of Hikaru. Manga!Hikaru has more facial expressions. They run from happy to surprised to angry. That could be because it's easier to draw expressions than it is to act them. The abilities also differ between mediums. In the manga, Hikaru has a photographic memory and can draw anything from memory, when he's interested, and then there's the Mouse March, to name a few things. Hikaru from the drama doesn't seem to have any artistic skills, aside from that one tomato picture he drew, and he never managed to learn the Mouse March. Also, Manga!Hikaru seems to interact with others more. They are still both very similar though, both love bullet trains and shiny things.

Obviously, the story and pacing of each medium is different from the other, but that's to be expected. I am so glad that a show was made instead of a movie. A movie summation of everything would have been a mess. Of course, an even better TV show idea would've been to have a longer show, like with seasons, and follow the manga exactly. But that would probably be more trouble than it's worth.