MARS - Episodes 9 & 10 (Final Thoughts)

MARS: The Diary of a Teenage Psychopath

I was not expecting this show to get so dark so soon. In the beginning everything seems like your typical teen angst drama and then when Rei's past is revealed, everything around him starts spiraling downward. But then in Ep 9, it shifts to Masao's perspective, and now. . .I'm really scared. Of course, SPOILERS

Masao narrates his side of the story via his diary. We finally see his true colors and it's disturbingly black. He has always been a loner, doesn't get along with others and he believes that everyone around him are trash. However, all of that changes when he's in middle school. He sees Rei, for the first time, aggressively beating up the bullies who were harassing his twin brother, Sei (Goki Maeda). That's when he fell in love with him. (This is the part I don't understand) I guess he became attracted to him because of his dark side.

However, due to a tragic event of Rei's brother committing suicide. This causes Rei to go into shock and he takes a break from school. We do find out that Masao was responsible for Sei's death, he knows that the brothers were very close and he wanted to take Sei's place to get close to Rei. He would never see him again until 2 years later.

It's no coincidence that Masao transferred to the same high school as Rei. He wants to get close to him and learn more about him. He notices that Rei is a completely different person from the past. Now he's more carefree and happy. But Masao is not so happy with this new Rei. So, he subtly tries to lure him to the dark side.

At first, I thought Rei must be cursed because anyone who ended up on his bad side or had a personal relationship with has tried to commit suicide. However, this is all Masao's doing. He's able to manipulate his victims by making them believe that there is no hope. For example, Masao's first victim, Kurasawa (Yutaro Watanabe), the prodigy art student. He had a beef with Rei because he stole Kira's artwork and claimed it as his own. This was an opportunity for Masao to intervene and further lower Kurasawa's self esteem. As a result, Kurasawa jumped off of a school building. (Don't worry, he actually survived.) This incident causes Rei to relive his memories of his brother which he died in a similar manner as Kurasawa.

It seems like Masao's evil plan is working as Rei's violent self has slowly started to come out. However, there's only one person left that gets in his way and that is Kira. She helps give Rei emotional support as well as keeping him grounded. Masao's next plan is to destroy the happy relationship between Kira and Rei. That's another story to be told in the movie.

   

Final Thoughts

I had a feeling there was something odd about Masao, but I wasn't expecting him to be THAT twisted. Now, I understand why Kubota was chosen for this role because he knows crazy and he does it convincingly well. I think he stole the entire show. Thanks to Masao's POV, the story has gotten a lot more juicier and it convinced me to watch the movie, when its available, to see how it all ends.  

The thing that I didn't like about the drama is the relationship building felt shorthanded. Like for Kira and Rei, they go through many emotional turmoil, but it felt like there was no weight to it. I didn't buy into their romance, it felt like there were still in the friend zone. Since the story is very complex and dark, I think it would of worked better as a full length TV Drama instead of a short 20 min episode. Unless, they'll just save all of the extra development and other best parts for the movie. So, I'm hoping that the movie will be good.

I hope that the movie clarifies more about Masao's backstory. His backstory is kind of vague and I don't think he was born evil. I mean, something happened to him during his upbringing. Then again, I watched this without subs, so maybe I missed something. But still, What has the world done to him!?

But I have a question for you guys, (I'm not familiar with the manga) I was wondering if they followed closely to the original story. If not what changes they made? Or, did the Taiwanese version followed the original more closely than the Jdrama?