Last Friends is about a woman, Michiru, who just moved-in with her boyfriend, but later suffers from domestic violence. She runs into her old friend, Ruka, a woman who has had feelings for her and kept it hidden (taboo). One day, Michiru calls Ruka after getting beat up by her over protective boyfriend, Sousuke. Ruka hurriedly comes to the rescue and brings Michiru to a share house she had been living in with another roommate, Eri. Meanwhile, Takeru, a kind yet mysterious guy who seems to have some sexual problem, decides to move in the share house with them. A guy named Ogurin also lives with them, but that's not important.

After watching the first episode, the first question that popped into my head was.. IS THIS A LESBIAN LOVE STORY? Going into the drama, it wasn't something I expected, and fortunately that's not how it turned out. The drama's main story is the domestic violence story, and the one-sided same-sex love story is just one of its many side stories, which in the end doesn't pull through (so don't get your hopes up if that's what you're looking for).
The story goes on with Michiru getting beat up for atleast half of the series, which is not too bad, because it actually kept me in suspense. For half of the series Michiru goes back and forth from her boyfriend's apartment to the sharehouse, and making the same stupid, but understandable, mistake.
Ruka on the other hand, has problems of her own. She is an aspiring motocross racer, and turns out to have problems with her gender (a big shock..). What happens if she gets exposed? Will she be able to handle the pressure and stand firm? All throughout she only had one person she can really open up to.. Takeru. He seemed to have understood Ruka all the way, and ends up falling for her. Will Ruka be able to accept Takeru's love and forget about Michiru?
Also on the side is Eri's "cool" love story with a married man, Ogurin, who lives with them for a while, and also comes and go.
The share house roommates build a strong bond as the story progress.
The drama has the typical Japanese drama feel to it (DUH it's a J-dorama). It has a nice subtle pace, light mood (most of the time), and interesting characters. The dialogues between the characters are hit and miss. Sometimes it's really good, but sometimes it gets really boring. There are really great INTENSE moments, that become very memorable, which made the drama so great. All throughout the drama was very mysterious, which got frustrating after awhile. Overall I gave the story an 8/10. It tackles a lot of shocking issues like domestic violence and gender/sexual problem, but the conclusion to the issues were somewhat unsatisfying.

The actors were great. Some of the best acting I’ve seen. The breakthrough performance goes to Ueno Juri, who after being hilariously cute in Nodame Cantabile turned into a strong, man-like woman in this drama. The writer wrote the script specifically for the actors so how could it go wrong? I liked everyone’s performance. Masami Nagasawa, Eita, Ryo, Asami, all played their part as to how I believe it’s supposed to be played so I gave it a high 9/10.

The main theme song “Prisoner of Love” by Utada Hikaru was a great choice. One of the main reasons I wanted to watch this drama was because of its theme song, and I definitely wasn’t disappointed with the way the song was over used. It’s a great song and fits the drama perfectly. I’m giving the music a 9/10

Overall, I liked this drama. It’s not for the faint of heart because of all the intense issues it tackled, which was the reason I can not truly enjoy this drama. It’s a really good, enjoyable drama for what it’s worth. I gave satisfaction 7/10.

well i finished this a lil bit ago but forgot to write one so here we go........

well first off, the first episode was hands down the BEST FIRST EPISODE, that i had seen in awhile. so i agree with the general consensus, this show started off with a bang. and like everyone else i agree, the ending didn't have quite the same "POP' that the beginning had. this by no means lessens the enjoyability of this drama, i liked this very much. but the ending by no means qualified in my mind for the beginning that this drama had.

plotwise, the elements were brilliant, 5 themes, each a important issue of life: love, liberation, solitude, contradition, agony. it brings to light issues and provides a glimpse into the reality of the issues it presents, you see things as they actually are, no sugar coating. despite it being a representation, it is not that far off from how things actually are, and for that it is commendable.

one comment on the complaints about the ending. apparently it was to be different, but due to the popularity of some of the scenes, the ending was changed around a bit. i think this was a mistake as many of oyu prolly think, because not only did it change their original intentions, it took away the ability to develop some things, and some things were DEFINATELY missed or not elaborated on.

and with such i go into the different elements of the drama

Plot: it was a good idea, but of course could be improved. could have been developed more, the ending seemed rushed, possibly due to what i mentioned before. by no means bad, just improvable

Acting: we had BIG names here. BIG BIG BIG names. 1 litre of tears male lead fame. Ueno Juri of Nodame Cantabile fame. come to think of it, there were ALOT of nodame cantabile people xD. we had big names here. Ueno Juri was JAWDROPPING. she played her part amazingly. a definate split from her ditzy aloof nodame character and for that i give her major propz.

Music: Utada Hikaru sings the opening. enough said. just kidding, there's more. i'm a sucker for orchestrations, and it didn't disappoint, i listen to the songs alot

Conclusion: i liked it, but it coulda been improved. alot of dramas coulda been improved. but it's not a bad drama, on the contrary i liked it alot. it delved into issues that aren't brought up alot, and thus was unique for doing that. the actors did good, but more development woulda been nice. conclusion? watch it, that's all.

Story:
Intensely provocative. Consistently heart stopping. Amazingly fantastic! Until episode 7 that is...

What started off so well ended quite disppointingly, in my opinion. I mean if the drama was going to start off with a bang then it should've ended that way also. Tackling serious issues like that and solving it unrealistically like that was seriously a big downer for me. Some of the problem's weren't even revealed properly, which left some confused. I was expecting a lot better.

Acting:
Same thing as story part. They were all great until epi 7. Then it sort of became repetitive and I really didn't feel like the characters grew from their experiences. The actors' fault or the writers'? I dunno.

Music:
Fantastic music, but overused.

Overall:
I'm disappointed is all I can say. I was hoping this would go under my all-time faves list, but really can't put this drama with the other brilliant ones. This can compare to those.

However, this was still an interesting story to watch, so I still recommend you give it a try. You'll love the beginning, but the ending... I'm not too sure.