Life is a continuous wave of moments, ups and downs, and human emotions that can be too big for the world we live in. The hardest part of living is trying to fit those emotions into the life we’re given.

In the new Japanese BL One Room Angel, adapted from Harada’s manga of the same name, there is a maelstrom of big emotions. Loneliness. Worthlessness. Guilt. Pain. Regret. Pessimism. From the moment it opens on convenience store worker Kouki’s (Uesugi Shuhei) tired, worthless emotional state before being stabbed, One Room Angel prepares viewers for an emotional ride.

A ride that involves miracles. And other big emotions. Emotions that are not so sad tucked into the tragedy that brought the leads together.

Kouki awakens from the stabbing to find himself miraculously healed and suddenly living with a beautiful angel (Nishimura Takuya).

From the beginning, One Room Angel has a somber, bittersweet tone.

From the human voices and feelings the angel is drowning in, the feathers he keeps losing in response, and Kouki’s unspoken desire to keep moving forward when he has already given up, One Room Angel weaves a story that feels both lost and found all while evolving into a much bigger story about finding oneself inside a lonely place.

A place where Kouki and the angel are lost together. Loneliness has a way of making friends with loneliness.

Out of everything that happens on screen, from the angel’s past to the coincidence that brings our two leads together, my favorite thing about this drama is how it showcases not only negativity but the positive effect we can have on those next to us.

Kouki finds solace and joy in the angel, which helps him find the happiness he’d let go of. Death may bind Kouki and the angel to each other, but ‘living’ together resurrects them.

Sometimes, we need a reason to keep moving forward. Kouki needed to feel less like a burden to those around him. The angel gave him that, along with love.

Two expectations were met. Kouki found love and motivation. The angel found the love he didn’t find in life. Slowly. Over time. One minute melding into the next.

And that’s precisely what life is—one minute melding into the next, with each person walking on this planet bumping into other people. We see faces on the streets that we aren’t familiar with. People with lives that could be much better than ours or more tragic. All the fear we hold over our lives is less scary when compared to the map of empty faces with fears of their own.

And that’s what One Room Angel gave us: hope. The motivation to open a door, walk through it, and say, “Maybe life isn’t so bad.”

For a bittersweet drama filled with love, check out One Room Angel now on Gagaoolala.

Rating- 3.5 out of 5