Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Glass Heart’ on Netflix, A Rousing Japanese Series With A Great Ear For Melody And A Few Beats Of Romance 

What if you were an unknown drummer who was suddenly asked to join a major new band? That’s where a young woman finds herself in Glass Heart, a 10-episode Japanese series for Netflix based on the novels by Mio Wakagi. Featuring Takeru Satoh (star of the Rurouni Kenshin films) and Keita Machida (Alice in Borderland), written by Mari Okada and Tomoko Akutsu, and directed by Kensaku Kakimoto, who also handles its lush cinematography, Glass Heart introduces Yu Miyazaki as drummer Akane Saijo. She just got fired by a bunch of dorks who wanted a “dudes-only” group. But her sudden free agency leads to an out-of-nowhere opportunity.

GLASS HEART: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: As the camera rushes over a roaring music festival crowd, we hear a few wails of distortion, take in the Marshall Stacks on stage, and then the drums kick in. Welcome to Rock Alive Japan.

The Gist: At first, the multi-stage, Lollapalooza-style festival is a site of rejection for Akane Saijo (Miyazaki). She’s left standing in the rain, clutching her sticks behind a red Yamaha kit, as her now former bandmates walk off. With no sense of what to do next, as her voiceover tells us, Akane impulsively decides to start hitting those skins. And as she plays a beat, she’s surprised to hear someone join her on piano from a stage in the distance. It’s like magic as they jam together from afar, and the rain drops shudder and dance on the surface of her drums.

Now it’s three years later, and Akane is auditioning for new groups, but mostly delivering food for her mom’s restaurant. Her latest rejection stings – “Your drums…they don’t know how to listen” – and she’s about to give up her dreams. Which is exactly when she receives a cryptic note to appear at an address. Akane didn’t know what to expect, and she definitely didn’t expect to walk into a music room and find Naoki Fujitani (Satoh). Once a child prodigy, he’s now one of Japan’s most well-known, if still sort of mysterious composers, and by way of introduction he plays the melody from that day at the festival. Guitarist Sho Takaoka (Machida) is there, too, as is pianist Kazushi Sakamoto (Jun Shison), and as those guys work out the new music they’re writing together, Akane jumps behind the nearby kit. “Four unlikely collaborators, about to resonate into one story.”

Glass Heart has a real ear for music, letting the mix of progressive rock and jazz they’re playing linger on the air. But it also has a real eye for style. Director Kensaku Kakimoto’s camera will go inside a grand piano – it’ll also shimmer like it was part of Akane’s snare wires. And together with her voiceover, where Akane describes how she hears music in almost sacred terms, it’s clear we’re in for a series that’s as music-obsessive as its characters. Also notable? No cutaways to somebody else’s fingers. The actors seem to be really playing their instruments.

With her sensitivity toward music, it’s natural Akane would vibe with Naoki, who is often in his own world, composing cerebral symphonies. But what about her confidence? Why did they choose her anyway? Can she really hang with these true professionals? It doesn’t seem like Kazushi thinks so, for one. But Naoki’s in her corner. And when Akane finds him one night in another rain storm, scratching music notes into a retaining wall, she wonders if there’s more to their growing bond than just music. “One thing I know for sure,” he says. “We’ll do great things together.”

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? One cool thing about Glass Heart is its focus on music itself – playing it, writing it, the feel of it – which immediately makes the series hit more viscerally than something like Daisy Jones & the Six. And we’ll also mention We Are Lady Parts here, a British series about Muslim women forming a punk rock band. We feel like it didn’t get a whole lot of play when it debuted domestically on Peacock, and both seasons are terrific.   

Our Take: We’re not sure if sumptuous trenchcoats paired with infinity scarves are the current style in Japan, but that look is a big part of the dialed-in visual aesthetic for Glass Heart. Also way, way dialed in: the jams. When Akane accompanies Naoki to a concert by the rock-rap band Overchrome, fronted by the swaggering Toya (Masaki Suda), Heart not only explores the song they’re playing, but swoops its camera into and over the adoring, shouting-along crowd. It’s a stylized kind of realism that really aligns with how invested Akane, Naoki, Sho, and Kazushi are in their new project.

Which is not to say Akane is fully “in the band” just yet. She has Naoki’s endorsement. But at one point Kaz straight up tells her to quit. We also meet Kai (Erika Karata), Naoki’s manager, who drops a warning on the drummer: “the sound of a genius makes ordinary people uneasy.” We’re intrigued with how Akane, who is the “ordinary” in Kai’s warning, will navigate this unexpected high-profile opportunity. We also want to see what all this means for the new band’s emerging chemistry. 

But let’s get back to those trenchcoats for a second. Glass Heart is gracefully coy about what direction it’s heading. It could emphasize the new band’s attempts to tackle the national scene, and it could focus on music industry pushback. We briefly meet a music producer everybody seems afraid of; he might have thoughts about a drummer from the amateur ranks. But Glass Heart also takes care to highlight the looks Akane and Naoki are giving each other over their swooshing coat collars and giant scarves. Cool with us – Yu Miyazaki is adorable, and Takeru Satoh has already established Naoki’s cool look and mildly-tortured dreamboat status.

Sex and Skin: None. The romance here is in the air, like a melody.

Parting Shot: There are a few haters and hecklers in another large crowd as the newly-formed band is set to perform its first gig. But with the opening notes of their first song, Glass House cuts to credits. Always leave ‘em wanting more.

Sleeper Star: We really like Masaki Suda here as Toya, playing the arrogant but obviously bruised-inside rock star well. There’s all kinds of potential for Toya to be a disruptor in the development of Naoki’s new project.

Most Pilot-y Line: Akane’s voiceover, waxing poetic about music: “In that moment, there was only sound. The rain, the scenery, even me – the lines between everything became blurry. I was born to merge with this sound…”

Our Call: With its strong ear for sound and heaps of visual style, the compelling personal journey of its main character, and a healthy bit of romantic yearning, there’s plenty to be a fan of here. Glass Heart is a big STREAM IT from us.

Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.