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Despite the title of this post let’s start with a Thai drama, but the one that is connected to a Japanese drama.
My Love Mix-Up
Ok, I watched the first two episodes of a Thai version and I don’t plan to watch more. It’s not bad, just IMO very bland, and not very funny at that.
It only made me want to rewatch the Japanese version, which I started to do a few days ago. I’m on the 4th episode, and yep, I love it so much more. It’s as funny and adorable as I remembered from my first watch last year. I love Aoki to pieces. And Hashimoto, too. She’s so wonderful. And listen, Fourth is a very good actor and I like him a lot, but Atom in the Thai drama doesn’t have even the tenth of Aoki’s adorkable charm and sweetness IMO.
At 25:00 in Akasaka finale
That was lovely. Such a beautiful happy ending. Now I want to re-watch the whole drama, because I think that for me it’s one of those drama that are better as a binge watch, without a week between each episode.
Not everything worked perfectly for me here, but still I liked this drama a lot. And especially of course Komagine Kiita as Hayama Asami. He looked gorgeous and was very good at portraying all the emotions hidden under Asami’s cool and calm exterior.
But I loved how they blurred the lines between what’s acting and what’s real life. For viewers, but also the way characters felt when they had troubles untangling their real feelings from the emotions of the characters they acted as.
I also liked how they tricked the viewer that “Hiru no Yume” (the show within the show Asami and Yuki are doing) had a bittersweet ending. But no, it’s made clear in the finale that it has an unequivocal happy ending. And then Hayama Asami and Shirasaki Yuki’s love story had an unequivocal happy ending, too. A meaningful and beautiful sex scene, emotional love confessions, and Asami giving Yuki key to his apartment – all of it made go aww aloud. 😊 And of course there is the last scene that gives hope for a possible second season. Especially since the drama covered only the 1st volume of the manga, and there are two more volumes.
But now I really, really want a crossover fic with My Personal Weatherman. Where Man-san and Yoh’s manga gets popular and maybe gets a longer, official version. And then it gets obtained for a drama adaptation with Asami and Yuki as the leads. And then Asami and Yuki meet Mizuki and Yoh. But I’m not skilled enough to write it myself, so someone has to write it for me. 😉
And I’m still on a quest to check all the dramas available to me with English subtitles with my three newest Japanese actor loves - Higuchi Kouhei, Mashiko Atsuki and Komagine Kiita.
And lately, apart from sentai dramas, I also found:
Yakusoku: 16-Nen-me no Shinjitsu (The Promise: The Truth from 16 Years Ago) – a crime drama, which just finished airing in Japan. It has Higuchi Kouhei in a supporting part. It has ten episode, I watched six for now. My verdict: it’s rather mediocre. Kouhei’s part is very small and he doesn’t have much to do (at least he didn’t in those six episodes I watched). But I’m mildly interested in finding out who the killer is, so I plan to watch it all.
Goukon ni Ittara Onna ga Inakatta Hanashi (The Story of How I Went to a Mixer and There Were No Women There) – a comedy drama from 2022 with Mashiko Atsuki in one of main parts. I watched two episodes and I definitely won’t watch more. It’s not my kind of humor at all. I cringed from second hand embarrassment so much.
These two dramas I found only with fansubs, there are no official versions with English subs available. And then by accident I found out that there is one drama on VIKI where Kiita had a supporting part. So I watched it, and I loved this one so much. More about that below.
On A Starry Night
It’s a lovely and heartwarming (and short, only 9 episodes) Japanese noona romance. And it has a strong potential for eventual M/M/F OT3.
Yukimiya Suzu is a 35-year-old gynecologist, who lives and works in a cozy and quiet seaside town, but lately feels a bit stifled in her job. Hirragi Issei is 25 years old, and he works in the small company, who deals with cleaning up and moving the stuff of the deceased. He’s outgoing, cheerful, and optimistic. And he’s deaf. They meet by chance on a camping site, there’s instant attraction and even a little bit of kissing, but nothing more comes out of it. And then they meet again when Issei’s company cleans up the stuff of Suzu’s deceased mother.
Their romance is sweet, adorable and beautiful. It reminds me of the relationship between Sangchuan and You’an in Nothing But You. Suzu and Issei also always support each other during hard times in their lives, and bring out the best in each other. Of course they argue sometimes, too, but they always talk when there is a problem.
The third main character (and the third part of a potential threesome) is 40-year-old Sasaki Shinya, Suzu’s fellow gynecologist at the clinic, a very handsome guy with quiet personality and a tragic past.
And there is a lot of great, well-rounded secondary characters played by very good actors, Kiita included, of course. 😊
And this is definitely not the drama for someone with pregnancy squick.
“Suzu Sensei, Issei, and Shinya are like the sun, moon, and Earth. Love can’t even begin to describe a relationship like theirs. They’ll stand side by side, become the other’s shadow, wax and wane with the times, and orbit around one another.”
Doesn’t it sound romantic? 😊
I mean, the drama does a very good job at portraying Shinya’s love and respect for Suzu, and his growing feelings for Issei, as platonic, but I think you can easily read everything that happens in the last episode as a hint of possibility for something more in the future. Even though Shinya moves to another town at the end of that episode.
My Love Mix-Up
Ok, I watched the first two episodes of a Thai version and I don’t plan to watch more. It’s not bad, just IMO very bland, and not very funny at that.
It only made me want to rewatch the Japanese version, which I started to do a few days ago. I’m on the 4th episode, and yep, I love it so much more. It’s as funny and adorable as I remembered from my first watch last year. I love Aoki to pieces. And Hashimoto, too. She’s so wonderful. And listen, Fourth is a very good actor and I like him a lot, but Atom in the Thai drama doesn’t have even the tenth of Aoki’s adorkable charm and sweetness IMO.
At 25:00 in Akasaka finale
That was lovely. Such a beautiful happy ending. Now I want to re-watch the whole drama, because I think that for me it’s one of those drama that are better as a binge watch, without a week between each episode.
Not everything worked perfectly for me here, but still I liked this drama a lot. And especially of course Komagine Kiita as Hayama Asami. He looked gorgeous and was very good at portraying all the emotions hidden under Asami’s cool and calm exterior.
More with spoilers here.
I have to say that unfortunately I wasn’t smitten with Niihara Taisuke as Shirasaki Yuki. He wasn’t bad, and I thought he was finally really good in the last episode, but in general I found him only ok, nowhere near on Kiita’s level. And the chemistry was only so, so IMO.But I loved how they blurred the lines between what’s acting and what’s real life. For viewers, but also the way characters felt when they had troubles untangling their real feelings from the emotions of the characters they acted as.
I also liked how they tricked the viewer that “Hiru no Yume” (the show within the show Asami and Yuki are doing) had a bittersweet ending. But no, it’s made clear in the finale that it has an unequivocal happy ending. And then Hayama Asami and Shirasaki Yuki’s love story had an unequivocal happy ending, too. A meaningful and beautiful sex scene, emotional love confessions, and Asami giving Yuki key to his apartment – all of it made go aww aloud. 😊 And of course there is the last scene that gives hope for a possible second season. Especially since the drama covered only the 1st volume of the manga, and there are two more volumes.
But now I really, really want a crossover fic with My Personal Weatherman. Where Man-san and Yoh’s manga gets popular and maybe gets a longer, official version. And then it gets obtained for a drama adaptation with Asami and Yuki as the leads. And then Asami and Yuki meet Mizuki and Yoh. But I’m not skilled enough to write it myself, so someone has to write it for me. 😉
And I’m still on a quest to check all the dramas available to me with English subtitles with my three newest Japanese actor loves - Higuchi Kouhei, Mashiko Atsuki and Komagine Kiita.
And lately, apart from sentai dramas, I also found:
Yakusoku: 16-Nen-me no Shinjitsu (The Promise: The Truth from 16 Years Ago) – a crime drama, which just finished airing in Japan. It has Higuchi Kouhei in a supporting part. It has ten episode, I watched six for now. My verdict: it’s rather mediocre. Kouhei’s part is very small and he doesn’t have much to do (at least he didn’t in those six episodes I watched). But I’m mildly interested in finding out who the killer is, so I plan to watch it all.
Goukon ni Ittara Onna ga Inakatta Hanashi (The Story of How I Went to a Mixer and There Were No Women There) – a comedy drama from 2022 with Mashiko Atsuki in one of main parts. I watched two episodes and I definitely won’t watch more. It’s not my kind of humor at all. I cringed from second hand embarrassment so much.
These two dramas I found only with fansubs, there are no official versions with English subs available. And then by accident I found out that there is one drama on VIKI where Kiita had a supporting part. So I watched it, and I loved this one so much. More about that below.
On A Starry Night
It’s a lovely and heartwarming (and short, only 9 episodes) Japanese noona romance. And it has a strong potential for eventual M/M/F OT3.
Yukimiya Suzu is a 35-year-old gynecologist, who lives and works in a cozy and quiet seaside town, but lately feels a bit stifled in her job. Hirragi Issei is 25 years old, and he works in the small company, who deals with cleaning up and moving the stuff of the deceased. He’s outgoing, cheerful, and optimistic. And he’s deaf. They meet by chance on a camping site, there’s instant attraction and even a little bit of kissing, but nothing more comes out of it. And then they meet again when Issei’s company cleans up the stuff of Suzu’s deceased mother.
Their romance is sweet, adorable and beautiful. It reminds me of the relationship between Sangchuan and You’an in Nothing But You. Suzu and Issei also always support each other during hard times in their lives, and bring out the best in each other. Of course they argue sometimes, too, but they always talk when there is a problem.
The third main character (and the third part of a potential threesome) is 40-year-old Sasaki Shinya, Suzu’s fellow gynecologist at the clinic, a very handsome guy with quiet personality and a tragic past.
And there is a lot of great, well-rounded secondary characters played by very good actors, Kiita included, of course. 😊
Content warning here.
This drama made me teary-eyes a few times, and since two of the main characters are gynecologists you can easily guess what kind of trauma caused those tears. There are two important subplots connected to the deaths of two women in childbirth, one with her unborn child.And this is definitely not the drama for someone with pregnancy squick.
A bit more with spoilers behind the cut.
One secondary character, who knows Suzu, Issei and Shinya very well, says this in the last episode:“Suzu Sensei, Issei, and Shinya are like the sun, moon, and Earth. Love can’t even begin to describe a relationship like theirs. They’ll stand side by side, become the other’s shadow, wax and wane with the times, and orbit around one another.”
Doesn’t it sound romantic? 😊
I mean, the drama does a very good job at portraying Shinya’s love and respect for Suzu, and his growing feelings for Issei, as platonic, but I think you can easily read everything that happens in the last episode as a hint of possibility for something more in the future. Even though Shinya moves to another town at the end of that episode.