Koi wo Suru nara Nidome ga Joto

is love better the second time around?

Overall: there was amazing tension but I needed more character growth and less love rivals. 6 episodes at 25 minutes each. Aired on GagaOOLala. ; re-released on Viki https://www.viki.com/tv/40574c-love-is-better-the-second-time-around

Content Warnings: manipulation

What I Like
- tension/chemistry
- clear between what were flashbacks and the present
- end of episode 2 they explain what happened in the past and the time gap/why they each reacted how they did makes sense to me (unlike the majority of these types of plots)
- production value

Room For Improvement
- kind of an exposition dump in the first episode, but they didn't have much screen time so I understood why they did that
- too many love rivals (3) in just 6 episodes
- not enough character growth, I needed to see 1 character be real, everything had this fake veneer
- cliche plot point at the end of episode 5
- lack of consequences for some characters "gave me freedom" is NOT how I would describe what happened in high school

Thoughts on Grey Characters/Their Romantic Relationships
Sometimes these characters and their dynamic work for me and other times they don't. Here are the factors that I'm thinking about.
1. was there a realistic reason why the character/s acted the way they did in the past (yes)
2. were both characters grey or was one squeaky clean (they both had character flaws)
3. was there some kind of apology/amend making (kind of)
4. was there character growth (not really)
5. do I believe that the characters will stay together in a happy romantic relationship (maybe)

Read More

Mixed

I didn't hate it, didn't love it. Honestly, I'm mixed about what score to give this because overall, it was good, but there is a giant glaring problem, and that's that it gets pretty meh during the last two episodes, which isn't good considering that there's only 6 episodes, 20 minutes long.

Let's Dive In.

My initial take on this series was good, I enjoyed the plot, the build-up, the difference of seeing them as teenagers compared to adults and their getting back to knowing one another. I understand Miyata's past trauma with Takashi, but boy oh boy was it annoying to see him constantly being pushed away. I think this would've worked better had the episode been a bit longer, but for what we had, there just wasn't time for the back and forth. On top of that, the breakup and the getting back together all happen within the span of the last two episodes, which is where it starts to fall for me. But I loved their dynamic, I loved that their intimate scenes were handled so graciously, and enjoyed the majority of what I watched.

Ratings:

Story: 7.5/10 - It was good. Meh at some parts, but mostly good.

Acting: 8/10 - Good! There wasn't much room for super-heavy scenes, so most of the acting was mediocre.

Music: 6/10 - didn't pay attention to it.

Recommendation Value: 6.5/10 - Ehh, I've seen better J-BLs, but again, I didn't hate it. I still would say to give it a shot if you have time.

Read More