Omukae Shibuya-kun (2024)

Everyone needs a break from responsibilities.

A cute and well paced romance between actor Shibuya Taikai and kindergarten teacher Aota Aika, focused on finding happiness.

This drama is pure sweetness sprinkled with good old misunderstandings and noble idiocy. Far less infuriating than other titles with similar tropes, sadly it does make you roll your eyes with some of the plot progression.

Shibuya Taikai, even though a popular actor, is an awkward, focused on his family man who seeks little interactions with other people. Taking the role of the head of the family and to some extent a parenting role for his sister. And then he meets Aota Aika and slowly, but surely she puts a smile on his face and makes him want more from his life than just dealing with responsibilities the best he can.

What I found a bit disappointing is how we can truly see the depth of internal struggles Shibuya Taikai is facing only close to the end of the drama. One specific scene makes you understand all the previous choices that he made, but it feels a little too late.

What’s more, I actually have little to nothing to say about Aota Aika. She was cute and fun, but I don’t think she was interesting as an individual character.

The acting was great. Kyomoto Taiga presents a whole variety of different roles playing as Shibuya Taikai. The highlight of his performance was the crying scenes. He did master them, they were both heartbreaking and beautiful, because they were never exaggerated. Just well timed tears - all the expressions kept in the eyes alone.

Overall, a fun watch, probably better as a binge. Could have been a bit shorter, removing some layers of miscommunication.

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The leads did not steal my heart and I don't care much about them

Subjective Gut Rating: 7.25

The male lead is quite important for me in a drama that has a strong focus on romance. If I like the male lead, I tend to rate the drama at least a 7.75, if not an 8.0, even if the drama is only so-so. Unfortunately, the ML in “Omukae Shibuya-Kun” aka “Going Home with Shibuya-Kun” did not steal my heart.

I was hoping I would get past his awkwardness and find him cute. That didn’t quite happen and it's more because of the writing than the acting. Don’t get me wrong, there are several scenes that are quite funny and I laughed out loud. But as a whole, I find Shibuya-kun overly weird without a lot of character development. His tears don't move me and after a few times, I got a little bit annoyed. He might have changed a little at the end, but it was too little too late. The female lead also doesn’t impress me much. The acting is OK but I think the writing of the character is missing a certain something to make her lovable.

I am a fan of the initial guessing of feelings and I do like that part. It doesn’t take long for ML to fall in love with FL and vice versa (and I still don’t quite buy this love at first sight). For a J-drama, it took quite a long time for the leads to get together, and that’s a problem here. Despite a likable supporting cast adding some flavors to this awkward romance, I just don’t care much about the leads and not really rooting or not rooting for them to be together.

The highlight for me is little Rizumu. This girl is so cute and speaks her lines so well. The few scenes of the BL dramas are quite fun. I actually don’t mind seeing more behind-the-scenes shots of the fake dramas.

I was looking for a cute and adorable romance with decent/good kisses that can melt my icy heart. “Omukae Shibuya-Kun” did not meet my expectations. It’s not horrible, just a little below-average. I probably won't recommend this as there are so many other cuter and sweet manga adaptations out there.


Completed: 3/29/2025 - Review #560

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