The Proper Way to Write Love (2025)

This wasn't a proper way to write love!

The whole drama struggled with an identity crisis just as much as both the lead characters did. I was confused from the very beginning about whether it wanted to be a revenge love story or settle for a soft slice of life romance. What we got was a confused mix of half-baked angst and very shallow storytelling with the strangest attempt at romantic justice.

The premise is shaky. The whole "change your hairstyle, you are a whole new person" was asking a bit too much of our suspension of disbelief. And worse than that, both the leads are dating without Natsuo asking for as basic as the real/government name. What century are we in?

The romance felt like a chore. The infamous "he likes me, so he pulls my pigtails" trope didn't help either. There was a constant seesaw of self-esteem struggles of both the leads, some awkward glances here and there and monologues that seemed a little insincere. The chemistry and passion felt very mechanical... You blink and you will miss it.

Natsuo appears very full of life and spontaneous character and has this unwavering interest/love towards Hiro and I fail to understand why. The plot didn't give me enough reasons or scenes to convince me of the idea that “love at first sight” could be this intense, especially when he is unaware of Hiro’s true identity.
On the other hand, Hiro was completely opposite. To put it mildly, very plain Jane and a wallpaper personality. On paper, he was meant to be this intense, witty love interest harbouring revenge when he first meets Natsuo, but in truth, he seemed frustratingly boring. There was a significant contrast between how he thinks and how he acts.

The last episode was definitely better than the rest but the story left too many loose ends to tie for the finale. Their intimate sequence was nicely choregraphed and I could finally see the chemistry but it was little too late.

Hiro's workplace arc was another point which brought the drama down. It was both overdeveloped and underdeveloped at the same time. The focus should have been on the leads and their love story instead of wasting a little too time on competitions, which barely added anything significant to the story.

They really tried hard to convince this wasn't superficial with selling gardening and hair dressing as some big metaphor for life and love, but to me it felt like filler. A few of the garden scenes felt very abrupt and out of place. Why are we searching for who is plucking flowers in a garden rather than sitting and talking about each other, that too on a date ??!!

Acting-wise, it just felt fine. Not cringeworthy but nothing to run home about. I wasn't attached to both characters, so overall it felt very superficial. I do think the script also didn't give them enough to work with.

Overall, this was a miss for me. What could have been a simple and emotional story felt bland, and the pacing dragged in all the wrong places. It's definitely not unwatchable but it also never gave me any reason to care. The drama's whole focus was on aesthetic fluff rather than a meaningful romance.
Will I recommend it? Honestly, no or maybe. It didn't work for me, maybe it will for you. So if you are curious, the short runtime makes it an easy gamble.

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A Proper Way to Mess Up a Series

I went into this drama expecting a gripping revenge arc—or at least a compelling love story. What I got was… complicated. The premise had real potential, but the execution left me confused, frustrated, and occasionally entertained—though not always for the right reasons.

I didn’t really like how this drama unfolded. Hiro wants revenge, but the way he goes about it feels completely wrong. He’s not even trying hard enough, and it’s honestly frustrating. I wanted revenge. I wanted to see the plans he came up with, but everything falls apart so quickly once he realizes he misunderstood Natsuo’s actions in the past.

Hiro only misunderstood him because Natsuo never expressed himself properly. Like, come on, you were a jerk on the rooftop! Natsuo didn’t want anyone to know he liked Hiro, let alone confess to him, so instead, he acted like an even bigger asshole.

Now that Hiro knows Natsuo has always liked him, why is he even staying? He doesn’t want to be touched, doesn’t fully open up emotionally… but slowly, he starts to develop feelings. Hiro begins to see Natsuo as someone who’s always by his side—like during the competition, when Natsuo tried to support him emotionally, or when he helped him after Hiro injured his hand.

Hiro was an outcast in school, and later in life, he changed his style just to fit in. He likes plants and even taught kanji to Natsuo (which is why Natsuo liked him in the first place). He’s just a nerd, and it kind of bothers me that he felt the need to hide that. Shouldn’t you just be yourself?

As for Natsuo, he’s a whole mood. I actually like his character. He’s ridiculous, his smile is huge, and he clearly likes Hiro. He’s way more open about his feelings now and more considerate than he used to be. That said, he’s still so naive and honestly kind of stupid sometimes. Like, how does he not realize that the guy he likes now is the same guy he liked back in high school? It’s kind of unbelievable.

Still, I felt like the show was so focused on the past that it forgot about the present. The flashbacks—how Hiro felt back in school, how those feelings evolved—were interesting, but they took up too much space. Once Hiro realizes Natsuo had always liked him, his whole perspective shifts. And that could’ve been powerful. But by then, we’re so bogged down in backstory that it loses its impact.

Also, what was with all the filler episodes? I did not sign up to watch a hairdressing competition or meet Natsuo’s friend who looks exactly like Hiro. All of that felt completely unnecessary. What I wanted was to see their love story develop and grow, not be half-baked.

Did they have chemistry? I guess so. But it wasn’t until the final episode, the most raw and intimate scene, that I truly felt it. That’s when their connection, love, and chemistry finally hit.

Their acting? It was okay. Nothing stands out, but nothing terrible either, just average.

🌀 Final Thoughts: What Was This Even About?

Honestly, I don’t even know what this series wanted to be. Was it a revenge plot? A lighthearted drama? A story about two people navigating love and trauma? It felt like it was reaching for something deeper, maybe even sadder, but it never fully committed. The tone kept shifting, and instead of blending genres in a meaningful way, it just left me confused. Some moments hinted at emotional depth, but they were lost in scattered storytelling and unclear direction.

Would I recommend this?? Honestly, it’s like sipping lukewarm tea, kind of meh, not worth the hype, but you might finish the cup just to say you tried it.

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A weak manga improved but it could not reach "the proper way"

The story starts as revenge story, but even half way through the series we all know it's not about revenge anymore. It's about the struggles and misunderstandings of Hiro who has to come to terms of his feelings. It's more a coming of age story then anything else. In contrast Natsou always was clear in his feelings but he did most things wrong to the person he already loved in school. Not only by peer pressure but he could not express his feelings at all.

The original manga was just a side story and a very short one at that. It did not really explain a lot or had a big scope to go on. So this series struggles a bit to fill in the gaps. It seems that Hiros only changed his appearance to be another person, but he also changed to be more outgoing and to be able to talk to people. That's why I think he choose to be a hairstylist/hairdresser because he has to interact with people. He emanates confidence in his job but he is still struggeling outside of it.

While we got two episodes per week for 1 through 6, we had to wait a week for the finale. At least the finale did boost this show in the end and the NC scene was more than unexpected from a JBL. No dead fish kisses was refreshing after some shows lately, which failed to go "the extra mile". A special bonus for me is that the height difference and characters impressions were reversed for the top/bottom expectation. That was a nice touch.

Production was well done, acting was very good even when I thought Natsou looked a bit old compared to his partner even when they are the same age in real life (The story plays out 4 years after graduation, so they should be around 22). Or the other way around, Hiro was the more believeable character in looks and acting. The story struggeled a bit doing a good job, because Natsou seems a bit too dumb not to catch on early and also the pacing is sometimes choppy in some episodes. The struggles for Hiro were very well expressed. Overall an enjoyable show which did not do the stereotypical BL things and even when you could count it as "enemies to lovers" tropé. It tried very hard not to go in any clichés. For me it feels more realistic compared to other shows and that's why it's worth a watch.

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Along The Way, They Did.

I liked the story arc of both Hiro and Natsuo. Two very different people growing from teenage insecurities into realistic acceptance of each other, flaws and all. This is not to say that it was smooth sailing upon reconnection. Memories still shaped Hiro's view of how he has to be for the world to accept him and he himself. Bullied in his school years, he worked on presenting a more accomplished and polished person no one would dare take advantage of. Natsuo, on the other hand, held on to fond memories of the school version of Hiro, who helped him successfully finish school and listened to him. Unknowingly, with the changes Hiro made, he didnt recognize him and began pursuing him again. Ironically, it's Natsuo who grew emotinally and gave advice from a place of honesty while Hiro's childish plan for revenge felt hollow. His holding on to a grudge 5+ years after their last meeting gave insight to his lack of growth. Ultimately, through a final confrontation of sorts, Hiro is able to speak truly what he feels now. In this time of their lives.

It took awhile to adapt to Natsuo's unexpected outburts of emotions, specifically enjoyment. It can be a turnoff but was true to his character. As the series progressed, he felt more comfortable with Hiro and this diminished greatly. Hiro, looking down on him initially, turned out to be his defender when opportunists tried to take advantage of him. Here we see where the changes in him has taken root and he had begun to need his companionship.

The actors portrayed the awkward, clumsy, opposing attitudes of both well enough to believe the story. I appreciated Natsuo's boss for helping him see the changes he hadn't seen in himself. The unexpected romantic moments at the end were heartwarming. Natsuo and Hiro, as lovers, can speak freely of what is or is not pleasurable for them and is able to enjoy it completely.

I have not read the manga and will not. The reason being that I always try to see a piece of work for what it is and not through the lense of another. Here, I wasn't disappointed.

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Revenge that turns out to be a bittersweet truth of years long misunderstanding

The manga was short (only 2 chapters as it was spin-off of another manga) so I started this drama without having much expectation knowing they will add fillers a lot to fill in 8 episodes and I was proven wrong.

The Story:
I’m impressed how they are able to keep the value of the original manga while expanding into a full fledged story as 8 episodes drama. I’m not a big fan of how JBL do filler over the manga into the drama because I had bad experiences with those that ruined the manga but I can say, Renrubi is not one of those.

The drama-only parts they added are to explain further and in details of what happened in the manga, for example how the manga just summarized their 1 month dating writhing a few panel, describe the ex-crush within one panel and barely show much of their high school and how Hiro became the way he is, the drama helped filled those spots and you just understand why he was mad at Natsuo back in high school because of the rooftop scene, and many more.

The chemistry:
I enjoy both actors working on how to make you see the development between Natsuo and Hiro. They started awkward (mostly on Hiro’s side) and slowly you can see how comfortable he became around Natsuo who just stays in his house as if he owns it. The final NC scene was unexpected but a welcome one because it feels like the characters deserve it after what they went through.

This manga has the same writer as Happy Of The End and I’m surprised both were adapted to drama and I enjoy both.

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The Improper Way to Seek Revenge

Overall: both characters were annoyingly stupid and I didn't feel the romance. Based on a manga that I haven't read and I reviewed the series on its own merits. 8 episodes about 25 minutes each. Aired (not available in Japan, Korea or Taiwan) on GagaOOLala https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/5607/the-proper-way-to-write-love-2025

Content Warnings: sexual assault, slap, past bullying, manipulation

Watch Suggestions (to focus on sweet moments with the leads)
- episode 1 watch 10:15-end
- watch episode 2
- episode 3 watch beginning-6:15 and 22-end
- watch episode 4
- episode 5 watch beginning-3:45
- episode 6 watch 6:40-end or the whole thing
- episode 7 watch 8:20-10:20
- episode 8 watch 17-end

What I Liked
- how two people viewed the same interactions differently
- that Dai was in this (from The Boyfriend on Netflix)
- production value

Room For Improvement
- the flash forward, it was a jarring way to start a series
- a long running revenge plan for a guy who made 1 mistake not deserving of said revenge plan
- way too many flashbacks
- introduced a new character in episode 5 that added nothing to the story
- both leads were unrealistically stupid
- that one lead was hung up on his high school love which made his love feel fickle in the present
- the sexual assault and then 20 minutes later the viewer is supposed to think it's all good and want them together forever?!!!

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How do you write your love?

I certainly hope better than Hiro and Natsuo did.

From the very beginning, this was such a unique set up. The idea of "I hate him, so I'll date him" is the stuff of my enemies - to - lovers dream plots, but wait! This execution of the trope has an additional clause because one of our leads Hiro decides, "I date him so I can dump him". A revenge plot.

However, once again, from the beginning it was very obvious that this was no revenge plot. He wanted it, but he just got sidetracked. Like when you play a video game and forget to do the main quest because you were too busy harvesting a special limited edition crop. The two of them begin dating, they go on dates and the story teeters between being a simple rom-com and a story about growth and self confidence. It did the rom-com better. Because while I was able to believe in their romantic connection, I didn't quite see much depth to either of their characters, which made it harder for me to connect to them.

We do get a lot of glimpses to their past as high schoolers, during which time so much happened that the entire present day plot is a repurcussion of those incidents. We had a ton of side quests that added no depth to the plot or the characters, it all felt very superficial, because with every scene, you can kind of see what they're trying to say, but emotions don't quite reach.

The finale was easily the best episode - we got a payoff to the romantic relationship they built up in the first seven episodes, there was reasonable closure for all other parts of the story, but it came a bit too late to create much impact.

Now I did read that the story is based on a two episode (?) manga, a very short iteration, and in hindsight, you can absolutely tell that they didn't have a lot of story to work with. Because eight episodes based on a short story is long ask, and in adapting it, they tried to fill in the gaps by repeating and recreating the same scenes over and over. Again, teetering between taking the story and expanding upon it, or keeping it as is and making a shorter version, they decided to keep it as is and make a long version.

I thought I would enjoy this more, the actors did a great job, and like I said, the premise was very interesting. It was a very rare instance where the misunderstanding didn't feel frustrating and this had potential, a lot of lost potential. I wouldn't wholly recommend it, but if you're in the mood for a rom-com with tiny glimpses of some emotional depth, sure, give this a try.

Also! Check ID before you date someone! This one was insane, like if you know someone's address but not their last name, that's red flags all around! Ask to see their ID!

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Beautiful As A Garden Of Flowers

I am honestly so happy right now, like you don't understand I haven't rated any BL's or series this year 9 so far because they're all below 9, and this is the first one that has actually met my expectations on what I look for in a BL. Now I know a lot of people would probably disagree in a heartbeat because the ratings are so low and everyone in the reviews just seems to lowkey hate it, but this has so much I like.

Cinematography

Honestly I love JBLs because they're so good at cinematography, I love having a good warm feeling when I see the scenes and the beautiful ways they're portrayed by camera angles and beautiful scenery. Ofc not just JBL's do this, theres other countries that do this beautifully too but Japan does it very often and so well most of the times, I always feel the warmth of summer.

Characters

People were saying the characters were annoying and how the chemistry wasn't showing but I think that was the whole point, I've seen worse JBL's with cringier characters and more annoying than this getting more recognition and higher ratings, I really don't see the "annoying" side of these characters, I love the way they portrayed each person and how one was just trying to express his love but with the pressure of being the popular kid and not being outed he was misunderstood, while the other misunderstood the whole situation thinking it was a form of bullying or harassment (understandably so) when at the end of the day all Natsuo wanted to do was be with Hiro.

Plot

I honestly didn't expect to like it as much as I did, but I watched this in a blink of an eye and thats already a shocker. To start it has 8 episodes, already amazing I love when series aren't incredibly long, and also it's only 26 min long or so for each episode, again amazing! Let's stop normalizing 1 hour 12 episodes long series with mediocre plot and a lot of filler episodes, it's like watching 12 movies. I hate it here. But anyway, the chemistry wasn't 100% there I will admit but thats honestly part of the story, at first Hiro wanted revenge so yeah guys you're not gonna see Hiro being all lovely dovey at first cause thats not how he felt, but you can see him get more comfortable and sweeter throughout the series because he's slowly falling for Natsuo. I really like slow burns and this was it, we only got one little peck mid series and then we got the whole package LAST EPISODE! And I honestly fucking love that ngl, I like the way things ended off, I like when they wait until the last or last 2 but MAINLY last episode to let out all the sexual tension they've been holding. And honestly I expected a mediocre NC scene but it was pretty damn good ngl, mainly for a JBL with barely any kisses.

Music

I liked the music, I loved the intro song I even added it to my playlist. Honestly a lot go JBL's (again) have good music, very cute and aesthetic. So yes I liked the music, it's also been a while since I've liked the music in a series.

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, this is all based on my likings and my opinion, the beauty of film and art itself is very subjective, to each their own, and to each their own opinions. I think this is a good series, I think it's beautiful, I think it meets my expectations. I don't think it deserves the ratings it has, maybe if it was horrible I would understand but it's not that bad. But it's kind of close to 8 so I'll take it man! It could be worse haha. Anyway, I do think this series is worth the watch. I like the whole flower/garden theme they had going on, and towards the end when they showed the plant they had bought together I almost wanted to cry. I don't know if this was their intention, but I saw that little flower pot as their relationship, and in-front of our eyes we saw it bloom and grow into beautiful flowers, just like how we saw their relationship bloom and grow. They had their ups and downs but they were able to overcome it together, and I think thats just beautiful. (Also love how Dai from "The Boyfriend" was there haha he's so iconic)

Rating: 9/10

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Not worth watching.

I've never written a review so I'll try my best to explain why this series is not worth your time.

The plot, the casting, the set, had so much potential so they could ruin the whole series in the last second.
There's not a proper revenge arc and the MC seriously lost the plot at the very first eps and tried to make the watcher believe the revenge plan was still in the process. I was really looking forward to watch this series, thinking it would be as good as the storyline indicates.

The last episode was what bothered me the most... the MC sexually assaulted the ML on their breakup scene, and for what? So it would be immediately forgotten later that episode?
Both the characters acted like nothing happened, going back to dating eachother... MC didn't even apologize and just said "I love you" to quickly win the ML back.

I'm so dissapointed, I really thought this series was gonna be good and actually expected good content from the little amount of episodes it had.

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Deserve A Chance

This series completely won me over. What I loved most was how the relationship bloomed just like the flower pot they bought together. Slow, tender, natural , it felt right from beginning to end, with no awkward pacing.

What worked for me ✅:

The chemistry was good. And the intimacy? Yeah it was giving.

One of the biggest highlights for me was how it broke stereotypes , the taller one being the bottom and the shorter one being the top. In so many BLs, roles are tied to height, but here it was refreshing and perfectly suited to their personalities.

The character development was another strength. Hiroshi learning to not run away again. On top of that, the series also reminded us how often we perceive things the way we want to, only to find out the truth is completely different.

What didn't work for me❎:

That said, the series wasn’t flawless. There was a clear lack of communication at times, and the emotional balance between Hiroshi and Natsuo didn’t always feel equal. On top of that, the hairstyle change leading to one character being unrecognizable felt unrealistic and a bit illogical.

Still, despite its shortcomings, I genuinely loved every moment.

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