⭐️ Cost Effectiveness of Love
The drama officials say:
恋愛は"タイパ悪い"時代に、真逆の世界を生きる2人の純愛ドラマ
In a generation where even Love is considered to be “terrible thing at time and cost efficiency", here’s a pure love drama by two individuals who live in two different worlds.
They lived up to that, in episode 6 they did imagine living a terrible life together where even dogs barked at them and they talked about the huge wall that separates them, they did think that they can’t get over those things and the ‘cost effectiveness of love’ and they separated. Didn’t even last two days though lol. But there came a point to them that they realized that even though the hurt they’d face by being near each other is the payment for the ‘tanoshii’-ness https://jisho.org/search/tanoshii they feel with each other. They just can’t stay away from each other because of the pain they’d cause each other, because they know that all they want to do is just being near each other, it's enough and that they will get over all the heartbreak for it. They realized “We Don’t Love to Become Happy.” Love is not the antidote to life’s terribleness or unhappiness, but it is the strength one can get from it to get through life. Just exquisite!✨
The us-against the world trope done right! They found each other and are so alive now, all the others see them as the parts they play in life, a host, a teacher, a daughter, an idiot etc, but ONLY they see each other for who they really are. They recognized who they are as individuals and the world can’t do nothing to keep them apart. They can’t help but struggle because it’s us against the world. This is what I want from drama viewing like give us something to root for and some an angst that feels real.❤️😭
⭐️“A Poem: Giving-Up on Ending It All”
The drama started with Manami teaching a poem to her student and in the last episode again she does the same. The poem Ichiaku no suna, “A handful of sand” is a famous poem by Ishikawa Takuboku. It says:
大という字を百あまり砂に書き、死ぬことをやめて帰り来きたれり
“I wrote the letter 大(Big/great) more than 100 times in the sand, and I gave up wanting to die and returned home”.
In the first episode she didn’t say what the letter 大/big/dai might represent, but in the last episode she says “大 represents a dream being TOO big to se-ou” https://jisho.org/search/背負う. She also says in the last episode "I will read this poem instead of a self-introduction".
In the first episode, the poem was implicitly mentioned as the reason why she gave up wanting to die, emphasizing on returning home and giving up on even dying, because as she says in last episode: she was a coward, until she met Taiga. In the second time the poem is mentioned her voice modulation changes, and it is full of intent, emphasizing on the dream being 大(Big/great) rather than death or going home, implicitly addresses what Taiga went through, he took on a dream too big to se-ou, and failed.
Raul describes Kaworu as someone who didn’t receive enough love and didn’t have many chances to feel being loved. https://www.familyclub.jp/page/drama_movie#5220. On the opposite, Manami is someone who Kawahara of all people lmao 🤦♀️ recognized that got too much ‘affection’ and overprotection thrust upon her. Taiga was seen as a failure, nothing was expected of him and was abandoned and left to his own devices. On the other hand, there were huge expectations put on Manami and she was never allowed to fall because she was saved before falling, she was never at left to her own devices as she lived accordingly to other’s expectations; she even went to die because the man she begged love from, told her to do so. One child had to grow fast and adjust to the big scary world and the other had to grow small to fit within the boundaries given. These two different individuals falling in love with their wounded inner children made them equal in all fronts, and their age difference meant nothing imo.
I wrote about this poem and their inner wounded child here before:
https://kisskh.at/793096-ai-no-gakko#comment-22965294
⭐️Normal Expectations:
The leads are not normal well adjusted people falling in love and I love them for it. She has tried, and everyone in her life also tried to make her ‘normal’ but she just isn’t, she’s someone capable of loving deeply and can’t help that aspect of herself of being honest to a default(her friend also mentions this).
He’s definitely not the ideal ML, here’s a man who lies everyday as work, but he is extremely careful with how he conducts himself, like from the first scene he is introduced he doesn’t want to sit next to the 18 year old girl, (he also didn’t know she was a highschooler because she hid it) and he loves deeply too, he clings to a mom who abandoned him and let her be a parasite, because it's the only reason she looks for him, so he works hard for her to be comfortable, and lives in a terrible apartment. The quality of being honest is what bought these two together. He had so much human potential but he was let down by everyone in his life and she could’ve being more free wouldn’t have led such a boring life if she wasn’t imprisoned by parental expectations.
⭐️The Two Lessons Learned in ‘Ai no, Gakkou / Love’s School’:
Lesson learned by Manami is realizing that fully loving someone is enough, you don’t have to calculate before loving someone, you don’t have to become a stalker to make sure every piece of your love has reached them. She doesn’t want to be loved back now, because she has enough strength just to love someone and that is all she wants to do. She tells Taiga that meeting him taught her not be okubyou https://jisho.org/search/okubyou anymore and now she is free of other’s expectations and the ways she also had imprisoned herself hoping to meet those expectations.
Taiga realized by the end, that being himself is enough, even with all his ‘defects’ he is still enough! Manami taught and showed him that. He doesn’t have to be the class clown who talks about poop when he fails now, he doesn’t have to ‘see everything as a joke or make himself into a joke’ to deflect his pain. He can be fully himself, he can show sorrow, anger, wail and Manami will be there. She will not leave after seeing his real ugly self. Even his lowest self is loved by her. He realizes he can love freely now and he doesn't have to stop loving someone because he's afraid of being abandoned.
For Manami, Taiga will be always there to find her, he will always search for her(as she said in episode 6 and he did by end of episode 9). But I think because for his abandonment trauma, a part of him will forever want to make sure that she still wants him, if she shows that, he will be there always. But if he feels she will leave him, he will the first one to run away from her before he’s abandoned. After Manami’s dad pushed him into the wall and he fell down, the first thing he asks Manami before standing is:
“Sensei why are you crying? are you giving up on me already?”In last episode again he fully shows her fear of abandonment, before he fully breaks down he says to Manami how not only his mother or school mates, but people who are supposed to be his friends and possible love interests abandoned him after seeing his ‘defectiveness’, so he's 'uselessly' handsome and 'meaninglessly' tall and he thinks he stands out senselessly. All his life, all the people who came into his life, abandoned him, so in his mind people = abandonment.
“Asetta? Ore ga mienakute asetta?” https://jisho.org/search/aseru “Did you get anxious? did my disappearing make you panic?”
He is projecting his feelings on to her and asking her to make sure she feels scared of losing him as he does. He didn’t let go of her until she said “Yes”.
Taiga’s abandonment issues, are so so deeply embedded endlessly in the depth of his heart, he is scarred for life. Taiga is someone who wasn’t loved by someone or did dare to love someone before Manami, so his feelings are so damn unstable, but also SO pure. He didn’t want to make the woman he love so much for the first time in his life, to be disappointed of him, like he thinks he was the one who made ALL the others leave him. He self-blames himself not others for his abandonment, every attribute of him is seeing as useless by him. I have never seeing a character who has such low self-worth and self-esteem pretending to be so confident as a host. The contrast of Kaworu and Taiga is so intricate.
⭐️The Utter Pain of Changing
In episode 6 Taiga tells Manami defiantly:
Maybe you're thinking you want to change me? It's impossible! Not all who want to change can change.
And by episode 10, Taiga says to his Mom, defiantly:
I am not going to see you anymore! I want to change!
Taiga's mom was the first abuser in his life who planted the seed deep in his heart that he is indeed an idiot and his 'defectiveness' will not let him change ever. He believed in that hurt, until he slowly wanted to peek into what Manami believed for him: that he can do anything he wants.
⭐️An Incomplete Letter By Takamori Taiga:
In episode 3 , Taiga asks:
"Will anything good come from practicing characters?"
Manami Answers:
"You can read books then, you could write letters" "I think you're world will open up"
Taiga:
"Will it though?"
He did read books, he did write letters and his world did open up✨
How far has he come😭In earlier episode after getting brand new trauma from Akina-shachou he scribbled nonsense as his signature, and by the last episode his writes his name so clear and prettily.😭
This letter was written by the same man who couldn’t write his own name.😭
In this letter, I heard one of the most beautiful lines in a drama ever:
“Chiwawa sensei, ore.. kanji ga kakenakute yokatta yo, kanji ga kaketara, sensei to tsukiyatte-nakatta mon na” https://jisho.org/search/tsukiau
“Chiwawa sensei, I am.. glad I wasn’t able to write kanji, if I was able to write kanji, I wouldn’t have kept meeting/dating sensei”
I cried the first time I heard it in the preview and then a second time watching the episode.
I am a diehard romantic but I only believe soulmates in a very realistic way, like two individuals need something tangible to keep connecting and needs time to recognize each other. What Taiga says here is just that. My thoughts and writer’s aligning made me cry so much, and I didn’t know it was possible, but I fell in love with this drama all over again after hearing it, that too with Raul/Taiga’s perfect melty yasashii voice. It is true, if they weren’t this broken there would be no reasons for this soul connection to be felt by each other. He recognized that his disability was the same thing that linked them in this life and his disability was the same thing that gave him the ability to love and appreciate and see Manami’s best qualities: sincerity, wholeheartedness and earnestness wishing to teach him so he can progress in life without ever wanting anything from him.
After hearing his inner thoughts through this letter, we can clearly see he has now come to terms with his 'inability' and won’t run away from facing reality. He has turned the worst aspect of his life in to a positive, how confident has he become.
Taiga recognizing his disability is what connected them and how courageous has he become to see some positivity of all his wounds by this disability, shows his strength in his heart. Powered by of LOVE™️ lol. The whole letter is one of the most beautiful and romantic things in this drama. Manami also talks about how her love making him grow in life is enough of a reason to love him, how selfless is she? gosh I adore Manami as a character.❤️
So now he has learned it’s ok to fail, he will not be abandoned, he has confidence that he can’t be forgotten by his Chiwawa-sensei. He was almost happy he wrote her name wrong, so now he will fail happily and will correct those mistakes with LOVE™️ with Manami a hundred times without tiring.
The other most important part of this letter is:
俺にとってホストが居心地よかったのは嘘の世界だったから。
Why I felt so at home as a host was because it was a world of lies.
ほんとの気持ちを言ったら、みんな目の前からいなくなるっていても思ってた。
でも、先生にはほんとが言えた。初めてだった。
I thought if I said my true feelings, everyone would just disappear before my eyes. But I was able to say the truth to sensei. It was the first time I did it.
先生に会って、俺はずっと誰かにほんとの気持ちを言いたくて、生きてたのかもなんて、ガラにもなく思ったま。
It feels unlike me to say this, but I truly feel that I lived life wanting to show how I really feel to SOMEONE.
The host world was cozy to him because he taught himself to become the class-clown from an earlier age and clowning is what a host essentially is. This part of the letter also voids the existence of Kaworu, he was always a lie, a persona, a safe-haven for Taiga to feel pride and to become someone or anyone of worth, because Taiga thought to himself that he can never be someone with pride or confidence in himself, as the whole world pushed him into a corner starting from his mother, and it made him feel nothing but a lowest form of self-esteem possible, until meeting Manami.
See how prideful now Taiga is of himself saying:
“I was sure you would come, because I know you can’t forget about ME”.
Manami leaving the police station realized the reason why she wanted to teach him to write was because she wanted him to live his life in a 'munewohatte' manner. https://jisho.org/search/munewoharu. Her wish is now fulfilled, he is fully munewoharu and confident now; even overconfident lol as she barked back at him after hearing how he just expected her to come. “THIS jishinka" https://jisho.org/search/jishinka”
I love when they meet there’s this quiet acceptance and affirmation. They both get this confidence and confirmation that they will always find each other.
⭐️“We Meet 30,000 People and 'Surechigau' with Almost All”
In another life, where Manami isn’t overprotected or expected so much of her being a certain way, and Taiga living the school life he always wanted like he said in their pretend classroom in episode 6 near the beach: you know get appreciated by teachers, get 😍 by girls etc, they could have met each other, but definitely will surechigau https://jisho.org/search/surechigau and have surely never fallen in love. Manami points at this too that we meet people that we don’t even realize we surechigau-ed. But she also says she believes that we will lock-eyes with that one person we will not surechigau.
IRL we all met that one person, we feel a connection to them and we both stop and recognize each other, but we realize we don’t have a common thread to connect upon and there’s nothing to go on, so we move on in life. If our protagonists were well adjusted people, they’d surechigau. That’s reality.
So Taiga recognizing his disability was what connected them, indicates that he finally have the courage to face the ‘defectiveness’ that stole all possibilities of a ‘normal childhood and life’ and now he sees some positivity in his disability. He finally sees a way to move past his disability and ‘defectiveness’ and his believe of utter ‘self-worthlessness’ and has strength in his heart to keep changing with the power of being loved by Manami.
GAH this drama destroys you, at the same time fulfills and heals you with its wholesomeness, I don’t know how they did it. 😭
🌟“We Don’t Fall in Love With a Person to Become Happy.”
I loved this line from the drama and learned from it. Just like wondering about the time and cost effectiveness of dating/Love, most of us think falling in love = happiness.
Fumino said she hopes this drama becomes something alike to a 'michishirube' https://jisho.org/search/michishirube to people.
It has for me, I did hope for a relationship to make me happy and afraid of being unhappy in them, but after watching this drama I’ve decided to against it. I think we love to become reborn, and trying to become someone new will bring you growing pains, there’s no way around that. And in an ideal relationship, we should ask ourselves and our partners to become the best versions, even if it is painful. This drama is this beautiful exactly because we have two protagonists struggling in a very real manner to become better for each other, while both are happy with tiny things like one teaching what the other doesn’t know, like one talks about the best noodle and the other says "tell me more"✨ or one teaches about what Kaworu’s can really mean with historical details while other playfully pretends to sleep. The comfort these two characters give to each other is shown so magnificently. They are each other’s safe place, where their truest true-selves and the wounded children in them can come out to play with each other.
SO DAMN BEAUTIFUL!❤️👌
⭐️'The Mouse & the Lion' and The Cafe Owners :
Wikipedia says the fable teaches: “all of which demonstrate mutual dependence regardless of size or status. In the Renaissance the fable was provided with a sequel condemning social ambition.”
How apt! And in the drama: “After saving the lion, the mouse and the lion had to run away to a place there will be no humans chasing them”. For them it was Miura-kaigan, where there are no expectations on them from outside world reaching or chasing them and they can be themselves without their “size” or “social status” because they see each other as they are and don’t see each other by what society deems them to be.
Manami saying “if I felt like running away from him, we’ll run away together” to Taiga’s mom was cheff’s kiss, OH MY GOSH! ❤️👌
Manami and Taiga are the most unlikely couple, but you feel their relationship is the most real and ideal, it’s mostly because when they talk with each other you feel they match each other's vibe really well, it started the minute when they started laughing about how Ogawa 小川 being such an easy surname to write. You felt like, oh these two will get along and laugh at everything. He will make her laugh and she will make him laugh. He also asked sitting next to her bed if he leaves the host-world will they able to 'talk nonsense'? Like that’s his relationship goal, and what a great goal it is. He also said he’ll cook and clean for her and it wasn’t just empty words, he did that at her friend’s house and also did dishes before Manami woke in her new apartment. He made a living saying empty words to his clients, but to Manami his words are never empty. These kind of super tiny scenes and details of character intention and continuity is what makes this drama so special.
They have to be together because they have the bestesttestesets fun with each other when they are just talking. So even their worst relationship days will be their most fun days, as Taiga once imagined and told her sitting in that beach; Manami hearing it couldn't help but want to kiss this man seeing his longing expressions wishing for it.
The theme song: “I’’ll build a castle… you’re safe with me” reflects that, Manami will forever be the protector of Taiga, the protector he never had, and Taiga will be the one who gives Manami the spark and joy and be the strength to live life with her own desires and be the courage to go against the world. Manami’s dad always made her feel inadequate saying multiple times that she’s “sukima darake / full of weak spots/gaps”, and her previous self she wanted to throw her own life away because someone told her to die. But now they are both changed. So this drama is not about just love, it’s also as much as about failure, growth and changing one self for love.
The cafe owners age difference is a mirroring of what possible lives Manami x Taiga can live too and they are very deliberately shown by the writer as Miura-kaigan and this cafe is almost like an oasis to both couples.
I also loved how Manami always spoke Keigo(polite language) even though she’s the sensei and older, while Taiga almost never did to her, even though he is the younger and her ’student’. He did switched to Keigo when he asked “can I come and live with you”. Even when she was thrown out she screamed “Taiga-san” and only lastly called “Taiga”. That whole scene was really painful for me to watch, my god I cried and cried, so I won’t be talking about that brilliant scene in details because I get teary eyed just thinking about it.😢 Like most people, I also wanted to hear Taiga call her ‘Manami’, we never got that after the first episode and that’s another complaint I have. I hope we can get a SP🙏
🌟Inner Child VS Childish
I read in some psychology book that the ideal relationship should be where your inner child can come out, feel safe just being with each other. A lot of people hate this drama’s ‘childishness’, I say they do not have the depth to understand this very essential concept in human psychology. We should be our most vulnerable selves with our partners, just like we once were when we were children. Being brainwashed by one’s own culture on the idea of ‘adult-ing’ will make you never grow up and the darkest corners of your psyche will forever not be known, because we can never become adults if we don’t face our inner-child. Our inner-child’s mentality will always have to co-exist with the ‘adult’, our bodies will grow old but we will forever hold the wounds and the souls of our childhood. Self-awareness of that inner wounded child is the only path to healing. So this is like the most ideal relationship I’ve ever seen in a drama imho, where two of them become each other’s playmates teaching each other to navigate this big world while having so much fun just talking about anything.
⭐️Drama timeline and Graduation:
Also remember these two met in June, and it’s still September, so all of this happened in 3-4 months. Their relationship is so new and all their feelings for each other are so brand new they don’t know what to do with them. Especially Taiga as Manami to a certain extent knows what it’s like to love too much and too little. Him trying to pass an exam to graduate in this short period of time was too much, again influenced by outside expectations. But in the end they make their own expectations without any influence from outside world.
⭐️Reality VS Love.
Reality will break the strongest of love and make it all null in seconds. There has to be two individuals who have to do everything to defy it with all their might when reality creeps in. So I am glad they already fought their fights at the beginning of their relationship. They will fight, they will break up, they will take each other out of their lives, but they will always circle back to thinking the highest of each other, putting reality aside when meeting again.
🌟Wishing To Pass but Failing at it All!
In episode 6, he writes his wish as 'goukagku' too https://jisho.org/search/goukaku
Also, here he can't write 'Ore / I / me' in Kanji, but he does in the letter😭
Manami asks: What do you want to pass at? He says so innocently: Everything! 🥹
Taiga was almost too sure of himself that he will pass this exam and was prideful to think he doesn’t need that extra time and help by notifying his disability. He had placed trust in Kaworu again thinking the same persona would make him pass, not knowing the interviewers were literally laughing at his ‘honest’ nonsense. He chose to disclose what he did for a living but was laughed at but he didn’t realize it then and went to Manami beaming thinking he did something in ‘society’ and he now expects himself to become someone new all the while loosing himself in a temporary dream and thanks Manami for everything while spinning her, oh to be in love!🥰
I love how Manami doesn't use Keigo(polite language) when texting him🥹 Requests him to communicate using letters too, not just stickers in a very cute way, and he replies "yoisho" lol she replies the same "YOISHO" https://jisho.org/search/yoisho.
Also Taiga using hippopotamus stickers ✨
HOW CUTE ARE THESE TWO!??!??!!! adfkdsjfjdsgkdjgkjdgkdsjnkgdnkgjndjkg
But, All of it came crashing down!
He failed magnificently at it, him possessing a silver tongue was no use in the real world. All the pride he hoped to build as Taiga trying by convert his skills from Kaworu was in vain. His forever scarred and brittle mentality of Taiga wants to go back to the safety of being Kaworu. Failiure again has come to him with vengeance and he doesn’t want to deal with it again. He threw Manami outside, went and walked down his usual road of mizushoubai shooting guns, Taiga is in hiding and Kaworu again is saving him. Taiga became Kaworu again and hoped to live as Kaworu for 10 more years, he thought it was was doable, surely it was, but he didn’t realize the ‘tanoshii’ ness of being Kaworu can’t be compared to the ‘tanoshii’ ness Taiga feels with Manami.He almost cannot become Kaworu again because he has changed in his psyche, he is grown.
He realized his honne https://jisho.org/search/honne.
He screams “tanoshii” but he was writhing in pain while wailing. He was always someone who cried in the inside pretending to be ok, became the class clown, because that’s his coping mechanism, but this time all of his coping mechanisms broke down. Truly no one was there to protect him at that second when he was lying next to the hippo crying his life out. He is nothing but a ball of ‘jiboujiki’ https://jisho.org/search/jiboujiki
⭐️Taiga Searching For His Father
Taiga was in complete pain cutting ties with his mother, but he still asked if he can he know his father but again he is left alone in the darkness. He’s looking for places to belong, so after breaking up with Manami he goes to the only father figure he had in life in desperation willing to do anything for him.
Even he abandoned him at his weakest, by not telling him he is his father. Probably because he doesn’t want to Taiga’s name to be tied to him as he is a criminal. Some other’s have a theory that he is not his dad, but killed his real dad. But by going what the easter egg of episode 6 showed, a father ruffling hair of a boy and then carrying him, I personally think bossman is his dad but doesn’t feel confidence in becoming a true father fully, so he say’s he is just a man who gave him a name, probably he named him Taiga too.
🌟“A Father’s Apology”
Again it’s not explicit, but Manami’s dad definitely told Taiga in private to breakup with her if he fails, emotionally blackmailed, belittled him and made him feel helpless and worthless like he did in front of Manami’s in her new apartment. That’s why Manami said ‘hidoi’ https://jisho.org/search/hidoi to him after tacitly understanding what he did when he came to apologize, he wasn’t bowing his head over because he crushed a hat, and I think some international viewers would miss this ⚠️huge detail.
That’s why Taiga insisted on breaking up from the beginning of the episode and then broke up with Manami in that manner. His helplessness, class consciousness, his standing in life, inability, inadequacy, being a failure, feeling cornered by the whole damn world, feeling worthless and despair and not being able to be with the woman he loves with his head held high because it’s all ‘his fault’ due to his ‘defectiveness and taintedness’, all came crashing down on him. He even saw what Manami asks of him to be too much and projected his feelings on her: 'even you see me as I see myself' and wanted to abandon her before the day she abandons him comes, because even she would get sick of him being a failure for sure, because all of the people do eventually, it's Taiga's self-belief.
After dad left, seeing Manami trying to fix the straws of the hat made me cryyy with her😭
It was as if she was frantically trying to mend Taiga’s pain in his heart and the utter despair she saw in him that day, caused by her. The shot of both of them crying not being able to be with each other was just arghghgh😭 Taiga repeatedly screaming in pain saying ‘tanoshii’ https://jisho.org/search/tanoshii but actually doing the opposite and wailing at their ‘rooftop school’ all alone, without her beside him this time, with her hat on the hippo chair he specially brushed for sensei, he gives it his coat saying “OH you might feel cold too” as if to say he knows she’s in pain too was just so heartbreaking to see.
⭐️Papa is Cooking Too Much Udon:
Mom is going to her part time work.
And dad is making 3 packets of Udon? why?
Some say Manami and Taiga are coming to eat💖
At first I was like wtf at the last scene being Manami’s dad and mom, then I realized what the writer mean, you can change at any age, more so at the fear of losing one another.
New beginnings and growth shown by the final shot of a budding sprout.🌱 aww
Even the most scary person of this drama became the most docile, I realized he’d be ok when he was shown carrying his drunk wife’s purse in a tiny scene. See, not even a second in this drama is empty action by characters, all intentional to show what is to come and the inner world of characters.
💖My Favorite Scene: Tugging at His Heart.
Manami tugging his shirt and saying ‘soba ni itai, tada sore dake / I want to be near you, that’s all I want’. Manami was such a
I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.
in that scene.🥹❤️
I think I want to be next to you in English isn’t that much, but in Japanese it’s one of the most romantic things you could say, and then Taiga writing it for her because he low-key lost his mind being next to her getting his shirt pulled and changed the topic asking her to read for her LOL. I love how he’s the one making boundaries in their ambiguous relationship, like saying even if we live together it’s should be after I become something, like he cares so much about her and doesn’t want to do cross-the line even though he so completely do. And the last scene of the drama of the kiss being from him really makes everything better, heals ALL❤️🩹As he believed his words are empty and his voice is meaningless and his lips are tainted.
I also loved the small detail before the breakdown scene in episode 11: Taiga clears/pushes the fallen papers and books by his foot, but stops and picks the infamous red-pencil by hand and placed it on the desk safely.😭
🌟“A Kanji Called Love/愛/Ai”
Love is hard and it’s also a hard to write it, ask Taiga lol:
In the middle of 'Love' there’s the kanji for heart / 心 / kokoro in it.
I loved when Taiga asked beamingly “so I missed just one dot of the kokoro?” all positive about his failings now lol
Manami’s monologue says:
"Balancing the kokoro in the kanji 愛 is hard, it can’t be too big or small or it’ll be imbalanced"
I loved the double meaning: having balance is important when writing kokoro (kokoro can mean all 3: mind heart and soul). https://jisho.org/search/kokoro
It’s another lesson SHE learned from being in “Love’s School”. We need to be balanced, we don’t have to become stalkers begging for love, but we also don’t have to stop ourselves from loving too much because we’ll be hurt, it’s ok to just have the memory of loving someone or being loved, it is enough to face any ending to a relationship and or live the remainder of one’s life alone after bravely loving.
From the first episode you could notice that how the letter 愛 is the most struggled one to balance and the kokoro part is what Taiga struggles the most with, he always coming back to it after the rest of letters. I also loved that they didn’t emphasize on him finally learning the kanji for gakkou/school as it is written in hiragana in the title.
After the confession of episode 5 we can see how balanced 愛 and the 心 part is for the first time.
^^I love how the contrast of their facial expressions: Manami is content and happy, Taiga is determined yet conflicted.
心 again becomes balanced in the last episode:
愛 is one the first letters I insisted I want to learn when I was little too, so this scene was just 🥹 for me because I struggled with balancing the kokoro too lol. It’s also normally learned in like 4th 5th grade because it is a complex.
Connecting the earlier poem here, both of them confessed of dying, Taiga said in the police station that he would’ve died if not for his night-work, professing the importance and even pride for his work of keeping him alive and we know what Manami went through.
But at last, instead of being burdened with big dreams, this time, our OTP wrote 愛/love in the sand hundred times before giving up dying and going home. Endlessly writing to become better at 愛 and choosing 愛 is enough, balancing your kokoro through is enough.
Everything else is secondary for them.❤️
Also linking the earlier wish of Taiga "wanting to pass everything", the last word for him by Manami was also "goukaku" before he can't help but kiss her.
AAAWWWWWWWW❤️
❤️🩹 Here are some easter eggs that indicates that they are going to be together, forever!😭
On the way to see Taiga's mom: he was seen crossing a red bridge alone, and a red bridges can mean a connection to the spirit realm and the physical world; hell and earth too.
Both of them also crosses it another time, and this time the background is shown, and it says fufu, meaning married couple / husband and wife. Red bridges can also symbolically mean sacred connection, spiritual transitioning or transformation.❤️
While they are making their wishes you see a couple with a stroller come into frame❤️
She let's go of his hand and he holds it tight and barks at her:
Don't let go, even if you die!
❤️❤️❤️❤️
👏Applauding the two Actors Who Bought Manami x Kaworu/Taiga to Life:
I’ve always loved Raul’s singing voice but my god through out this drama his voice modulation was just brilliant. His showmanship has always being amazing, but to see that translate into his acting was just great as a fan. And I am low-key glad to know him before this drama because seeing his growth was amazing and maybe I am changing my bias from Meguro Ren to Murakami Raul lol🤍🖤
Fumino as Manami was so believable, she was SO teacher CODED that you completely believed she’s a teacher lol. Her composure, her quiet desperation, her Chihuahua-ness, her radiant smile, her absolute adoration and voice modulation when she calls him “Takamori Taiga”, the way she looks at Taiga etc everything added up to this beautiful character called Manami.
Their acting prowess shows here: they are so not Manami or Kaworu/Taiga at all.
Especially Raul, he is completely the Rau-chan we know in⛄️aww
https://www.tiktok.com/@aino_gakkou/video/7552000824449207563
Knowing Raul is someone who gets teased by his team members for being absolutely terrible with meeting new people, comparing the first promo vid you can just see their comfort level increasing and he really appreciates her as an actor and absolutely finds her kawaii and she definitely sees him as a little bro. Glad they got along more as the story arc progressed and glad we got a pair that looks this good despite their big age difference. Having good working relationship is a must because that translates to screen, with Raul more so because he is new to undertaking such a complex character falling in love, everything and everyone helped him and he thanked them all, especially her🤍
Looking back to their promotions, I want share this clip for all who are already missing these two:
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1otGuzMEfa?p=2
💖Raul’s low-key nervous flirting with Fumino mixing in Kaworu is👌
⭐️@02:01
Both: rock, paper, scissors.
Fumino: reads the prompt “what is your beauty secret?”
Raul: “Umm... that there is a gorgeous actress next to me”😗
Fumino’s reaction is SO CUTE!!❤️
Newscasters: OH WOW (same lol)
⭐️@07:17
Raul: I want her to teach me cooking(his hobby), she’s really amazing at cooking.
Raul: When am I going to be eating your food? and will there be an “after/アフター”? (after meaning ‘socializing’ with a host outside the club) (OMG this boy said what at 7am😳)
Fumino: 😆lol this is a junai/pure-love, so no.
Both: LOL
⭐️@09:30
Newscasters: we can feel you two’s worldbuilding already. (we all know how perfect it turned out❤️)
Fumino: We’re both shy around new people so our relationship was really strained at the beginning.
Raul: Come on!, not ‘strained’, but..
Newscasters: we didn’t get that from you two at all.
Raul: but we slowly started having conversations.
Fumino: Now we are on the same wavelength. (aww)
I am going to miss them❤️🩹😭
🎓Graduating from ‘Love’s School’?
The script of last episode doesn’t say ‘final episode’ https://jisho.org/search/最終回 as they normally say. It says 終業式 https://jisho.org/search/終業式 not even 卒業式 https://jisho.org/search/卒業式
So only a term has ended. Some people think it’s an indication even on the production team's side that they want to continue the story. AAAGGGHHH PLEAZ GOAD YEEESS!
So they aren’t graduated from Love’s school, they’ll forever be schooled by LOVE.
HOW LOVELY LMAO. I also love how the script has Ogawa Manami and Takamori Taiga’s name in it in a faded manner, the aesthetics my god✨
Props to all the props made by the team!🤣The attention to detail is out of this world. Check every poster and background and you’ll find something.
💖Raul’s IG About Manami x Taiga:
https://www.instagram.com/raul_official_sn/p/DOx5mHNkSQI
終わってみると、不思議とあまり寂しくなくて、
それはどこかで2人が、離れたりくっついたり、まだまだ繰り返してるのが想像できるからかなと思いました✨
じゃあ！句点！。笑
Looking at things after ending, mysteriously I don’t feel that sabishii https://jisho.org/search/寂し
I think that’s because I can just imagine these two will keep turning away from each other then clinging to each other repeatedly over again and again.✨
Well then! Full stop! 。LOL
I felt the same about these two after the last scene, these two will keep breaking and getting together endlessly, and in any other drama I would’ve found it annoying AF and roll my eyes, but here, I think, it’s what makes them amazing.✨
They have found this baseline to their relationship dynamic and when they collide and fight, they will tend to want to get away from each other, thinking they don’t want to hurt each other, like Taiga getting mad at Manami for not lying to the school and for being SO DAMN serious, that he leaves in episode 10, but he came back and compromises and tells Manami “I’ll look for other jobs” because he wants to be with her. So they will always realize they just need to come again to their baseline and restart all over again and again whenever they face any differences, because they want to be “near each other”.
The beach cafe owners dialogues in episode 6 also say they fought a lot at the beginning of their relationship but things have now calmed down only recently LMAO. Those two are here because, it’s easy for us and to Manami x Taiga to imagine a future togerther, y'know representation matters LOL.
So Raul posting the same thing makes it all better😭💖Off topic, but Raul is a self-proclaimed terebikko https://jisho.org/search/terebikko and he loves dramas and have said that even though he liked Kaworu and the drama scenario, he just said yes to the drama because he loves the director and writer's work, and grew up watching them, so he has a lot of respect towards dramas and I think that sincerity also converted to his acting in this drama, compared to other random idols just taking acting work. His acting and the effort he put in to it paid off. He said he dove into this drama all naked putting trust in the team and all he did and learned was from them. Humble king lol.
Taiga’s breakdown and wailing scene (both room and rooftop) was one of the best breakdown scenes by a ML I’ve seen ever. It was so sincere, with his spit spilling and everything, it wasn’t just acting, it came from within Taiga as if he is real. It broke my heart to million pieces, I can’t repeat that scene now. And as Snow Man fans we’ve seen Raul cry, but it was SO completely Taiga, being so desperate trying to cling to Kaworu and his pride and not being able to face his failure. It was just so heartbreaking, most people watching it cried along with him. Everyone is applauding his acting, I mean how could you not.
Also he couldn’t have acted this way let’s say 2 years back at all. As he himself said, him facing failure as a model really added a new dimension to him. So watch Raul’s documentary:
Raul: on the Runway:
After watching it I am SOOO inspired by him, but I also feel like a 🦥 lol.
🏭Industrial Appreciation:
Episodes 4,5,6 and 10 are highly praised from the Japanese drama industry as exceptional at all writing, directing acting. Episode 11’s breakdown scene is also making waves in both public and in the industry. This drama is already being called a masterpiece in Jdorama world.
So hope we can see a continuation one day.🥹
🎇“Summer Colored Fireworks / Natsu-Iro Hanabi”:
And as a final note, I want to dedicate this Snow Man song to this drama, like Raul said we can imagine what their lives will be like after watching the Fireworks together.
夏が運んだ記憶抱きしめ natsu ga hakonda kioku dakishime I will embrace the memories summer brought me❤️🥹
‼️Turn on CC.
This song just matches the feeling of end of this drama and end of summer 2025.
I can talk about this drama all day, but I’ll stop here!
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this drama as much as I did and I hope this post helped you a teeny bit in that enjoyment❤️
Just as Raul said: Full stop! 。
But to new beginnings✨
First of all, thank you for all of your wonderful write-ups, Nemurerukana! As much as I enjoyed the show, I also enjoyed reading all of what you've written about the show ever since EP 1. Even with my *very* substandard knowledge of Japanese, I did feel that a lot of it was lost in translation. So I deeply appreciate how you've broken down so much of it for us to really feel the emotional weight of each scene as it is expressed in Japanese. LTL is already a deep drama on its own, but reading your interpretations made it all the more special. Like you always say, the drama is very intentional. And thank you for making the writer's intentions clear for all of us international viewers. 💕
Like, half of the people feel ‘moya-moya’ https://jisho.org/search/moyamoya after watching the last episode. I am also one of them. It’s not because the drama has ended, but the ending was ‘almost there’ but felt like it didn’t fully reach the greatness of other episodes.Nemurerukana:
I agree with this one so much. And I do think that you're right; real life got in the way. Like what you said, Raul has a jampacked schedule and Fumino-san became ill so they might have needed to rush filming. I experienced this last spring with one of my fave doramas which is Meoto Biyori (which was right before Ai no Gakkou in the same timeslot), where Yoshine Kyoko was quite busy during filming so I guess they opted for simpler scenes that could be filmed to better fit the conditions of the actors. It's funny how the two consecutive dramas (Meoto Biyori and Ai no Gakkou) became both my Top 1 and Top 2 dorama, and yet they made me feel moya-moya in the end. Did I use it correctly? Lol. But I wish we could've have a perfect world where the j-ent industry doesn't push their talents too much to their limit. If that would've been the case, who knows how immensely powerful the last episodes could have been? I would've probably needed to take time off of work if that was the case.
They realized “We Don’t Love to Become Happy.” Love is not the antidote to life’s terribleness or unhappiness, but it is the strength one can get from it to get through life. Just exquisite!
This line from Sakura-sensei was my favorite, too! Mainly because it made it obvious that love... or starting to feel love for someone... is and is never a choice. Taiga fell for Manami DESPITE vowing to never love someone, out of the fear that anyone he loves would eventually abandon him. Manami fell for Taiga DESPITE vowing to never love someone, out of the fear of losing grip on reality and centering her existence on that person only. They fell in love with each other despite knowing that their love is not meant as an escape from the void of life's unhappiness (as what you have said), but a source of strength to keep on living. A source of strength to push through with seeking specks of light from the terribleness that surrounds them. The line is so beautiful!
He didn’t want to make the woman he love so much for the first time in his life, to be disappointed of him, like he thinks he was the one who made ALL the others leave him. He self-blames himself not others for his abandonment, every attribute of him is seeing as useless by him. I have never seeing a character who has such low self-worth and self-esteem pretending to be so confident as a host.
This too, was so painful. He did indeed blame himself for feeling alone, even though its was the fault of all those that surround him. And I almost teared up when he broke down in tears when he felt that he disappointed Manami, the only person that he didn't want to disappoint. If I'm correct, that was the first (and only) scene in the drama where Taiga bared out his full vulnerability, as if he had nothing left. He was so used to being abandoned once people knew of his disability, and he was so caught up in the idea that he will be left all alone again. And to protect himself from that pain, he was the one who pushed Manami away. Literally pulled her out of the room. And that scene was so heartwrenching because it was obvious that Taiga did it as a self-defense mechanism. He had to be the one to push Manami away, before Manami could ever have enough power to hurt him in ways that were all too familiar to him. And the thing is, Manami would've stayed; but life was never forgiving for him, and so he was conditioned to think that way.
How far has he come😭In earlier episode after getting brand new trauma from Akina-shachou he scribbled nonsense as his signature, and by the last episode his writes his name so clear and prettily.😭
I CRIED WHEN I SAW HIM SIGN WITH HIS OWN NAME!!!!! It was such a full circle moment; from signing the tab by doing scribbles, he now signed using the skill that Manami taught him. 😭
This part of the letter also voids the existence of Kaworu, he was always a lie, a persona, a safe-haven for Taiga to feel pride and to become someone or anyone of worth, because Taiga thought to himself that he can never be someone with pride or confidence in himself
You're right about this scene, it was the first time where he expressed confidence as Taiga, and not hiding under the shiny facade of Kaworu. He was even wearing light pastel colors! It was different from the flashy colors of clothes worn by Kaworu, and the dark, grayish colors worn by out-of-work Taiga.
While I've never really said this before, I always thought of Taiga as a peacock. Peacocks are known as very beautiful creatures. Those with larger, flashier colored feathers would most often attract the females and they have higher chances of finding a mate. Which, is essentially a huge advantage in the animal kingdom. However, those large, flashy feathers are most often treated as a burden to carry (literally). I find that it was the same with Taiga. As what you have said, his attractive traits are his main advantages, and he even uses it to survive by becoming a host. He is very flashy as Kaworu; he wears a striking red suit, and for the times that he doesn't he wears heavily patterned tops. But he carries the burden of it. For him, if he doesn't have those "flashy feathers" as a shielf, then there is nothing left to protect him. He doesn't have anything left.
That is why when he drove Manami away, his first instinct was to wear that red suit again. To go to Kabukicho again. He wanted to flaunt those feathers again, to regain what he perceives as his strength. However, it all came crumbling down as he broke down in the rooftop. He realized he could no longer hold on to it, and that it couldn't mask away the loneliness and longing that was left when he drove Manami away. And so, he left it all out. He started wearing pastel colors, and embracing himself as just Taiga without that protective shield. And so, when he said the statement "I was sure you would come, because I know you can't forget about me," it must have been a sign that he wants to build his confidence in his real, honest self.
In the first episode, the poem was implicitly mentioned as the reason why she gave up wanting to die, emphasizing on returning home and giving up on even dying, because as she says in last episode: she was a coward, until she met Taiga. In the second time the poem is mentioned her voice modulation changes, and it is full of intent, emphasizing on the dream being 大(Big/great) rather than death or going home, implicitly addresses what Taiga went through, he took on a dream too big to se-ou, and failed.
I also loved how the last EP was a full circle moment for Manami, too. At the very first scene of the show, it showed Manami jumping off to the sea to give up living, which happened after her ex left her. At that time, separating from the one she loved made her think that there was no longer a reason to keep on living. And that was her first connection to the sea, when she saw it as a way to end her suffering over the absence of love. However, the last scene of the show let us see Manami with Taiga on the beach, happily writing the word "love" over and over. And yet, her monologue says something striking. "Even if we get separated, I will use our love as a source of strength to keep on living." Now, the sea became a witness on how Manami chose to view love as a source of life, may it be as something she continually receives or something that will remain in her memory.
AAAAAAAAA I will miss this show so much!
Wait I'm shy now... I wrote the reply and upon refreshing there seemed to be new write-ups. Sorry 😭 I wanted to reply again.
That’s why Manami said ‘hidoi’ https://jisho.org/search/hidoi to him after tacitly understanding what he did when he came to apologize, he wasn’t bowing his head over because he crushed a hat, and I think some international viewers would miss this ⚠️huge detail.
I'm going to apologize if I understood this scene wrong (I relied on the Google Translate option for TVer) but when he returned the hat, he seemed to have apologized to Manami because he controlled her too much, and said that "Manami is not my property" or something like that. But he said something along the lines of "I still don't think that what I did was wrong." WHICH, then again, might be a wrong interpretation on my end 😭. I would love to be corrected if I were wrong, but I did like that they didn't show Papa doing a complete 180 degree change by the end. As distorted as it all were, he did it all out of love. For him, he did was he thought was the right thing to do to protect Manami, but he never saw Manami through it all. Even then, he never saw Manami flinching when he sat on her carefully protected stuffed toys. When Manami said "hidoi" over the crushed hat, which she kept on the cabinets to "protect," it almost seemed like Manami saw her "carefully protected love" being stepped on. Being hurt. Being destroyed. When she saw it, the Manami who tightly keeps her emotions shut were gone. She began crying and wailing over the frail conditions of the hat. It was such a painful scene, given that Manami had always been gentle and yet everything came crumbling down.
At first I was like wtf at the last scene being Manami’s dad and mom, then I realized what the writer mean, you can change at any age, more so at the fear of losing one another.
New beginnings and growth shown by the final shot of a budding sprout.🌱 aww
This scene was so cute! For me, the herbs symbolized how rooted Papa's control was over Mama. And so when she pulled the roots from the soil, it symbolized her regaining control over her own life, free from Papa's chains. And so, when the roles were reversed (now that she's working and Papa is staying at home), the budding sprout may symbolize a newer, gentler form of love that will form between them. And that love may extend to Manami and even Taiga, which may explain the extra servings of udon. 💕
I also like how you see the potted herbs as his control over mama. One of my absolute favorite scenes in the entire drama was Basil mama destroying those plants and papa's shocked expression. LOL Basil mama and papa forever <3mommacat:
I saw your comment about this, mommacat! I was going to reply but I became busy... although I heavily wanted them to divorce (bc Mama deserves better), it's also nice to see Papa choosing to change. If they chose to stay, then I hope that Papa will become a better husband to Mama. <3
I'm going to apologize if I understood this scene wrong (I relied on the Google Translate option for TVer) but when he returned the hat, he seemed to have apologized to Manami because he controlled her too much, and said that "Manami is not my property" or something like that. But he said something along the lines of "I still don't think that what I did was wrong." WHICH, then again, might be a wrong interpretation on my end 😭. I would love to be corrected if I were wrong, but I did like that they didn't show Papa doing a complete 180 degree change by the end. As distorted as it all were, he did it all out of love. For him, he did was he thought was the right thing to do to protect Manami, but he never saw Manami through it all. Even then, he never saw Manami flinching when he sat on her carefully protected stuffed toys. When Manami said "hidoi" over the crushed hat, which she kept on the cabinets to "protect," it almost seemed like Manami saw her "carefully protected love" being stepped on. Being hurt. Being destroyed. When she saw it, the Manami who tightly keeps her emotions shut were gone. She began crying and wailing over the frail conditions of the hat. It was such a painful scene, given that Manami had always been gentle and yet everything came crumbling down.Noriko:
Remember, he's the same man who made his wife give money and lie to Taiga and say even Manami thinks Taiga is a meiwaku(nuisance / inconvenience) without ever letting Manami know of his ruse. Even though our Taiga boy knew Manami would never say that, yet got all sulky and tried to climb gates and all aww *reminiscing*😚lol
Papa came to apologize for harming her relationship with Taiga, bearing gifts I mean Taiga's crushed hat lol. This dad would not do a deep bow for a hat, he'd probably replaced it with a new one unbeknownst to her if it was just about the hat lol, sorry I digress, I didn't sleep lol
When she lamented it wasn't Papa's fault they broke up, it was becuase their love was lacking, papa looked genuinely sorry.
This scene also links to the previous scene where Manami's dad tested Taiga on his reaction time(Papa probably realized Taiga's nature and thought to himself 'oh he won't leave Manami easily'.) by pushing him down and told he is worthless and not to come to their side/level and not to touch his precious daughter with his dirty hands. Manami realizes what he's done and asks: you tested him?
The same flow was shown here, the dad makes multiple mini bows stuttering 'Papa ga, Papa ga' while holding the hat towards her and the horrific realization washes over her, the hat we all know symbolically represents Taiga himself and papa is finally handing him over to Manami with true remorse this time and without any new rules or conditions, even though he's damaged him already. Also Taiga suddenly saying he'll break up with her was out of charcter after his conviction to be with her, someone must have instigated him, again remember Taiga also never told Manami that her mother came to him, gave money and lied. He doesn't want to affect her life in a negative way, Taiga is also someone who pretended to go along with his mom's ruse of his little bro being fake sick. My god he's my favorite ML ever.❤️
Papa was also awfully chill when hearing that Taiga failed, like it was his plan all along (he was literally making plans in the scene lol) letting them think they had an option to be together, but only according to his rules, what a trap. He even knew the passing rate, I've seen some even theorize that he failed him by his connections, as the student who called Taiga Ossan lol, said don't worry you'd pass if you pass the interview round, which I agree was sus as well. It again reminds me of the trap named in the Lion and Mouse story.
And Mama low-key knows it too, and asks him to think about Taiga's effort, saying Taiga is Manami's special person and Papa retorts "you truly have low prospects(for Manami)", again repeating "you know better than anyone, what I have done for Manami" oooh sus.. and mom is like nope I am done if you can't bless our daughter's wishes. Basil mama would know, he won't keep still and keep damaging Manami's happinness so she decided to break the family.
He said "I still don't think I am in the wrong" and then: "but papa do finally understand Manami is not mine anymore": 'papa no mono' literally papa's person. The Tver subtitle says: 愛実はもうパパのものじゃないんだなっていうことだけは分かった。
There are two mono's
者/もの: someone, person
物/もの: thing, object, goods, property etc
Google translation picked the wrong mono/thing lol
But hey, the drama is always up to interpretation✨
'Mono' reminds me of ⛄️'s 'Kimi wa Boku no Mono' / 'You are Mine' 😆
-- It never crossed my mind that basil papa would have told Taiga in private to give Manami up if he fails. I think this would take away from the idea that Taiga is pushing Manami away purely because of his personal demons: his belief that he always disappoints everyone, and his biggest fear of disappointing the one person he never wants to disappoint. I'm sad just thinking of this scene.
I don’t think it takes away from it at all, I think it pushed all his personal demons back to a singularity within him with enough force and drove him to his break point. He did declared in the beginning of the episode "I will put my everything in to this, if I fail I will break up with sensei" perfect recipe for disaster.
-- When Taiga gets flustered and can't verbally reply to Manami after she tugs on his shirt and tells him she only wants to be near him, I think it has to do with what he was telling Tsubasa earlier in that episode. Taiga said that it was hard for him to say the words "I love you" when he wasn't playing the role of a host because he wasn't pretending. Or rather, he said it was easy to say words like "I love you" when he played the role of host because it meant nothing to him during his act. But when he's being his real self, saying the words was hard because it was so serious.
Just seconds after of falling down, he tried to put some space between them, also the scene links their kiss scene where they fall backwards into the sand. So, I interpreted that he was this close to getting over another complex (got over kissing her) of not being able to say his honne aloud as Taiga after his productive counseling session with Tsubasa lol, but he got flustered at Manami's proximity and initiativeness, just like she was the one who wanted to kiss him, even after he put limits on himself. Plus they are all alone in private and not in public😳
Also, if it’s not known, "服を掴む引っ張る/ grab shirt, pull towards you", is a whole thing, a trope even, when a guy isn’t initiative, a girl will grab his sleeve/cloths to indicate nonverbally her intention of wanting to become closer physically, but Manami was like I am gonna do it and I am gonna say it too, because she's honest like that😆 and Taiga got up like "OMG sensei can you LIKE read for me IMMEDIATELY, look FOR A BOOOOOK" !?! lmao
I LOVE THIS GUY to death!
Greenest flag ever to exist in a red suit!🤣
This drama is this beautiful exactly because we have two protagonists struggling in a very real manner to become better for each other, while both are happy with tiny things like one teaching what the other doesn’t know, like one talks about the best noodle and the other says "tell me more"✨ or one teaches about what Kaworu’s can really mean with historical details while other playfully pretends to sleep. The comfort these two characters give to each other is shown so magnificently. They are each other’s safe place, where their truest true-selves and the wounded children in them can come out to play with each other.
This is it. I think this is exactly why the drama had such a hold on me and has resonated with many people. It was the way the love was built in the details and rooted in the characters and their pain/trauma.
I am a diehard romantic but I only believe soulmates in a very realistic way, like two individuals need something tangible to keep connecting and needs time to recognize each other.
So I want to share a personal anecdote: I've been happily married for 20 years but when I first started dating my husband we broke up after three months because I didn't think we had enough in common. But even after our "breakup" we stayed in touch with each other (I was so dumb and deluded 😣). After eight months of this, we went to the movies and afterward he unexpectedly kissed me. I drove home in a panic. But then I thought "Dumbass, he's a good person who cares for you, what are you doing here? Why are you throwing that away?" So we got back together and we've been together ever since. We're still very different people but we've worked through our differences and still being in love with him at an age when people think love is boring or weak is one of the blessings and joys of my life. I think that my personal history has a lot to do with why I was so deeply moved by Manami and Taiga, two flawed and very different people who nonetheless are perfect for each other.
Like you I found the last episode a bit weak. But some things resonated a lot, like Taiga failing the exam. That was realistic and I think that showing it but also showing that Taiga can pick himself up and keep going and still feel deserving of love
I felt very sorry for Taiga when his father just failed to acknowledge their relationship. It was so sad how Taiga was abandoned by his family but I think it was the last thing he had to let go of before moving on to the next phase of his life.
I feel pretty affirmed in my dislike for Momoko. I'm glad she was able to admit how she looked down on Manami and there's hope she'll become a better person.
Kawahara's ending was a bit silly but he was my favorite character after Manami+Taiga and deleting Manami's number was the right thing to do. He finally stopped stalking her and let her go live her life.
Mama's pulling out the plants was fantastic but did anyone notice that the plants had started to grow wild in the previous episode? The attention to detail through was incredible.
I plan a rewatch from start to finish before I write my final review. I do think this is a drama that benefits from binging and I kind of wish I'd waited before starting it but it was kind of random that I started the drama at all. It was suggested to me by Netflix and I usually ignore the suggestions but I was between dramas and lazily hit play and then ended up stunned at the end of the first episode because it was so good. I binged the four episodes that were out and I ended up weekly watching.
Thank you to everyone who shared their analyses of the drama, you made my watch so rich and meaningful.
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