Kotori

It'a a grounded and emotionally mature romance that focuses less on idealized love and more on the difficulties of actually making a relationship work. Communication, insecurity, intimacy, jealousy and personal boundaries are at the center of the story, and the title becomes increasingly fitting as both leads try to understand not only each other, but also their own feelings.

Miwa and Saeko both have very different personalities and insecurities, and the story gives them room to make mistakes without simply presenting one of them as being completely right or wrong. Especially in its more emotional moments, the series does a good job of showing how difficult it can be to express feelings honestly and how easily two people can misunderstand each other.

At the same time, the characters can sometimes feel overly indirect or emotionally stiff, making their motivations harder to understand than they probably need to be. Some conflicts are also somewhat predictable. Still, the emotional development and honest approach to relationships make it a consistently good and rather bittersweet series.