Nemurerukana

Is our little dorama getting famous internationally? I see the haters are already here, parroting only what they heard in their echo chambers😅

It's SO excruciating, I feel like I am paralyzed, can't watch other dramas because I am emotionally exhausted and just so invested with these two. asdfcdsf😭

I'll try🥹
kthaxbye this time fr lol

If anyone wants skinship and sees ‘pure’ mentioned in a Japanese romance you know what to do, avoid🏃‍♀️💨

I personally love them tho, just like I love victorian era romances, sometimes a yearning glance means more than all the skinship🥰

You said: “I think they deliberately shied away from that because of the reputations and rl backstories of the two actors playing the parts... I don't think they want to give these two too much skinship”

What I am saying is that too much skinship didn’t exist in the first place because it is a 純愛/junai love story. Spice was never there from the inception of the story. Spice didn’t stop happening because of what they are irl, so them being casted together and them being a young idol or a mom irl have nothing to do with it.

Put any other two actors and they’d still follow the SAME ‘conte’ and intimacy levels. J fans didn’t even expect their kiss to be this strong, not because people think of their real life 'reputations or backstories', but because what the story flow normally is, y’know fish kisses. So applause for the team for always breaking expectations👏 Again, this is not an otona love story, the type they want to make next time😉

https://www.fujitv.co.jp/aino_gakkou/
禁断なのに純愛な“愛”の物語
A tale of forbidden “love”, yet so pure(junai).

These kind of tiny details is what makes this drama so damn great.. and I am just so in love with everything that this drama offers arrghghgh😭 kthxbye

I don’t think the background of their real lives affected this drama, they might surely be picky and choose certain projects to protect their ‘image’, but no director or writer is going to match and adjust to actors lives or 'image', especially not these two writer and director as they are too established and honored for their vision. Also Hirugao was controversial and spicy lol

Both Raul(and his agency) and Fumino definitely don’t have enough importance or influence that a story is changed for them accordingly to their real lives, that too fujiterebi changing their programming lol that would be absurd. A story is created and it's offered to actors that they think would match the best with the characters, and it's demanded that the actors to live up to it. If you act badly, you'll be bashed by public for being terrible at your job. Actors are at the mercy of tv stations and directors. Just like any other entertainment business, Japanese entertainment is also a dog eats dog place, so if one actor rejects a project there will be others just next door ready to do anything, idol, divorced, married with kids or not irl doesn't matter. Most actors would be dying to work in a big project with popular directors and writers, established or not. I also remembered that Fumino said, she does not know where the story is going and she has no choice but to live as Manami thinking she’s a real person and adjust accordingly what the script demands. She also fell sick filming this drama multiple times because it was emotionally and physically tiring.

This drama is in the genre 純愛/junai/pure-love. If you want to see skinship, avoid romance dramas with junai being mentioned. It explores the idea of love being so pure and selfless that it’s almost platonic, yet, so fulfilling despite being almost asexual. Almost all junai’s have some forbidden aspect to it too. So this genre of J romances won’t have the spice y’know.

Raul had said in an ig live that this love story is purer than anpanman, I mean how can things be purer than anpanman🤦‍♀️🤣 so yeah lol

But the director and writer have said the next time they are going work together, they want to do an otona love story / Adult romance, so surely next time🙏

Yes! someone needs to change it.

I think, it depends on your taste. I personally think Hirugao is up there in the top of all time jdramas. But since it's an affair and the ML is a bit too boring might be a minus, it was a minus for me. But hirugao is all about the women telling their story not the men, so I loved it to pieces in that aspect.

I have also never seen the flavor or flair of Hirugao and this drama be repeated elsewhere. The framing, the pulse and the yearning in both dramas are exquisite and just so unique that only this director and writer can make it this beautiful. Hirugao is much darker tho.

Both dramas have parallels with each other, the forebodings and wistfulness are almost the same. And the OST/music is almost the same too.

It wasn't just the director, he says that it's also the assistant director and other team members that helped him rehearse. He got the offer almost a year back, so I think it really worked out as they put in the work.
Bwahaha 🤣 I agree about Honey Lemon Soda being nickelodeon-tier lol

The director is really famous and proven his mettle, so he truly brings everything in the drama together. I think he could do j-pop forever as long as he is with Snow Man, as most fans are the ride or die type lol. He also says in the interview that his main focus is being an idol, so modeling and acting comes second.

Just came back to add something that would be surely lost in translation.
Again, it was a teeny tiny scene.

In episode 9 when 🐷 man asked Manami for her name to jot down: 愛実
She spells it as:「 愛する/ Ai suru、実る/ Minoru 」
Literally translates to: “To love, Bear fruit”
She chose that over the common meanings: 実/jitsu/reality or sincerity.

Most Manamis are also 愛美 Love+beauty not 愛実.

She spelled it ‘Love Bears Fruit’ as if to remind the viewer of her name❤️😭
So it can mean we are getting a happy ending YAY🎉🥰

Bye everyone, it is so fun obsessing about this drama, but must go back to studying, I’ll probably come here after the drama ends, as life as we know it will lose its shine, and we’ll all be staring at blank walls lol. As jfans say: the “loss” one feels after watching the finalé of a drama THIS good is going to affect us all😭

https://imgur.com/7WvQy8p

I am sleep deprived🫣 saw the word 'finale' and thought no we have 2 more lmao. Someone needs to update the episode count here

In this interview it looks like he was styled by Snow Man’s stylist. It might be cultural as Korean and Japanese fashion culture is very different.

But if you want to see what he wears irl, watch their YouTube vlogs.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/oR1ra-2IAl4

He is extremely simple and known to be really frugal, like he doesn’t buy things especially no brand stuff, he's said he has no interest in fashion lol. Raul used to wear second hand things given to him by his members and now he gets things from brands, so he's said he doesn't even buy clothes anymore. Just recently he was papped in Korea and on his bag he had a broccoli from a 100 yen shop lol compared to the overspending member who carried a custom made Louis Vuitton bag with a Labubu🤦‍♀️🤣they are just hilarious.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/nuREFG1YvZg

There are 11 episodes so 2 left 🫣

That too into Waseda, one of the top universities in Japan, while doing all that work like wow. I am really seeing him in a new light after watching this drama ❤️

True!

Raul also talked about how he felt like he got lucky and didn’t have to struggle at all compared to his group members who struggled for years as he debuted at 16. So it was an inferiority complex​ to him that he got things handed to him and didn’t face any trouble coming this far. And he felt it was painful for him that he couldn’t find a common emotional ground with his group members who struggled so much.

So he chose to become a struggling model. He talks about how he only got 6 out of 80 auditions to work as a model. (I can't imagine that, he was doing concerts, designing setlists, dancing practices, singing and releasing music, doing regular variety TV shows and acting in this drama etc and still trying to get model assignments)

I mean Snow Man is the most selling artist in Japan, yet he chose to become a struggling model because he wanted to start something from zero where no one knows him, so he could taste the struggle of becoming someone from nothing, how admirable is that🤍 Fans always loved the giant baby of Snow Man, but after knowing all this just makes you root for him more, I am actually inspired by him to work hard😭

I’ll translate few parts of this Mezamashi-terebi interview for Raul fans🤍:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01uLkWIeuRs

⭐️The interviewer talks about the popularity of this drama:

Interviewer: To speak of the popularity of this drama closer to my family, my wife’s mom praises you greatly(in other words, a fan).

Raul: I am sooo happy!

Interviewer: My wife’s aunt is fan too.

Raul: Um.. what about your wife?

Interviewer: oh you don’t want to let it go, of course she’s a fan too🤣

Interviewer: The scene where Kaworu sees Manami off (at the train station), that was expressed brilliantly and it is going down as famous drama scene. (Obviously, it was one of the best things evaa🥹😭)

⭐️Raul credits all his acting ability to the director of this drama. Raul says he didn’t have any fixation or style to his acting before, but the director showed what acting is to him, and it influenced his acting in a huge way. They rehearsed and discussed each scene endlessly and worked super hard on them together.

We all can see why this drama is so great, all of them are not making a drama for the sake of it, but doing it for the love of telling a well crafted story❤️👏. I also love how all the female news casters are loosing their mind on when they talk about the last scene of 6th episode. SAMESIES, we are all same LOL. No wonder the 6th episode is called 神回/kamikai/godly-round(an incredible episode) by everyone.

Lastly, Interviewer: I am glad to see a more serious Raul this time. (SAME!😭 Raul normally goes on the show with Snow Man where Raul is just joking with his bros)

I’ve heard it before too that all models are treated like dirt, but Asians even more so, just as same with Hollywood I guess.

Your friends said something true
To directly quote the article:

「この世界に足を踏み入れる前は、ただただかっこよくて、もっと華やかな世界だと思っていました。けれど実際のところは、人として見てもらえていない瞬間もありましたね」
I thought modeling world would be just so cool and more glamorous before stepping into it, but in actuality, there were moments where I felt like I wasn't being seen as a person.