Noriko

The most similar one I could recommend is Marry Me (2020) and Yaiteru Futari (2023). Both are stories abt two people that got married despite zero days of dating, similar to this one. However, the overall vibe is the same in terms of them having healthy relationships and they always kept smiling at each other. They have minimal angst too. Just full of fluff.

While I actually do agree with you that this is such an overused trope in jdramas, I feel like the “break up” scene in this show is warranted 😅 it emphasizes that Taiga still had a lot of behaviors to unlearn that wouldn’t be magically solved even if he got together with Manami, and his fear of abandonment runs deep. It’s been hinted all throughout the episodes but were only fully revealed when he broke down during ep 11. But while I think that the break-up scene was bound to happen, I wish they didn’t force it on the very last episode 😅 the show would benefit from having an ep 12 to fully tie things together.

It makes sense for there to be many borderlands, because the borderland represent the land in between life and death;. Anyone that has ever been in a 50-50 state would play the games so that their path will be determined. BUT I'm still salty that they laid the groundwork for a US version, because it rarely turns out well 😭

EP 11 SPOILERS

I love Manami’s final monologue 🥹

Change doesn’t happen overnight. Taiga has become more brave about love as he is with writing, but due to his past he still had a lot of trauma to unpack and habits to unlearn. With this, there might be times that he’ll get frustrated. He might even leave Manami again, or that he’ll throw his workbooks again and give up. Growth and healing is not always linear, and Taiga is an example of that.

In the finale, Manami recognized this. However, the monologue showed how much she’s grown compared to her last relationship. In her past relationship, she kept forcing her love towards her ex even though her ex had broken up with her. But now, Manami thinks that even if she and Taiga would separate, she would use the love that they had to find courage to live. To find the courage to move forward.

Such a beautiful ending! Although I do feel like they squeezed in quite a lot in this ep, I still love it nonetheless.

(And lastly… ganbare, Kawahara! His chant is ringing in my head. Ngl, I’ll probably miss him the most 😂)

I agree with you, Nemurarekana. If I may, I'd like to provide a few insights as someone who studied health behaviors for school.

Human emotion is complex. Although it may seem straightforward to some, it can be harder to fully comprehend especially if there are many layers to it. One of it is love. Scientifically, love is considered to be a potentially addicting emotion, more so to those whole mental health is not very stable. The intense feeling of love could lead them to engage in problematic behaviors, which could interfere with their day to day functioning. This may even interfere with their ability to make good decisions, and could even neglect their own personal well-being. I found an interesting journal article about it if you're open to reading it (and the article even reflects Akina-sachou's situation a bit. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666915324000714

Which brings me back to Akina-sachou. If we could recall EP 8, she’s talked a lot about wanting to have “someone,” wanting to experience love. Which is why she started frequenting host clubs. She became very enamored with the “love” she received from the murdered host and Tsubasa, which is why she spent all her money for them. She even spent her company’s money for them. You may argue that she did it out of her free will. She was also supposed to know what she was getting herself into. However, was she of sound mind when she did all of those actions? She wasn’t. She was acting under the influence of “love” and its “addicting” nature. With this, her ability to make good decisions is affected (you may read the article for this).

Did the hosts know about this? Yes. They've talked about this a lot in the show, even Kaworu revealed his own tricks on how to draw women in and what TYPE of women to attract. Whether we like it or not, the hosts are able to determine which women are mentally vulnerable. And the moment that they're able to get them to enter the host club, they'll do whatever it takes to make them come back for more. To spend more.

With this, Akina-sachou's mental state became more unstable the more she feels that her favorite hosts are starting to become out of reach. Which is why she did what she did. Am I saying that Jin and Tsubasa deserved that kind of threat to their lives? Absolutely not. Am I saying that what Akina-sachou did is forgivable? Absolutely not. However, do I think that Jin and Tsubasa contributed to Akina-sachou's actions? Yes. Do I think that the two hosts are aware of Akina-sachou’s vulnerability, and decided to push through with targeting her? Also yes.

To give a bit of an analogy (although I'm not saying that it is equal in magnitude), for example Person A is a recovering smoker who was once addicted to cigarettes, and Person B strongly offered Person A a cigarette despite knowing of their past struggles. Even if Person A accepted the cigarette out of their own free will, is Person B not to be blamed?

This is one of the reasons why I love the show. The complexity of each character could be reflected in real life.

JUST SAW THE PREVIEW, THERE'S GONNA BE AN 11TH EP!!

On TVer using a vpn! It's being livestreamed right now

Also another thought during EP 10... WHY IS THE SHOW CONVINCING ME TO LOVE KAWAHARA (okay I'm sorry I ALREADY like him). He stood up for Manami and Taiga, and strongly defended them from Manami's father. YES HE SHOUTED AT MANAMI'S DAD T.T IF HE WAS ONLY LIKE THIS DURING THE FIRST FEW EPS THEN I WOULDN'T HAVE GIVEN HIM SO MUCH UNNECESSARY HATE.

(Okay not necessarily unnecessary, his actions during the first eps definitely deserved more hate haha)

[not necessarily a spoiler so I won't hide this 😅]

Watching EP 10 right now and honestly... the show's choice of making Manami teach at a Catholic school is so fitting to the story. As someone who grew up in the Philippines (which is a predominantly Catholic country), a lot of people claim to live by the bible's teachings but ostracizes people of a different disposition. And adding that setting to Manami and Taiga's relationship really heightens the "forbidden love" aspect. Because despite how pure their love is, due to their "outside appearances" there are so much judgement surrounding it.

I don't know if it's a culture thing in Japan, but the "overwork" practice among teachers are shown quite frequently in Jdramas. I'm beginning to think that it's being done in real life if the profession has always been portrayed that way 🤔

Your reaction is so accurate 😂 I purposely watch LTL alone because my reactions are too embarrassing to be witnessed by other people. It's honestly one surprise after the other, the writing is too unpredictable 😂

I agree with you, it's much more messed up. The cinematography is just too scenic and serene that it makes the show appear calmer than what it really is. And yes, it's similar on how the characters are somewhat cornered by societal expectations. Except, of course, Chugakusei Nikki would play out such scenarios differently because there's a minor involved. It's such a realistic drama and one of my faves. Although, I also view LTL to be better in terms of cohesiveness.

But if CN could boast one thing, that would be the soundtrack. CN has SUCH a beautiful soundtrack that it's slowly turning into a classic. Some japanese dorama editors use the CN soundtrack even with the more recent doramas, which I found to be cute 😂

I hope you'll like it! But I'll have to warn you though, it's a very stressful show and is a hard watch sometimes 😂 but that's precisely what I liked about it, because student-teacher relationships aren't "rainbows and butterflies" as other forms of media have portrayed it. Chugakusei Nikki is more grounded on its implications and how society would react to it.

Other than Spiral, the song I associate most with this drama is "Lover, You Should've Come Over" bec of an LTL edit on Tiktok 😂

This is going to be a controversial suggestion, but https://kisskh.at/29908-chugakusei-nikki

Mainly because of how they handle flawed characters. Although LTL is hard to top in terms of storyline, Chugakusei Nikki did well in realistically presenting (very) flawed characters. And it presented "that" kind of relationship brutally too, they didn't sugarcoat or condone it at all. If you like angst and if you're open to watching a drama with this kind of premise, then I'd highly recommend this one.

I didn't mean to say that LTL is a stressful drama, I'm just not used to angst as a person who strictly avoids angst at all cost 😂 I only watched LTL because the premise intrigued me so much, and it was sooo worth it

Learning to Love is probably one of the most well-done asian dramas (yes, I mean asian drama) recently, and it mainly stems from its storyline. The show has such good writing that it's able to sustain your attention all throughout the episode. It tries to convince you to think that it's headed towards a cliche trope, only to do something completely unexpected. All dialogues are wonderful and have a lot of depth, the characterization of all characters are so complex, and it is rich in symbolisms that makes a scene all the more emotional.

However, we all have different tastes in dramas. If you like heartwarming and lighthearted dramas, then this drama might shock you. I personally prefer fluffy types of dramas (the show that I was addicted to prior to LTL was Meoto Biyori or A Calm Sea and Beautiful Days with You, which was such an adorable drama) so I wasn't used to the level of stress that came with watching LTL 😂 However, I came to love this one sooo much and it definitely unearthed the writer sleeping inside of me with how deep each episode is. So please do watch it!

[MAJOR EP 9 SPOILER]

IM CRYINGGGG EVERYONE (INCLUDING MANAMI'S FIANCE) ARE SUPPORTIVE OF THEM T.T

And in my EP 6 thoughts, I wrote something along the lines of:

"They never opened the school gate that separated them.

They never jumped over the train gate that separated them.

They wanted to try, but they never did."

AND IN THIS EPISODE THEY FINALLY CROSSED THE GAPS THAT SEPARATED THEM T.T THEY FINALLY DID IT!!! IM SO HAPPY

I based this on their character charts on the official Fuji TV page 🥹

Sorry, I didn't mean to say that the club president was an antagonist. He just got lumped in to the group.