Saffron_Milk

The series was officially published in Vietnam, Taiwan and probably some other Asian countries. You can find links to various fan translations to European languages in the first post here, but it's not much: https://kisskh.at/discussions/utsukushii-kare/67669-utsukushii-kare-english-novel

If you can read Japanese, then definitely! Thing is, they're not translated to English yet. The fan translation of book 1 that covers the first season is still ongoing, and the quality is not the best. You can read it on Wattpad or find the links in the first post here https://kisskh.at/discussions/utsukushii-kare/67669-utsukushii-kare-english-novel

The timeskip was one of the major ones: in the book Hira and Kiyoi have been living together for several months instead of years when the events of the second season start. And they actually move to their own apartment, instead of staying at that house. Hira's parents have never moved anywhere and have more influence over the story. All the high school-related stuff after graduation is made-up for the live action (including the proposal scene).
Koyama is not as present after book one, and doesn't have as much influence over Hira - some of the things he says are actually said by Kiyoi, and he never arranges anything for Hira (like the meeting in the season one or the visit to Noguchi in season two), except egginng on Kiyoi to try cooking.
The big fight that Hira and Kiyoi had in season 2 is technically in the book, but it's not as big, and the actual big fight has been changed a lot because they sped-run Hira's development for the movie. Some significant stages of Hira character evolution and circumstances are skipped, and by the end of the movie psychologically he's closer to himself at the end of book 3 instead of himself at the end of book 2, even though the second season and the movie are mostly based on book 2.

This drama is based on a series of novels where the story goes further. The novel series is not completed either, and technically they already have material for a season 3, though, IMO, it's not enough yet because of the way the second season and the movie have diverted from the original story.
Of course, whether they'll make another season or not remains to be seen. But at least they can if they want to.

The actual reason why Shun decided to leave wasn't spelled out, but he had a previous agreement with his parents that he can live as he pleases for a year (I might remember the time wrong), and then he'll start working at his father company like a proper employee to lead it eventually. And he'll probably be expected to marry a suitable girl and have children.
If his relationship with Naoki was more serious, maybe Shun would've tried to continue it, but Naoki was pretty gruff and didn't think of it as serious himself. He even said, "Don't come here again" to Shun when the latter was leaving that morning. Basically, Naoki only realized his feelings when it was too late and, as he was saying to Kosuke in the last episode, "You've got to tell them how you feel about them, otherwise you'll be regretting it later".

So it seems like Shun didn't think this thing with Naoki was worth fighting for, and maybe he wasn't sure about his feelings either. Or maybe for him it was never more than some exciting adventure, but I'd like to think that he was more serious about it.

Shun's father was hospitalized, and Shun had to start working at his company earlier than expected.

But he did start cooking: there was a scene at the beginning (which was supposed to come at the end chronologically). Maybe one more moment too, but I don't quite remember.
I'm with you on everything else, though. He deserved more happiness than he got in the end.

I didn't find it bad, there was a lot of fresh takes and great things about it, especially in the beginning. I wasn't completely satisfied with the ending, and didn't like some points in the second part, but I'm willing to overlook a lot of it for the naturalness that I hardly find in other dramas.
If anyone of the crew truly did a bad job, that were people from hair and costuming department. They should never be allowed to dress and style actors again.

My disappointed was immeasurable and my evening ruined. They don't end up together, and Naoki was the only one without a happy ending out of main five. He did start to cook for himself tho.

Yes.

So which are for you then? Any recs?

Oh, good to know, thanks. I thought they hate the scriptwriter or Alan in particular

Yeah, that person is either delusional or a troll with a weird hateboner for this particular drama. Probably none of the things they say about it are actually true. Just look how they made it seem like the show got an additional episode at the last moment, when there's a old comment down below from someone who says that it has been listed with 11 episodes on Viki.

Nowhere for now. You can preorder DVD that comes out in November and will have English subs included.

It wasn't sudden though - I googled the planned episode count weeks ago, and even back then it was stated that the show will have 11 episodes.

Not a bad drama, though I found it disappointing in many ways, IMO (how unrealistically ideal everything went, the last episode, the way they dealt with the biological father, the acting of Fukada Kyoko at times...). My main gripe is that all the way it felt like I was spoon-fed some propaganda, and I don't even mind the propaganda (the declining birthrates are no joke), but it's the "spoon-fed" part that irked me. There were good parts, but they weren't quite enough for me.

You and me both :)

Don't hold your hopes up too much. Eternal boxset haven't been released yet - that comes out in November. The movie itself surfaced online when it was finally streamed on a Japanese streaming platform, but it can take longer with DVDs.

Riku has already starred in a main role in a romance drama before.

The next episode is definitely not the final one. Otherwise they'd say "final" in the preview.

I don't like how episodic the show has got (the conflict of one episode gets resolved and then they never talk about it again) and the way they developed some characters, mainly Takumi. But I'm still enjoying the conversations which got to be among the most natural ones I've heard in dramas.