This review may contain spoilers
Lots to love, but needed more development before the end
NO spoilers section:
There were some aspects of the characters and story that I thought were interesting and generally handled well, but suffered for not being distinct enough from tropes I'm tired of seeing. I always like when characters have complex feelings and struggle to figure out whether they're platonic or romantic, but I dislike that many BLs still shy away from the word "gay" or even letting their characters say they probably like men in general, not just one specific man. To the show's benefit, I do think they took Natsuki liking a man very seriously and that helped me forgive them a bit. Also, in a story where the characters can read somewhere on the aro or ace spectrum, it's kinda nice to avoid labels because a hard definition can feel like its limiting the depth & complexity of their feelings. But again, because of the world we live in, forgoing a label means leaving room for deniability. These characters aren't gay, they just happen to like this one man, and they aren't aro/ace adjacent, they just rarely develop romantic feelings and don't seem to pursue physical contact.
I will say, the last point is probably a result of the lead actors being in the same idol group. I think a relationship can be well-written and developed without a focus on physical/sexual connection, but I do think their relationship suffers from so few physically-charged moments. I can tell these actors can have physical chemistry, but the show won't let them and it's a bit frustrating. Even for a relationship where the line between platonic and romantic is blurred, I think close physical contact (even avoiding contact that is outright sexual/romantic) can do a lot for their development and showing how much they like each other. I'll talk about this later, but I think I could've forgiven the lack of physical contact if they had more time to spend on the main relationship and the character's feelings in the last half of the show. Really, they just needed more episodes... The actors do a great job expressing their characters' feelings when they're given scenes that focus on them, but there's just not enough of those toward the end, especially between the leads specifically.
In general, the acting is amazing in this show and the characters are great. All the side characters are fun to watch, and Natsuki's family dynamic was really a highlight for me. I honestly loved how important they were to the story, especially his sister Rio. (Not just in relation to the initial premise!!) She's honestly so awesome and might be my favorite character. I loved how much focus the family got in the last half of the show, even though it takes away from the main relationship developing. This is where the show shines, in terms of showing each family member's reaction to Natsuki liking a boy and the narrative taking it so seriously. Homophobia and bigotry aren't absent from this world and I think they strike a good balance between addressing that and keeping things more lighthearted. Natsuki's family loves each other so much, which makes the tension of not knowing if that love is actually unconditional hit harder. I also didn't mind the side plot with the parents, since it leads into the problems caused by their dad's traditionalism, though I would really really love if there was like 1000% less AI in this show.
And that's my biggest complaint, even more so than the rushed last episode: There's so much AI used by characters in the show. And I can tell the writing is genuinely trying to show it as a normal helpful tool, even though every time Natsuki uses it, it gives him bad advice that sucks and has a huge chance of pushing him into an illogical anxious freakout. I genuinely laughed out loud when he asked it about love multiple times and it kept saying "a man and a woman blah blah blah." That instance was almost definitely the writing team doing it on purpose, but it's so ridiculous to be cognizant of the problems/biases with predictive language models, and then continue to earnestly show characters using it. Not to mention the one scene with obviously AI-generated portraits at a party, and another scene where characters praise AI for helping one of them talk through and understand more about someone being gay.
It's also just so difficult to fully enjoy some parts of this show when I know AI could be anywhere. Is the music good? What if it's AI? What about that interstitial animation? That cute dog art? How much of this script was written by humans??? It makes me so mad. It's terrible because there's so much I liked about this show, and I have to believe there's so much honest human work put into this production, but some people working on it decided the environmental impact and loss of work for other creatives was okay to make their lives a little easier or cheaper. Every bit of television and film we get is the product of countless people doing countless jobs, and I hate seeing that work devalued by AI. If the only reason this show was well-written is because it was half-written by AI, I'd rather watch a version written terribly by humans, because the same human actors, directors, cinematographers, ADs, ACs, boom mic ops, sound mixers, lighting techs, electrical techs, production designers, script supervisors, PAs, editors, sound designers, VFX artists, graphic designers, and dog handlers will still be there trying to make the best show they can. If it turns out terrible, so what, that's just being human, but I can easily say removing the AI would've only improved this show.
In conclusion, I thought this one was worth watching, but it didn't stick the landing for me with the main relationship. They handled a decently large supporting cast for a BL very well, and I think the focus on Natsuki and his family was enjoyable enough for me to recommend this one as more of a coming of age gay story than a romcom, with elements of melodrama. I'm not sure I'd recommend supporting officially with how I personally feel about the AI stuff, though.
Okay, this is the SPOILERS section:
First: I'm on Rio's side and I think she's so funny. I might rewatch the show just to see how she and Sota act in the first half knowing she's not actually dating him lol. She's such a fun character to me because she's a caring but annoying big sister and a nice person, while also being genuinely kind of insensitive and free-spirited. I feel like I rarely get to see women like that and I love it about her. When she took Rock out without telling anybody, I was so mad, like girl, your crybaby little brother was freaking out. They're clearly all used to her being like this but I would've been mad at her for like a week if that was my dog. But again, the characterization is great because when she reveals he's not her boyfriend, I was immediately like "Oh my god it makes so much sense." Not that she's been obviously just a friend, but that she'd think it's totally fine to call him "boy friend" in English and their hangouts "dates" and then not get that people think they're dating. She's just weird like that and doesn't explain things and it's awesome.
Anyway, as I've already mentioned, my other main problem with the show is the development of the main relationship, especially in the latter half. I think what it really needed was at least two more episodes added to the length of the show. To me, the main three things (simplified) to spend time with in the show to reach a satisfactory conclusion are 1. Natsuki's feelings 2. Natsuki's family and 3. Sota's feelings. We get a good amount of focus on the first two, but it never really feels like we get to develop the last one.
The first section of the show (episodes 1-5) focuses mostly on Natsuki's feelings, especially in relation to the initial conflict of "Oh shittt I can't like my sister's boyfriend!!!!!" It also sets up his family's dynamic and builds his relationship with Sota to a point where you can tell Natsuki likes him, but Sota's feelings are still a mystery and none of their interactions have really gone beyond strong platonic feelings. I honestly feel like this section is pretty well-paced and it ended with me being so anxious for how things were going to play out, and really hoping they'd get more into Sota's feelings
The next section of the show (episodes 5-9) is defined by Natsuki's family and the immediate aftermath of Natsuki's confession to me. There's a little bit of time spent with the main relationship, but the only actual development comes entirely from Sota responding to Natsuki's feelings and them deciding to try being close in an unlabeled way. Most of the focus is on Natsuki's relationships with his family members and their discovery of him liking Sota/their reactions. This is also where the side plot about his parents' anniversary is wrapped up. Sota's feelings remain pretty undecided, even in the scene where he helps Natsuki try to explain things to his dad. I also thought this section was mostly well-paced, though it has the most egregious uses of AI. I would've liked more development with the main relationship and the anniversary side plot to wrap up faster, but if they'd had time to get into it after this, I would've been fine with what they did do. I'm glad we got a bit more Sota time in this section, but it still wasn't enough to feel like I got a good sense of his feelings or how they've grown.
And then we get one episode dedicated to Sota going abroad to England, his birthday, and whether their relationship will develop or be lost. And they kind of choose neither? Which to be honest, I would've been fine with, if it had felt like their relationship had developed at all before this. The going abroad thing is such a trope, but I wouldn't hate it here if we'd spent more time with it. All of my complaints are just "Can we please get some more time spent on this?" Everything they've spent time on, I feel like they stuck the landing on pretty well, so I don't even feel like I need to give a specific writing direction. I just think if we turned one episode into three or four, they could've spread out everything that was in that last episode, added more development to the actual relationship and shown Sota's feelings evolve, and then ended it the same way. It'd give us and the characters more time to feel the pressure of "England" on deciding their feelings before then, make the birthday scene more impactful with more tension before it or time for them to be alone during it, build up to Sota running away from his feelings more, and give us an actual unlabeled relationship to end on. That's all I'd need for it to be much more satisfying, but sadly it's too late and we got the version with 10 episodes instead of 12.
There were some aspects of the characters and story that I thought were interesting and generally handled well, but suffered for not being distinct enough from tropes I'm tired of seeing. I always like when characters have complex feelings and struggle to figure out whether they're platonic or romantic, but I dislike that many BLs still shy away from the word "gay" or even letting their characters say they probably like men in general, not just one specific man. To the show's benefit, I do think they took Natsuki liking a man very seriously and that helped me forgive them a bit. Also, in a story where the characters can read somewhere on the aro or ace spectrum, it's kinda nice to avoid labels because a hard definition can feel like its limiting the depth & complexity of their feelings. But again, because of the world we live in, forgoing a label means leaving room for deniability. These characters aren't gay, they just happen to like this one man, and they aren't aro/ace adjacent, they just rarely develop romantic feelings and don't seem to pursue physical contact.
I will say, the last point is probably a result of the lead actors being in the same idol group. I think a relationship can be well-written and developed without a focus on physical/sexual connection, but I do think their relationship suffers from so few physically-charged moments. I can tell these actors can have physical chemistry, but the show won't let them and it's a bit frustrating. Even for a relationship where the line between platonic and romantic is blurred, I think close physical contact (even avoiding contact that is outright sexual/romantic) can do a lot for their development and showing how much they like each other. I'll talk about this later, but I think I could've forgiven the lack of physical contact if they had more time to spend on the main relationship and the character's feelings in the last half of the show. Really, they just needed more episodes... The actors do a great job expressing their characters' feelings when they're given scenes that focus on them, but there's just not enough of those toward the end, especially between the leads specifically.
In general, the acting is amazing in this show and the characters are great. All the side characters are fun to watch, and Natsuki's family dynamic was really a highlight for me. I honestly loved how important they were to the story, especially his sister Rio. (Not just in relation to the initial premise!!) She's honestly so awesome and might be my favorite character. I loved how much focus the family got in the last half of the show, even though it takes away from the main relationship developing. This is where the show shines, in terms of showing each family member's reaction to Natsuki liking a boy and the narrative taking it so seriously. Homophobia and bigotry aren't absent from this world and I think they strike a good balance between addressing that and keeping things more lighthearted. Natsuki's family loves each other so much, which makes the tension of not knowing if that love is actually unconditional hit harder. I also didn't mind the side plot with the parents, since it leads into the problems caused by their dad's traditionalism, though I would really really love if there was like 1000% less AI in this show.
And that's my biggest complaint, even more so than the rushed last episode: There's so much AI used by characters in the show. And I can tell the writing is genuinely trying to show it as a normal helpful tool, even though every time Natsuki uses it, it gives him bad advice that sucks and has a huge chance of pushing him into an illogical anxious freakout. I genuinely laughed out loud when he asked it about love multiple times and it kept saying "a man and a woman blah blah blah." That instance was almost definitely the writing team doing it on purpose, but it's so ridiculous to be cognizant of the problems/biases with predictive language models, and then continue to earnestly show characters using it. Not to mention the one scene with obviously AI-generated portraits at a party, and another scene where characters praise AI for helping one of them talk through and understand more about someone being gay.
It's also just so difficult to fully enjoy some parts of this show when I know AI could be anywhere. Is the music good? What if it's AI? What about that interstitial animation? That cute dog art? How much of this script was written by humans??? It makes me so mad. It's terrible because there's so much I liked about this show, and I have to believe there's so much honest human work put into this production, but some people working on it decided the environmental impact and loss of work for other creatives was okay to make their lives a little easier or cheaper. Every bit of television and film we get is the product of countless people doing countless jobs, and I hate seeing that work devalued by AI. If the only reason this show was well-written is because it was half-written by AI, I'd rather watch a version written terribly by humans, because the same human actors, directors, cinematographers, ADs, ACs, boom mic ops, sound mixers, lighting techs, electrical techs, production designers, script supervisors, PAs, editors, sound designers, VFX artists, graphic designers, and dog handlers will still be there trying to make the best show they can. If it turns out terrible, so what, that's just being human, but I can easily say removing the AI would've only improved this show.
In conclusion, I thought this one was worth watching, but it didn't stick the landing for me with the main relationship. They handled a decently large supporting cast for a BL very well, and I think the focus on Natsuki and his family was enjoyable enough for me to recommend this one as more of a coming of age gay story than a romcom, with elements of melodrama. I'm not sure I'd recommend supporting officially with how I personally feel about the AI stuff, though.
Okay, this is the SPOILERS section:
First: I'm on Rio's side and I think she's so funny. I might rewatch the show just to see how she and Sota act in the first half knowing she's not actually dating him lol. She's such a fun character to me because she's a caring but annoying big sister and a nice person, while also being genuinely kind of insensitive and free-spirited. I feel like I rarely get to see women like that and I love it about her. When she took Rock out without telling anybody, I was so mad, like girl, your crybaby little brother was freaking out. They're clearly all used to her being like this but I would've been mad at her for like a week if that was my dog. But again, the characterization is great because when she reveals he's not her boyfriend, I was immediately like "Oh my god it makes so much sense." Not that she's been obviously just a friend, but that she'd think it's totally fine to call him "boy friend" in English and their hangouts "dates" and then not get that people think they're dating. She's just weird like that and doesn't explain things and it's awesome.
Anyway, as I've already mentioned, my other main problem with the show is the development of the main relationship, especially in the latter half. I think what it really needed was at least two more episodes added to the length of the show. To me, the main three things (simplified) to spend time with in the show to reach a satisfactory conclusion are 1. Natsuki's feelings 2. Natsuki's family and 3. Sota's feelings. We get a good amount of focus on the first two, but it never really feels like we get to develop the last one.
The first section of the show (episodes 1-5) focuses mostly on Natsuki's feelings, especially in relation to the initial conflict of "Oh shittt I can't like my sister's boyfriend!!!!!" It also sets up his family's dynamic and builds his relationship with Sota to a point where you can tell Natsuki likes him, but Sota's feelings are still a mystery and none of their interactions have really gone beyond strong platonic feelings. I honestly feel like this section is pretty well-paced and it ended with me being so anxious for how things were going to play out, and really hoping they'd get more into Sota's feelings
The next section of the show (episodes 5-9) is defined by Natsuki's family and the immediate aftermath of Natsuki's confession to me. There's a little bit of time spent with the main relationship, but the only actual development comes entirely from Sota responding to Natsuki's feelings and them deciding to try being close in an unlabeled way. Most of the focus is on Natsuki's relationships with his family members and their discovery of him liking Sota/their reactions. This is also where the side plot about his parents' anniversary is wrapped up. Sota's feelings remain pretty undecided, even in the scene where he helps Natsuki try to explain things to his dad. I also thought this section was mostly well-paced, though it has the most egregious uses of AI. I would've liked more development with the main relationship and the anniversary side plot to wrap up faster, but if they'd had time to get into it after this, I would've been fine with what they did do. I'm glad we got a bit more Sota time in this section, but it still wasn't enough to feel like I got a good sense of his feelings or how they've grown.
And then we get one episode dedicated to Sota going abroad to England, his birthday, and whether their relationship will develop or be lost. And they kind of choose neither? Which to be honest, I would've been fine with, if it had felt like their relationship had developed at all before this. The going abroad thing is such a trope, but I wouldn't hate it here if we'd spent more time with it. All of my complaints are just "Can we please get some more time spent on this?" Everything they've spent time on, I feel like they stuck the landing on pretty well, so I don't even feel like I need to give a specific writing direction. I just think if we turned one episode into three or four, they could've spread out everything that was in that last episode, added more development to the actual relationship and shown Sota's feelings evolve, and then ended it the same way. It'd give us and the characters more time to feel the pressure of "England" on deciding their feelings before then, make the birthday scene more impactful with more tension before it or time for them to be alone during it, build up to Sota running away from his feelings more, and give us an actual unlabeled relationship to end on. That's all I'd need for it to be much more satisfying, but sadly it's too late and we got the version with 10 episodes instead of 12.
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