deepswamp

I think the English title could be better. Instead I would suggest "The Correct Way to Interpret Love" because it is a love story of misunderstanding and misinterpretation. The original Japanese title literally means " The Correct Way to Indicate How You Pronounce Kanji 恋愛” but I think the title means more than that.

Natsuo tells Hiroshi, without knowing who he really is, in his high school days somebody showed him how to read Chinese characters by putting notations to them in a gardening book. Natsuo also says the experience made him study a little harder and helped him avoid repeating a school year, enabling him to find his current job after graduation. He compares the experience somebody sowed a seed in him and he hopes that today's experience will work out similar way for the small boy.

If interested in what Rubi means, you can check wikipedia in English for Ruby Character. In this context in Japanese, rubi is synonymous with furigana as Hiroshi put notations to Chinese characters in his gardening book for Natsuo, who repeatedly mispronounce them.

The story is based on the original author/ screenwriter/director, Adachi Shin's own life. In addition, the drama was shot at his own apartment.

I think Fujisawa regards Nakarai Sei as a beautiful sculpture perhaps like Michelangelo's David. The way he treats Sei's second toe looks like inspecting a repair job done without his supervision. It appears to me when he finds out his perfect embodiment of beauty was spoiled, he acts like a toddler: strong urge to destroy it himself. Nakarai Sei's beauty must be an inspiration for Fujisawa' work. In ep 3 Hagiwara has pointed out Nakarai's bag and wallet suit just for Nakarai. Of course they were designed by Fujisawa!

I think when Hagiwara protested he is not her pet dog, Kaori's attitude changed slightly but significantly inside. It must have struck her code. she confessed her problems with her exes, while her original game plan appers to be insisting everything was his fault even with that nasty homophobic comment. Now that she admits herself of the problem, I hope it would be the start of her redemption.

There is not a preview for the last episode at the end of ep 6. Natsuki Takahashi, the main director, explained via a X post, that she suggested to delete a preview for the final to maximize time for the ep 6. She said a preview was made, but MBS, the broadcaster, hasn't released it yet judging from its homepage.

In Japanese, Nakarai's first name, Sei, has exactly same pronunciation as sex. So in ep4 when Fujisawa says" Sei, that's what you want, isn't it?", he means buying a new television set but it also sounds like "Sex, that's what you want, isn't it?"

In ep1 Kaori warned Hagiwara your secrets are all in your smartphone. Then she added she would not check his.　Now she's gone with it...

I think Nakarai feels he is obligated for Fujisawa's support just after his parents' tragic death. He hasn't realized the support is actually Fujisawa's controlling mechanism over him. Fujisawa adores his beauty, which might be an inspiration for his work, but that is not love or friendship. Nakarai is as well as a sculpture for him. It seems Fujisawa would do anything to keep poor Nakarai that way.

An interesting point. I think Yoh gets what he craves for from his weatherman while what Nakarai gets from Fujisawa is a television.

Those who doubt Fujisawa's abusiveness should go back to ep.4.
When Nakarai encountered one of his old college friends Hiraiwa after dinned with Hagiwara. Hiraiwa mentioned: When Nakarai' parents died, Hiraiwa and others could communicate with him only through Fujisawa, who apparently didn't give Hiraiwa's message to Nakarai either. It seems to me Fujisawa is isolating Nakarai from others. Nakarai then told Hiraiwa that he didn't have a Line account, the main tool of communication in Japan now. Very unusual. I suspect Fujisawa discourages using it. To put it simply, I think Fujisawa is a psychopath.

Kirino might believe he is doing the right thing for his mother. But what he and his mother did not realize was they would impose on his future wife and children exactly what they had been going through: loveless marriage and growing up in such a family.  When Kirino and Mishima parted at the end of their bicycle trip, they said good luck to each other, but I would not say that to Kirino, who, in Japanese original, restarted using very manly "Ore ", ditching feminine "Atashi"  talking to  Mishima presumably to demonstrate his determination: maybe poignant but very wrong.

Reminds me my high school senpai.

I mean Kabekoji

The school is the same one as My Beautiful Man and Nekokoji.

Takoyaki is an Osaka staple. Everybody there knows how to cook Takoyaki and most of them have their own Takoyaki Pan.
But not someone from Tokyo like Soga.

Right. The guy with glasses has just moved to Osaka from Tokyo.

One interesting thing about this drama is an affair between boys from Osaka and Tokyo.
Their culture and language are very different and could easily cause some serious misunderstandings.
Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro Ka is quite a distinctive Osaka expression, "I fancy you, how about you?"

And those glasses remind Segasaki Mansan's husband.