maybe reading the manga helps, i have to say i didn't quite understand some of the characters' intentions behind their words and actions. especially regarding ichiko - she treated both love interests badly from the start but the people inside her head keep insisting she doesn't need to apologize to anyone about anything?
this might be a bit of a weird pull, but is anyone else reminded of the short story "the cruel painter" by george macdonald, especially regarding kitaoji kinya's character?
it's surprising how mean the feedback is on this series. i can't say i agree with most of the comments made on it supposedly being boring, cringey, overacted (??) or frustrating. in my opinion it's a quite realistic portrayal of two people who used to be nothing more than classmates (briefly, at that) re-appearing in each other's lives and navigating their feelings towards each other while coming from two entirely different starting points.
as someone who watched a lot of actually god-awful series, a bunch of 'very' to 'kind of' boring series, and quite a bit of genuinely overacted nonsense, i wouldn't count this one as belonging to any of those categories. sorry! maybe the reason for the overly negative opinions are high expectations regarding the actors or just the fact it came out recently after a handful of good (or at least above average) japanese BLs have already come out this year. it's not the best series ever made, but it's a solid little show one can watch on a quiet day.
as for the characters and the piles of "why does he behave in X way?!".....
[spoilers]
why would souta, who it's been established has very little prior experience of liking someone romantically, suddenly be able to not only recognize immediately what he's feeling towards mahiro, but also be able to actually face those feelings? considering we see him as he's still in the middle of learning that it's perfectly commonplace for two men to fall in love with each other (his reaction to ryu/liu's story and the scene in the 11th episode of being afraid of the villagers' reactions) - coupled with the fact he has a habit of prioritizing others' and what they want - why do some think it would be easy for someone in his situation? the show *literally* starts with establishing he really only has one thing that makes him wind down from the stress of spending copious hours working overtime and doing things for others brings him
speaking of established character traits. i could understand some people not understanding mahiro's motivations, since they're not quite as well laid out as souta's and could maybe have benefited of making those flashbacks at the end of each episodes longer than 10 seconds max. but i do think that mahiro's character was just as realistic as souta's. a high school crush that has been held onto for as long as that, especially one on a guy who he barely interacted with in the first place, can't just be 'acted on' with reckless abandon once they finally meet again. sure, some dramas go this route, and with great success, but it's clear from at least the second episode this isn't that kind of story. besides, we learn (mostly through mahiro's conversations with liu), how afraid he is of being hurt, disappointed and especially of ruining what he already has with souta, the lost love he never thought he'd meet again and the grandson of the woman he greatly respected. i don't want to say it's obvious, but it's not that hard to see he's stuck between being grateful for what he has (re-)gained (the line he says in, i believe, the very first episode, as he takes a second to regain his composure in the car after running into his long-time crush for the first time in years (!) is "is this really happening?". do i even need to say more? come on now) and feeling like his love being reciprocated is beyond hopeless. not least of all because of souta repeatedly referring to him and their relationship as those of "brothers", "great friends" or "family members". i don't really see how most people would think or behave differently when suddenly running into a popular person you briefly knew in high school at a critical time in your life, now with both of you being adults.
[/end spoiler]
basically, tl;dr, i didn't expect my sunday evening to be spent defending a relatively short japanese BL series on a public forum... but here we are. excuse any spelling or grammar mistakes, but i also don't care enough to reread what i wrote if you're thinking about watching it, do it. or don't. it's nothing all that groundbreaking at the end of the day. but it definitely also doesn't deserve all that wildly disproportionately negative feedback either, which is the only thing i wanted to be made clear with this comment
as someone who watched a lot of actually god-awful series, a bunch of 'very' to 'kind of' boring series, and quite a bit of genuinely overacted nonsense, i wouldn't count this one as belonging to any of those categories. sorry!
maybe the reason for the overly negative opinions are high expectations regarding the actors or just the fact it came out recently after a handful of good (or at least above average) japanese BLs have already come out this year. it's not the best series ever made, but it's a solid little show one can watch on a quiet day.
as for the characters and the piles of "why does he behave in X way?!".....
[spoilers]
why would souta, who it's been established has very little prior experience of liking someone romantically, suddenly be able to not only recognize immediately what he's feeling towards mahiro, but also be able to actually face those feelings? considering we see him as he's still in the middle of learning that it's perfectly commonplace for two men to fall in love with each other (his reaction to ryu/liu's story and the scene in the 11th episode of being afraid of the villagers' reactions) - coupled with the fact he has a habit of prioritizing others' and what they want - why do some think it would be easy for someone in his situation?
the show *literally* starts with establishing he really only has one thing that makes him wind down from the stress of spending copious hours working overtime and doing things for others brings him
speaking of established character traits. i could understand some people not understanding mahiro's motivations, since they're not quite as well laid out as souta's and could maybe have benefited of making those flashbacks at the end of each episodes longer than 10 seconds max. but i do think that mahiro's character was just as realistic as souta's. a high school crush that has been held onto for as long as that, especially one on a guy who he barely interacted with in the first place, can't just be 'acted on' with reckless abandon once they finally meet again. sure, some dramas go this route, and with great success, but it's clear from at least the second episode this isn't that kind of story. besides, we learn (mostly through mahiro's conversations with liu), how afraid he is of being hurt, disappointed and especially of ruining what he already has with souta, the lost love he never thought he'd meet again and the grandson of the woman he greatly respected.
i don't want to say it's obvious, but it's not that hard to see he's stuck between being grateful for what he has (re-)gained (the line he says in, i believe, the very first episode, as he takes a second to regain his composure in the car after running into his long-time crush for the first time in years (!) is "is this really happening?". do i even need to say more? come on now) and feeling like his love being reciprocated is beyond hopeless. not least of all because of souta repeatedly referring to him and their relationship as those of "brothers", "great friends" or "family members".
i don't really see how most people would think or behave differently when suddenly running into a popular person you briefly knew in high school at a critical time in your life, now with both of you being adults.
[/end spoiler]
basically, tl;dr, i didn't expect my sunday evening to be spent defending a relatively short japanese BL series on a public forum... but here we are. excuse any spelling or grammar mistakes, but i also don't care enough to reread what i wrote
if you're thinking about watching it, do it. or don't. it's nothing all that groundbreaking at the end of the day. but it definitely also doesn't deserve all that wildly disproportionately negative feedback either, which is the only thing i wanted to be made clear with this comment