Tbh I think I would've preferred it if she'd started out as a straight up villain who evolves into a better person as she realizes that getting what she wants through lying isn't worth the price of her soul. Instead she's a practically perfect heroine who deserves to win the game but gets thwarted by cartoon villains so the weight of her deceptions is never really felt in a meaningful way. Because she's obviously a good person, none of her actions truly feel questionable. That of course is why the drama is such a huge hit.
Not hating but I do not get Manamis crush on Kaoru. At what point and why does she start to like him?he was using…
Sorry for the late response but I'm catching up on comments after dodging spoilers for months. I think she truly fell in love with him the night at The Joker when she tells Akina he's not stupid. That's also when he truly fell for her. She needed the provocation of Akina humiliating Taiga for her feelings to finally come together. And he didn't understand she wasn't just a target until she became the first person to say he wasn't stupid. That's why he hugged her and was willing to sleep with her even though of course she was too decent to do anything at that point.
This piece of the OST ‘Gomen-ne Chiwawa Sensei’ is just SO 'serenading' yet decimates me with so much yearning…
Episode 6 is incredible but I started a rewatch last night and after the first two episodes I was struck by how everything that led up to episode 6 is what contributed to the impact. The show really makes you feel their struggles, pain and loneliness so when they finally get one "last" bittersweet day together It feels so cathartic and yet there's an undercurrent of sadness through the whole thing leading up to the goodbye at the gate. The whole drama was put together so beautifully. I just wish they'd been able to film the 12th episode.
I want to write a review but I've got so many thoughts and feelings swirling in my head about this drama that I'm having trouble writing about it coherently 😭
ngl i thought the dad was gonna flip out at any moment and stab his wife or something. man had serious issues.…
I'm not sure it was intended to be a redemption. More like once the women stood up to him he deflated because he was always a bully who needed to believe the women were weaker than him.
I suggest you read through all of the threads in the discussion section, there's so much visual storytelling and symbolism going on in the drama that's easy to miss: https://kisskh.at/discussions/793096-ai-no-gakko
Thinking of the final beach scene with Taiga and Manami writing the kanji for love over and over again in the sand. Taiga got it wrong in his letter (representing how he unnecessarily broke things off with Manami) but then he practiced with her to get it right. It reminds me of this quote from an Ursula K. Leguin novel:
“Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.”
In the case of Manamii and Taiga, their love doesn't just sit there, like a stone. It has to be rewritten, like the kanji in the sand, rewritten all the time, made new. That's why I have hope that their love will last (that and the Easter eggs pointing that way).
Venting students = it's a japanese cultural thing that when you're experiencing deep and conflicting emotions…
I also interpreted it as Manami allowing herself to seem human and vulnerable with her students and so they feel angry and abandoned that she left the school. It's almost like her class was the only place they felt like they could breathe.
A month ago, I posted on Reddit’s Kdrama sub, confessing my exhaustion with formulaic shows, those predictable…
Omo was it me? 😅 I recommended the show several times on the Kdrama sub and I've gotten people on Bluesky to watch so I'm a serious evangelist for this drama!
While I actually do agree with you that this is such an overused trope in jdramas, I feel like the “break up”…
I found out they originally planned 12 episodes but the FL actress became ill during filming and Raul had commitments he couldn't change so they had to rewrite they ending. Alas it shows.
Munju turned out to be a big zero to be honest. What did she actually do? Everything in the drama happened because of side characters, not because of any action she took on her own. also honestly when the big reveal happened about her husband and mother-in-law it made Munju seem like a freaking idiot. Didn't know her husband was cheating on her, didn't know her husband had a kid, didn't know her mother-in-law was a freaking international arms dealer and she was living in the same house as these people. What a waste. I was enjoying it for the first three episodes and then it all went to hell.
I wish this was legally available because it's so sweet and funny and kind but I can't recommend it to anyone because most people I know won't go hunting for it.
"In understanding the place of homosexuality in the lives of masculine-identifiied Thai men…it is necessary to appreciate that the Thai heterosexual male is presented with three cultural models of masculine sexuality…he can, and should, have a chief wife (mia luang) to whom he has a long term social and economic commitment.
But if he is wealthy enough, he can have one or more, long-term lovers or “minor wives (mia noi), and he can also seek sexual gratification with a prostitute (sopheni).
In Thailand extramarital relations for heterosexual males have significant social tolerance, although not always approval, and can also include sexual relations with other men.
However, because homosexual relations are by definition extramarital, they are perceived as peripheral to the central focus of the family.
Indeed, to be acceptable within the traditional Thai sex/gender system, homosexual relations between gender normative males should remain secondary to a primary marital or de facto heterosexual (reproductive) relationship.
The operation of these values, in which homosexuality is tolerated so long as it remains marginalized, commonly leads both heterosexuals and homosexuals to perceive male homosexuality as being of a similar character to relations with a minor wife or prostitute. That is, the idea that a man could commit himself to a relationship with another man in the same way he commits himself to a wife is alien to the traditional Thai schema of masculinity.
Homosexual relations between men, if acknowledged, are generally seen as transient. Nevertheless, so long as homosexuality remains on a level similar to relations with a prostitute or minor wife, and does not threaten the primary, reproductive relation with the chief wife, a Thai homosexual man’s masculine identity can often remain largely intact." -------------
There's more in the Tumblr post and I recommend you click through and read the whole thing, it's fascinating and does a lot to explain (not excuse or justify) Dhevi's actions.
"If you're wondering if the last scene with the three of them is a reasonable one,
I want you to remember how hard Kaworu has worked.
We tend to take it for granted that capable people should do the hard work of those who can't,
but that's not true. There's a huge difference between watching from the sidelines and not watching, which is why I was so frustrated."
I suggest you read through all of the threads in the discussion section, there's so much visual storytelling and symbolism going on in the drama that's easy to miss: https://kisskh.at/discussions/793096-ai-no-gakko
“Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.”
In the case of Manamii and Taiga, their love doesn't just sit there, like a stone. It has to be rewritten, like the kanji in the sand, rewritten all the time, made new. That's why I have hope that their love will last (that and the Easter eggs pointing that way).
https://www.tumblr.com/heaven-is-in-your-arms-series/795477820956672000/an-understanding-of-the-traditional-thai-attitudes
----------
"In understanding the place of homosexuality in the lives of masculine-identifiied Thai men…it is necessary to appreciate that the Thai heterosexual male is presented with three cultural models of masculine sexuality…he can, and should, have a chief wife (mia luang) to whom he has a long term social and economic commitment.
But if he is wealthy enough, he can have one or more, long-term lovers or “minor wives (mia noi), and he can also seek sexual gratification with a prostitute (sopheni).
In Thailand extramarital relations for heterosexual males have significant social tolerance, although not always approval, and can also include sexual relations with other men.
However, because homosexual relations are by definition extramarital, they are perceived as peripheral to the central focus of the family.
Indeed, to be acceptable within the traditional Thai sex/gender system, homosexual relations between gender normative males should remain secondary to a primary marital or de facto heterosexual (reproductive) relationship.
The operation of these values, in which homosexuality is tolerated so long as it remains marginalized, commonly leads both heterosexuals and homosexuals to perceive male homosexuality as being of a similar character to relations with a minor wife or prostitute. That is, the idea that a man could commit himself to a relationship with another man in the same way he commits himself to a wife is alien to the traditional Thai schema of masculinity.
Homosexual relations between men, if acknowledged, are generally seen as transient.
Nevertheless, so long as homosexuality remains on a level similar to relations with a prostitute or minor wife, and does not threaten the primary, reproductive relation with the chief wife, a Thai homosexual man’s masculine identity can often remain largely intact."
-------------
There's more in the Tumblr post and I recommend you click through and read the whole thing, it's fascinating and does a lot to explain (not excuse or justify) Dhevi's actions.