Swivla

Overall I felt like this was a strong drama. At its core, the emotional portrayal by both leads is top notch. The supporting cast is all very good, other than the villain who has a jarringly cartoonish demeanor.

Early on I found it a bit hard to follow, due to the amount of flashing back, and maybe not enough indicators whether a given scene is present time or not. This sort of small editing choice made it hard to keep a perspective on the characters' emotional states in any given scene. Not terrible, but for me it was a noticeable drag. Maybe it adds rewatch value?

But by the second half, what before were just some questionable editing jumps, turns into a pile of either plotholes or very unsatisfying writing choices. A lack of consequences becomes a pattern, and people reacting inexplicably, or the reasons for a plot reversal are just never communicated. This pattern reaches a culmination in the final episodes.

Luckily there is a season two, so maybe if they felt rushed, they can sort out some of that ending still.

Ok recap--

THE GOOD:
- I actually love getting stories where queer people have biological children. Life is complicated
- No but for real the leads are amazing
- And yes the office friend crew vibe is on point
- ...did Imase produce this. idc I am onboard with the soundtrack

THE BAD:
- Personally found it hard to follow the emotional landscape between flashbacks and present day.
- Cartoonish villain is almost compelling but the writing just didn't support her behavior. There was a real story that could have been told about her toxic obsession, but it was reduced to a scooby doo villain
- Often Fuyu's behavior doesn't make sense. Which sometimes can be believable, emotions can make people do things that even they don't understand.
- Fuyu was straight up worse than the villain -- no seriously, almost beat for beat the villain enters the office and does each of the same things that Fuyu did when she joined the team, but the villain did each one like 5% less harshly. But then we act like only the villain was toxic. I never felt like Fuyu regretted any of it.
- Rushed ending
- Major plot points never resolved: The mom that bribed her is never brought up again, and also is never brought up as a concern anymore. Considering the impact of that action, ignoring it is wild. The BFF is also never brought up again, she exclaims 'You did it for that selfish reason!' storms off, and we just never hear anything from her about it again.
- If i hear 'Well in China.." one more time, I will scream. Not only is it super repetitive but also it is such a weird framing to portray the Chinese company behavior and perspective this way.

No but for real, no consequences or just plotlines that are started but don't land an emotional resolution:
- Fuyu never takes responsibility for any of her toxicity except when she's breaking down and apologizing vaguely, but even that seems to just be misdirecting blame away from her mom onto herself?
- The mom that caused this entire misunderstanding, gets absolutely zero consequences or even plot resolution.
- Even Itsuki doesn't really own her role in the original breakup. Everything is just carried by vibes, things are forgiven just because the chemistry is so damn good XD No I mean, I get it, but also these are opportunities to enrich stories about serious emotions. Reduced to a superficial gesture at depth.
- The office villain gets handwaved off stage, I guess she loses her job? No emotional resolution about her actual crush motivation for being a crazy villain about everything.
- The person Fuyu fired just returns to the team. Nobody talks about it ever again.
- Itsuki's BFF gets no consequences for betraying her other than scolding/ghosting, he just gets an epilogue where he gives the money back to return the photo (as if that could be a thing??) tbh this is one of the clearest plotline endings so I guess we should be happy with this much.
- The spy is never confronted by anyone, actively continues to be present in the story and gets a seemingly happy ending at the animation studio. This betrayal was actually a major twist but just never given an emotional resolution, other than some implication that she helped flip the animation studio by telling them that 90% of them would be fired at the new company. I guess offscreen we forgived and forgot? tbh significant harm being responded to with the barest of apology is an unpleasant pattern in this drama.
- The husband goes to the store and doesn't come home for DAYS. Yes I think he was being mistreated in the relationship, but there is a kid involved, his character at least deserves the space in the story to explain what was going on or what he needs to change. Just a vague 'my bad' and an ending where they both are just like 'uh i want to keep trying' without actually talking about any of their issues, and they have multiple big ones.
- And obviously the main couple's ending is the worst offender of all. Gestures at major decisions without any real discussion followed by gestures at undoing those decisions. I don't even care if you are going to flip and flop back and forth, but can we just get clear landing of each emotional beat? Why the flip? What is the consequences of the flop? So many opportunities to add texture and depth, just skipped.

Maybe in season 2