Bai Hehuai Lover

While I do think the writers bit off a bit more than they could chew, I thoroughly enjoyed this! The first half is really cute and fluffy, but then the second half dives a bit deeper into Suzume's fears and insecurities. While I do think some of these heavier hitting ideas deserved to be explored more - for example, truly grappling with what it means for them to become a couple when Suzume is Keishi's boss - I do think directly bringing up these topics was important. We needed the full picture of why Suzume was so reluctant to admit his feelings so the audience can understand the true gravity of Suzume overcoming those fears and confessing how he feels to Keishi. I mean Suzume has (presumably) spent multiple decades closeted and that is a mindfuck that most people cannot fully understand. He had gotten so accustomed to his solitary life, but then spending time with Keishi made him aware of just how lonely he actually is. Of course the idea of being in a relationship is going to be terrifying to him! Especially when you add in the age difference and the fact that he is in a position of power over Keishi - any repercussions are going to hit Keishi harder and it would be his fault.

I also think the show deals with very real queer experiences in a genuine way. Again, as Suzume has (presumably) spent his life closeted, we see his repression - not in terms of sexuality as there is never a moment of him denying being gay, but in this sense that he feels he doesn't deserve or can't have certain things that are considered normal for straight couples. Keishi and Suzume are caught by the office gossip, and the guy immediately jumps to the conclusion that the two of them are dating just from the two of them being in the same place outside of work - Keishi calls this out as being inappropriate and it (eventually) leads to this coworker questioning his biases. There's also the fact that prior to that the office gossip had repeatedly tried to pressure Suzume to use a dating app to find a girlfriend, and he is rather relentless about it, giving the audience a sense of how suffocating it is to be on Suzume's end of this situation. There's surely other examples I could offer too, but they're escaping me at the moment. Idk, this show definitely isn't perfect, but if nothing else I think it gave a valiant effort to start some conversations.

Also the size difference 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫