BLISS RATING: ★+
“I’m so afraid to love you, but more afraid to lose. Clinging to a past that doesn’t let me choose” – Sarah McLachlan
In my review of Season One of this series, I stated that this story was about a May-December enchantment between Minato (Kusakawa Takuya), the owner of a local coin laundry, and Shin (Nishigaki Sho), then a local high school student. While it appeared that Minato waffled at making life decisions, I was one of the few who believed he did not. All his decisions were focused, thought-out carefully, and calculated for the betterment of all involved around him. His hesitancy was not wanting to hurt others; not in making decisions.
In Season Two, I was proven wrong; very wrong. Minato is unable to make decisions, especially ones involving the heart. There is such a disconnect between his head and his heart that I am not sure he will ever completely get over this disconnect.
To be honest, this was one of the most exasperating series I have ever watched. In a few instances I found myself getting so angry with Minato that if I were literally his friend in real life, I would have told him that his behavior towards Shin is tantamount to emotional abuse if not neglect. He is an awful character and frankly does not deserve the adulation that Shin heaps on him daily. Shin is the worst kind of fool as he cannot ‘see’ (does not want to see) how toxic Minato really is. One day, he will wake up and realize that he is. That will be a sad day.
Shin’s youthfulness and his abject loyalty to Minato blinds him to seeing what is right in front of him. If Shin was a female, perhaps the ‘ah shucks, it ain’t so bad’ mindset that I have read about this series would be viewed in a different light and may be more obvious. It really is just awful. It is not funny, and I found it completely craven.
The irony is that Minato’s knows his behavior is inappropriate and he is himself ‘stuck’ somewhere in a strange (im)maturity loop, fearing what comes next. While I am no psychoanalyst, something in his past prevents Minato from committing himself to someone on a full scale. Of showing his vulnerability. Of seeing, touching, and feeling intimacy. While Shin has boundless amounts of that, it cannot continue forever without some reciprocity and before long, he will someday sense and realize Minato’s’ deep unwillingness to commit.
There is no point in rehashing the story. Very little has changed from Season One. Although Minato and Shin are in a ‘relationship’, perhaps on an intellectual basis, there is little on an emotional one and nothing on a physical level. To have one on an emotional one, you NEED two people and a willingness to commit. Ditto for a physical one.
There is a secondary relationship also continued from the first season as well. Shin’s school friend, Asuka (Oka Tomoya) who is an astute and gregarious individual continues his relationship with an ‘older’ man, Shuu (Inaba Yu), who is, at the very least, an odd character. Shuu too is emotionally damaging towards Asuka but in his case, he seems more akin to what he is doing and wants to and tries to change. However, his personality is almost incapable of fully committing himself to Asuka, but he does like and enjoys the company of Asuka. He realizes that if Asuka was not in his life, his life would be and feel empty. Like Shin, Asuka is young and inexperienced in the ways of living and does not see that this kind of relationship is toxic.
While not as dysfunctional as the one between Minato and Shin, their prospects of being successful seem bleak and in a real sense passionless. Shuu is only comfortable doing the minimum to maintain Asuka’s interest in him. While satisfactory for Asuika now, this will no doubt wear thin as time goes on. He, like Shin, will want and need, something, anything, deeper in a relationship than what these two ‘older men’ can give them.
Sure, the first season was cute, funny, and entertaining, but I found this second season to be profoundly sad, pathetic, not at all entertaining, and not hopeful. And very, very dysfunctional to say nothing of being emotionally abusive. Even at the very end, Minato still cannot be himself and let his walls down.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? Since this is a continuation of who these characters were in Season One, there was frankly not much of an acting challenge for any of them. However, I do think Nishigaki Sho as Shin was outstanding and had to dig deeper. He had a greater range this time than simply transitioning from childhood to adulthood. He had to play someone with amnesia yet not fully understand or see the complete connection to Minato. That part of him felt raw, real, and so rudimentary. He seemed honest and not clouded by unfiltered love. He became angry with Minato for not being able to express himself in a way that made Shin feel wanted and needed.
Indeed, there are some very poignant moments in this series that almost made me want to give it a higher rating. Briefly, I thought Minato learned his lesson when Shin was hospitalized but still, he just could not fully commit himself to Shin. Even at the end when they consummated their relationship, he continues to act like an embarrassed teenage boy caught with his pants down doing something ‘wrong’.
Wrong imagery. Wrong message. Minato is simply toxic and will always be so. While Asuka and Shuu are slightly better in terms of commitment in their struggles to develop a relationship, theirs will also never be in any sense of the word an intimate one either as Shuu is incapable of that. I feel sad for both Asuka and Shin. They are so deeply in love with rather unlovable individuals.
Frankly, I also thought for the writers and the story to go into the direction of Shin having amnesia was a cheap shot and an asinine way to deal with the story. Deal with what is in front of you. Have Shin get angry with Minato’s lack of commitment to him. Ask him why so he can confront his fears. Deal with the emotional abusiveness from both Minato and Shuu with a deeper understanding of what that is doing to Shin and Asuka and their emotional and sexual needs for a change.
Make Shin ‘grow up’ (as well as Asuka someday) and see and feel that others can and will love him on his level. That was ‘teased’ but never fully developed or challenged seriously. Shin should see that he has options in life; one that he has a choice that there are others out there who will love him as equally as he loves. Do not keep trying to make co-dependent relationships funny as they are simply not.
I hated this series and detested what messages they leave behind, trying somehow to make toxicity entertaining. I simply did not find this series even remotely amusing.
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