BLISS RATING: ★★★
“I will wait for you as long as it takes. I will love you every moment across time.” – Lauren Kate
This series looks and feels good, superficially. It had all the earmarks of being a very good story but fell so flat as the story progressed. It seemed to lack an ending that wanted to make a definitive statement; so, it chose to go cute.
The story starts out well. Sakae (Kan Hideyoshi), an owner of a small restaurant, is a very handsome and rather charming effervescent young man who is in a relationship with an equally handsome and bubbly young man named Mizuki (Okuno So). While Sakae is committed to the relationship, Mizuki is not and is soon on his way to other adventures and conquests, leaving Sakae devastated and lost. And of course, lonely.
One day, a newcomer walks in by the name of Soga (Nishiyama Jun) who recently relocated from Tokyo to Osaka. Soga is a quiet, reserved, serious but handsome young man. For some reason, perhaps his quiet aura of formality that surrounds him, he immediately catches the eye of Sakae and is drawn to him immediately. Soga has been recently divorced and is by all conventional standards – unapproachable. Yet, they cannot help but be drawn together even though they honestly do not have that much in common. Soga does love Sakae’s cooking and the two of them begin to spend more time together.
As they do so, each tries to understand the world of the other. In a sense, Sakae helps Soga to lift the shackles of his strained personality. Sakae finally confesses to Soga that he likes him, but Soga is hesitant to respond in a meaningful way. For two reasons. It is still not in his nature to do so and two, he is moving back to Tokyo in a year or so and while, he is beginning to have feelings for Sakae, is unsure how all of that would work. True to his nature, he does not tell him until Sakae finds out by accident.
While they try to make this relationship work, the ultimate realization is that Soga, for his own good and his own well-being must go back to Tokyo. Therefore, the decision to ‘break up’ now while things are where they are would be better.
Who really S.T.O.L.E. this series? Slipping back into this series about half-way through, the antagonist appears, or should I say reappears. He is none other than Sakae’s old lover Mizuki. He attempts to reconnect with Sakae. But Sakae’s old feelings for him have faded and he is now in love with Soga. While Mizuki does try, he ultimately fails to break them up. Okuno So’s portrayal of Mizuki is the only character in this series that takes his characterization to another level. He gives him depth and a great deal of hidden emotional meaning that we can see, even if he does not necessarily say it. He gives his character believability and, in a sense, a real feeling of authenticity. To be sure, he may not be a ‘good’ character, but you know exactly what you are getting with him – passion, openness, honesty, but never a real sense of trustworthiness. Admittedly, a flawed individual, he deserves both our admiration and contempt. He is a character that will be remembered.
This series languished so much. Here are the top reasons why I believe this series failed to deliver:
1. Sakae showed way too much politeness to Mizuki after his sudden return after he was so suddenly jilted that made no sense to me. He was bitter and anger after the breakup. Why would you allow him to resume so much control over you again? That easily could have been a way more interesting side-story to develop further.
2. Soga is insufferable in his struggles to get to a point. And so much time was wasted in a short series like this on his inability to get to a point. And even when he finally did get to the ’real point’, the story took another unbearably long time to reach that when it did so, it was a complete letdown.
3. These guys had no screen chemistry, I am sorry to say. While they are cute, I did not believe that they liked each other. While Kan Hideyoshi as Sakae was much more convincing with his connections to Soga. Unfortunately, Nishiyama Jun as Soga hid behind his role of hesitancy throughout most of the series so when he finally is able to make the leap, it is too little too late. It just came across as phony and contrived and much too intellectual with little to no emotional connections.
4. Their kissing scenes, few in number, were laughable and they really did not kiss. They used the old upper/lower lip routine to not fully kiss to ‘pretend’ to kiss which I find so offensive. It is far better to not kiss than to use that lameness as a kiss. If two people are in love and kissing for the first time, they do not kiss that passionless or emotionless. It was awful and just cringy to watch as a gay man. Act the part guys! That is what you are getting paid to do!
5. The ending was a mixed-bag of nothingness. While trying to be noble, Sakae makes a noble gesture, and you almost understand his reasoning. But then the series tries to convince us that they are going to work something out, like a compromise of some sort, where they will try a ‘long-distance relationship’. They never thought about options before the break-up?
While I admittedly know NOTHING of Japanese culture, or society, I do know they have great transportation system. And they did meet in Hamamatsu, which indeed is halfway for both. Can they meet there once a month? (I checked the prices of trains for them and by American standards, they were inexpensive). How about once a month one visiting Osaka and then the other going to Tokyo? Or perhaps, the reality should have been that for them, their distance was indeed too great, and it should have ended as the acceptance that long-distance relationship is just too difficult to maintain? Something, anything better than the vagueness and pablum that was served to us at the end.
The series is just too short to develop any meaningful characters, which is a serious problem. It tried to be light fluff with a serious matter which I wish they would have treated with solemnity. Also, quit treating gayness with kit gloves. If you are going to show two men trying to be in love, give us something that shows that. I know you have cultural and societal standards to adhere to and indeed it is repressive, but at the same time, you decided to make this story but never finished it to anything resembling what happens in real life even in your own society.
How about giving us some realness next time?
Leave a Reply