Koi to Dangan (2022)

Say "no" to slowburn romances - there is only an obsessive love from the very beginning!

Some of you, who watched at least 5 minutes of this drama, might be surprised for such a high rating - 8.5/10. Well, the story isn't good. It's very cringy and from the beginning it was a hard ride to watch. I was having a hard resisting to drop it after only a couple of minutes. I was constantly telling myself "This is so bad! Why did they even make this drama? Why?" BUT! There is a way to enjoy watching this drama and even want to rewatch it!

First of all, the story is awful, really. A college student girl falls in love at first sigh with a yakuza boss and he falls for her very fast without any reason - there is only a lust. They don't know their story, their personalities, their likes and dislikes - just two unknown people meeting each other by accident and felt in love in 5 minutes. Awful, right? It was hard to believe that there was some deeper feeling... BUT! Given that the drama is only 9 episodes with duration of around 23 minutes per episode, okay, I understand. Still, they could start the story with already sort of established relationship between the leads and give us some flashbacks to let us know that the feeling didn't come this fast. There is only lust, smut and skinship holding this relationship. I can feel an obsession vibe very strongly. There is also another reason the director gives us - the two leads are very afraid of having no tomorrow - there is always a possibility that Toshiomo won't be coming back. Each day might be his last. So both leads act like there is no tomorrow and just rush the things. And that's one of the reasons that the drama is different from others - no slowburn romance. Only obsessive love from the very beginning.

The actors playing the main leads, in my opinion, did a good job. I especially liked the subtle little gestures that Furukawa Yuuta made acting as Oa Toshiomo - where he was angry, happy, annoyed, obsessed - each time there was a lot small gestures on his face. It was fascinating to watch. I also felt that all the actors believed in their characters - they did them justice. The acting was one of the thing that made me want to stay watching the drama.

The production quality - guys, I've seen some j-dramas and the poor quality, is the reason I stopped. The production quality is very important to me and it's one of the most important reason I usually skip lot of scenes, fastforward etc. And here the quality was on a very high level, in comparison to other j-dramas. Especially the light effect - omg, it gave me so much laughs, whenever the light was too strong to even let us see the character's face, but all in all, there was a storytelling behind the light choices. A bit of an artistic touch, some fun with good music choices - all these made me feel attracted and fascinated. Whenever there was something on the character's mind they made an interesting choice to picture it - the mind and the inner talk of each chacter - picturing their minds like some other, exotic places. Especially during the smut moments - I didn't understand it at first - how did the main couple ended up in sakura garden? Like WHAT's going on?! Why?! Later I realized - it portraits the blessful feeling they experience, right? And each time after the smutty they ends up in kimono and full make up - is this how they see each other? There are many (not so little) things I can interpret in an artistic way and it's interesting.

This drama was so different from many others. It gave me feels, laughs, confusion. It made me want to watch it thinking: "What the heck is going on? Wait, why? Oh, of course, this is sooo cliche." - all over and all over again. But still a great watch! Truly! I was so sceptical after the first episode, but actually a bit sad after the 9th - is there going to be a 2nd season? Because after some time, that we all need to adjust to the thing that we are watching, I ended up feel addicted to this obsession of the main leads. The chemistry was WOW!

I feel like rewatching it some time in the future, because the drama isn't very long, it's very fast-paced and intense. It gives the vibe... Interesting, sort of.

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