Welcome to my Saturday blog post, where I give thoughts on dramas I’m watching, whether at the beginning, middle, or end. Whatever I want, because I’m petty that way.
This week, I started recapping Interminable because I like having Billy and Babe on my screen, and the title is questionable. That’s it. That’s the entirety of my motivation.
I also recapped episodes 5-6 of Dare You To Death. We’re down another student, and my theory behind the murders remains the same.
What did I watch this week? Japan has some new dramas for me!
Countdown to Yes – 親友の『同棲して』に『うん』て言うまで – 2026
Currently airing friends-to-lovers Japanese BL, I’m at 4 out of 11 episodes.
After living apart for several years, best friends from high school reunite and grapple with their changing relationship.
After a strong first episode, this show has settled into a very slow, flashback-heavy mood piece. For me, it’s riding the line between being soothing and losing my interest.
We start in high school, because Japan loves high school
How many JBLs with High School friends have I reviewed?
School Trip: Joined a Group I’m Not Close To
Stay By My Side After The Rain
So of the 25 Japanese BL titles I’ve reviewed, that’s nearly 30% where relationships start within the 4 years teenagers are trapped in High School. Probably, I have no one but myself to blame for this statistic.
Anyway, where was I? So our two guys met in high school because of photography and rapidly became besties who live in their own little world together. One of them is more outgoing, and the other is friendly and nice under an inscrutable exterior.
They live together after high school, until our Inscrutable Guy gets a job in faraway Hokkaido. As soon as he’s gone, our Outgoing Guy realizes that it was Romantic Love and not friendship that he felt for his friend.
Fast forward a few years, and Inscrutable Guy has been transferred back into town. He wastes no time in reaching out to our Outgoing Guy to meet up. After catching up, Inscrutible Guy asks Outgoing Guy if they can live together.
And his choice of wording really matters
The word our Inscrutable Guy uses to make this proposition is 同棲・どうせい・dosei. The closest word we have in English is “cohabitation,” because both imply more than just living together. They imply living together as an unmarried, romantic couple.
Outgoing Guy, still struggling with his romantic feelings, is flustered and confused. He’s certain that his friend just used the wrong word and meant to ask that they live together as friends again. He doesn’t, because he doesn’t want his heart broken or friendship ruined.
Inscrutable Guy is inscrutable, so I don’t blame him for being confused. But over the next few episodes, mixed in with a lot of flashbacks, it becomes clear that Inscrutable Guy also has romantic feelings. Unlike our Outgoing Guy, he is not afraid to pursue them.
The show is like a photo essay
Or how I imagine photo essays work. The scenes move back and forth between their high school days, their post-high school time living together, and the present. Each scene feels like a moment captured by a photo, linked together by theme and feeling more than narrative, giving a glimpse into their life and relationship.
We’re mostly with the Outgoing Guy as he thinks and thinks and thinks some more, feels worried and nervous, and is too afraid to take the next step, even though he wants to take the next step. Even though Inscrutable Guy eventually makes things clear.
I’m a sucker for a scaredy-cat getting gently wooed by someone with confidence. I really like that the guy doing the wooing is not a tsundere, but a quiet, gentle guy with an offbeat personality. When together, the two of them really do seem to be in their own little world where they understand each other *nearly* perfectly.
It’s wistful, yearning, and very slow. The emphasis is more on feelings and mood, less on the forward momentum of their relationship. Not that it isn’t moving, but I’m eyeing the 11-episode count, even if they are only 20 minutes, with some concern.
But I’m up for slow if they still manage to get some forward momentum on their relationship, and we get to experience the different feelings with them. Cross your fingers for me.
Oddly enough, I’m having similar “where will this go?” feelings with the other Japanese show I’m watching:
Gimbap and Onigiri – キンパとおにぎり〜恋するふたりは似ていてちがう〜 – 2026
Currently airing food-and-cross-cultural BG, I’m at 4 out of 10 episodes.
A Japanese man working at a local restaurant feeds a Korean graduate student studying animation. Romance and communication issues ensue.
Here’s a link to the trailer (in Japanese because I couldn’t easily find anything in English).
Unlike the show above, the romance in this show gets underway quickly, so that we can get right into building a relationship. I always like seeing the post-get-together part of a relationship in my romances, but I’m not sure where this is all going.
For one thing, I’m not sure yet why this is cross-cultural
Unlike a show like Eye Love You, there is nothing about being from two different cultures and using two different languages baked into the setup.
He’s lost in a life, working at a restaurant with no larger goal and a lot of shame for failing to live up to family expectations. She’s got a clear goal, but is struggling to achieve it while everyone tells her to give up.
Neither of these problems has anything to do with being from two different cultures. This is just life.
Once they’re dating, they immediately have communication issues. He thinks it’s because she’s Korean. But the issue is not confusion over word choices and translation issues or what is or isn’t expected of Japanese versus Korean boyfriends. It’s just him not texting back.
Not getting texted back is not a unique cultural issue. It is a global problem.
The main issue with her being Korean is that she’ll finish school in a year and has to leave the country unless she has a work visa. She does not believe her animation skills are strong enough to get her a job in Japan. Plus, I can’t tell if she wants to stay in Japan or not.
But then there’s the food, and the emotional support
Maybe the only important differences between them are the food they were raised on. Considering the title, that’s fair.
As I mentioned above, our male lead is stuck and not feeling very good about himself. While I’m not clear if she’s the main motivation, he starts making some Korean-inspired dishes for the restaurant and has her taste-test them. Through her, he learns more about different Korean dishes and their names.
And we get to be tortured with shots of food being cooked, plated, and savored.
More importantly, he becomes inspired to slowly start considering what he might want to do, instead of living his life day-to-day.
Thankfully, this isn’t entirely one-sided. Before they are even together, he helps her navigate the confusing process of short-term rentals as a non-citizen. Once they are together, he seems to be the one person in her life interested in supporting what she wants to do rather than telling her to give up.
We’re still early in the show, and I’m curious to see more of how he inspires her and her art.
The show is cute and as heatless as an onigiri at a 7-Eleven
I just came up with that metaphor and wanted to use it. But it’s also true. Prepare yourself for the standard Japanese fish kiss followed by an immediate cut to the next scene.
Anyway, while I can see the beginning of an exciting trajectory of their professional lives, I’m not sure where the romance is going to take us. And I’m here for the romance.
Is this going to turn into one of those “we can’t be together ‘cause distance and visas” situations? Are they going to be resigned to their fate of being a 3-hour plane ride apart, or try to make it work? How are they going to deal with her mother and his brother? Will he stop taking everything so hard and get better at texting back?
Having questions about where a show is going is not entirely bad. I just hope I get the answers I like.
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