Recap
Hira and Kiyoi are a couple living together at Hira’s parent’s empty house. Hira is anxious and excited, and Kiyoi is his usual cool, dismissive self, frequently calling Hira きもい/kimoi. Hira wonders at his own contradictory feelings of both being blessed and like he’s stolen a treasure.
Time is ticking away and college graduation is coming up. In photography club, Hira prints out a picture of the moon, and another member compares his photography to Noguchi’s. Koyama has an internship and asks after Hira’s upcoming interview.
Kiyoi is at his company, responding cooly to compliments, crediting his recent success to his co-star Anna. His manager brings up a certain fan named Suspicious-kun, who shows up in sunglasses, a hat, and a fan. They think he’s weird and Kiyoi is upset at the way they talk about the man he can’t confess is his boyfriend.
Hira watches a special about a drama when Kiyoi gets home. Hira is upset when Kiyoi mentions dying in the drama. He makes dinner and misses a cue from Kiyoi that he wants to be fed.
Kiyoi drags Hira to a clothing store and when he’s complimented Hira buys all the clothes. While enjoying their day, Hira thinks that the amount of happiness one feels is predetermined. Since he’s so happy now, that means misfortune is coming. When Kiyoi asks about his thoughts Hira mentions that he was thinking about how Kiyoi might die in front of him. Kiyoi is unimpressed.
Kiyoi compliments Hira and gets frustrated with his negativity. He tries to be nice but freaks out, kicks Hira in the shin, and says it’s a lie. Then he drags Hira to a party. Hira doesn’t want to go but gives in when Kiyoi gives him a look.
At the party, an oblivious Hira is hit on by some women. He flees to the bathroom but one of his new admirers follows him. Kiyoi interrupts, and in Hira’s mind his eyes flash red and he wants to kill Hira.
At home Hira tries to apologize for the wrong thing, thinking Kiyoi didn’t like his dour mood. As Kiyoi finds the girl’s business card tucked in Hira’s pocket and makes him strip, Hira gradually realizes Kiyoi is jealous. He mentions only liking Kiyoi and only taking pictures of him. Kiyoi wants sex, Hira is good for it.
Kiyoi sort of apologizes for going too far. He sees Hira’s moon photo. Hira explains it’s the 14th night, right before the full moon appears.
Kiyoi thinks to himself that Hira makes him act strange, he wants to show Hira off but gets lonely when Hira gets attention. He wonders at the contradictory feeling. He lays his head on Hira’s lap and tells him not to go anywhere.
Thoughts
This unique duo deserves more screen time than they get. I really enjoyed the first season and I really enjoyed this episode of the second season, but I get pangs of longing at what they do to the story and characters to cram them into the short run times.
This episode seems to be a mix of one of the last sections of the first book with different parts of the second book with a lot of changes to the timeline. For now, I’m going to be careful about talking about differences in this season with the book, since I’m not sure what they’ll incorporate in later episodes.
Looking at where we are in the drama, Hira is in a confusing mental state now that he and Kiyoi are together. He feels lucky but like a tragedy is looming. Kiyoi is humorously jealous, despite him being the rising TV star and Hira being an unremarkable, unpopular college student. That’s the contradictory nature of this couple that I love so much.
Like last season there are the usual issues with book-to-screen adaptations. Since we can’t get the character’s internals their actions get exaggerated. That plus the limited time does make the characters feel even more exaggerated than their book personalities. Not that Kiyoi isn’t a jerk and Hira isn’t ridiculous in the book, but in the drama Kiyoi comes off as a bigger jerk and Hira as even more ridiculous.
But I am glad they still include some of Hira’s fun internal voiceovers straight from the novel. His thinking is hilariously off-kilter and at the same time as it is tragic.
The books are also much more explicit than the drama. I find the sexual relationship between them really interesting and adds to their dynamic, but I can accept not having it here. At least in this first episode they mentioned it a few times.
So there are some potential conflicts looming, with graduation coming, Hira facing an interview and paying for everything. Kiyoi’s fame is rising and he can’t admit his biggest/weirdest fan is also his boyfriend.
Another thing about this story that I love, both characters are really, well, characters. With big quirks and flaws. Being in love doesn’t “fix” them. So, how will they, with their wildly different thought patterns and communication styles, figure out how to be together?
I look forward to seeing where the next three episodes go and wish it were the next seven episodes.