Recap
Kiyoi remembers back in high school, standing in the yard while Hira took his picture. He wanted Hira to hurry up and say he liked him. Hira took pictures of Kiyoi because he’d keep them forever.
Back to Kiyoi laying in Hira’s lap. Kiyoi wants Hira to stay with him forever but says that he’s thirsty. Hira freaks out and goes running to buy Ginger ale. Kiyoi is creeped out by his boyfriend’s behavior but knows it can’t be helped, that’s how Hira is and for some reason, he has feelings for him.
Hira is erasing people from a photograph at school. It comes up that Hira failed a recent interview for a part-time job because of his stutter. Koyoma suggests he enter a photo contest that Noguchi is judging. Hira puts him off.
Kiyoi is reading scripts on location. His manager comes in and tells him he’s been rejected for a play. Kiyoi asks after working for Ueda-san, and his Manager encourages him towards television work instead. Kiyoi goes out to meet with Anna before a scene, grateful to be working with her.
Hira is there too, sticking out as Suspicious-kun and getting a little too close to the shoot. Pushed to the back, he meets a big fan of Anna’s, and they bond over their devotion to their celebrities.
Kiyoi tells Anna he wants to work in theater because of the rush of excitement he gets from it. He also mentions his desire for his romantic relationship to stay the same. Anna wants to talk with him more. Anna’s fan seems upset watching them.
Kiyoi comes home to food made by Hira. Kiyoi tries to seduce him but is interrupted by Koyama calling with a job referral.
Kiyoi is still feeling jealous when Koyama shows up at his practice space. Koyama knows more about Hira’s interview than him and guilts him about Hira doing all the chores and cooking while Kiyoi is freeloading. He gives Kiyoi a recipe for nabe/hot pot and something else we don’t get to see.
Kiyoi doesn’t understand the recipe and makes pork and spinach cooked in sake and soy sauce. Hira thinks it’s delicious and Kiyoi takes his bowl and eats it to stop him, even though there’s a whole pot still on the table. These guys don’t always make sense.
Pink-cheeked Kiyoi gets angry at Hira for talking down about himself. He has the same contest pamphlet as Koyama and orders Hira to enter and win and become a photographer. He wants Hira to talk to him about his problems. He loves Hira’s photographs of him and they can work together in the future. He then lays down, drunk.
The next day Hira enters the contest. A hungover Kiyoi wakes up to water left by Hira next to a pile of photographs, including one that Kiyoi took of Hira’s eyes.
Thoughts
I don’t think it’s fair to compare a drama to a book, but since I have read the books it’s impossible not to think about both. I’m not the right person to give a review on the drama alone. The drama is having to cram a ton of book into a very short time and I’m not making a final judgment on any of these changes until the entire season is out.
Everything here was either from the second book, 憎らしい彼, or new stuff for the drama. The further we get into the drama the further it feels we are getting from the book. Some of these changes seem to be snowballing from changes in season one and some of them have me scratching my head.
Hira’s parents aren’t a huge part of the books, but they’ve been eliminated from the drama entirely. Their concern about their son doing all the chores and cooking for his ‘roommate’ has been transferred to Koyama. That doesn’t bother me too much, except that Kiyoi isn’t a freeloader at this point in the book, and yet he still is here. Those scenes with the parents served a different purpose in the book.
Which leads to the cooking scene. No one hands Kiyoi a recipe in the book and I’m not sure what the scene is for in the drama besides comedy. To show Kiyoi learning to appreciate Hira? I didn’t get the sense that Kiyoi was taking Hira for granted. He is an imperious type, but he regretted using Hira as an errand boy in high school. Hira was just better and more interested with more time to do chores and cooking. If Hira didn’t want to do it, I’m sure they’d figure something else out.
Also, why does Koyama now show Hira that contest flyer first? In the book, it’s (a sober) Kiyoi encouraging and helping Hira find something that suited his personality.
It’s just a little thing, but I didn’t love seeing Hira push himself to the front of the fans at Kiyoi’s shoot. Though Suspicious-kun is a source of comedy in the book too, book Hira has a very serious and well-thought-out attitude about fandom boundaries that’s important both to his character and the story. He wouldn’t get too close that way.
Kiyoi acting so subservient to his manager and Anna feels wrong for his character. His lines of dialogue about wanting to work in theater leading to offhand comments about his relationship with Hira felt nonsensical. He does appreciate and admire Anna in the books, but he’s still Kiyoi. In fact, his Kiyoi attitude is an important part of his book character arc that I’m wondering if they’re skipping. Is this an attempt to humanize drama Kiyoi more?
Meanwhile, there are a lot of little things in the drama that comes from the books that I enjoyed seeing:
Koyama gives Kiyoi a nabe recipe, which is what Koyama and Hira always ate together.
Kiyoi still drinks his Ginger ale.
Hira working on his photos where he erases people from normal landscapes.
Kiyoi’s love of the theater, which gives his character interesting depth.
Kiyoi encouraging Hira to pursue his dreams and what will suit his personality.
Kiyoi admiring the photo of Hira’s intense eyes, which he thinks about a lot in the books.
And while the details have changed, Hira’s core character arc seems to be roughly the same as the books and suits his character. He’s afraid of the future and keeping up with his boyfriend. Kiyoi I’m confused about. His work aspirations seem the same as the book, but emotionally he seems preoccupied with Hira not leaving him and wanting things to stay the same. Those aren’t unreasonable fears but I’m not sure why he has them or where they are going.
We’re already halfway through this season (it’s not enough time!!!) but I’m eager to see where the drama goes next.
And if you have a different take on anything I’m talking about, related to either the book or the drama, feel free to let me know!
5 responses to “Utsukushii Kare Season 2 – Episode 2 – Recap and Review”
I loved your take on it, I didn’t watch the second season because I was scared it wasn’t going to be good but you changed my thoughts.
Thank you!
It drives me bonkers that this director expanded Koyama’s character so much for both seasons when the book basically wrote him out of the story once Hira rejected his confession. This director clearly wants that actor to be promoted (I heard she’s directing him in a play and that’s why she’s promoting him).
Now, he’s a good actor and cute and all, but there is simply not enough time for his character to be expanded in such a short show. Hence, his expanded role ended up being at the expense of the leading characters’ screen time. For example, I was totally annoyed when the director dragged him back in for ep 6 of Season One, because it took away time from Hira’s and Kiyoi’s confession scene, and they were all I wanted to see in the Finale. In Season Two, it’s even worse because the director has given Koyama all of Kiyio’s “boyfriend jobs” from the book.
First, Koyama is now the one to encourage Hira about the contest when, as you said, it was Kiyoi who did this in the book. In the show, Kiyoi only finds out about the contest cuz Koyama tells him.
Second, Koyama acts noble when he calls Kiyoi a “moocher.” Well, in the book Kiyoi is paying for the apartment with his full time acting job while Hira has some crappy little job at a factory. So he’s not a moocher but, to the contrary, supporting Hira.
Third, the show even made it Koyama who found the job for Hira!
The director has made Koyama this great guy doing all the things a boyfriend should do when in Volume Two of the book he’s barely a blip on the page. He took up a lot of episode 2, and now we only have 2 eps left, ie, 40 minutes. I’m guessing we’ll get more of Koyama, which will mean less time for Kiyoi and Hira.
Ok, that’s my rant, lol
Thank you for sharing your rant!
That’s very interesting, and kinda meta, about the Koyama actor! Yeah, I can understand certain omissions from the book from a production/time cost standpoints (Hira’s parents, the new apartment) but the insertion of Koyama is annoying and that Kiyoi cooking scene felt like a waste of the little time they had. Oh well!
The nabe scene is from an extra chapter in the first book. they both got drunk from all the sake Kiyoi used and basically had a whirlwind night in the living room then blacked out until the next morning.