Konin Todoke ni Han wo Oshita dake desu ga (2021)

“Misunderstandings” with atypical characters just hit different

Hear me out.

While it has all the elements of a cliched contract marriage romcom, the characters’ personalities and values set this story apart from the rest. The male lead is somewhat neuroatypical. He has an almost over-logical way of thinking, and is unable to express himself to others. The female lead is passionate about her career and doesn’t consider marriage an important part in her future plans, which is slightly unconventional in “traditional” Japanese culture. This light romcom when viewed through an atypical lens can make for an easy, yet thought-provoking drama about understanding. The popular song 「Heart」 by Aimyon serves as its theme.

“Misunderstandings” is probably in my top 5 things I dislike about any drama because most of the time it’s used as an easy way to add conflict in a story and separate the couple for no good reason. But here, it’s used to highlight how the male lead struggles to communicate and understand what most consider to be conventional behaviour and feelings. Most of us take this understanding for granted. Think about it - we can say “I love you” to a best friend to mean platonic love, and say “I like you” to a new acquaintance to mean romantic love. How do you *KNOW* when is which?

Aside from the leads, supporting characters also explore their own version of unconventional “love” and “relationships” — which (in my opinion) Jdramas do best! What does it mean to be married? Is that really the only way to be “happy"? [SPOILER WARNING for side characters] A man wonders why his wife wants to get divorced in order to have a common-law marriage (where you are still lovers/partners in every way except on legal papers), A women who chose her partner not based on love, but to start an “ideal family”. A fangirl devoting her love to an idol. I loved these mini-insights that can easily be overlooked.

WHAT I WOULD HAVE CHANGED:

Of course, any drama has its flaws.

The last three episodes might be frustrating and slow for some, but I still found those episodes to be interesting. If you consider these two people not fitting into the mould of “normal”, there’s a need to explore a relationship that works best for them! Isn’t that the most important thing?

I also understood the reasons for the cliched setup and abundance of misunderstandings but could have done with a few less, especially the meddling love interests. And finally, I felt the leads could have had more build-up and chemistry with each other, and I wanted it to end slightly differently, but overall I was still satisfied with the romance.

TRY IT IF YOU LIKE:
The contract marriage trope, 『Nigeru wa Haji da ga Yaku ni Tatsu』 (Japanese, 2016), "Because This Is My First Life" (Korean, 2017)

It’s not a character study on neurodivergence, but if you watch it with this open mind, you might gain a new perspective. Even if you’re not interested in the atypical angle, there are enough sweet doki-doki moments to keep a romcom fan entertained.

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The secondary cliche

There may be spoilers.

This is going to be a short review, I'm doing it, since I didn't see any here, I hope it helps you, if it didn't, I'm sorry, it's just my point of view, I hope nobody gets mad.

History:
Well, let's see, a drama with a marriage of convenience, it started out fun without so many forced scenes, but after chapter 6 or 7 the nosy sidekicks begin with their one-sided loves, chapter 7 was the worst filler, chapter 8 was also everything cliché. I do not understand in a short drama of 10 chapters that they go around adding useless characters such as the secondary character (veterinarian), that character was all the cliché that is seen all over the world.
But hey, it ended better than expected.

The performances were good.
Music was there, I didn't give it much importance.
I won't watch again as there are many more dramas like this to watch for sure. xDD
Overall, I gave him a good approval, I quite liked the chemistry between the protagonists, although they could have been better, especially him.

Good luck....

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When lack of communication skills is your whole personality.

This is not a sweet rom-com. This is a frustrating journey that will test your patient, and I have no idea why I enjoyed it.

It’s a story of two people who love jumping to conclusions and never verbalizing their feelings and issues. Female lead was slightly less frustrating than male lead - she was at least aware of her own feelings, which cannot be said about the other half of this infuriating couple.

All these miscommunications were blast to watch though. Why? Thanks to all the supporting characters, who had some of the best and most reasonable reactions to all the childish shenanigans going on. I appreciate how it was established that it’s not the writing that is stupid, it’s the main duo only, and it’s done on purpose. I can go on board with it.

Female lead had little self-esteem, male lead had no self-awareness, I had no business using my brain watching it. Love triangle of poor character traits - best relationship between the drama and the viewer.

The performances were great. Seino Nana somehow made Akiha a character worth rooting for and Sakaguchi Kentaro was able to calm my distress caused by Shu’s character with his cuteness. I also love Kursahina Kana and her portrayal of Miharu - probably one of my favorite characters in the whole show.

Production wise - this is your typical rom-com. Nothing bad, nothing good. Standard quality, nothing to complain about. Bless them for having the cat though, he was amazing.

Overall, this was entertaining for all the wrong reasons.

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Only watch it if you are a fan of contract relationships/marriages

Completed - 3/31/2022

Contract Relationships/Marriages is one of my favorite tropes. I was willing to overlook this drama's flaws when I binge-watched 7 episodes in one go. I had a lot of fun, and I laughed and cried with the characters. The next day, my previous enjoyment and passion died down. I became more annoyed in the last 3 episodes of the drama. My initial 8.0 rating on day 1, went down to 7.5 at the end of the drama, and that's mostly because I like contract marriages.

This drama also has one of my least favorite things - misunderstandings between the leads. It was fun and cute for a while, esp. when we have a male lead who is anti-social, introverted, and inexperienced in love. I found his totally adorkable, even though he could be rude. The reason for going into a fake marriage seems interesting (but bizarre) enough for me to continue watching. He's a cute and dorky white asparagus (it must be the asparagus-like hairstyle). But the repeated misunderstandings due to lack of communication or miscommunication just becomes too much. The adorkableness of the male lead also wanes when he still acts so dumb in the last few episodes. No matter how inexperienced he is, he is still a 30-year old guy who is a professional working at an advertising agency. He clearly demonstrates his intelligence at work, but why not in his personal life? I was also annoyed that a lot of time was spent on the unrequited love for his sister-in-law. I understand it's an important plot of the drama, but I feel that it just drags on for too many episodes. But if the drama doesn't focus on the sister-in-law, there isn't enough content to last for all 10 episodes.

Unfortunately, I am not sure I would recommend this drama. If you like contract marriages, then it might be worth a try. Otherwise, don't bother. Oh, the drama does have a cute grumpy cat. 🐱 So, if you are a cat person (which I know many MDL'ers are), it's worth a shot when you have nothing else to watch. LOL.

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The screenwriters want to teach us what love is but the Show came across as half baked and tedious

The fake marriage trope is now firmly established as a recognised genre and j-drama has done its best to invent a sub-genre whereby the marriage is between two total strangers with little or no preamble.

It can be very interesting and rewarding to see two strangers navigate living as a married couple with all the obligations and expectations from families and society. Finding love is a must and that journey of discovery is usually what sustain us and defines whether the Show succeeds. This show started on the right track but then lost its way in a maze of its own making before eventually finding the exit. The viewer is taken on a protracted run through the maze and it is frustrating when we can see the correct path before us but the protagonists always seemed to take the wrong turns.

The show is billed as a rom-com. There is the usual overacting and it has lots of romance in its plots but most of them seem to circumvent our OTP. It is as if the writers are giving us a tutorial on what true love is with lots of book examples. Unfortunately, the ML must have slept through most of it.

Time and time again, the ML was confronted with "feelings". He would get confused or misunderstood simple signals. At one stage, the FL shouted that she loves him and he replied "that's nice. What's for dinner?" (that is not what he actually said but you get my drift). The problem is that this doesn't happen once but repeatedly. The ML was berated by his friends, family and even his love rival as being dumb, idiotic and clueless. This is a person who works in advertising, well educated and pushing 30. He is not a shut-in. I can accept social awkwardness and inexperience but his behaviour is next level. Yet, at the same time, he has a long time crush on someone so he is not without feelings. While the FL was better represented, she was portraited initially as scatty, impulsive and naïve but at least she knows what love is when it hits her between the eyes. Of course the FL spent much of the show annoyed, disappointed and/or confused.

So with all the tutoring, expositions and observations of other people falling in and out of love over many episodes, you'd think our CP got the gist, right? Nope, not for 90% of the run. Even after multiple "confessions" and the donning of couple's pyjamas they still broke up on the weakest pretence. Forsooth, ye ol' curse of Failure to Communicate! The writers loved to use this device. They would have the actors interrupt other each repeatedly at key moments or an action is totally misunderstood but there is never any clarification. That is painful to watch as it was so obvious and served only to prolong their suffering and ours.

Speaking of love, there seems to be a queue of people who would fall in love with our protagonists pretty much at first sight. Random characters would be introduced for an episode or two, hit on one of the leads and sow confusion and then disappear. Why is this the only way for our protagonists to get any clarity about their feelings?

In terms of chemistry between the leads, there is a bit but there should be a lot more. The pairing just never felt 100% right. The Show tells us again and again that they are perfect for each other but I don't feel it. Friends, yes but soulmates? Kisses are rare and felt wooden. You just don't sense the passion. The herd of unicorns are MIA for this show.

Of course the ending is HEA with hints of multiple pairings. I would have prefer a show that spend a lot more time and energy showing us how the OTP falls in love and work together to sort out problems rather than standing around observing other people's love affairs and then completely botch their own. This is not a DIY car repair video after all.

There are much better examples of this genre such as "Because This Is My First Life" and "Shanai Marriage Honey".

The Show is watchable and there are funny and cute moments but it doesn't balance out the tedious bits. There is next to no re-watch value for me. Peace out.

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she should've just ended up with makihara

i didn't like that i wasn't hoping for them to be together past the first few episodes when all he cares about is miharu
i just felt annoyed watching it, I probably should've dropped it but I thought he would like her sooner idk
anyways I don't write reviews but this show annoyed me enough to write my negative thoughts, how many characters is 500?
i couldn't enjoy the romance when he eventually started reciprocating because his feelings and everything he said about miharu made him unappealing, hope your love stays fruitless forever

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I binge-watched this in one sitting and....I kind of regret it. It had a great start, really fun opening on our main characters, who they are and their contract relationship. Things happen a little too quickly in ep 1, but the first 5 eps overall are solidly enjoyable. But then....choices are made in the story, and not all of them are the greatest.

First, there's the fact that the male lead has an unrequited love for his brother's wife. The backstory of how this happened is very believable and realistic, and I certainly feel for him, but...that's your brother's wife, man. The second the two of them became serious, you should have dealt with those feelings and moved past them. Not hid them in your heart so you could 'love her in secret'. That is not appropriate. There are a couple of moments that are particularly uncomfortable and concerning, because they lean dangerously close to him trying to turn his 'secret love' into not so much of a secret. Thankfully, that does not happen, and by the end of the series, he has made the decision to move on. But he should have made that decision much sooner.

The story also has no consistent message on marriage, whether it's for it or against it, and that makes the latter half of the drama completely confusing. I personally am for marriage and commitment, and I would have been very happy if the story had ended pro-marriage and commitment. But even if the story had ended up saying 'Marriage is not for everyone', at least it would have said something. As is, I couldn't figure out what message they were trying to convey.

Lastly, the male lead is a confusing character. He starts off very brooding and serious, which works well, but halfway through he becomes this inexperienced shy guy, and it feels like a 180. It's not that I have a problem with him being inexperienced and shy, but it doesn't feel natural to his character. They definitely could have done a better job of revealing this side of him.

I think some dramas are great at creating forward motion in their stories, keeping you watching even when you start to question the writing choices. This is one of those dramas. I was invested almost the entire time, but I was also increasingly more confused by the story in the second half. So while I'm sure some people would enjoy this drama, it wasn't for me.

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How did it keep getting WORSE...

This had everything I love in a drama! Enemies to lovers (ish), marriage of convenience, angst, pining, cute leads, cute second leads and forced proximity! How! It takes a real tragedy of writing to combine all of that and create something that I end up disliking so much.

It's not so much that it was bad (I have definitely seen worse...if that's a metric you want to measure it against), but it started off quite promisingly, so when it just ended up getting worse and worse each episode (when usually its the exact opposite), the disappointment hits you really hard. Akiha and Shu were, INDIVIDUALLY, quite interesting characters, but together? Trainwreck. Shu especially. Up until almost the very, absolute last, he was so clueless about his own feelings and repeatedly hurt the FMC over and over again for no reason- unknowingly! After everything Akiha went through, it shocks me that she would even want to give this relationship a serious go, especially with a man like Shu who is so willfully oblivious of everyone around him. They don't make sense at all, which makes it very hard to watch what is essentially a romance drama.

The reason I didn't like the second male lead as a romantic interest was because I never took him seriously. Not once. It wasn't because his character wasn't written as a serious one, but because there is literally NO reason why he likes Akiha. None. She is a stranger who treats him like everyone does, who hangs out with him sometimes and complains about her marriage life. There is nothing. No chemistry, no tension, no interest. The jump from vague interest to love was so jarring.

Speaking of jarring love, Akiha's sudden "I'm in Love (L capital) with Shu" realisation came way too early. All he did was apologize for annoying her with his alarm clocks in the morning and admit to not being a morning person! Is that all it takes? There is, once again, zero actual romance in what is LITERALLY A ROM-COM. FMCs falling in love easily is whatever, I've been in the J-drama watching business for 7-8 years now, I've been the rat, I've eaten the cheese, I know what's up. But THIS is whole 'nother level of "you can't be serious" insta-love. A commitment-phobe falling in love because her fake husband wants her to wake him up? HA. Okay, Ashton Kutcher, now jump out and scream "You've just been PUNKED!" and we can all go home.

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contract marriage - frustrating most of the time with some sweet scenes in between

This drama was at time so heartbreaking and frustrating. It‘s a ‚marriage contract‘ story that first breaks our heart into millions of pieces before we finally get our happy ending for the main leads.

Akiha is a very sweet and warm-hearted character, I loved her a lot. Sure she was a bit naive at time but that was just one of her many charms in my opinion.

With Momose I had my hard time throughout most of the Drama. The only good thing about him at first was that he was good-looking. But he did gets more likable in the later episodes even he still is weird hahah

There fake marriage was at times really hard to watch because of Momose‘s cluelessness, stupidity and ignorance. I really wondered why Akiha felt in love with him.. It also didn‘t help that she fell in love with him so quickly into the drama. So you had to see her trying to deny her feelings ore trying to make Momose fall for her in so many Episodes.

But the Drama had some really funny and also cute moments so overall I still enjoyed it. I won't rewatch it ever but I‘m glad to have seen it.

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Only Just Married (Japan) (2021) – I like the drama, and contract marriage is one of the tropes in dramas that I like so far as a watcher. Japanese dramas are short but has sense into it, I really like how the male lead and the female lead are portrayed. Its pacing is pretty much slow but good slow for me.

The female lead is my favorite character, she is cute and relatable in a way especially at the beginning of the drama. The male lead may be frustrating, but I think it is just what the story and his character is, and I get the character development of his character.

I would definitely recommend this especially to contract marriage tropes enthusiast like me.

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The FRIENDZONE is strong with this one.

Like, seriously. Majide yabai.

It's a story which starts strongly as a perpetual FRIENDZONE for the FL (when it's not a Strangerzone), and you might think it's not worth watching because of that.

Yet, I couldn't hell but feel compelled watching the evolution of each character, simply because the story showed how it would really be when people tend not to share what they feel.

It's a story about how love can be born between two people, married or not, but more than anything, it's a story about expressing your feelings and learning to know the other one. It's also about learning to interact with others, and know yourself a bit more.
That, and the ending, were what I really liked.

So if the first episodes are a bit repetitive in their format (FL or ML does stuff, and the ending step is still the friendzone) hang in there, because the portrayal of the characters and the misunderstandings aren't here merely for comedy, but also to punch you in the feels and the face and make you learn yourself some stuff you didn't think about before watching the show.

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