Sahara Sensei to Toki-kun (2023)

Endearing sweet funny series

I found this series to be sweet and endearing. It is a fun lighthearted BL with lots of overdone comedy and cuteness. the teacher-student relationship was nicely played and developed. The leads are fun to watch, I wish they had more intimate moments, but the chemistry was there and the show of growth was nice to see. The cast was enjoyable to watch and it all looked like a fun fast series. I watched it in one sitting and I found it to be funny and sweet. The only down part is I would have liked to see more intimate moments and show them more together as a couple. the side couple was cute but wish they showed them being intimate more as well. The story was well developed and the series has a lot of good parts that made you smile, laugh, and feel affection for each other, but I wish only there were more intimate parts like holding hands and kissing more that would have shown more chemistry. I really enjoyed the series and would recommend it if you enjoy light hearts sweet school boy first love stories.

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Toki's expression are everything, also with a lot of running.

First and foremost, Toki is my favourite character. He is literally someone who just came out of a Manga. Episode 1 and 2 were my favourite. It was peak comedy.
While a lot of people might argue the fact that they don't like characters acting the same way it is in the manga. I personally love it. It is soo fun to see those unrealistic expressions and funny shouting and people around them acting normal.

Every character in the show were green flag (Except for the bullies). Even Sahara's ex Nekoto also didn't create much of a drama and just encouraged Sahara to confess to Toki.
However, I would have prefered some intense plot with the love triangle to add some jealousy and realisation. Anyway, for a lighthearted drama such it might have been too much.

The only thing I think was lacking in the drama was the chemistry between the leads. Some lovey moments and offcourse a better kiss could have solved this. But I also do understand that a lot of people are not comfortable with teacher student romance and Probably the directors decided to take the safe side.

It was fun to watch anyway, Japanese BL never disappoints.

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Not bad, but not good.

Já faz 6 anos que assisto bl. Desde quando comecei, as produções japonesas são as que mais me encantam pelos acertos, mas sinto que isso vem se perdendo com o tempo. Em SahaToki, eu sinto que a adaptação começa bem mesmo com a diferença de idade questionável. Além da relação professorxaluno que é algo bem estranho, o Toki é claramente menor de idade. Entretanto, o maior problema foi a qualidade declinando ao longo dos episodios. O BL insere várias histórias secundárias, o que não é tão visto nas obras japonesas do gênero, mas não é bem adaptado. Muito além de darem uma resumida por cima, também soam desinteressantes. Fora que isso prejudicou o casal principal, que já não tem uma construção fácil de engolir. Eu acho nem que falta química ou a atuação seja ruim, mas a direção parece que trata eles unicamente como sensei x aluno.

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While student-teacher relationships are really my least problem, I found it very weird that Toki didn't recognize Sahara from the past.. 😂 The story failed to feel smooth for me. It was okay to watch one episode each week, but when I imagine to binge this show..I don't know. I would probably have been pretty bored soon. Everything seemed so choppy. As if they just filmed several scenes and tucked them together. 😐 Like yeah, obviously they did this, but for the viewers it shouldn't felt like it. Although I liked the characters and the acting (I miss Rise already 🥺) But I have to agree when people say they didn't feel much chemistry. The show isn't really romantic. They have not much tension and the feelings for each other don't seem to be a problem at all. Guess this is more a script problem than an acting problem. I would say the actors did the best with what they've got.

Toki-Kun's personality was quite exciting. He is an interesting character who clearly shows that he is still a teenager, but at the same time also shows nuances of a very mature character. I really liked the communication between the two. Another thing I liked: show was low angst. That's always a plus point if such corrosive tropes are avoided, a la miscommunication for example. I'm still a bit unsure how to rate the show, just because it seemed so choppy. I just miss the feeling of “This is a well-rounded, complete, well-thought-out story,” you know? somehow the show was very superficial. as if it had touched on a lot of little things but not really concluded anything. I would also have liked to see more of the stepbrothers, in order to do without the endless flashbacks. 🥴 There were really a LOT of flashbacks in the last episodes and this was tiring. I also feel like support characters in JBLs are truly not more than support characters. 😂 Would've love to see more of them!

All in all, it was okay. Nothing that I care much for, to be honest. The OST is catchy, so I will enjoy listen to it, but it's a story you'll forget fast.

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Short and sweet!

I loved this show through and through. The tsundere character trope is my favorite. Toki is such a green flag. The show really used these two to highlight a healthy line of communication and trust rather than the theatrics of jealousy.

My only complaints are:
-Sahara's former love interest got too much screen time.
-In the novel they are 16 & 24 and it appears they aged Toki up to 17/18, but then in the last episode they did a flash back with a little kid and Sahara to give us the we've met before, fate kind of trope. That really threw off the age gap and made it make zero sense. How would Toki go from that to a high school senior in a few years? 💀
-The rain confession flashback was shown too much.

Overall, if you're looking for a cute and short JBL and you're not up in arms about an age gap, I highly recommend this one!

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estou derretido

Sahara e Toki Kun é com certeza o real significado de fofura e amadurecimento. Toki sendo um personagem totalmente fora da curva, um pouco explosivo, de temperamento forte e com um pé direito para arrumar confusão, derrepente se vê apreciando seu professor, Sahara, um homem extrovertido e com personalidade doce. Juntos descobrem uma vida diferente, com reviravoltas empolgantes, surpresas amorosas inesperadas e uma boa pitada de bom humor. Eu recomendaria para qualquer pessoa que gostaria de dar boas risadas e se derreter pelos protagonistas com personagens muito bem construídos.

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Story

This is why I love Japanese Bls. I loved everything about Toki..
He really was the star of the series.His whole persona made you want to put your arms around him and take him home.
I remember halfway through thinking he's so adorable.
Everyone should have a friend like him.. He never thought himself to be likeable but his over excitable and sometimes
angry outbursts is what made him more endearing to watch
yet he wanted Sahara to be happy and would have sacrificed his feelings for him.All in all ...the actors..actresses did a great job the storyline was fab.. not forgetting the production staff who gave us a lovely feel good series and introduced us to
Toki..he melted my heart...

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Dismantling the myth of a teacher-student relationship with the particularity of being a gay romance

From Nabokov's Lolita, in which a forty-year-old professor becomes obsessed with a twelve-year-old girl, to Bernard Schlink's The Reader, where a student falls in love with an almost forty-year-old woman, passing through The Dying Animal, the novel by Philip Roth that tells the story of a sixty-year-old critic and renowned professor who becomes involved with a 24-year-old intern, the bond between teacher and student is written in fire in literature.
Film and television are not far behind in telling a love story between the master and his disciple. Asian series generally have a fun way of approaching love. When it comes to stories that have a secondary school or university as a background, they do not always show romance between students, because upon discovering this feeling some may develop a crush with their teachers.
The stories range from one-sided infatuations to those in which teacher and disciple meet again years later and it is then that they can begin a relationship. However, there are others in which some decide to take the risk and start a romance in the middle of the classroom, the school hallways and, why not?, in the gym. The latter is the case of the Japanese romantic comedy 'Sahara-sensei and Toki-kun', from 2023.
From director Shibata Keisuke Sukiyanen (who also directed 'Kedo Do Yaro ka', 'Nare no Hate no Bokura', 'Yukionna to Kani wo Kuu', 'Rokuhodo Yotsuiro Biyori' and 'Waltz of Turtle', among many more, the series tells the romantic relationship of Toki-kun (Hachimura Rintaro), the rebellious 17-year-old student at a Japanese high school, and his handsome Physical Education teacher, three years older. The former only needed a fraction of a second to fall in love.
With the minimum age of sexual consent met, according to the legislation of his native country, and close to reaching his majority, love makes Toki-kun grow. That student always involved in fights and absent from classes stops looking for problems and his life takes a 180 degree turn to give way to a totally different person. He will be the first to arrive to the classroom, he studies hard and participates in all curricular and extracurricular activities. He is guided by a single objective: to attract the attention of his beloved instructor Sahara-sensei (Kizu Takumi).
The person in charge of adapting the manga to television is the screenwriter Miura Yuiko, also the author of works such as 'Ultraman Geed', 'The Sango Ranger', 'Screaming Class' and 'Itazura na Kiss: Love in Tokyo', among others.
What do 'Sahara-sensei To Toki-Kun' and the series 'Big', from 2012, have in common; 'A gentleman's Dignity', 2012; 'My Rommate Gumiho', 'Hello Mr. Right', 2016; 'Hello, My Teacher', 2005; 'Teacher Monarch', 2018; 'Somewhere Only We Know', from 2019; 'Doctors', from 2016; 'Sensei', from 2017; 'Tunnel of Love: The Place For Miracles', 2015; 'Thorn', from 2014; 'My Rainy Days', 2009; 'Close Range Love', 2014; 'My Little Bride', 2004; 'High School Teacher', 2003; 'Flower Boy Ramyun Shop', 2011; 'Doctor Crush', 2016; 'Exclusive Memory', from 2019; 'Secret Love Affair', 2014; 'A Story To Read When You First Fall In Love', 2019; 'Daytime Shooting Star', 2017; 'I'm Sam', 2007; 'Met Me After School', from 2018, among others?
All of them raise the teacher-student love relationship as a theme and view it from various points of view. But there is a decisive factor that differentiates them: while these latest television productions narrate a heterosexual romance, 'Sahara-sensei To Toki-kun' addresses a gay love.
This 8-episode series debunks the myth of the romance between teacher and student. The program at no time plays with the viewer. It doesn't give them false expectations. Let no one think that they are facing the umpteenth story of forbidden love between a teacher and the teenage schoolboy. There are no first kisses or secret sexual encounters here. There is no rape or pedophilia here. Here we are not in the presence of sexual abuse of minors disguised as falling in love.
We witness a pure, sincere and innocent love, even clumsy. As the chapters progress, it's easy to forget the age difference between the two. The story encourages you to accompany them in that sincere passionate and tender love. They will soon confess their love for each other. Communication is quickly established and they face problems together.
Who has never known love before, much less in a man, sighs every time she has classes with Sahara-sensei. He looks for him in the hallways or in his office that he shares with other teachers. You need to see him, be by his side. And for this he will look for a thousand pretexts. He waits after school or in the morning when he arrives at school for the being that seems to him the most attractive, most perfect and most complete in the world. He fantasizes, he dreams about him, he listens to music thinking about him, he walks through the streets with him in his mind. Sharing with the only person who really looks at you and understands you will become your priority. Thus a sincere love arises between these two people who are too pure.
As soon as he discovers love, an antisocial Toki-kun befriends Rise Tatsumasa (Sono Shunta), a student in his same classroom whom he had never paid attention to before; Todo Shinji (Matsumoto Hiroki), a third-year student and friend of Sahara who is assigned to be Toki's tutor; and Todo Takuya (Momose Takumi), Shinji's foster brother. Although less interesting because it is not developed well, there will also be a romantic bond between these last two boys.
The love of the two protagonists will be tested when Nekoto Minato (Hori Kaito), whom Sahara-sensei declared her love for when they were both studying at the same school years ago, returns to take over as teacher and claims that she also loved him since then, but he did not have the courage to recognize it and today it is ready.
Is the temptation of the forbidden the driving force behind Sahara-sensei and Toki-kun? Is it the idea of ​​a forbidden relationship that generates the fantasy of being able to sexually possess something taboo? Is the possibility of being discovered what motivates you? Is this a love with an expiration date because once the “hidden” is overcome, one falls into normality and from there to boredom? Is the intention to challenge the norm the main characteristic of your relationship? Perhaps it is the desire to control, to exercise power, an emotional need or seeking to make an illusion come true that moves them?
From Toki-kun's point of view: Could it be an attraction out of admiration and curiosity? Will your interest be in possessing something from your teacher, such as his or her knowledge and skills?
From Sahara-sensei's point of view, is what he feels is basic sexual attraction or the pride of feeling important and admired by his student? Is feeling that attraction from your disciple exciting to you from a sexual and emotional point of view, since it is a strong validation?
Are we facing a power relationship? Will Toki seek to take advantage of the person who has more power? Is the need to control the situation when the matter is complex the factor that generates this relationship? Will it be difficult for an athletic, runner and fighter like Toki-kun to pass the Physical Education subject? Should the teacher avoid a loving bond with the person he loves? Is the solution to postpone the relationship until the student reaches the age of majority and is no longer under the “shadow” of the teacher? Will this relationship have a future? Is it just desire or a fantasy and will it eventually die? Will it prosper and become a lifelong romance, as the two young people have vowed?
The protagonist, a boy who is not at all insecure and with very high self-esteem, very mature for his age, is not a victim, and takes charge of his actions until the end. Knowing that he is in love, he is able to acknowledge his love to his friends and classmates, despite living in a society where homosexuality is illegal. That confession will define him.
For her part, Sahara-sensei is not the archetype of the manipulator. He is a serious and responsible adult. He is aware of his strengths and weaknesses. He shows that he knows his physical and moral limits when he resigns from being the advisor of the Swimming Club, a position for which he was proposed, or when he stops swimming due to a fracture in his spine.
He admits to being afraid of losing the trust of others. His personality, sensible and calm, becomes one of the most rational, balanced and endearing in the BL universe.
He conveys the feeling of being a friendly, unique, wise older brother. He respects Toki-kun, gives him his space and freedom of decision.
The relationship is based on mutual respect, trust and friendship. There is healthy communication and complicity between the two. Everyone is happy with the person who is next to them. They both feel valued and their limits are respected, both physical, emotional and sexual. In other words, Sahara-sensei and Toki-kun fit perfectly into the relationship established by them. They complement each other.
There is no morbidity or adrenaline in the actions of either of them. Their brilliant performances elevate the story and make the characters much more interesting and fascinating to watch. Both actors are capable of transmitting feelings and emotions naturally. Hachimura Rintaro and Kizu Takumi's outstanding performances have delicacy, subtlety and depth
As for the relationship between Toki and Sahara being unhealthy because it is a relationship in which one has power over the other, as one is a student and the other is his teacher, nothing could be further from the truth. The two agree to wait for each other. What are you waiting for? Why don't you give free rein to your love? Why don't they kiss in the corners of the school or in the park, away from it? Why don't they have sex in a hotel room, if they both want each other? Wouldn't theirs be consensual sex? Isn't Toki 17 years old? Don't the laws in Japan set the age of sexual consent at 17? Isn't that an age when kids fantasize about sex all day? Isn't that the age at which you dream of losing your virginity, if you haven't already? What then prevents them from loving each other freely?
They both wait for Toki to finish graduating from the Institute and go to the University to be an “adult” and thus be able to help Sahara in a life together, as the young boy stated to his lover.
The series even goes as far as NOT to violate their relationship, when the agreement to wait for each other is NOT sealed with a kiss, with sensual hugs, with genuine expressions of love, as anyone would expect. They sealed it with a fist bump and a smile on their lips. That is the purpose of the series: we are NOT faced with a power relationship. The teacher does NOT exercise any authority over the student nor does the student take advantage of obtaining possible advantages from the teacher to the detriment of the rest of the students.
In the final moments, Nekoto will reveal to Sahara that she always loved him, but she refused to be his boyfriend because she did not want to be a burden on him, since Sahara was destined to be a star swimmer and fear that a relationship with him would obstruct her future.
Learning the truth from Nekoto himself will allow Sahara to heal her still open wounds. Sahara can now close a page of pain in her life that meant rejecting her love for the man she loved. Now Sahara can be happy with Toki because Nekoto's ghost will no longer haunt him.
This revelation opens up a range of possibilities for Sahara between rescuing her relationship with someone she knows well, of the same age, someone with whom she shares beautiful memories and indestructible ties, on the one hand, and, on the other, with a new love like Toki. As we could see, Sahara chose Toki. Sahara distinguished the person he loves today above the person he loved in the past, despite the latent age difference, or that one is a minor or the teacher-student relationship. This contributes to debunking the myth of teacher-student romance.
The Japanese use kintsugi as a perfect metaphor for resilience because not only is the damaged piece of pottery repaired, but even it becomes more beautiful, stronger and more valuable. This centuries-old technique consists of reassembling ceramic pieces that have broken or developed cracks with resin mixed with gold dust.
Toki-kun becomes a potter who heals Sahara-sensei's wounds through kintsugi. The professor sees himself as a heartbroken person. He needs to get over falling out of love. The student becomes the new love that repairs the broken pieces of the teacher's life with golden strips to make it stronger, more resilient. I do not doubt that in his thoughts, Sahara-sensei asks Toki-kun not to abandon him, since without him he will once again feel empty, destroyed, hollow. A person in these circumstances gives themselves to their loved one with devotion. I would never hurt her. I would never try to lie to you, manipulate you, hurt you.
Regardless of the possible interpretations, what there is no doubt about is the ability of the director and screenwriter to dismantle a myth, give other causes to the theme of homosexuality in dramas, make the BL genre thunder, shake it up. , wake him up and dress him long in fine and new clothing, due to both the effectiveness and the organicity with which the creators integrate an entire arsenal of romantic cinema resources into the narrative.

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I'm in love with Toki

When I started this drama, I was not hoping I would be hooked with this and would be dying out of waiting. Like many may think this is like Minato's Coin loundry and the dynamics are really same too as Sahara and Minato both were swimmers, both of their crushes came back etc. But the way Toki's character is, it makes a huge difference between THESE jbl and any other JBL and the side couple is also good. Usually in other dramas, those characters do not communicate until second last or last episode but in here, they do communicate and face problems together which is the main reason I love this.
About Acting:
I'm biased for Toki. The way he gets shy, happy, excited, sad, angry etc the actor does convey those feelings too well and I sometimes feel like why just I don't have a man like him in my life whom I will shower with all love.
Sahara gives me a vibe of that one cool brother who is wise, friendly and both are straightforward.
I'm sol ready with a box of tissues for next episode.

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