Love in the Air: Koi no Yokan (2024)

It's hard to beat the original

For the first 4 episodes everything felt like you wouldn't understand a lot unless you've actually seen the original LITA. The timeline was different since Rei's (Rain) and Kai's (Sky) stories were happening at the same time. Also, some events were formed into one for example Arashi telling Rei that his time to court him was up right after spending a passionate night after the race. In the original series those two things happened on two different days. Everything felt fast paced but that's because they made less episodes and also made each episode 20 minutes shorter. If they made it a little longer and slowed things down then maybe I would've liked it more.
I don't think this version of LITA is bad but it's just not the same as the original.

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Didn't Quite Hit The Mark

I wanted to like this remake or adaptation so much. In fact when I heard about it I was super excited because I have a love hate relationship with MAME since in my opinion she destroyed LBC 2. I mean I held a grudge for quite a long time and refused to watch her material at all until Love in the Air. BossNoeul and FortPeat had an amazing chemistry.
Now Japan is the inventor of Yaoi and I have so many Japanese BL Series that will always have my heart. So my expectations were high on this. No actors were bad per se in this remake but with the exception of NAGUMO SHOMA this series seemed completely mis-cast. A series with good actors yet bad casting are already at a lost in my opinion but since casting isn't my business I have to look past it and choose to watch or not to. I chose to watch.
I came to appreciate one more member of the cast in NAGATSUMA REO as Kai aka Sky. He brought a great attempt to understanding Kai and his struggles.
The NC scenes were a struggle for me. Fuma and Kai were basically okay but Arashi and Rei made me uncomfortable because Arashi like Phayu before him was passionate and kissed with tongue. BossNoeul made it work in incredible ways. However Rei seem to lie there with his mouth closed as Arashi licked his lips which almost seemed sexual assault like but Rei did manage to show enjoyment. Maybe it's just me, the chemistry was just off for me. However I did see the vision.
I give props for Japan adapting a MAME work but it did fall short. I do intend to rewatch and maybe form a different opinion which is why I gave the rewatch value a 10. If I somehow misinterpreted this I will update this review. That's just my take.

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Not bad, but not great either

Let me begin by saying that I was an absolutely huge fan of the original Love in the Air, fan enough to have written several fanfictions on it! But I went into this one with a fresh mind, so although I do not plan to compare, they may flip in at some point. That said, I will try to stay as honest as possible to my review.

First of all, Mame is well known for a very different style of writing, and most of her stories have some semblance of toxicity that is quite obvious. Love in the Air is no exception. The only bone I have to pick with the Japanese version is the reduction of the time. I have a very strong feeling that it would have been way better and way more effective had it been given some more run time.

Now let me talk about the story. So this one sticks closer to Mame's book version, from everything I have heard. I cannot comment on that with complete conviction because I have not read the book, and I don't feel I am the right person to do that. More mafia like angles were added, especially in case of Arashi. I was annoyed by the presence of Taiga, who seemed to have been given unnecessary screen time, especially since it could have been well used for building up the main storylines. Same goes for Gan, and how he tormented the character of Kai.

Now I will go into the things I actually liked and did not like:
1. I loved the friendship between Rei and Kai. It was cleaner, and less eye rolls and drama. Don't get me wrong. I like Rain and Sky's friendship. But I do feel that Sky could have been softer, which I found Kai to be. Although the actor who played the character seemed a little too old for his role, I am okay with that, because, well Peat was the oldest in the Thai LITA gang too!
2. I also like the moments given to Arashi and Fuma. They showed a deeper understanding of one another that somehow struck me as very positive, and something that was missing in the Thai version.
3. I found the character of Rinka very sweet. The actress did quite well in the limited time she was on screen. And the best part was that Som was cut out in the Japanese version, so we didn't have to put up with the fruity siblings!!
5. I hated the fact that character of Saifah was removed from the series! That broke my heart! Look, I know Pepper had very limited screen time, but his gremlin nature was the very highlight of the show! They removed an iconic character.. not done guys!
6. Shoma is a good actor, and I liked him a lot in 25:00 Alaska, even though he was the side character. So I am glad to see him in this one. The only problem is that Boss is a fantastic actor, and comparisons are going to be inevitable. And the problem is that Shoma, despite his skills, has very limited expressions.
7. Asahi is definitely not the right choice for Fuma's role. I am sorry I am saying this, but I was not prepared for this casting. The character of Prapai is just as vibrant as Phayu's, and a bit larger than life. But Fuma felt.. off.. I was mightily unprepared for him riding up on his bikes in those suits. Seemed a bit weird.
8. Takuto is a sweetie. And I really enjoyed his portrayal of Rain. There is an innocence that he brought to this role, and I quite enjoyed that. Yes, some reactions were a bit over the top, but the overall vibe was quite entertaining. And I loved the fact that Rei was the one who put stop out of commission. That was well done!
9. Gan was such an obnoxious character, worse than Gun. And that's saying something. Because Gun was an asshole of garangutan proportions. And the funniest was seeing Fuma, in a suit no less, hit him like there is no tomorrow. Jeez.. talk about misfits!
10. I am taking away major points for the OST. Absolutely forgettable and uninteresting.
11. Also, it upset me a bit to see that most parts were almost out of order. I was not expecting great things. But it made me sad to miss some really soft moments that were there in the original.
12. Japanese BLs are not very NC heavy usually, and I am totally okay with that. But somehow, the ones in this one did not fit the kind of passion that is Mame's trademark. Arashi was majorly into it (we even saw tongue!), but I am gonna cut marks for Rei's uninspiring performance. But the sight of Arashi's back kind of made up for it!

Despite lacklustre performances, and a fatal flaw of shortening a complete series, I won't say that LITA Koi was a disaster as many people made it out to be. As I said, with a precedent like LITA, comparisons are bound to happen, but the team did manage stand on its own. And honestly, while I am not a huge fan of them *in* the show, Shoma and Takuto have insanely cute chemistry irl. So I think that should count for something!

Also.. They brought in Boss and Fort for the 2 special Episodes, which, for me, was a bit much. Not because of their presence, but because it felt like too much in too little time. Felt like the two were roped in for a little bit of saving grace.

All in all, not a bad drama.. just make sure you go with a unobjective mind :)

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Expecting more from Japanese Love in the air

the Thai version. I’ve seen the Thai version first and I was hoping that they’ll add a new atmosphere for this.
Trying to be objective this series is not easy to be executed, because we need to feel
• the characters connection ( imo the Japanese BL’s do it just great with a few episodes,there’re objective,on the other side Thai BL focus on crescendo, it takes longer but we get that connection)
•Characters chemistry ( Arashi/Rei was ok , Fuma/Kai could be better, it missed the emotional tone
I’m actually surprised because normally on Japanese series they have this ability to capture the essence of the story.
For me … I wasn’t expecting a copy paste of the Thai series but an adaptation having in consideration the Japanese culture.
They started out well on the 2nd episode I had the impression that they’ve focused on the keys points , I liked how they demonstrated Kai emotional state,it was so well made…but somewhere they lost focus.
I hope that they could see constructives comments and next time leave us speechless.

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a sinking titanic

dont get me wrong, i do tend to love jbls but this is one exception , i just coudnt finish it
it felt like they relied on a famous serie to pick the public interest but they should know that this is not enough, both acting, chemistry and plot werent done well, at least the thai one have the acting and chemistry of the mls to back it up, this one is lacking on every level which explains the rating of this serie
id still rate it 6/10 only because i have seen worse
adaptations dont always backfire, the cherry magic one was good both versions were good and enjoyable to watch, in order for adaptations to do well they need to pick good actors ,for them to have good chemistry and make the story creative and interesting to watch , a bland one will only make people feel asleep and if they can predict almost every little thing because of excessive" copy paste" dialogue from the original one it kills the interest

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Could have been a lot better with more time

Arashi and Rei - really simple story, not the type of characters I usually enjoy and it was true for this as well. Shoma did a really bad job with his acting but he is handsome and better at the kissing scenes. Takuto was bad as well, better than the actor for Rain in my opinion but the couple has no chemistry . Enjoyed the Japanese version of the show better for this couple, probably because their story is very simple and it works better with the shorter episodes. I give them 2 out of 10, watched them to see Fuma and Kai in the first episodes.

Unfortunately in this version we get very little time to show the friendship between Rei and Kai, Arashi and Fuma. We also lose some fun side characters but Rinka is better than the Thai version, Sky's ex was creepier in the Thai version. They cut a lot of useless fluff and that was great. The sound in this show was a lot better, the editing as well but it had a smaller budget and it showed.

Fuma and Kai- the story needed a better writer to give more depth to both Sky/Kai and Fuma/P'Pai but still a decent story. Asahi did a good job with his acting, he fails when it comes to his ,,womanizer,, persona but I prefer him to P'Pai with some exceptions. In the Thai version when P'Pai and Sky meet there was a certain level of uncertainty, P'Pai seemed more dangerous, like he could hurt Sky but this version lacks this and it's not a good thing in my opinion, some characters are better when they keep you guessing. Reo is the best actor in the series in my opinion, he did a great job with most of the scenes but some scenes lack ,,depth,, because they were not given the time they needed to develop the characters better. Unfortunately this was the character they choose to change the most and Sky looses some of his charm. The couple has chemistry in some scenes but not all unfortunately. Sure, Reo is a bit too old for this role but I will take an older actor any day if he does a good job acting. - I give them 6 out of 10, would have been 7 with two more episodes dedicated to them since time is what they lacked most.

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how did they make it cringier but not in an entertaining way lol

even cringier than the other version lol the thing is because it has even shorter running time, it's even worse. this is a very wattpad story with the corniest plot and dialogues, i knew that we all knew that. but the writing in here is really bad, like how did they make it worse lol some scenes i had to look away and no one was even singing or pulling out the guitar, it's that bad lol there's no real development of the romance and the acting or chemistry don't save this one either. it's just corny but not in a fun way other bls have done, ya know. i just want to be entertained at leasttt

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You can’t outdo the original

In my opinion I felt Love in the Air Japanese remake had its ups and downs mainly because I didn’t like how Rei was portrayed as a cute and baby like character because Rain in the Thai version didn’t act like that, but only acted cute for Payu. I really loved Fuma and Kai though because they had so much chemistry that whenever they came on the screen I just wanted more of them and less scenes of Arashi and Rei. I also felt that Arashi was super quiet this whole entire series like he would just stare, but only talk whenever he was with Rei. Anyways I may have spoilers so be aware.
This plot was almost exactly like Love in the Air Thailand version, but it felt rushed and I kind of get why it was rushed because it was a short amount of time and I feel it’s also because they wanted to put their own kind of touch to Love in the Air series, which I liked but it did kind of ruin the whole series since you rushed the good scenes only to make the scenes from the Thai version a little bad. My opinion on the characters are very mixed for example I felt Arashi was sort of like a temu version of Payu and we barley got any screen time of him because their story focused mainly on Rei and not the both of them. I always liked the plot where you had everyone in love with Payu and he spoke a lot, but I felt he barley even spoke for example that scene where Rei, Arashi, and Kai are in a cafe talking and then Fuma comes and finally sees Kai from their night of love and the whole scene was probably like 5 minutes, but Arashi was silent the whole time and just looked at everyone like give my boy Shoma (Arashi) some lines please. I felt Rei was an annoying character because all he did was try to act cute the whole series and it wasn’t like the cuteness you see in your favorite actors or idols, but the annoying type of cuteness where you wouldn’t want to see him as much as he was in this series. I really enjoyed him at the very beginning because he was just like Rain in my opinion, but once he started dating Arashi he became sort of annoying and like sort of loud like Jade in middleman’s love. I will also say that spanking scene of Rei and Arashi was very cringy and they kept replaying it over and over and it’s even in the special episode. I really liked Fuma in my opinion like he was just like Prapai for example they were both very loyal to Sky and Kai and they would protect them any day by their horrible and toxic ex. I also am a fan of his because he’s in the boy group Watwing and they have pretty good songs which is why he ate in the Love in the Air song. I am also obsessed with Kai because he’s so pretty and adorable like I wanted to hug him so many times throughout this show. I also liked that this show didn’t have to many scenes of Kai crying because in the Thai version Sky cried a lot and I didn’t want it to be sad either. Overall, I felt that you literally can’t outdo the original and I really loved Fuma and Kai so I’d recommend you should watch this because of them.

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An Apt Remake and Epic Romance Recalled!

For those who are looking for a vivid comparison between the Thai & Japanese version, fret not. We are at your service!

After a bevy of Thai remakes of Japanese adaptations (Cherry Magic & My Love Mix-Up!), now it’s time to watch the Japanese remake of popular Thai adaptation “Love in the Air”. If you have watched the original show, you might be reminded of the fact that it turned rookie actors Boss Chaikamon, Noeul Nuttarat Tangwai, Fort Thitipong & Peat Wasuthorn into fan favorites. Each of these pairings have a cult following and their popularity could be attributed to the NC scenes that are a part and parcel of most universe’s created by author MAME. When I first heard about the Japanese remake, I had my own doubts. Japanese BL actors can be categorized into two varieties- firstly the ones who are dedicated and go all the way in, which means they are extremely comfortable with their co-star and their NC scenes are phenomenal. Secondly, the ones who are in for fame and find it uncomfortable to even kiss their co-star. I kept wondering if the Japanese actors Nagumo Shoma, Hamaya Takuto, Suzuki Asahi & Nagatsuma Reo would be honest to the original interpretation? Would they be comfortable stepping into the shoes of the Thai actors who left a deep impression in the minds of avid fans?

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/11/12/love-in-the-air-koi-no-yokan-first-impressions-ep-1-2/

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Amei!!! Se você estava esperando uma versão ipsis litteris da versão tailandesa, com certeza irá se decepcionar. É preciso entender que são duas escolas com estilos muito diferentes. Enquanto a versão tailandesa tem um tom mais leve e cômico, com muitas cenas de drama e romance, a versão japonesa é mais sutil e focada no desenvolvimento dos personagens, com um tom mais emocional e introspectivo. A produção/direção está de parabéns por conseguir capturar os principais pontos da versão tailandesa em 8 episódios de 20 e poucos minutos. A série é visualmente atraente, com belos cenários e fotografia e uma abordagem mais minimalista e realista. A química entre os personagens principais é perfeita e os atores conseguiram conferir a profundidade emocional necessária aos seus personagens, especialmente Nagatsuma Reo, que interpreta Kai.

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