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A story of discovery but with no real kisses...
Of course I have to rant again, because in this story kissing has a deeper meaning especially in the finale. And both can't do it which sucks. That's a clear de-ranking for me.But: We get a more realistic story, about disovering feelings one of the MLs did not know he had, about a stupid decision which could have ended a relationship before it began and about how to come together even with all the hurdles in their way. If you don't talk about what you're feeling, it always creates problems. The story was sensible told, some scenes are very emotional and feel realistic. For me, the pacing was off. The first half was very fast paced and there happens a lot, the second half is very slow, too slow imho.
Production quality was superb, even with some bonus landscape pictures which were really pretty and interesting. The intro song is also so "non-BL" and they hired veteran Erina Koyama for the rest. She did a bunch of soundtracks and a lot of BL soundtracks (also for "Love Is Better the Second Time" S1 & S2). You can listen to her work on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpPc7Q4cYWyynGkVls-ugLw
Overall an interesting story, more realistic as I assumed in the beginning. The only downfall for this series are actors not committing to their roles, even when Mr. Oku Tomoya was already in "Minato's Laundromat" S1 & S2. It's especially disappointing because this time the kissing is story relevant. Also the pacing is off in the second half where the story streched too far. Still, I liked the series. It's not top notch, but still good.
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Unrequited Love, Fast Feelings That Slowly Lost Its Spark
The first few episodes were surprisingly fast paced. I have a soft spot for high school crushes slowly turning into romance, especially when there are unrequited feelings involved, so I was immediately interested. I was actually surprised that Saeki confessed in the very first episode instead of dragging the confession out for half the series.The story itself is simple, light and refreshing, focusing more on the awkward emotions of being young rather than filling the story with unnecessary drama. The chemistry between the leads feels natural, the acting is convincing, and the soundtrack fits the youthful summer atmosphere really well. I am always happy to watch another high school BL, so I was definitely enjoying it at first.
Episode 4 hit me particularly hard because the situation reminded me of something that happened to me in real life. My best friend and I had been inseparable since primary school, but one day my parents suddenly told me we were moving more than 2,000 km away to another state. This was before I started using social media, so keeping in touch was not easy and we eventually lost contact for more than 10 years before finally reconnecting. It was heartbreaking because, as children, we had no control over decisions like that. Our parents made them for us.
That is why Toda leaving without properly saying goodbye to Saeki really got to me. Knowing you are leaving is one thing, but disappearing without giving the other person a chance to say goodbye can hurt even more. Sometimes a goodbye cannot change what is going to happen, but it can give someone closure. Being left behind without an explanation is something that can stay with you for a very long time.
Episode 5 was another one I enjoyed. I loved the flashback showing how they first met when they were younger, and I especially liked the handwritten note. In a world where everyone sends texts, there is something much more meaningful about someone taking the time to actually write something down for you.
Episode 6 was probably my favourite. The beach scene was genuinely beautiful. They finally opened up about their feelings, cried together, confessed what they had been holding inside and ended the moment with a hug. It felt very honest and emotional without needing to be overly dramatic. That scene really worked for me.
My main criticism is that these actors just cannot kiss.
Their first kiss was unexpected because it was basically a kiss through a mask 😷 I honestly never seeing that before. I did not hate it, but I definitely did not like it either. It was just... unexpected.
Then every other kisses feels like a dead fish kiss with no passion or movement at all. I’m currently watching over 20 airing BLs, so maybe my expectations are just too high, but if you take on a BL role, then you need to fully commit to it.
I would honestly rather they not kiss at all than give us an awkward kiss where they just press their lips together and freeze. If you’re going to include kissing scenes, then commit to them and make them believable.
Overall, I think this BL started much stronger than it finished. The beginning moved at such a fast pace that I was really invested, but somewhere along the way the story started to drag and I felt like not much was happening.
In the end, this is a light and wholesome BL with some genuinely emotional moments, but for me, it is not one of the best Japanese BLs out there. I enjoyed watching it, especially the earlier episodes and the emotional scenes, but I was hoping for a little more by the end.
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What happens when they talk too much...
I tried my best to find the sweetness between the couple. I couldn't. Twelve episodes of too much talking. Apparently, they didn’t know how to create a series that let events speak and the audience gets involved with the emotions. They talked everything to death. The side characters talked too much also.Heavy dialogue is only fun when it moves the plot along and is whitty. This felt like 12 lectures. Even the nc felt like an assignment. The morning after was the most amount of warmth between them and it was nice to see. Also, Wataru's unexpected tears. It doesn't help that both their personalities are basically the same.
I kept thinking of Sunspot everytime they were together and the difference.
They weren't bad but they didn't capture my interest beyond why they got together in the first place. Their love for movies. It's a quiet introspective series that doesn't do anything different than any other generic series.
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Sweet and realistic
It is genuinely great, cute BL with some sad but realistic moments. I didn't like the start at first, but I'm so happy I continued watching, as it really is not what it seems.I liked the acting, and the visuals are also incredible.
You can watch it on GagaOOLala: https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/7994/my-summer-of-you-2026-e01
Things I liked:
1. Cinematography.
2. Beautiful views.
3. Interesting turn of events in the series. Not your regular school BL.
4. Good supportive friends. Always great to see.
5. A lot of realism in both characters and story.
6. Cute and caring moments.
7. Niimi-san.
Things I disliked:
1. A lot of cliches. I'm honestly used to it at this point, but sometimes it gets annoying.
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The Script Lacked Depth
Kazuto and Tomoya gave everything to this script, which was lacking - I don't mean it was a bad script, I just mean the boys hadto add a lot of emotion to bring out the essence of the series, and there was a lot of repetition.
In the end, I still felt like they were high school boys, playing at being adults - not their fault, the script was a bit bland by the end.
I enjoyed the support actors' performances.
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Sweet Confort Drama
Very vanilla, very innocent romance of yearning and the slow burn of friends becoming lovers.The leads are positively charming: all puppy belly and blue skies, even in their angst, anger, and regret.
There is nothing groundbreaking here, and it feels almost like a slice of life story. If you enjoy warm characters finding a way to each other, this is a nice little comfort drama.
The leads have a very warm emotional intimacy and their surface level skinship feels authentic. If I may be a little crass, when they finally find their way to physical intimacy, I actually said aloud, "They are going to have the most vanilla sex that ever vanilla'd ". I just didn't feel as much urgency in their physical intimacy as I did in their emotional intimacy. Thia is not a criticism, simply an observation.
The conflicts felt pretty low stakes, which is perfect for an escapist watch (which is what this one was for me).
It was lovely.
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It had my heart... almost
This had everything it needed to become one of my favorite dramas. The story is simple, light, and refreshing, the kind of romance that's easy to watch and perfect for a cozy binge. The chemistry between the leads felt natural, and their performances made it easy to believe in their relationship. But somehow... something was missing.I kept waiting for that one moment that would completely steal my heart, and it never came. I enjoyed every episode, but I never became as emotionally attached to the characters as I wanted to. It's a sweet drama with plenty of charming moments, yet it never quite reached its full potential for me. I really wanted to love it more than I did, and maybe that's why it left me with such a bittersweet feeling.
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Disappointing. (This really should have only been 8 episodes in length...)
Unfortunately-- given the fact that this is based on a work by one of my favorite BL mangaka, and was not something I'd ever expected to see adapted into live-action (because this particular manga was published around 10 years ago!), so I was originally pretty excited about it-- this was quite disappointing, because it didn't work well either as an adaptation *or* as its own standalone work. And most of the reason for this is because of its length.This story could have been perfectly told in 8 episodes. However, since the producers decided to make it 12 ep.'s instead for some reason, that forced the pacing to drag out to an atrocious degree, *and* also made the writers completely invent a bunch of padding to fill that time out. Now, don't get me wrong, some of the extra stuff was okay-- for example, the extra few scenes with Wataru's friend group and coworker were sweet, at least-- however, unfortunately, most of it was instead just completely unnecessary nonsense (like that whole new invented school 'friend' of Chiharu's, who was literally only there to cause more trouble and misunderstandings between the leads {thanks to what seemed to be an unspoken one-sided crush, no less...?! For pity's sake, can we really not be free of stupid love triangles even when the original work it's based on didn't have any love triangles whatsoever??? 😬🤦🤦}). And all of the extra invented angst between the leads in the latter part of the show was completely unnecessary, too-- and, again, was literally only there to fill out airtime, not to improve anything about the characterization or plot.
Even looking at this show without adaptation in mind-- just as a standalone work-- the pacing is so frustrating that I don't know how anyone who was just going into this as-is (without first having read the manga) even managed the patience to finish it.
Now, that said, the reason I still have this rated at a 6.0 is because the first few ep.'s were actually pretty good (for context, I had originally thought that this was on track to be an 8.0 show, but unfortunately all the borked pacing and bad filler tanked that...), and the actors (particularly Wataru's actor), bless them, did try their best with what they had to work with. Unfortunately, though, I really can't recommend this even as a standalone (not to mention as an adaptation) because it was just really not well-done overall. 😕
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Hmmm
The Summer of You... hmmm. I have mixed emotions about this one. As I usually say, maybe it’s just not my cup of tea, or maybe I’m simply not the target audience. But I don’t hate it either.One thing I really liked about this JBL is that we get the confession very early in the story. At least they didn’t drag it all the way to the ending just for them to finally confess. 😂 The conflict between the couple is also very valid, especially for people who have personally experienced it, like leaving without even saying goodbye. That part really made sense to me.
But other than that, it was mostly just... hmmm, okay. 😅 There were scenes I enjoyed, but nothing really stood out to me that much.
One thing I have to give them, though, is the scenery. Thank you for all those beautiful shots because they were honestly so refreshing to look at. 🥹
And the kiss... LOL. At this point, it’s becoming a JBL stereotype that some actors just don’t know how to kiss on screen. 😭😂
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Wholesome
This was my second time watcing, it watched all the episodes when they aired, and now before watching the last one, i watched them all again in 1 go! I really love this series. The production was good, it had great visuals en the music was good.It was so beautiful that Wataru stayed exactly the same towards Chiharu after being confessed to.
And i am very happy that is not another "i am not worthy of him" story.
I also really like the symbolism in the last episode when Chiharu is the one running to the beach.
It was great the friends stepped in to help resolve the problem.
Amazing acting, great chemistry. It was a shame the kisses were just lip touches...
I really recommend watching this series.
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In a 24 minute episode there are 37 times Huh, Uh, Ah..... which is about 2 times a minute why those sighs that have no meaning???
Why do you use too much and too often : Huh, Ah, Uh.... he asked him a simple question: Wataru, where are you now? On the other hand, instead of answering, Wataru says: Huh?!?!?!? Why is that? When are you going to learn that acting is a word, don't sigh, synonyms and the like!
I also noticed that you often use sighs Huh, Uh, Ah, Oh...which serve absolutely no purpose! Learn what conversation is. Simple question: How are you? The answer should be simple: I'm fine, I'm OK, I'm fine.... not Huh? Huh? Huh? Why all that?????????
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Its like reading a Manga
Watching this in US. Still waiting on finale episode 12 to drop. Already rewatched it twice. It is that good. A bit slow, but i think it is because the cinematography is meant to be like reading a manga. There will be scenes with really up close shots and long pauses, and the only thing the characters would utter softly is “hmm” or “huh”. Love the outdoor scenes, made me wanted to do a pilgrimage of this series. You grow with the characters from beginning to end of series. It is one of those rare series that you hope they wound do a sequel few years later because you want to know what happen to them. Hint: “autumn of you”? Main lead Wataru’s acting is superb. You bust out laughing with him in some scenes while you drop tears on others. May do a third rewatch once the finale has aired.Was this review helpful to you?
