Kim Yoonmi 김윤미 金潤美

Ki (Introduction)

So say after Akari meets Izumi and goes on a date, she meets Yamato and finds out he's Akari's brother. She tells Izumi right away that she once dated Yamato and this is part of the plot (kishotenketsu). This leaves Izumi to wrestle with the fact she's dated Yamato before.

Akari is honestly murky on the circumstances of their break up, and feels like Yamato forced her into a break up, but doesn't know why. This still leaves the problem of the past brother.

Izumi asks Yamato if it's true that he dated Akari before and why they broke up. Yamato reveals about Haruka, etc. He can still have a teenage fit of angst about it, but he comes back to Akari and says he trusts her, but asks her to sort her crap out with his brother on the circumstances of their break up.

Sho Development

Izumi's steadfast trust gives Akari all of the feels and she falls more for him than before. Izumi stays nearby by Akari's request while she sorts out the drama with the brother.

She feels devastated that she misread the signals from Yamato and when she thought it was about him trying to break up with her it's was really him feeling overwhelmed and not being able to take care of his mother.

This cements her feelings that Yamato isn't for her because Izumi has better natural communication. However, she checks in with Yamato and tells him her honne, inner feelings.

Meanwhile, chasing an art degree, she makes headway and gets noticed by college admissions for a scholarship. Big claps, except it is in Hokkaido. She feels uneasy about this and doesn't know what to tell Izumi.

Yamato tells her she should give up the relationship with Izumi because he wouldn't communicate with her over that distance, and it's not likely Izumi would either.

(The whole Doshiyo thing for the teenage angst.)

Ten [Twist]

Akari then tells Izumi her dilemma, and Izumi reassures her that no matter where she is he would communicate with her.

Meanwhile, Yamato is hoping Akari and Izumi break up, but finds out they don't. Akari justifies it to him which makes Yamato realize why Akari and Izumi are better matched. Haruka (if you need her) can realize they are similar sorts and she needs a life outside of boys and relationships [or give her a better motivation for her relentless boy chasing ways]. Akari and Yamato settle their differences.

Ketsu [Result--though some of this also takes from Jo-ha-Kyu]
Years later, Akari is in her hometown and meets Yamato and Izumi. Yamato has moved on and they laugh over their past saying they are glad they dated, but also they broke up, while Akari and Izumi reunite and smile at each other.

You still can get all of the teenage drama, the premise, and all of that, but none of the toxic and it would also follow the formula of Kishotenketsu much better because higher feels and a better use of actor talent.

This is how I would shine that turd.

I still think it could be improved... based on the premise. You'd just have to up the EQ and IQ of all the characters.

So... I'll give it a shot with a quick write up. (Not the plot, but plot improvement)

I've seen drama versions that vastly improved the manga to the point where you're like--the manga version doesn't exist.

Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Doko Made mo, for example, vastly, vastly improved the manga. The nurse terminology was correct, the character make up was improved, and they completely changed the ending of the drama so the characters weren't wishy washy. Early on the drama writer put up what writers call "Hanging a lantern" to tell the audience that she was going to change the entire script. And the audience loved it. The manga is trash and shouldn't exist type of psychology because the drama was SO much better.

If the drama writer is good they can keep the spirit of the manga yet improve on it. It's not a matter of got to be faithful, but the skillset of the writer. In addition, I understand Japanese. So I understand well enough that the Japanese being used isn't that great either... so it does come down to the skill of the writer.

Izumi is the Lead actor, due to cast listing, so it's not going to happen. Switching male leads is rare. The story problem is the writing isn't quite to the level to be able to smoothly justify it.

I don't doubt they have better acting power, but some of the direction is awkward, and the writing is fairly bad (not the worst ever, but pretty terrible). And I can feel the actors phoning it in a bit. Meh.

I can write better event chains than this.

I'll still finish it even if we know the ending to see if the writer becomes more self-aware, but I have doubts.

See, that also makes no sense. The writer is lousy. The same story could have been written better with the same character without turning Yamato into a class a class A AH, but for some reason the writer isn't self-aware enough to figure out they've written in sexual assault and doesn't have to be this way. One can amp up the drama on emotions rather than purely on events which is the whole point of kishotenketsu (story structure) in the first place.

Because the writing is mind numbing? The site I'm watching it on, people are all actively hate-watching the series together.

*sighs*

Yamato basically did sexual assault. (which doesn't have to be r*pe) and then gas lit her. But she doesn't realize it's so. She keeps thinking, "Because I let him kiss me does that mean I like him" kind of BS.

Izumi then victim blamed her.

Haruka as a childhood friend is so unrealistically involved in all this with no goals other than love...

I actively dislike all the characters in the drama mostly due to the writing.

Sutekina Sen Taxi, same writer has a similar time travel and warm, but off-beat humor.

This is super, super slow burn.

I know this was from 2 years ago, but I don't think she's a college student. She and her friend have school uniforms. And colleges except for the athletic wear don't have uniforms...

No real love triangles. The ending is "happy", but there is amessy middle to get through.

There are trigger warnings that apply, though, particularly oppressive child abuse with really weird handling of it for the majority of the drama.

Oh and second leads steal the show.

Actually, I know a fair amount of Japanese, which is why I could watch through episode 8. I'm particularly good at translating confession scenes. lol I know, it's as useless of a translation skill, especially for an arospec to have. But there you go.

I'm not good at jargon-type things, but I can handle a rom com and have translated dramas before (fan type things) I helped with quite a few in the past until I got messages and threats for "not translating fast enough"

It has 2 more episodes to establish the ace ID. lol the ten in episode 8 is quite something too. lol But I won't spoil it for you. I think you'll be pleased.

Through episode 8, he hasn't really explained it, nor anyone to him. So It's 2 episodes. (Ketsu in kishotenketsu) which is why my hopes aren't high. Unbelievably high romance stance through episode 8.

He found her after lots of months of work. The original became softer and kinder to her parents and also resigned as a writer and the one that was zapped into that time and place became more confident and published the book in her time and place. This means she can visit her "parents" as she likes back and forth, and also still have her love relationship.

Definitely a commentary on that earlier drama.

I'm saying don't hang onto hope here it's going to go that way. On K-drama, Fanta G-spot I was about pretty sure one of the MLs was in the grey part of the spectrum for asexuality. He basically REQUIRED emotional attraction before sex. But they didn't pan it out completely and label it. (My little gray-ace heart cried--why not label him demi?).

BTW, they did establish romantic attraction in other ways, such as ML's own lines--he said he dated "a lot of girls" but didn't understand why sex. So I'm fairly sure it's going to lead towards alloromantic. Not sure about ace yet. As of episode 8/10, it still isn't panning out.

Being aromantic myself, I just don't get aro vibes from him. He was very, very fast to fall for Rei. It was very, very fast. It sent my aro radar into a tailspin and that thing crashed. One episode, less than a week. Urrgghhh.

Also the amount of times he dated was extremely high for an aro. Also sent my aro radar into a tailspin. He likes the romance part a bit too much. (Romance stance is wayyyyy too high. It's higher than mine, and mine is fairly high among aros.)

And while it is valid for aros and aces to be so because of trauma, as I stated, they might say "he just needs to fix the trauma" which will pull it out of ace land. I don't have high hopes. I've been burned too many times.

But I'm thinking they want to aim for a romantic ace, if anything.

BTW, if you want a drama with aces, you just need to post a scenario writers want to steal. My write up for Koisenu Futari when requesting an ace drama was no one seemed interested, but that Queer Platonic relationships also exist, and Found family is a valid way to do things. I also admitted to being totally oblivious to people confessing to me and being really terrible at rejections because I thought they were joking. Also posted other things like touch stance, etc.

And then finally aces made it into a drama... and then I thanked the writer on the same site, but also posted a nuance. (Romantic aces exist there is gradation too...)

I've posted scenarios for scripts a few times... and you don't need to know Japanese/Korean/Chinese for it. You just need to know where the writers are hanging out.

So come up with a scenario that they want to bite and they'll likely write it. People get mad at me when I say you can suggest dramas you want to watch, though... Iunno why. It's not like I'm getting paid for it.

Specifically his ex/one off person he slept with said he fell for plenty of women and dated a bunch of women, who then wanted to date him, but he wasn't interested in sex with any of them. So that means he's capable of romance. And he specifically said he liked and loved Rei multiple times (in the episodes after 3) so from the character set up, he's alloromantic, but I still have my ace radar set up. From his attitude, he's running towards sex adverse, not sex repulsed. And also running heavily towards demi as of episode 8 where she suddenly gets "saved" by her period (and yes, she, as in the MFL).

Still not sure if they might steer him away from ace. 'cause if the past incident was trauma, and not trauma that allows for ace spec, then it might all dissolve.

Technical term is "Black Stripe" ace and "Sex repulsed". Also "touch repulsed". Everyone on the ace/aro spectrum are "100% ace".

I think they might aim for demi or at least the grey area of the spectrum. He's alloromantic though (After watching Episode 8.) I think they might burn that part, though. 'cause apparently he had a bad experience in High school?

There is an ace/aro drama, in Japanese, though, that is more oriented towards Black stripe/sex repulsed with the words used: Koisenu Futari (2022) (I really liked that drama. I also requested for that drama on dramabeans. I asked for it a few times, got ignored as an unviable romance drama, so made a scenario where it would work, and then someone took it.)

He definitely deepened it for the part. (Or smoking, or both). The tone is a lot lighter in both the interview and in the drama you cited. So I'm guessing he made it deeper and richer in tone to sound older and more teacher-like if it is him. Microphones can also make bass sound deeper too.

Sometimes they do get sound alikes... but I concede I can't read the credits that well, so I'll trust your judgement.