sadpigeon
A Kaff in Europe
This review may contain spoilers
Unexpectantly nice
When I first read the description for the series, I wasn’t sure what to think of it. I don’t enjoy minor–adult romance stories and was expecting a series following this kind of narrative. And oh boy, I am so glad Minato Shouji Coin Laundry didn’t turn out to be like this! Instead of a weird age-gap, adult-falling-for-minor-though-he isn’t-supposed-to story, we got an adorable series.
Things I liked:
- What I probably liked the most, is that Akira never made a move on Shin before he turned 18. This is a huge deal to me since many series don’t seem to care about legal dating ages in their storylines. It is a huge part of their love story, as Shin feels mature enough to date the 10 years older Akira, who on the other hand did fall for the younger but keeps to his morals of not dating a minor.
- The intro video. A very sweet and cute, simple one that fits perfectly for the story.
- Homophobia is not displayed in this one. Holy shit I love this so much. As a member of the lgbtqia+ community seeing the characters just being able to love whatever gender they want without experiencing hatred is so amazing. The arrival of the ex-girlfriend kind of made me worry about possible homophobia happening, I’m so glad it didn’t go down this road. And though insults never happen, the directors decided to keep the inner conflicts of the characters (e.g., Akira being worried about his former classmates finding out he is gay), which is awesome. Love this.
- The main- and subplot. Both plots are good(one more than the other though), as they all connect and don’t add unnecessary characters. Let’s talk about the Akira and Sakuma-Sensei plot first. When Akira was still a student he fell madly in love with Sakuma-Sensei and even confessed to him on his last day of school. After 10 years of not seeing his former teacher, Akira thought he had overcome his feelings and moved on. But then Sakuma returns to teach, and Akira realizes he still has feelings for him. Tough this messes with Shin’s plans of pursuing Akira, he starts to root for the two, wishing his crush a happy life. Long story short, after nervously avoiding Sakuma for some time, Akira decides to finally tell him that he still likes him but is turned down. Not long after Akira realizes his feelings for Shin. You can feel the inner conflict that Akira has and feel for him since Sakuma is a likable character and lovely person. Also, seeing Shin heartbrokenly rooting for his crush warmed my heart because it shows that he is trying to mature as a person, so he can have a chance with Akira.
The subplot is about Shin's best friend Asuka and his sister Sakurako both falling for Hiiragi, an architect. Sakurako and Asuka have already become good friends when Asuka finds out about her crush on Hiiragi. He doesn’t interfere much with it, as he knows that Hiiragi will reject the girl. The architect and the student share a past as friends, so he hopes that Hiiragi will choose him as his lover. This subplot works well, I enjoyed the scenes with Sakurako and Asuka bonding as friends.
Things I didn’t like:
- This might be an unpopular opinion, but Akira’s character being all immature and goofy was a bit draining, especially when he said himself, that he wanted to be more responsible. At some point his behavior just got annoying.
- Unhealthy start of a relationship. In the earlier episodes it seemed like Shin wasn’t all that much into Akira, but more into the idea of being in a relationship. Later this of course gets explained, still, the first episodes felt weird because of that.
- The inclusion of Akira’s ex-girlfriend wasn’t necessary in my opinion. It was nice to learn about his life before the laundry store, but it didn’t contribute to the series. The ex-GF felt like a character that was only there for explaining some stuff and throwing in unnecessary clichés to make Shin feel intimidated and jealous.
- Shin leaving in the 11th episode felt forced to me as if they felt like they had to throw in another cliché, just for the sake of having one.
- Shin's personality at some points in the series (not all the time!). Oh my god, if he doesn't want to kiss you, take a goddamn hint. Akira always acted reluctant to perform skin-ship with Shin which I, as said before, loved. The counterpart to that is that Shin always seemed to force himself onto Akira, trying to make him uncomfortable BEFORE becoming an adult(!!!). Didn't like that at all.
To sum up, I did enjoy watching it, it’s very sweet and wholesome (The scene when they held hands in bed>>>). Though I wish I would’ve watched it once all the episodes were released because waiting made me forget some stuff about the previous episodes. Not really rewatchable IMO, but lovely for a one-time-experience.
Things I liked:
- What I probably liked the most, is that Akira never made a move on Shin before he turned 18. This is a huge deal to me since many series don’t seem to care about legal dating ages in their storylines. It is a huge part of their love story, as Shin feels mature enough to date the 10 years older Akira, who on the other hand did fall for the younger but keeps to his morals of not dating a minor.
- The intro video. A very sweet and cute, simple one that fits perfectly for the story.
- Homophobia is not displayed in this one. Holy shit I love this so much. As a member of the lgbtqia+ community seeing the characters just being able to love whatever gender they want without experiencing hatred is so amazing. The arrival of the ex-girlfriend kind of made me worry about possible homophobia happening, I’m so glad it didn’t go down this road. And though insults never happen, the directors decided to keep the inner conflicts of the characters (e.g., Akira being worried about his former classmates finding out he is gay), which is awesome. Love this.
- The main- and subplot. Both plots are good(one more than the other though), as they all connect and don’t add unnecessary characters. Let’s talk about the Akira and Sakuma-Sensei plot first. When Akira was still a student he fell madly in love with Sakuma-Sensei and even confessed to him on his last day of school. After 10 years of not seeing his former teacher, Akira thought he had overcome his feelings and moved on. But then Sakuma returns to teach, and Akira realizes he still has feelings for him. Tough this messes with Shin’s plans of pursuing Akira, he starts to root for the two, wishing his crush a happy life. Long story short, after nervously avoiding Sakuma for some time, Akira decides to finally tell him that he still likes him but is turned down. Not long after Akira realizes his feelings for Shin. You can feel the inner conflict that Akira has and feel for him since Sakuma is a likable character and lovely person. Also, seeing Shin heartbrokenly rooting for his crush warmed my heart because it shows that he is trying to mature as a person, so he can have a chance with Akira.
The subplot is about Shin's best friend Asuka and his sister Sakurako both falling for Hiiragi, an architect. Sakurako and Asuka have already become good friends when Asuka finds out about her crush on Hiiragi. He doesn’t interfere much with it, as he knows that Hiiragi will reject the girl. The architect and the student share a past as friends, so he hopes that Hiiragi will choose him as his lover. This subplot works well, I enjoyed the scenes with Sakurako and Asuka bonding as friends.
Things I didn’t like:
- This might be an unpopular opinion, but Akira’s character being all immature and goofy was a bit draining, especially when he said himself, that he wanted to be more responsible. At some point his behavior just got annoying.
- Unhealthy start of a relationship. In the earlier episodes it seemed like Shin wasn’t all that much into Akira, but more into the idea of being in a relationship. Later this of course gets explained, still, the first episodes felt weird because of that.
- The inclusion of Akira’s ex-girlfriend wasn’t necessary in my opinion. It was nice to learn about his life before the laundry store, but it didn’t contribute to the series. The ex-GF felt like a character that was only there for explaining some stuff and throwing in unnecessary clichés to make Shin feel intimidated and jealous.
- Shin leaving in the 11th episode felt forced to me as if they felt like they had to throw in another cliché, just for the sake of having one.
- Shin's personality at some points in the series (not all the time!). Oh my god, if he doesn't want to kiss you, take a goddamn hint. Akira always acted reluctant to perform skin-ship with Shin which I, as said before, loved. The counterpart to that is that Shin always seemed to force himself onto Akira, trying to make him uncomfortable BEFORE becoming an adult(!!!). Didn't like that at all.
To sum up, I did enjoy watching it, it’s very sweet and wholesome (The scene when they held hands in bed>>>). Though I wish I would’ve watched it once all the episodes were released because waiting made me forget some stuff about the previous episodes. Not really rewatchable IMO, but lovely for a one-time-experience.
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