Yoshiyuuki

The end of episode 8 did not change their relationship too drastically, I think/hope, but I didn't read the novels, so no clue about the eventual outcome in the books. Guess we'll see if the topic will be revisited in the remaining episodes... it might still be an ongoing story (the novels), so they'll probably mainly focus on the next case(s) in episode 9 and 10 and there possibly won't be too much to worry anyway (at least for now). Wonder if there's hope for a second season...

So sad that it's already over. Their dialogues and their connection were so interesting to watch.

The end of episode 7 spoilers that there might be a bit of it in episode 8, but it stays very vague and those teasers are deliberately misleading quite often.

May I ask where you go to suggest scenarios to writers? I once wanted to compliment a writer of a Japanese novel I liked and Google led me to his SNS channels, but what you describe seems to be something else, where do you go to contact/be seen by Japanese writers? Because that actually seems like a very good idea!

Well, she actually calls him that all the time... and I watch J-doramas without English Subs so to me it feels very weird to even think about using another expression trying to explain the situation... but I guess everyone's different... I didn't even think this could be a problem to someone...😳 But maybe give it another try in case you're really interested in it? I spent much time writing/looking into the source material and arranging what I've written above. And there are only 4 main characters in the story after all...💪
Maybe this helps:
Satou-San (FL), Amagi-Shachou (ML/boss), Mishima-Kyouju (female professor/rival), Aida-Sensei (doctor).

And even in the trailer for ep 4 there's nakedness... lol. At this point, this seems like more than just a bit deliberate.

One would think so considering the long and repeated naked or half-naked scenes in the three episodes broadcast until now, but no, actually...

Watching the development in episode 2, she is so going to be the future wife... :/ As she seems to be the one and only co-worker who likes talking to him and to be near to him, seems to stalk him, and to take pictures of the FL with the ML and leak those to the school public to disturb their relationship, she is probably planning to get the FL out of the way to be able to form a relationship with the ML (and as a result, eventually marry him). Of course, a big plot twist in episode 3 could lead in a completely different direction, but it surely doesn't look like that at least to me...

I'm so sorry for the late reply! I did not log in here forever bc I was so busy with life!! Of course, I'd love that!:)

It seems there's already an English version of the manga available for cloud reading from the US...! Not sure if it can be accessed from Europe though, maybe via VPN? Or do you speak Japanese? :3

Btw, because I don't know if you saw it: I also posted a more detailed comment about this topic before, that, in case you might be interested in further details about the manga version, you may find above.

I'm very happy my comment was useful to you. You seemed to have liked the series very much, so I really wanted to let you know!😊

I read the manga and its sequel manga Nanba Dead End quite some years ago and when I saw they were making this into a dorama series after all this time, I didn't really have high expectations, especially seeing who would play Tsuyoshi, as I couldn't imagine this actor in that kind of role, but so far, it looks quite promising! Btw, if you are into manga, I recommend Ozawa Toshio's other works too. His drawing style is a bit special, but his humor and the story lines are interesting.

No, the last two episodes of the dorama series are almost completely different from the original story in the manga. They also vibed differently compared to the earlier episodes, what was a hint to that. And the manga continuation is much better fitting. The ML does not become this creepy and does not disrespect the FL in so many ways and the FL on the other hand does not reject the ML like that and does not run away from her feelings or try to forget him (e.g. she doesn't quit the company), but instead she works through her issues, feelings and worries and in the "end" (the manga is still continuing though), both leads grow and get together by choice. He doesn't get stabbed either, she actually confesses to him while he is not seemingly dead because she genuinely wants him to know. I wish they had this end in the dorama, it would fit the story progress so much better! Overall I love the series so much! It's so funny and the leads are having such a nice chemistry with their weird and eccentric antics... they should make a SP episode or a tv movie to let it end on a good note, it's still not too late...

In the original manga, it doesn't develop like in episode 9/10 where Amagi-Shachou keeps pictures of Satou-San (he doesn't in the manga, he only has access to her staff file picture) and where he even follows her around the world although she quits (what she doesn't do in the manga neither, but he doesn't force her to work in his office anyway in the original story).

There is no violence incident (Mishimas lovers don't appear after her breakup).

Aida-Sensei doesn't leave Japan (Mishima doesn't go to the US either) and does not kind of propose to her (although he confesses to Satou-San at a later point in the story (Amagi-Shachou is also present at that time) what leads to a long period of thinking for Satou-San and eventually to a sad end of their friendship for both of them (he knows the answer will be "No", so he even brings his dog to their meeting for her to be able to say goodbye to Snoop, too), and they don't meet anymore after that).

But before that, at the end of volume 4, Amagi-Shachou confesses to Satou-San and asks her to date him, to what she replies "Could you give me some time to think about it?" and leaves his car. While at the beginning of volume 5 Amagi-Shachou is on a business trip abroad with Mishima-Kyouju, Satou-San meets with Aida-Sensei and at one point while walking together in the park he takes her hand. Amagi-Shachou sends her love letters and presents from Stockholm and calls her, only to find out she was seeing Aida-Sensei again, what makes him quite jealous while she is jealous of him being in Stockholm with Mishima-Kyouju.

In the middle of volume 5, Aida-Sensei meets her again, determined to tell her about his feelings. Amagi-Shachou appears at the middle of the date in a cafe (he just got back to Japan and followed them all the time) and asks why they met that day to which Aida-Sensei answers that he met her to confess his love and ask her to be his girlfriend. She gets time to think about it. When she then goes to the toilet, Aida-Sensei tells Amagi-Shachou that he just wanted to tell her, so she knows how he fells and not let it all end without doing so and regret this afterwards, but that he does know she won't date him as she is thinking of Amagi-Shachou very much, he can tell. Amagi-Shachou is quite surprised by this kind of passive approach and tells him that he is completely different in this aspect to which Aida-Sensei answers "Yes, because you are ill-natured" (shouwaru). He also tells Aida-Sensei that he sometimes thinks Satou-San would be happier if she stayed with him and not himself (more about that later). Aida-Sensei is very surprised to hear this, and they discuss their thoughts a bit (it ends with both of them declaring "I hate you!" to each other calmly).

Amagi-Shachou wants to give Satou-San a ride home afterwards, but she walks away (to the subway). He follows her and rides alongside her in the train, where she is in deep thoughts about the whole situation. In the end, he becomes silent and only tells her "よく考えられた方がいいと思いますよ" (I think it would be better if you think this through thoroughly!"), to which she answers "…言われなくても そうします" ("I'm going to do that anyway, no need to tell me").

Around this point in the story, after planning and plotting detailed steps to get her all the time, he actually stops following her, talking to her or meeting with her. He doesn't call back, nothing.
Aida-Sensei is the reason. He saw them both together always laughing and having fun and first only thought of him as a threat (seen e.g. when talking after her dog park date with Aida-Sensei, Amagi-Shachou runs after Satou-San, hugs her from behind and tells her "Satou-San, Aida ha dame desu yo!" (Ep. 6, around 15:30 - 佐藤さん 藍田はダメですよ, "Ms. Sato, Aida is taboo!") or when his voice begins to shake at the end of the last sentence when he talks to Aida-Sensei in the bathroom of the aquarium "Demo, dame desu yo! Satou-San ha zettai ni dame desu yo! Aida ha masaka sonna koto... shimasen yo ne?" (Ep. 7, around 09:20 - でも ダメですよ! 佐藤さんは絶対にダメです! 藍田は まさかそんなこと... しませんよね？, "But she's taboo! Ms. Sato is absolutely taboo! You wouldn't do something like that... right?") or later (after Aida-Sensei took her back to her apartment from the pet shop and the locksmith arrived) when he hints to Aida-Sensei he did say this at the aquarium to pressure him into one of two settings he thought might be possible - either stopping to contact her or into consciously assess his feelings and possibly confessing to her to get rejected anyway (although at that time Amagi-Shachou obviously could not have been so sure this might actually happen as the two were just spending their day together before that talk and got along very well) and after that Amagi-Shachou even tries to make her promise to stop meeting Aida-Sensei in exchange for telling her about his past), but later began thinking this guy might be better suited as her partner - partly because she didn't laugh in his presence (especially while on the business trip with Mishima-Kyouju, she laughs around him all the time and has fun, what leads to him comparing and even mentioning it, but it is hinted at in the dorama, too, in Ep. 7, 20:30, though it was mainly because of the nature of their relationship being completely different), and although he saw it, he didn't understand that it was really mostly just their common interest in dogs that kept the conversation between Aida-Sensei and Satou-San going or that they were often talking about Amagi-Shachou's relationship with her anyway, but also Mishima-Kyouju keeps telling Amagi-Shachou that the two don't match and that Satou-San and Aida-Sensei are naturally drawn to each other (because they meet up on every occasion that presents itself) - and Amagi-Shachou doesn't want to interfere with that as he wishes for her to be truly happy no matter the outcome for him.
They kind of tried to mirror that change in him through what he said to Mishima-Kyouju in the last episode at around 9:35, but because of a lack of context it this remains nearly unrecognizable:
He: 本当に冴のことを思うなら... 冴の幸せを一番に願うべきだとは思います (If he really thinks about/loves you ... I think your happiness should have to be his top priority /he should wish for your happiness first.)
She: 変わったね 恭一 (You changed, Kyoichi, haven't you...)

It's her who starts searching for Amagi-Shachou and calling him now, but he is very distant and even gives her the half of a necklace he kept (a present she received in the manga earlier - the half of two matching necklaces which can be put together and contain their photos) and tells her to discard it.
She tries to find out what might be wrong and talks to her female colleague Ishikawa and to Natori-Kun who proposes to help her, but she is determined to fix the situation by her own.
In the beginning, she talks and thinks about loving him but not wanting to date him as she sees it as too bothersome because of the way he behaved when actively pursuing her, but after some time she starts to think deeper about it, thinking of a relationship back in her schooldays which ended in a sad way while this time there is still time to act and also she kept thinking about how she wants to feel needed by him in a more substantial way (she kind of doesn't feel equal to him because he always supports her but feels he never gives her a chance to do the same and at the same time partly comes to understand that she was afraid to start anything with him because of that - he even told her directly he wasn't expecting anything from her at one point (when he told her about his past) what actually led to her being afraid of dating him all the time as she was worried it would end anyway because of this onesided-ness) and finally wants to talk to him again. Finally, after seeing a live broadcast about a new heart medicine developed by Amagi Medicine - the one for her dog who passed away - (that Medicine project by the way is the sole reason Amagi-Shachou kept being so weirdly nice and accepting around Mishima-Kyouju and didn't resist to her advances more strongly to not displease her to the point that even Aida-Sensei started thinking this was suspicious, although she kept hitting at him or doing things that made Satou-San feel sad and jealous - he desperately needed her cooperation to get to a successful outcome as she is the only scientist he knows of with a level that high and knowledgeable in the field of research he needed help with to fulfill his promise to Satou-San - but Amagi-Shachou and Mishima-Kyouji do grow closer and come to understand each other more later in the story when they go on a business trip, and she confronts him even more strongly than before and tries to seduce him again which leads to a long talk between the two about their way of thinking, living, working and what they search in a relationship (Amagi-Shachou doesn't like that she seeks to possess (like a toy), not to normally date a man, him included - she says to him, his way of dealing with Satou-San is not different from what she does, as he is also looking like he's having fun playing a game and is also only thinking of himself and doing as he pleases what reminds him of similar things said earlier by Satou-San herself to him) and she makes him overthink his way to treat Satou-San - she criticizes that he is creating situations in which Satou-San can't escape and that he sends her presents and asks him why he doesn't realize that it would be much nicer if he was just spending time together with Satou-San without any pressure involved - after their talk ended, she admitted to herself though, that he is not like her when it comes to relationships and thinks "実際は愛情表現の加減が わからないだけなんだろうけど… 解けるかな？この呪い？", "He actually just doesn't know how to express his affection properly (the proper (amount) adjustment of his expression of affection)... but can he cure that? That curse?") and getting a message from Natori-San telling Satou-San where Amagi-Shachou would be after that announcement, she goes to meet him again and this time she tells him everything on her mind and declares her love for him openly.
He's then going to kiss her, but she suddenly shoves away his face.
She: "…あっ、すみませ…条件反射っていうか 社内だし", "Ah, sorr-, it's a conditioned response/the usual reflex... because we're in the office and stuff...".
He: "…まあ、これはこれで興奮しますね…", "Well... this is exciting/arousing/stimulating in its own way/like this, isn't it?"
They go into some details after that and then, in the last 3 pages of volume 6, the dialogue is as following:
He: "佐藤さん、これからは一生そばにいますから。僕は結構しつこいですよ。" (Satou-San, from now on I'll stay by your side/be with you for the rest of my life. I'm pretty persistent/insistent/obstinate.).
She: "思えば、この決断が…人生最大の過ちだったのかもしれない" (When I think about it... this (decision) may have been the biggest mistake in my life.).
They start dating after that in volume 7 of the manga and try to get to know each other better (aside from some sample pages I didn't read that one yet as it came out very recently).


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Oh, and by the way, the side effect of that medicine he developed when a college student... it was just foot fungus.
That was one of the weird Shoujo-typical things I felt where left out of the dorama for the better. They also made some story lines more straightforward and consistent in the dorama (they let out her family members and also her birthday being on Christmas and Amagi-Shachou calling in to a TV show everybody watches on Christmas, her coat wetting because Aida-Sensei knocked over a turtle aquarium at the pet store and Satou-San "saving" him was also changed), changed places for some of the events (in the manga she took Aida-Senseis dog to his place and waited there, when he later talks to her outside and still doesn't feel well, Amagi-Shachou comes to get him back up to his apartment and later waits for Satou-San who comes home and this time he even enters her apartment where they talk) and made her more violent, which added much to the nice action and comedy side of the dorama. Compared to the often stiff pictures of the manga, the acting of Hayami Mocomichi and Matsui Airi and the others was really something that made the story much more believable and alive. I sometimes feel that in Shoujo-mangas the ML often talks really weird out-of-this-world-like due to being super-rich and being portrayed kind of too much as separated from the normal world, but here, at least in the dorama version, I felt exactly this really matched with the weirdness level of the Hentai-Fetish-Egomaso-Shachou presented to the viewer.

Interesting side-note:
The FL uses the BDSM term "Egomaso" (エゴマゾ) for him and criticizes how he behaves to dominant as a "slave" and points out he has a fetish to him and seems to be kind of knowledgeable about BDSM in general, he on the other hand denies having a fetish multiple times and seems to be completely unconscious of this or even kind of appalled of the idea (though later in the manga he even reads a classic Japanese novel about a SM relationship (春琴抄は) and, while thinking by himself he could never have a fetish, tries to understand why the ML of the novel blinded himself after the face of the FL of the novel was disfigured and closes his eyes thinking of how it would feel if he was doing the same for Satou-San).

Thinking of how they started hinting very early in the story that Satou-San is also interested in Amagi-Shachou (her occurring thoughts about him, her jealousy and how she accepts him more and more) and how it develops in the manga, the ending of the dorama is not well-thought-out and goes in a bad direction that even leaves a bad aftertaste as it seems like she never tried to really accept that she likes him but always just wanted to get away from him to the point that she even leaves the company and goes on a world trip just to forget him and her feelings (really sad, if you think about it, especially, when you think about the titles of Ep. 9 "自分の気持ちに正直に", "Being honest with your feelings" and Ep. 10 "社長のこと好き", "I love Amagi-Shachou" - they kind of don't match what is actually happening, what is really weird), while he doesn't change his ways and stop doing his stalkerish stuff but even follows her to other continents and hangs upside down in front of her hotel window, coming into her room, telling her she can't escape him, asking her to let him be her dog and finally running after her when she flees the room (Who wouldn't want to flee at this point? Even if he presents her with the medicine he developed solely for her...), also the dialogue in the end is flat out creepy (He: ちょっと待ってください!どこまでもついていきますよ (Wait a minute! I will follow you anywhere!) - She: もう ついてこないで! (Stop following me already!) - He: 世界の果てまで追いかけますよ! (I'll run after you up to the end of the world!)), what just makes him a crazy stalker after all (she even calls him a criminal early in the last episode (when seeing the pictures he took of her)), when in the original story he changes his behaviour, and they both realize more and more how important they are to each other, what could at least have been hinted in the dorama at the end (as it was all the time before, to some extent, but the ending completely destroyed that with making him just a love sick threat she can't even run away from to another continent).

You could never even imagine her coming running for him instead after this end of the dorama although the original story actually shortly later progresses in exactly this way.
Also the significance of the story title is complete led ad absurdum in the dorama as she screams the title when being in Dubai(!) she runs out of her hotel, while he follows her and she obviously can't even escape him there and just gives up in the end seemingly desperate (instead of actively deciding to be with him), while in the manga, she revisits in her head what has happened until then with him and calmly says the story title after having confessed her love to him and just having become his girlfriend, what is kind of cute and funny instead.

That up until the end she's so completely in denial of her emotions and eventually fleeing from them abroad (Ep. 10, 17:35 "全部忘れよう！", "Let's forget it aaaall!") and fighting them and telling herself (and Aida) that Amagi is just stressing her out so that she doesn't want to be near him is frustrating to see as a viewer and kind of contradicts the actual developments until this point.

Him needing to play dead to get her to admit or even only realize her feelings (and even there she only says "I think I might love Amagi-Shachou" and later retracts this statement) was kind of sad, too. In the manga he sincerely tries to not make her feel uncomfortable and is also not trying to make her feel jealous about Mishima-Kyouju (he instead mostly seems to be regretting instances like this and is instead often stopping situations from happening that would lead to Satou-San feeling sad and uncomfortable and even articulates this later during the business trip, when Mishima-Kyouju, misjudging his actions up until this moment, even proposes to him to make Satou-San jealous together, and he strongly objects), so this behaviour to make her realize her feelings seems out of character (and truly mean, which he only is to her in a much more non-traumatic and playful way normally).

Because the end of the dorama felt weird, I read the original manga afterwards.
I thought other viewers might also like to know what actually happened later, so I tried to explain it in the following comment that I will put under the spoiler tag.
Sorry for my weird use of english and my bad text structure...(><;)