Feels like a nod to the screwball comedies of the 1930s and '40s without the nuance. The schtick resolves too…
It's more like those "earthy" people (conflicts around sex) living in postwar poverty from 60s movies, but believe they're on their way to petty bourgeois life (shomingeki) because they work in "arts & culture".
NHK is government-funded. AI can be forced through policy even if it's unpopular, so this could serve as "we know you're worried..." type of run-around by the frontdesk.
AND HE WAS CHEATING ON HIS WIFE!!!!!!! omg Nagisa sucks, he should’ve just stayed single pos
This is why "BL" is the complete opposite of real life. It's a fantasy of idealized, sanitized everything. IRL the toxic behavior and relationships are common, whether they use the excuse of "we live in a society" or not. Shun is a doormat by conventional understanding, but he could be accepting the poor treatment bc of lack of options, or that "first love" exception.
Junji Ito is influenced by Lovercraft, who is known to be incredibly hard to adapt. Basically slice of life mixed with a surreal world. Hard to pull this off on TV budget.
A confrontation in the second half is the only time I've seen an actress come close to upstaging Yuko Tanaka. This actress, IMHO, also played the sorrow of all mothers in Light of My Lion!
At the end, there's a joke about her having done something "private" with Ayano's character and they'll "play again"? He was Mana Ashida's abuser in Mother (2010)!
Noticed him as the comic relief on HERO, so long ago. Then he slowly became a monster actor at drama, dramedy too. Was it through the court drama I just didn't do it, Koki Mitani costume dramas, leading up to Survival Family? From there, his guest roles on dramas are always praised as a highlight!
Ibuki is so outrageous, I'm in shock disbelief >half of the time. I still don't know if the character really works. Or how Hoshino (doing out of box acting for himself too) finished the drama without losing his mind.
There's frequent subversion of genre tropes, lots of inspired stuff, also ridiculous and baffling choices. Ibuki is inappropriate, highly disruptive, WTF.
When there is fast cuts (editing), the character feels like a psychological assault -- a bit like Ayano's highly manipulative Amuro in Rip Van Winkle (2016).
She's the most human character on Reboot (2026) so far!
There's frequent subversion of genre tropes, lots of inspired stuff, also ridiculous and baffling choices. Ibuki is inappropriate, highly disruptive, WTF.
When there is fast cuts (editing), the character feels like a psychological assault -- a bit like Ayano's highly manipulative Amuro in Rip Van Winkle (2016).