S. Yue Michaelis

Mikuri (Yui Aragaki) and Hiramasa (Gen Hoshino) both work and share housework duties. They have peaceful days together. One day, Mikuri learns that she is pregnant. They decide to marry, but they soon face problems. Mikuri suffers from pregnancy sickness and Hiramasa decides to take a paternity leave before an important project is finished. The couple experience unfamiliar situations involving childbirth and rearing. They go through difficult times. (asiawiki-2021)


So nice to see the whole gang again, 4 YEARS LATER! And they all barely changed! Except for Gakky, who looks too gaunt to me... her cheeks :(

Again this drama is ahead of its society, since it talks about single motherhood; being single for life and being scary of dying alone; homosexuality; that both parents need to be part of raising the child, not just the mother; adopting the last name of the spouse; work harassment, work view regarding pregnancy and parenting-leave; etc, etc.

I am sad that Yuki didn't find her HEA with Kazami, AND that she has cancer (poor woman!) but she is relatable so much! And one of my fave characters.

It also deals with the COVID19 and being a new parent in this time and all that :(

Miki Ogawa (Jun Shison) yearned to live the life of a lovely girl and moved to the city from the countryside because of this. She holds a job at a fashion mail order company. Miki Ogawa also has a secret. She is transgender. Although, she has a pretty woman's appearance, her gender is male. One day, Tadaomi Goto (Keita Machida) appears in front of Miki Ogawa. They graduated from the same school. Tadaomi Goto is flustered by Miki's different appearance, but they happen to live together. (asiawiki-2018)


Not what I expected, in a good way. I was expecting more angst and more melodrama, but it wasn't. Of course there are a couple of people that say nasty stuff to Miki, but this drama doesn't show her most difficult life... only her life. Ups and downs. And thank God the ups are more than the downs, she is not alone, has several friends and coworkers who love her and accept her. Even in her flashbacks her job interview wasn't that hard and her boss is nice.

The most difficult for her maybe, 1) her family, but luckily her father accept her at the end and since they were mostly estranged, we only see the reconciliation; and 2) her love life, since there isn't any. Yes, she has hook-ups (it seems it is easier for her to approach girls as a girl) but seems like girls only see her as a one-night stand or adventure, nothing serious. Now THAT is depressing.

Still, she has her friends who are always there for her, and her new friend and old classmate, Goto, who is just a sweetheart and the kind of character I love to see in a drama. A bit naive, understanding, supportive, ignorant at first, yes, but never condescending nor making any judgements. I do like seeing Machida Keita in this kind of role, it suits him and makes him more endearing.

As for Shison Jun, I may have not liked him at first for petty reasons, but I admit he is a good actor. He is good in comedy and in drama. His legs and lips certainly look a bit feminine so this role suited him. He wasn't too feminine, he was respectful in his role, and also portrayed a brave, strong trans but with a certain vulnerability.

His love interest was my sweet girl Koshiba Fuka, who is a little bitchy girl who just likes to have fun with Miki while cheating on her bf. Yep, not the kind of role I am used to see her so at first I was like, eehhh, this is TOTALLY different from what I expected, but besides her character, the story was nice and not heavy.

Shiro Kakei (Hidetoshi Nishijima) is an attorney and he works for a small law firm. He lives with his lover Kenji Yabuki (Seiyo Uchino) who is a hairdresser. The two men are gay.

Shiro Kakei's regular routine is that after work he buys groceries at a mart which has discounted prices. He has a monthly budget of 25,000 yen ($225) for food that he does not go over. Afterwards, he goes home and makes dinner which usually includes rice, soup and three side dishes. When dinner is about ready, Kenji Yabuki comes home from work. While they eat, the two men talk about pretty much everything. Their time during dinner is a precious time for them.

One day, when Shiro Kakei and Kenji Yabuki are out in public, Kenji Yabuki's customer comes up to them and asks "Is he your boyfriend who is a lawyer?" Shiro Kakei is embarrassed. He did not tell people at his law firm that he is gay, unlike Kenji Yabuki who is open about his sexual orientation. Shiro Kakei feels uncomfortable. (asiawiki-2019)


I liked this more than I thought I would, and that's a lot since I had very high expectations for this drama before it started. It is a very simple and heartwarming drama that is far more enjoyable in live action than in manga (for me at least). I do enjoy gourmet manga, but I think watching the food ao vivo is much better than watching it on paper.

As for the story, it doesn't have much drama except for Shiro-san being a closeted gay guy in his work place, while Kenji is very open about who he is. At first I liked Kenji much more than Shiro; he is carefree and loves Shiro so much, while Shiro is more uptight and doesn't show much his feelings. I though that was particulary because Nishijima Hidetoshi is more of a "tough actor" who is more used to look cool and cold, but there is a big character development with him and at the end, I loved him almost as much as I loved Kenji.

There were scenes that were comforting, as well as funny scenes and poignant scenes. I think my favorites were the last 4 or so, where it shows the character development, and I enjoyed all scenes between Kenji-Shiro and Kohinata-Gilbert.

For me this is far, far better than Ossan's Love, and more realistic as well. Besides, the addition of the cooking and recipes were very useful.. I am now dying to try the "mentsuyu". While it is based on a gourmet manga, the cooking takes around 2 minutes and the joy on eating around 3, and the rest is all story development.

I am so glad this was loved by the audience, and I am also very glad that Uchino Seiyo and Nishijima enjoyed working on this drama :)

The OP sequence is very, very cute, and the song was lovely.

Haruhiko Kuzumi (Kenta Izuka) is a university student. One day, he causes a bicycle accident. The accident causes novelist Rio Kijima (Terunosuke Takezai) to break his arm. Haruhiko Kuzumi doesn't have insurance or money to pay Rio Kijima for his injury. Rio Kijima asks Haruhiko Kuzumi to transcribe a story he is writing. Haruhiko Kuzumi is surprised to learn the story is obscene. (asiawiki-2018)

I don't know if I can call this a Romance per se, since I am not sure of Sensei's feelings. However, I can assure that this was a very, very well done MM drama, that their chemistry was off the charts, and that it has many erotic scenes. I certainly like the student a lot, and his wild imagination XD The student was cute and pure, and Sensei was super sexy O_O my, their first kiss was amazing! Left me "doki-doki". The actors were superb.

While every episode has a super hot scene, the one I liked the most (besides their kiss) was when Kuzumi was giving the Sensei a massage in his wrist. Not only it was very sexy, but also funny (Sensei's moans had me laughing).

As someone who has read the manga and didn't like it so much, I loved this drama. I am OK with the final episode, but an extra episode would be very welcome. I didn't read the prequel manga, between Sensei and his editor.. I don't see the point of reading every past lover of one of the MC, so his scenes with the editor were MEH for me.

Not for a younger audience. It was pretty much a soft porn XD

Mikuri Moriyama (Yui Aragaki) is 25 years old. She doesn't have a boyfriend and doesn't have a job even though she holds a graduate degree. Everyday, Mikuri Moriyama has a feeling that she is not needed. Her father, unable to see her suffering anymore, arranges for her to work as a housekeeper. Her employer is 36 year old Hiramasa Tsuzaki. He is single and works for a company. A series of events leads them to marry as a working condition. (asiawiki-2016)


I'll always look at this dorama with nostalgia. It was broadcasted when I visited Japan in October, and pictures of the show + Hoshino Gen's album were everywhere ^_^

This was such a nice, heartwarming dorama. I am not sure it is one of my favorites, but I honestly cannot say anything bad about it. 11 episodes just flew by.

Cast. I loved Hiramasa-san, he is the epitome of what I consider Japanese men to be. Quiet, well educated, cold-looking, awkward, hardworking, no interest in woman or having a relationship. Main interest is living a quiet, comfortable life. All of these changes once he makes a marriage contract with Mikuri-san. I like how their relationship evolved. We may not have seen much skinship and lovey-dovey things between them, but that was precisely the charm. Mikuri has to do all the work but with patience. A man like Hiramasa-san would be scared off otherwise, ha! I like how she came up with little things (like Tuesday's hugs) to be closer to each other. And just when you thought this Hiramasa was just too slow and wouldn't do anything to take things further, he surprises us with a kiss! (ok, I was not surprised since I was spoiled on Tumblr... and because when that kiss happened, the kiss in YOI also happened. Ha!)

I am not really a super fan of Gakki, but she had a wonderful character in this dorama. It was impossible not to cheer for her, not to root for her. It was lovely how she falls for this little guy (this is not a lie... Hoshino Gen is truly little!). I love her imagination and how the dorama shows us how her mind works! The little scenes of her imagination were always funny to watch.

The other characters were all likeable. In the past, I used to be not a fan of relationship between a much older woman and a much younger man. But in this case, it wasn't possible to not root for Yuri-san and the Ikemen-guy. Yuri-san is such a beautiful woman! I couldn't believe she was 49 years old, so I had to look it up. I am surprised to say that she is 47! She looks like 40 or less, even if you can see her wrinkles, which makes her even more pretty, because she is all natural! The age gap is not that much in real life (it is 11 instead of 17 years), and Kazami was a lucky guy to have her at the end. I love her point of view regarding marriage and being single, and I teared up a little bit the time she cried.


Story. As mentioned before, I was very interested in this story because Hiramasa-san represents male youth nowadays. But it is not only that, the dorama also focuses on work and being a housewife, and being a new-mother who has a husband who has an affair (and prefers divorce instead of accepting said affair... as far as I know, because of what I have read, Japanese women prefer to ignore the affairs of their husbands), and there is also romantic relationship between an older woman with a younger man, and a bit about homosexuality and the pressure of a Japanese person to come back to Japan after having lived outside for so long. I mean, although this was a romantic comedy (more comedy than romantic, and to emphasize this, I have to say I laughed out loud in almost every episode), there were also many serious and contemporary issues. The main issue may be entirely Japanese (main male character is an herbivorous guy) but the other issues are worldwide. The only, let's say "twist", that wasn't too much of my liking was the one at the end with Numata-san. And that's because he is like 60 years old and the boy is like 20. Ew.


Music. The OST was top-notch. So fine, the OP isn't "OMG, I LOVE IT!", but it is cute and with a nice mood and fits the dorama perfectly. The soundtrack that goes along the dorama was soo good. Like Italian-like, and it was almost in every laid-back scene. And of course, the ED "KOI" is so catchy! I thought I wouldn't be part of the fandom, but I was wrong! The dance is cute, Hoshino Gen certainly can sing on live, and it will always be part of the best months of the year of me. One, because I visited Japan, and two, because YOI was also broadcasted at the same time. So from now on, every time I listen to this song it will be a natsukasshii! feeling for me XD

For me, story was 10/10. Cast 10/10. Music 10/10. I would totally rewatch this, no doubt. And would I recommend it? Heck yes! This may not -yet- be one of my favorite dorama (I can't say WHY exactly), but I can say that anyone who wants to watch a light but realistic dorama, to give this a try. There are no silly misunderstandings, no overreacting, no stupid tears, so soap-opera-ish scenes... totally recommended.