Taikan Yoho (2023)

Intimate Relationships Are A Spectrum

Japanese BL writers are often fantastic at portraying life situations in a raw and realistically human way. As humans we are complicated and emotionally messy. We have dark sides and traumas that shape how we pursue romantic relationships and affection. In my opinion, rarely do we see media portrayal of a BDSM relationship in such an intimate and relatable way.

We’re introduced to Mizuki and Yoh’s relationship from Yoh’s perspective. From the beginning, according to Yoh, we believe Mizuki is quiet, domineering and unkind to Yoh completely unprovoked and without context. As the viewer, we’re led to think Yoh is a domestic sexual slave in Mizuki’s home with no other options in life, outside of his own free will. As we continue the series, we learn that Yoh seems to like the dynamic of thier relationship and often resorts to pouting and childish behavior when Mizuki doesn’t show him the kind of dominating attention he craves. He often provokes Mizuki’s jealously and possessiveness so he can be the “victim” of Mizuki’s gentle yet “cruel” behavior. Mizuki seems to understand this dark side of Yoh and he happily grants Yoh’s wishes. Even cooking and caring for him when Yoh loses his job and falls into a state of depression.

While reeling at the loss of his job and his status in life, Yoh takes his provocation of Mizuki too far. On an animalistic and subconscious level, Yoh is provoking Mizuki to find out how much he cares for him. As a result, Mizuki’s jealously rages and he resorts to stalking and possessive behaviors, to bring Yoh back to his side, even though Yoh never considers leaving him. Since the two never clearly communicate thier feelings or emotions, they often run with negative and exaggerated interpretations of benign day-to-day situations. When Mizuki finally reveals his true feelings and tells Yoh he cannot breath without him, Yoh revels in this revelation but still doesn’t verbally reciprocate his feelings to Mizuki.

I personally love the push and pull by Yoh and Mizuki in this series. Yoh and Mizuki have a codependent relationship that makes them both happy and anxious, simultaneously. They know how to press each other’s buttons and it all seems to be, at least from Yoh’s side, for the sake of sexual gratification and arousal. Are they communicating in a healthy way, no, is the relationship kind of toxic, yes, but is it a realistic slice of life, absolutely. It’s obvious that they love and care for one another, but they show it in a way that differs from what society deems as “normal”. BUT they also require what we all want in a long term relationship, reassurance and stability. After 4 months living together, I believe we, the viewer, are meeting them at a pivotal moment in thier relationship. Will they give each other the emotional and verbal reassurance they need to sustain a long term relationship or will thier relationship crumble under misunderstandings due to lack of emotional transparency.

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Amazing

Loving this BL!!! A nice fresh twist from most of the same BL story lines. I am falling more in love with Japanese BL's and the actors who play them with every new one i come across! I'm so in love with these leads and can't wait to watch the rest unfold. it's so hard watching the short episode knowing it'll be over soon and having to wait another.... or two to get more of my fix! This series they maynot be for everyone and your not going to be able to please everyone, so if its not for you do rate it low, still rate it on thr quality of the show for what its suppose to portray! Everyone is working hard on this production, Cast & Crew keep up the amazing work!!!

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You won't be able to respond normally to hearing the word "sunny" ever again

Well, this was a weird but fun watch that could only come from Japan!

I really liked how, when it came down to it, this was about two kind-of-kinky people who just hadn't had a proper conversation with each other about where they're at in their relationship, with one lead being terribly dense and unwilling/anxious to fully voice his desires and concerns and the other being forward physically all the while desperately craving simple but meaningful things from his lover: quality time together outside of sex, being relied on, being greeted at the door, and verbal expressions of affection.

All in all, I would recommend this sometimes frustrating drama.

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It doesn’t go anywhere

So to start with this felt like ‘indentured servitude the series’ or ‘how to have a relationship with no communication’ if I was being kind. The actors are great it really is the story I have an issue with. For a while there it felt like it was going to go somewhere then it just didn’t. They almost had a meaningful conversation but it didn’t seem to really resolve much.
It’s a shame. This could have been really good. Instead it is mediocre.
Weatherman doesn’t seem to be able to express himself at all. Manga artist has the same issue for a lesser degree.
I liked his female manga artist friend and her husband. They were nice additions to it.

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A weird story line

I know that in real life there are toxic relationships anywhere, but this BL could only make me this: what a wierd couple. In fact, are they really a couple? We don't even see any dating scenes or romance between the two leads. It is more like slavery. "Come live with me, no worries about expenses, but you have to do whatever I tell you".

After watching episode 1, I was hoping to see a growing relationship berween the two guys, but what we get are silent monologues where both hide their inner feelings. One enjoys being the dominant master, and the other unconsciousy enjoys being the submissive slave. Of course there was one moment when he rebelled whle being drunk, but that was it.

Apart from seeing two cute actors and their fine acting, the story line did not excite me at all. Boring and repetitive scenes.

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An absolute waste of time

This show was painful to watch. I see a lot of the negative reviews centering around how toxic the relationship was, but to me that's not the issue. This is fiction and its main goal should be to be entertaining. Portraying a toxic relationship isn't necessarily a bad thing, it can be really interesting if done well. But this isn't. Its worst offense is that it's utterly uninteresting. Nothing happens. The main plot, if you can even call it that, could happen over the course of a single episode and there would still be time to be bored. The characters are completely one note. One is mean, callous, and closed off, the other is pathetically apathetic in every possible aspect and is incredibly frustrating to watch as he clumsily sulks around. The show sometimes threatens to explore their weird, toxic relationship, to become maybe even a little shocking. But nope, nothing of note ever really happens. And do not expect any character development or interesting motivations. The situation in the last episode is exactly the same as the first episode, except they are happy now (I think? Communication between them is non-existent so it's hard to tell). The one thing a story exploring a toxic relationship should do is to actually do some exploring, to make us see why they are in this relationship, how they got there, who they are as people and as "participants" in this relationship, how they feel about it, and more. But the show simply shows us how things are and moves on to the next scene, we never learn anything deeper than that.
The actors are also very unevenly matched in terms of acting skills, although with the material they were given, it would be hard even for a great actor to shine here.
This is a festival of infuriating miscommunications, second-hand embarrassment, and boredom.
I will say the cinematography is great, the intimate scenes were pretty nice, and although they aren't very good in their roles, because the material is so mediocre, the actors did have pretty good chemistry. Were it not so empty and frustrating, it would also have had a nice peaceful, meditative atmosphere, but it's too bad all-around to achieve that. Do yourself a favor and skip this one.

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yeah no...

I feel like I'm missing something since all the reviews are positive...

Segasaki was very toxic, it weirded me out tbh. I'm usually not sensitive to some toxicness in dramas since it's just a drama but this was too much for me. He was highkey stalkerish and abusive. Like that ain't cute at all to me, idk. I was waiting for his character development but it never happened, he actually got worse.

Yoh was fine but he really made me frustrated when he just let him be like that to him.

The couple wasn't even cute. They NEVER talked. I'm not even exaggerating, where's the communication? 2 grown adults living in the same house should be able to communicate. I don't even get why they like each other when they just misunderstand each other and never talk it out. I felt like I watched 8 eps of two guys making out with each other all the time. What was even the point of this drama? Nothing improved, no character development at all, what was the point?

The actors were good tho :)

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Has me excited for more

I just watched the first episode and I am already craving another one.

But why is it so captivating?
First, I love that we jump right into the story, getting flashbacks about their past instead of experiencing it from the start, especially since I think the whole "how they met" storyline would only feel like filler here.
Secondly, the humour. Yoh calling the world lewd is hilarious to me since he is an erotic-manga artist, and that cracked me up ngl.
Thirdly, the sunny-day-sex-pact is really interesting and will play into the story a lot as it progresses (at least i hope so). That brings me to Segasaki.

We don't know much about Segasaki (handsome weather forecaster) yet, right now he's a toxic, arrogant guy using Yoh for food and cleaning, also for sex. (Mind you that Yoh agreed to that, because he needs a place to stay at rent-free and can't have high living expenses because of his job). At first it seems like Yoh doesn't necessarily like that but when Segasaki forecasts only rain for the next week or so on his show, Yoh unconciously is sad that he won't have sex with Segasaki for a while, which surprises him (and me aswell lolol).

The sex scenes are done very well, applause for that. You can also see that deep down Segasaki somewhat cares for Yoh, because after the last nsfw scene of the first episode they are still in bed together in the morning and hugging, which is something I honestly didn't expect from Segasaki. I thought he would get up immediatly afterwards and go back to his own bed, but he didn't which gives me hope for a non-toxic relationship between the two.

I'm a sucker for BLs that can make me emotional, so this is just perfect. I'm looking forward to the next episode and I can't wait to see where the story goes! :)

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Started with a light breeze that turned into still air

I honestly don't know how i feel about this series. The premise of the story was interesting, and Japanese BL dramas, heck Japanese dramas in general, tend to have interesting character design set in contexts that are seemingly mundane but actually have a somewhat refreshing perspective. However this series failed to draw me in, from the main characters that i just simply could not connect with, to the overuse of manga cliches i.e. having the two main leads faces hover less than 5cm away from each other as they stare at each other and the camera zooms in. Also, too much chin grabbing... I did not find the characters compelling and I couldn't tell if it was because of the actors or simply how the characters were originally designed or the dialogue (internal dialogue's included) that never quite seemed to connect the characters (or maybe that was the entire point of it, in any case it didn't work for me).

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Confused Feelings!

I've a mixed feelings! I really love them as a couple: the way they look at each other, the chemistry, the sexual tension and all. It's cute and fluffy and also hot af!

It became clear their r/s isn't the healthiest one on episode 1, but I let it slip since I enjoy watching them. And, I did enjoyed for 1/2 of the show, until it just gets worse. It came to a point that I can't overlook the toxicity anymore.

The way ML is overly possesive and everything, I can't.

Even last episode is somewhat toxic, although the bed scene is kinda hot.

Oh well, as I said, I've a mixed feelings

All I could say, it could have been 10/10, if we take away the toxic behavior, which is what I don't understand what makes Yaoi writer thinks toxic is necessary.

But, I guess people do like it, hence they make it.

Whether you like this show or not would depend on how comfortable you are with toxic r/s. If you have high tolerance, the couple is actually very nice to watch, and you most likely would like it. Othwerise, you end up confused like me .LOL

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Yoh and Mizuki are each other's home

When an aspiring manga artist Tanada Yoh (Mashiko Atsuki) was in a tight spot in his job, he agreed on an unusual contract with a weather forecaster Segasaki Mizuki (Higuchi Kouhei) to live together. In exchange, he cooks and cleans for him. What comes from such a contract is a codependent relationship that makes them both happy and anxious.

At first, Yoh was basically a slave of Mizuki, who later implements a way to earn Mizuki's sympathy and possessiveness so that he can indulged in Mizuki’s gentle yet "rude" behavior. Since the two never communicate well, they often misunderstand day-to-day situations. Most often I find this frustrating, but here it allows for Mizuki's character to be fully fleshed out as story goes. It was so heartwarming when I saw the kind of person he really is.

Of course, this won't be as satisfying if it wasn't for the engaging dynamic between the timid Yoh with his dark quirkiness and a drunk clingy Mizuki. The fact that each of them has a peculiar personality makes it an engaging watch. From them provoking each other so casually, the sunny day lovemaking, to the ASMR scene of them doing finger in mouth thing... Their sweet and romantic moment was a delight every time! Even when they are just eating dinner together, clearly crazy in love, like how newlyweds are. Yoh and Mizuki are each other's home. This is just the beginning of their relationship. If season 2 is coming, I hope to see more on Yoh and Segasaki improving their communication with each other.

-Jan 2024, Yovita
Find me on Instagram: @kdramajudge

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