Ossan's Love Returns (2024)

The peak of gay romcoms! The most influential JBL came back better than ever!

Ossan’s Love (2018), arguably the most successful Japanese BL, is a favorite of mine. It kind of suffers from being made in 2018 and that made me a bit reluctant when I heard it was getting a sequel season 5 years later; Could it live up to today’s standard? Or will it drag on and fall into that 2018 humor?

Well, thankfully, OLR has moved with the times and served one of the most poignant examples of a sequel surpassing the first season. Everything is praiseworthy in this new season. The characters are so much more lovable, the conflicts as silly or as serious they are get resolved fairly quickly, respecting that all the characters are adults who can, more or less, communicate and solve their issues. I can also see the influence of post-OL BLs in this, especially the focus on domesticity. Haruta and Maki’s relationship progress is adorable to watch and there wasn’t a moment I would change between them. Izumi and Kikunosuke initially felt too random of an addition of characters but by the end of the show I grew to appreciate them. Kurosawa this season was much more likable as well. The slice of life aspect is not dull, not even for one moment because of its comedy and occasional drama. I also still think OL’s has the best female cast out of most if not all BL, even if they’re not the focus a lot. Chizu and Choko are a delight to watch every time and even in their limited screentime they feel fleshed out.

Production quality is also much higher this season and it’s so nice to see the change it was able to make after its success. Keeping Sukima Switch for the new theme song was a great nod to the first season’s theme song. The final episode was so satisfactory that I don’t even feel like complaining about how sad I am to let go of this show. Even if you didn’t like S1 a lot you should watch this as I can confidently say it’s one of the most wholesome, well written romantic shows you can find.

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When second parts are better

'Ossan's Love Returns' continues the adventures of the Japanese gay couple Maki and Haruta after the events of the first season, 'Ossan's Love: Ossan zu Rabu', broadcast in 2018, and the following film, 'Gekijoban Ossan zu Rabu Love or Dead', 2019, from TV Asahi.
Ironically, even after years of being together, the two men, already close to forty, have a couple of things to learn about life itself and relationships, since they have passed professional issues with high marks.
Luckily, the entire cast of the original series is present to offer life lessons to the young couple in their marriage experience. Haruta, in need of all the help he can get from his friends and co-workers, on how to maintain a loving relationship and how to treat his husband, will need to learn from the lessons that can be given to him. .
The popular Japanese BL that was overwhelmingly addictive to many since its initial season, returns to the small screen with a new sequel in which Kento Hayashi, Kei Tanaka and Kotaro Yosida reprise their roles as Ryota Maki, Soichi Haruta and Musashi Kurosawa, respectively, who, along with the other characters, portray the varied dynamics that move our main protagonists.
The show features a cast involving Iura Arata (as Ko Izumi), Miura Shohei (Kikunosuke Rikudo), Uchida Rio (Chizu Arai), Kaneko Daichi (Utamaro Kuribayashi), Ito Shuko (Maika Arai), Kojima Kazuya (Teppei Arai ), Mashima Hidekazu (Masamune Takekawa) and Ohtsuka Nene (Choko Kuribayashi) in supporting roles.
Considered one of the first Japanese television series of the Boys' Love genre aimed at a general audience, it is not the adaptation of a previous manga, although it was serialized between 2018 and 2020 by Umebachi Yamanaka for the manga magazine Be Love. It is also appreciated for serving as an influential model for audiovisual adaptations of the same genre produced both in Japan and internationally.
In fact, due to its good acceptance and criticism, what was initially a special episode broadcast on December 30, 2016, with the title 'Ossan zu Rabu', was expanded into a franchise. The aforementioned special chapter has the peculiarity that in it Haruta's romantic interest is his kohai Hasegawa Yukiya, played by Ochiai Motoki. The original cast, with some changes, was part of the seven-episode series, considered the first season.
Added to this universe are the 8-episode series 'Ossan's Love: In The Sky (Ossanzu Rabu: In The Sky), from TV Asahi, from 2019, and Ossan's Love HK, starring Kenny Wong, Edan Lui and Anson Lo in the main roles. Directed by Kwok Kaa Hei and script written by Tokuo Koji, this is considered Hong Kong's first BL drama.
'Ossan's Love Returns' manages, as a sequel, to recover the magic of the original, while offering something new to maintain the interest of viewers. To do this, the characters just have to be who they were in the first season, but with a more anime style.
The series also respects one of the characteristics of both anime and Japanese live-action works by exaggerating and making improvised mood swings, whether in dream sequences or in fantasized worst-case scenarios. Haruta being a very imaginative man, in many moments of his hyperactive shouts, different and overly expressive voices and internal thoughts, his directors, Yuki Saito and Ruto Toichiro, excel in the exquisite camera work in the close-ups; moving the focus directly onto the face of actor Kei Tanaka, who characterizes Haruta ridiculously well.
Kento Hayashi, her sensible husband Maki, is not far behind in loving her foolish husband, but also showing a side of annoyance with the man who even today, five years after the relationship began, does not do the housework and, To make matters worse, he frequently gets drunk and loses the gifts they give him.
The series describes the “newlywed life” of Haruta and Maki, after the latter's return from Singapore, where he had gone for work. Haruta, who has been dealing with his long-distance relationship, waits for him impatiently, but fails to arrive at the airport in time to see him get off the plane, as was his intention, indicating from the first scenes the comedic tone that characterizes the Serie.
With increased responsibilities in the workplace, the couple has difficulty dividing and accomplishing household chores. To save the situation, Haruta comes up with the brilliant idea of ​​hiring some online cleaning services to make her home life easier. But the person who appears at the door turns out to be none other than his former boss. This will be the person in charge of cleaning the home you share with Maki. In this way, Musahi Kurosawa, played by the fantastic Kotaro Yoshida, Maki's eternal love rival for the love of her foolish husband, re-enters the lives of the two young people.
Kurosawa, who had retired early, now works in a company dedicated to domestic work. As a “housekeeper,” while visiting the couple, her old feelings for Haruta are rekindled.
Despite stating that he has changed his intentions to conquer Haruta and now only comes to play the role of “mother-in-law” in the effort to make the young couple happy, he does not miss the opportunity to argue with Maki and cast her jealous glances, animosity or resentment for “having taken the man she loves” or for “making him suffer for preferring to be with other men,” as she often thinks, without knowing that Maki, who loves Haruta madly, is a victim of misunderstandings and absurd setbacks. , like leaving her engagement ring embedded in a baked ceramic vessel, which she and Haruta had molded hours before.
In this original “fatherly love”, while Kurosawa hurts Maki in subtle ways, a foolish Haruta is not able to notice what is happening around him, achieving moments of humor also with other situations, which will not be lacking in the series.
The three main characters, as well as the rest of the cast, are adults and handle their nonsense in a script that has plenty of intelligence and good workmanship.
With a plot ably written by Tokuo Koji, it's no coincidence that audiences can experience the series as a sexless Yaoi: the characters act with the same kind of bombastic, chaotic energy you see in anime. An example of the above can be seen when a jealous Kurosawa, in a sort of “drama queen”, passes a rolling pin over the fingers of a helpless Maki, unable to react in time, when he comments on her cooking.
If as an obsessed lover “the boss” is a stalker, as a mother-in-law concerned about Haruta's happiness he is also a stalker, a kind of sweet and tender sociopath who will make even the most demanding viewer laugh. In this way, the chaos and drama rise to a divine level, which will make everyone laugh during each episode.
For their part, Haruta and Maki bring tenderness in their fun ways. As husbands, they have dealt with and overcome so many problems, thanks to pure love and faith towards each other.
However, this series, which belongs to a particularly Japanese comedy genre, whose type of humor is not always understood and enjoyed by the audience, is undervalued by many outside the borders of the nation of origin.
However, each episode is a true work of craftsmanship with its chaotic plot and, to top it all off, a satisfying ending. Every time I think that the entire cast, both technical and artistic, cannot surpass the last episode, they do it effortlessly in the next one, reaching greater heights.
In this fantastic show, with excellent characterizations, creativity flows and the audience never yawns. Quite the contrary, he settles in front of the television screen to enjoy the mysterious secondary characters neighboring the main couple, or the performances of the rest of the people who surround Maki and Haruta.
If at times the ghost of 'Ossan's Love: In The Sky' assails me, of which I admit I don't like the ending, and I think that the lack of communication, the work entanglements that tend to keep Haruta and Maki apart, or the fact that Since they both have such opposite personalities, and that's why they both have to take different paths, I really enjoy each scene being more explosive, tender and joyful than the last.
The two protagonists have grown a lot as people and the writing reflects that growth.
Tanaka Kei is fantastic with his facial expressions and body movements. The genuine relationship he has with his traveling companion, Hayashi Kento, is a key piece in the resounding success of the series. The two actors prove to be completely comfortable next to each other.
The complicity, trust and camaraderie of both, as the basis of every romantic relationship, is enhanced with the incorporation of scenes of intimacy, of genuine and spontaneous kisses and hugs, of hands held in public, of restrained tears due to missing the other. , and tender laughter that demonstrates mutual love, as we have rarely seen in Japanese series.
I only hope that around our universe, that of humans, that other universe, fictional, but no less human, which is titled 'Ossan's Love', continues to revolve.

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Here I am, once again, writing an Ossan's Love Review. And, to be honest, I enjoyed this season more than I enjoyed the “first” one and the movie combined.

Ossan’s Love is a…particular case of a show. It depicts interesting and heartfelt topics but it is, in essence, a comedy at heart. With a specific brand of comedy that tends to be polarizing for jdrama enthusiasts.

Since its release (in 2016, but also its 2018 “first” season), OL depicted both a queer relationship (in the Haruta/Maki couple) and a caricature-style comedy of an older closeted gay man with histrionics, that could be hit or miss with the audience (the Kurosawa character). This duality had its pros and cons, it allowed them to explore an mlm relationship in a more mainstream-ish context for a show at the time, but it had the gimmick to make it all “not so serious” if they wanted to backpedal. It was what it was at the time and it served its purpose.

I don’t know if they ever envisioned OL hitting it off as it did, or the audience being as engaged with the relationship between Haruta and Maki as it was, but you can tell, through the development of the subsequent installments (of this narrative, let’s leave the au out of this) that they became more and more comfortable with the story they were showing and that the landscape of queer content in mainstream media was allowing for more than just comedy bits.

This season, more than any other installment, allowed Maki and Haruta to deal with what it means for them, as a gay couple in a country in which same sex marriage isn’t legalized, to become a family.

Instead of having a season-long conflict to deal with throughout, the plot allows them to deal with different situations alongside the season, which all together help develop not only their relationship as a “married” couple, but also them individually as adults.

I think that the strength of Haruta as a main character, which also allowed OL to stand out from other BL dramas (and jdramas with lgbtq+ content in general), is that he is the protagonist of a coming-of-age story in your 30s, questioning sexuality included. Which, with the social, political and cultural landscape we live in, is incredibly necessary imo.

Haruta’s heartfelt nature and genuine love for what he does is explored this season without him becoming the butt of a joke and his development is, I think, more evident than before. At the same time, Maki’s character shows some cracks in his seemingly perfect disposition and is shown to be more vulnerable and open to learning.

This season brings back characters from season 1, some which were missing from the movie. I should mention that the movie was not referenced at all, not even the characters introduced in it, but I do consider it a stepping-stone into what this season would become narratively.

All of the storylines with the characters from the previous season give something to the main narrative of Haruta’s growth and his and Maki’s relationship. I’ll give a special mention to Chizu who is back and better than ever, now a single mother with a corporate job. Takegawa has probably the messiest storyline and I feared they’d make him a second version of Kurosawa, but they kept it mostly in line.

Kurosawa this season is…less annoying. He’s still comedy relief and still histrionic but his relationship with Haruta and Maki develops in a healthier way (for the most part), until it sort of finds a space. I’m still not totally sure about him, but he was much improved from season 1 and it showed that they were trying to make him evolve and become more than a cartoon-ish character.

The one thing I didn’t like much from the season was the new characters’ narrative. They introduce a new couple of characters (much like they did in the movie, but this time the two characters know each other) with a storyline that I didn’t think fit well in the season.

Don’t get me wrong, adding Miura Shohei and Iura Arata is going to lift the acting bar and it showed, but the tone of their storyline and the way they got involved with the characters we already knew was…somewhat forced for no reason. And, at the end of the day, I’m not sure their inclusion added anything narratively, even if it did in the level of acting.

The tone of what they were serving didn’t match the tone that we had going on, and this show already has a complicated tone to begin with.

At times, the editing and the known histrionics of the show were a bit chaotic but I feel it’s noticeable how they worked hard to try to maintain the identity of the show while not getting stuck in the gimmick or the superficial caricature. Taking into consideration that the writing and directing team was the same, I genuinely think that, with this season, they’ve proven to be more invested in representing a genuine relationship and for the comedy identity of the show not to take away from the subjects introduced and developed. I’m very genuinely pleased with that.

I feel like the show evolved and grew into something more committed to itself.

Watching Haruta and Maki figure out their lives together, what it means for them to be married, how to balance their personalities, talking to each other’s parents, where they set boundaries, what they want from a family together…it all felt very heartwarming and domestic, like they had picked a page from the Kinou Nani Tabeta? book. I feel like the season rewarded the audience with an insanely good level of Communication between these two after all we went through in the previous installments. The way they talk about things and trust each other is *chef's kiss*.

As an added note, we got a cameo from Fujioka Dean (!!!) and from the two protagonists of the Thai drama Moonlight Chicken playing their characters from that show, since those same actors will portray Haruta and Maki in the Thai version of OL. We have a budget this time, fam!

When I finished my OL movie review I said: “If they want a series 3, or another instance of this, they better continue where this left off and ditch the AU ideas, because this is where it’s at”. I am pleased to say that they listened, delivered and I couldn’t be happier.

I don’t know if there’s more OL on the horizon (that last episode felt a bit like a farewell, I’m not sure) but with the trajectory this is taking, I’ll be there to watch it if there is.

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hilarious, poignant and heartwarming

Overall: Ossan's Love Returns was my favorite in the franchise. The writers managed to balance several different genres (comedy, fluff, angst, mystery) well and we had character growth. 9 episodes about 45 minutes each. Aired on GagaOOLala (along with the rest of the franchise except Ossan's Love Hong Kong) and Viki.

Content Warnings: past death/murder, past violence, grief, non con kiss

What I Liked
- how Haruta and Maki had their flaws but they communicated with one another, apologized when they messed up and continued to love and care for each other, there was some excellent character growth
- clever ways they integrated the episode name
- sweet moments
- funny moments (I laughed so many times)
- realistic parts (like the bed head)
- ongoing physical interest/affection
- Moonlight Chicken (Earth/Mix) cameo
- how they integrated rainbows into the episodes

Room For Improvement
- the non con kiss with the new characters
- perpetuating the stereotype of a mother in law who is mean/exacting to a spouse
- wish we had a bit more time/resolution with several of the characters instead of a mad dash at the end
- if characters aren't comfortable doing something like at the end of episode 9, then the production should cast other actors

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The Most Entertaining Sequel in a Long Time

Constancy, consistency, and comedic. The three best words to describe this triumvirate of OSSAN’S LOVE, which is one of the best, if not the best BL series and franchises out there. It classically defines and shapes what this genre is all about. Perhaps not to a core of current fans who are zealots of the plethora of BLs with gorgeous young men in stories, that, for the most part, are forgettable and whose ‘love for one another’ is defined by the amount of ‘shipping performances’ they do together. This season and the ones before it are the true pioneers of what BL storytelling is all about and how to carry on with a narrative that remains as fresh and original as the first one. And as poignant.

This saga harkens back to its original roots of the love story between Haruta Sochi (Tanaka Kei) and Maki Ryota (Hayashi Kento). They are now fully entrenched in their relationship. So much so that they want to and plan for their ‘wedding’, which of course is merely ceremonial. Not unexpectedly, the full cast of characters return to reprise their roles, including Kurosawa Musashi (Yoshida Kotaro) as Chief. Only this time he is the head of a housekeeping service and manages to manipulate his way into the lives of Maki and Haruta with all the usual hilarity and goofy misunderstandings that this franchise is so good at portraying. You will be entertained from the beginning to the end with all of them.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/04/16/ossans-love-returns-season-3-2024-japan-9-episodes-2-special-episodes/

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We Are Family

What. A. SHOW. They have single-handedly proved me wrong about sequels. Every one I watch is usually not on par with it's predecessor, but Ossan's Love Returns? Served and ate!

I love how many genres they mixed in together, without it ever seemingly like too much. They covered every possible theme they could, from loss, to acceptance, spanning every kind of relationship and bond, narrating stories of confusion, happiness, satisfaction, anger and so much more. Each episode is chock full of thought and tear provoking quotes and at the end of the nine episodes, you come out feeling like a part of the family.

The characters are perfect, the comedy is just right, and each and every storyline they cover is so wonderfully executed. I have nothing but praise to lay on this show. Through the frustrations, I found the resolution, just like they did. I cried with them, I laughed with them. And so will you, hopefully.

This is simply a class above.

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Ossan's Love Returns and reminds us what great writing looks like

Ossan's Love Returns (literally) and what a welcome return to a wonderful series. Not very often are we given a big follow up installment, and it's even more rare that a follow up is well rounded as a whole. Which is what makes this such a welcome release within the BL world.

This series is so full of heart, of compelling characters and their stories, and also provides us with some good laughs as well. It makes every episode worth the watch, all the way through and even provides it with a high rewatch factor.

Maybe we'll see more from this series in the future, who knows? I'd personally love to see it.

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Amazingly Entertaining

I regret ignoring all seasons and series of Ossan's Love. I have never laughed this much watching a series. Episode 5 hot spring scenes was the most hilarious of all for me.
Some viewers will find some characters irritating. However, I find the writer a genius for meshing a hotpodge of characters together and making them work harmoniously, producing a very entertaining series. This has a little bit of everything and nothing excessive except for Chief's screaming and Haruta's reactions but I think they were necessary to complete the comedic aspect of the series.
I truly hope they do another sequel.

I enjoyed all Ossan's Love sequels but this is my most favorite one.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED VIEWING

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Why is it the best series ever ahhhhhhhhhhh

This is the best JBL ever. After the 1st season and the movie I thought it couldn't get any better and when they announced that a season 2 is on its way I was worried that it might not be as good as the previous ones. However, it just proved me wrong and I am happy it did.
The story unfolded in the best way, with the couple still trying to balance everything in their life and overcoming obstacles together. The new characters felt so nice, like they never felt new, like they were always a part of the story.


I loved it way to much and everyone should give it a try.(⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)(⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)(⁠≧⁠▽⁠≦⁠)

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