Love in the Air: Koi no Yokan (2024)

Shoma: like a rearing horse

Neti Suwanjinda, director of BL series such as 'Love Sea' and 'Wedding Plan', and editor of 'Only Friends', directed the Thai version of the novels "Love Storm" (พายุรักโถมใจ) and "Love Sky" in 2022. (พระพายหมายฟ้า), written by Orawan Vichayawannakul, or simply Mame, the prolific writer of boys' love stories at Dek-d.com, and co-founder of the production company Me Mind Y.
With the title 'Love Storm' ('Love in the Air'), this series, about two romantic relationships, taken one from each book, which will be sustained by the handsome friends of motorcycle racers and car mechanics Phayu and Prapai, with Rain and Sky, respectively, the shy, naive and cute college kids. The characters were played by Boss Chaikamon Sermsongwittaya, Noeul Nuttarat Tangwai, Fort Thitipong Setjai and Peat Wasuthorn Chaijindar, four young actors who have managed to win the hearts of genre lovers thanks to their appearances on screen.
A very popular series, it received diverse criticism, especially among those who disapproved of alleged toxic relationships and non-consensual sexual approaches, on the one hand, and those who did not spare praise and valued it for its effective display of intimacy, realistic representation of sex, stories of mental healing, overcoming trauma and developing the couple's relationship. In my opinion, a decent romantic drama that will keep you excited if you haven't skimmed the book. Even if you've read it, it's still a very good story.
Although specialized criticism does not contradict it, it was not that big of a deal. Just a fast-paced and sexy series, which gradually seasoned its plot with accessories of motorcycle racing, college drama, senior-junior relationship, and a strong erotic touch. Depending on the latter, Noeul and Peat were there: to inflame Boss and Fort, respectively, and to make them race on their motorcycles at more than a thousand kilometers per hour in a desperation not so much to win a race, but to return to each other's arms, and the bed, of his lovers.
Japanese television decided to revive the well-known plot, now in a series with the title 'Love in the Air: Koi no Yokan' (2024), one that also arouses mixed comments for the same reasons, but has even awakened the desire to watch it on many of those who ignored the Thai version.
The series deviates very little from the Thai television original. In addition to the logical adaptations of the environment, it softens the speeches, slightly redraws the profile of the characters, changes their names to Japanese patronyms, and incorporates a plot within the university classrooms, the automotive workshop and the race track. The light and slapsticky Japanese humor or physical comedy is to be celebrated, as a form of scandalous and simulated violence that it contributes to the remake.
But at the same time, it maintains the essence and vibrations of the characters, while capturing the Japanese aesthetic and enriching the actions with its beautiful photography and soundtrack.
With a slightly more agile pace than the Thai original, which like this one brings together two novels in a series, but unlike that one, the remake must cover in 10 episodes of about 26 minutes each the content of 14 chapters of 45 minutes approximately shown by its predecessor. Thus, creators must be vigilant to avoid filler and stay focused on the central story.
Now, the motorcycle racers and cunning saviors who raise storms in the hearts of the two best friends are composed of Nagumo Shoma and Suzuki Asahi, who play Hayase Arashi and Kawai Fuma, in that order; while the university students who will let the motorcyclists steal their kisses and burn with passion are Nagatsuma Reo and Hamaya Takuto, actors who play Sorano Kai and Amemiya Rei, respectively.
The latter is responsible for awakening Shoma's goat-like sexual fury.
Rei, although she may seem a little annoying and silly to many viewers, somewhat less than her counterpart Rain in 'Love Storm', reflects precisely the type of irritating, clumsy and even childish character written in the script and the novels. Despite not being the kind of character I like to appreciate, I have to admit that the Japanese version of Rain is better than the Thai version. In this sense, the Japanese actor gives me cuter vibes than Noeul.
Naguno Shoma forges here one of the most defined compositions of his career, after playing Naoki in 'Atelier Kiss', and Komine in 'Growth Kiss', stories that make up the BL drama 'Kiss x Kiss x Kiss: Love ii Shower' , a classmate of Akira in 'Minato Shouji Coin Laundry', and Yamase Kazuma in '25 Ji, Akasaka de', all recent Bl dramas, and looks much more captivating than usual: necessary faculty to compose a character who accepts the challenge of falling in love with Rei in less than a month, at the same time subjected to extreme emotional tensions, who goes through various emotional scenarios and complicated circumstances both within and off the race tracks.
His almost permanent presence before the camera creates an effectively constructed material; with very good supporting actors (especially Higuchi Hina, who plays Furuta Rinka, a student at the university where Rei and Kai study and who from a person who liked Rei becomes his rival for the love of Arashi; and Mochizuki Ayumu as Tomaru Taiga, a haughty lover of illegal speed racing; the latter character written with grit and precision regarding his arrogance as a daddy's son and connoisseur of the world of sports motorcycling.
And if the first story is happy, fun and sweet, that of Kai and Fuma is dark and sad, since the young university student suffers from sexual, physical and psychological harassment and abuse by Kurosaki Gan (Tajima Yusei), a violent man who Together with his henchmen, he pursues Rei's friend to make him suffer. Kai won't know how to deal with this situation. Why do you reject his approaches and flirtations? Will smoking be the same as your stalker? If I told you the truth, how would Fuma react? Will he be able to count on Fuma's help? Will Kai manage to overcome his trauma and be happy next to the handsome motorcycle racer?
This is the second, a story as beautiful and moving as the first.
In fact, praise must be given to its experienced creator, Tomori Atsuki, an all-rounder in Japanese commercial television fiction, who, in addition to being an actress (she does not intervene in the drama as such), is a screenwriter and director, and manages to effectively film the remake of the Thai original , introducing successful and slight changes.
With only two episodes viewed at the time of writing the review, I will wait for the series to progress a little further, or even conclude, to issue new evaluations.

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What exactly is this??????

The only word that comes to mind whenever I watch an episode is CRINGE...….The casting is so wrong on all LEVELS, the only cast I would keep is Arashi and maybe Fuma, as for the other two leads, the acting lives so much to be desired. All the couples don't have any chemistry and Rei needs serious kissing lessons because, WOW just WOW. I understand that its a Japanese remake and that the "sexual" scenes must be censored but at least the characters SHOULD AND MUST have some sort of chemistry. Kai tries but is just to "stiff", I understand that the Thai version of Kai was also "stiff" but at least he was lively.

They really wasted time and resources on this, sorry not sorry but I will continue to watch just to kill time I guess.

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The abridged version

I was optimistic about the Japanese remake when it was first announced, but was left disappointed. The Japanese are usually more comfortable with dealing with sensitive topics in shows and I hoped they would do justice to Kai's. (Sky from the Thai version) trauma. They did not. The actor did well attempting it, but the writing did not allow the story to come to fruition. There in lies my big. problem with this show. This is like reading the abridged version of a novel you really like; all of the major plot points are there, but none of the emotional stuff that made you fall in love with the characters. For me it really comes down to the writing of the show. They condensed 14 50 minute episodes into 8 25 minute episodes. There was no it could really compete with the original. The actors did a good job. I really though Arashi was closer to the book version.

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an enjoyable, but rushed adaptation.

It's not a secret that I love the MAME-verse, so I was so excited to see another take on Love in the Air. This one felt very familiar and was fun! The adaptation is pretty faithful, following most of the same story beats and moments to the same effect, while still making the characters their own. The production is a bit more realistic in styling and acting, and a bit... tamer in the intimacy, but it feels suited to these characterizations. The production is a little rough around the edges but, honestly. it's rough around the edges in much the same way Love in the Air TH was... so that's just accuracy ;)

My main issue with this adaptation is the run time--with only eight episodes at 35 minutes each, LITA JPN struggles to balance two pretty tonally different stories. While I'm not concerned about speeding up or combining timelines--I actually quite liked the way the antagonists were better threaded throughout the whole story-- the traumatic climax of both arcs happening simultaneously was... bad. The two stories are not equivalent stakes, with Rei and Arashi embodying a campier, more spirited story line and Kai and Fuma living in a much, much more serious world. The mix didn't work and flattened both stories.

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It was more fast paced compared to the original

After watching the eighth episode today, I told myself that it felt like the finale, but I swore that this series was 10 episodes. Lo and behold, it WAS the finale, so I got a little confused there. But in reality, what else could they have done after compressing so much in the eighth episode?

I have stated numerous times that the relationship that I have with MAME series is a love/hate one. This is her first work that was given a Japanese makeover. And what can I say? In all honesty, if I hadn't watched the Thai original, I know that I would have given this a higher score compared to what I did give it. Unfortunately, I did, and I can't believe that I am saying this—some parts from the original were way better done/handled compared to the remake.

The characters, Payu and Rain's Japanese counterparts (Arashi and Rei), felt the same to me, so the actors actually did a stellar job in their roles. Prapai's Japanese counterpart, Fuma, really did not live up to the standards of the character to me until literally the last episode. I was iffy about his character even before I watched this series, and he just proved my point—he was just missing something that did not make me get behind his character. I always thought that Sky's character (and actor) did a phenomenal job and that no one would be able to do what he did. I was proven wrong with this, as the actor who played Kai (Sky's counterpart) somehow rose to the occasion and gave an outstanding performance and made Kai's role his. For the evil villains in this series, I must say that Kai's ex-boyfriend was more hateable in this adaptation (he was hateable in the Thai one, but in this one, I just hated him more).

As stated, we got eight twenty-six episodes that were compressed from thirteen forty-five-minute episodes. While it felt that they took out some parts that could be seen as unnecessary, this Japanese remake still felt compressed, and the storyline was moving at a rapid pace. What I did like from this one was how they showed what was happening with the two relationships from episode five and not just focusing on one relationship, because I was originally annoyed with the Thai original one where I had to wait until episode eight for them.

For all of the mentioned reasons, I have to give this series a 7.5, as the original Thai series did have some aspects that just made it a *tiny* bit better compared to its Japanese remake.

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Expecting more from Japanese Love in the air

the Thai version. I’ve seen the Thai version first and I was hoping that they’ll add a new atmosphere for this.
Trying to be objective this series is not easy to be executed, because we need to feel
• the characters connection ( imo the Japanese BL’s do it just great with a few episodes,there’re objective,on the other side Thai BL focus on crescendo, it takes longer but we get that connection)
•Characters chemistry ( Arashi/Rei was ok , Fuma/Kai could be better, it missed the emotional tone
I’m actually surprised because normally on Japanese series they have this ability to capture the essence of the story.
For me … I wasn’t expecting a copy paste of the Thai series but an adaptation having in consideration the Japanese culture.
They started out well on the 2nd episode I had the impression that they’ve focused on the keys points , I liked how they demonstrated Kai emotional state,it was so well made…but somewhere they lost focus.
I hope that they could see constructives comments and next time leave us speechless.

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a sinking titanic

dont get me wrong, i do tend to love jbls but this is one exception , i just coudnt finish it
it felt like they relied on a famous serie to pick the public interest but they should know that this is not enough, both acting, chemistry and plot werent done well, at least the thai one have the acting and chemistry of the mls to back it up, this one is lacking on every level which explains the rating of this serie
id still rate it 6/10 only because i have seen worse
adaptations dont always backfire, the cherry magic one was good both versions were good and enjoyable to watch, in order for adaptations to do well they need to pick good actors ,for them to have good chemistry and make the story creative and interesting to watch , a bland one will only make people feel asleep and if they can predict almost every little thing because of excessive" copy paste" dialogue from the original one it kills the interest

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Could have been a lot better with more time

Arashi and Rei - really simple story, not the type of characters I usually enjoy and it was true for this as well. Shoma did a really bad job with his acting but he is handsome and better at the kissing scenes. Takuto was bad as well, better than the actor for Rain in my opinion but the couple has no chemistry . Enjoyed the Japanese version of the show better for this couple, probably because their story is very simple and it works better with the shorter episodes. I give them 2 out of 10, watched them to see Fuma and Kai in the first episodes.

Unfortunately in this version we get very little time to show the friendship between Rei and Kai, Arashi and Fuma. We also lose some fun side characters but Rinka is better than the Thai version, Sky's ex was creepier in the Thai version. They cut a lot of useless fluff and that was great. The sound in this show was a lot better, the editing as well but it had a smaller budget and it showed.

Fuma and Kai- the story needed a better writer to give more depth to both Sky/Kai and Fuma/P'Pai but still a decent story. Asahi did a good job with his acting, he fails when it comes to his ,,womanizer,, persona but I prefer him to P'Pai with some exceptions. In the Thai version when P'Pai and Sky meet there was a certain level of uncertainty, P'Pai seemed more dangerous, like he could hurt Sky but this version lacks this and it's not a good thing in my opinion, some characters are better when they keep you guessing. Reo is the best actor in the series in my opinion, he did a great job with most of the scenes but some scenes lack ,,depth,, because they were not given the time they needed to develop the characters better. Unfortunately this was the character they choose to change the most and Sky looses some of his charm. The couple has chemistry in some scenes but not all unfortunately. Sure, Reo is a bit too old for this role but I will take an older actor any day if he does a good job acting. - I give them 6 out of 10, would have been 7 with two more episodes dedicated to them since time is what they lacked most.

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how did they make it cringier but not in an entertaining way lol

even cringier than the other version lol the thing is because it has even shorter running time, it's even worse. this is a very wattpad story with the corniest plot and dialogues, i knew that we all knew that. but the writing in here is really bad, like how did they make it worse lol some scenes i had to look away and no one was even singing or pulling out the guitar, it's that bad lol there's no real development of the romance and the acting or chemistry don't save this one either. it's just corny but not in a fun way other bls have done, ya know. i just want to be entertained at leasttt

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An Apt Remake and Epic Romance Recalled!

For those who are looking for a vivid comparison between the Thai & Japanese version, fret not. We are at your service!

After a bevy of Thai remakes of Japanese adaptations (Cherry Magic & My Love Mix-Up!), now it’s time to watch the Japanese remake of popular Thai adaptation “Love in the Air”. If you have watched the original show, you might be reminded of the fact that it turned rookie actors Boss Chaikamon, Noeul Nuttarat Tangwai, Fort Thitipong & Peat Wasuthorn into fan favorites. Each of these pairings have a cult following and their popularity could be attributed to the NC scenes that are a part and parcel of most universe’s created by author MAME. When I first heard about the Japanese remake, I had my own doubts. Japanese BL actors can be categorized into two varieties- firstly the ones who are dedicated and go all the way in, which means they are extremely comfortable with their co-star and their NC scenes are phenomenal. Secondly, the ones who are in for fame and find it uncomfortable to even kiss their co-star. I kept wondering if the Japanese actors Nagumo Shoma, Hamaya Takuto, Suzuki Asahi & Nagatsuma Reo would be honest to the original interpretation? Would they be comfortable stepping into the shoes of the Thai actors who left a deep impression in the minds of avid fans?

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/11/12/love-in-the-air-koi-no-yokan-first-impressions-ep-1-2/

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