Unlike many people I don’t get upset when things in dramas (or any sort of fiction) are “problematic.” I don’t think writers are under any obligation to present “ideal” characters or relationships (though I do think they should create realistic consequences to characters’ actions). If they can make the audience root for unhealthy relationships, bad people, etc. more power to them. I think the viewer has to be able to recognize that what makes a good fictional story might not be what you want in reality. If the viewer doesn’t have the maturity to make that distinction, then they probably shouldn’t be watching that drama.
I’ve watched a few Japanese teacher-student dramas. I think they can be interesting, though sometimes they’re a bit unsettling. Like I don’t think I should root for the relationship, but I can also understand it from the characters’ perspective. Chugakusei Nikki was probably the most unsettling, because the ML was so young. It’s particularly creepy when the mother kinda ends up playing the role of the “other woman” that the SFL would normally play. Actually, I’ve thought most of the student-teacher dramas I’ve watched have been reasonably good, even if I have mixed feelings about the couple. Taisetsu na Koto wa Subete Kimi ga Oshiete Kureta is my favorite, but it’s not asking the audience to root for the teacher and student to be together.
I really have no problem with most age gap dramas. (I actually think of Hajimete Koi wo Shita Hi ni Yomu Hanashi more as a noona romance/age gap drama than a student-teacher drama, perhaps because she was only a tutor and they met outside a school setting. I think I watched about half of Thirty But Seventeen, however I really don’t remember it at all, so I can’t comment.) Usually, dramas portray the younger person pursuing the older person first, which I think helps. As long as I think the younger person is old enough to know what they want, I’m not very bothered by large age gaps, personally.
