Luly
Argentina
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.
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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