22
22
2
Zii3
This review may contain spoilers
Healthy relationship dynamic, Good for one watch, Toki is the best.
(General spoilers only.) One of the few highschool-teacher stories I've seen (so far) with a truly well-balanced dynamic. How their strengths and weaknesses line up made them equals and they grow together. I found it sweet, endearing, and non-cringy. This is NOT a sexually charged, passionate, or taboo-focused story.
Overall light, sweet and easy fun that's good for one watch but isn't that memorable (except for Rintaro as Toki).
I really liked and greatly appreciated that Toki and Sahara communicated, supported/encouraged, and TRUSTED each other. They both had character growth and thrived with the attention and care of the other.
FYI: Japanese highschools are 3 years, so Toki being a second year student is equivalent to being a junior (third year) in the USA.
Rintaro as Toki was awesome and always fun to watch. Toki is bigger-than-life yet acted with nuance. Though Toki is wild in the physically over-dramatic Manga-style way (and often funny), multiple aspects of his personality and approach to things are admirable and even mature for his age. He is a 'doer' and doesn't think too deeply, yet he is thoughtful and puts effort into understanding others. He came across as an actual highschooler with a good heart who was a 3-dimensional character and not a caricature. He's sincere, straightforward, and totally lovable.
General Spoilers below.
There was an obvious balance in Toki and Sahara's personalities and their relationship that made their age gap a non-issue (for me anyway). Especially since they consciously kept their interactions PG, and Sahara had them wait until Toki graduated highschool before verbally making their romantic relationship official. There is a brief lip press at that time.
I mostly didn't mind the time spent on Sahara's past because it highlighted the differences between Nekoto and Toki and further demonstrated why Toki would make a good partner even though he's younger.
What I didn't like:
Takumi as Sahara was okay but not compelling. I liked him but didn't fall for him. He didn't do anything poorly, just didn't have much charisma and felt a little flat in his acting.
The school play bit made me cringe hard. It wasn't necessary and felt like pure contrivance to get an oops-kiss moment. The only thing that made it better than a trip-and-fall accident kiss was the humor of bigger-than-life Toki trying to act demurely as Snow White.
The end felt super rushed. There's a time jump, happy ending scene, and it's over. In that regard, I would have preferred less time spent on Nekoto to get more of Toki and Sahara (or even more of Todo's story since he kind of gets left out after halfway through).
The past connection was a simplistic, cliched, writing cop-out for tying things together. At least it was obvious from early on that it was coming due to little flashbacks and wasn't a complete surprise in the last episode as it is in so many shows.
Overall light, sweet and easy fun that's good for one watch but isn't that memorable (except for Rintaro as Toki).
I really liked and greatly appreciated that Toki and Sahara communicated, supported/encouraged, and TRUSTED each other. They both had character growth and thrived with the attention and care of the other.
FYI: Japanese highschools are 3 years, so Toki being a second year student is equivalent to being a junior (third year) in the USA.
Rintaro as Toki was awesome and always fun to watch. Toki is bigger-than-life yet acted with nuance. Though Toki is wild in the physically over-dramatic Manga-style way (and often funny), multiple aspects of his personality and approach to things are admirable and even mature for his age. He is a 'doer' and doesn't think too deeply, yet he is thoughtful and puts effort into understanding others. He came across as an actual highschooler with a good heart who was a 3-dimensional character and not a caricature. He's sincere, straightforward, and totally lovable.
General Spoilers below.
There was an obvious balance in Toki and Sahara's personalities and their relationship that made their age gap a non-issue (for me anyway). Especially since they consciously kept their interactions PG, and Sahara had them wait until Toki graduated highschool before verbally making their romantic relationship official. There is a brief lip press at that time.
I mostly didn't mind the time spent on Sahara's past because it highlighted the differences between Nekoto and Toki and further demonstrated why Toki would make a good partner even though he's younger.
What I didn't like:
Takumi as Sahara was okay but not compelling. I liked him but didn't fall for him. He didn't do anything poorly, just didn't have much charisma and felt a little flat in his acting.
The school play bit made me cringe hard. It wasn't necessary and felt like pure contrivance to get an oops-kiss moment. The only thing that made it better than a trip-and-fall accident kiss was the humor of bigger-than-life Toki trying to act demurely as Snow White.
The end felt super rushed. There's a time jump, happy ending scene, and it's over. In that regard, I would have preferred less time spent on Nekoto to get more of Toki and Sahara (or even more of Todo's story since he kind of gets left out after halfway through).
The past connection was a simplistic, cliched, writing cop-out for tying things together. At least it was obvious from early on that it was coming due to little flashbacks and wasn't a complete surprise in the last episode as it is in so many shows.
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