Koi to Yujo no Aida de (2022)

Between Love And Friendship

Never had a drama a more fitting title!
Never was there a drama for me where I did not want the main leads to end up together.
Never had I seen a couple of utterly dislikable characters with horrendous and extremely weak personalities.
Never were the truer words said than when the ML finally admits to his own shortcomings 5 min before the ending!

As the title says, this is a story of two friends who want to become more but they are just caught in a string of missed opportunities, lack of courage, misunderstandings, lack of courage, lies, lack of courage and of course, lack of courage. They are both so insecure behind the hard surface that they do not dare to speak the truth to each other. But the reason was never the obvious one: to keep the friendship intact because their friendship, even though they were close, was never really deep and sincere. They liked spending time together but both of them wanted to become more while neither of them dared to say it. It turned out to be an extremely frustrating watch.

What it proved, as if the proof was needed, is that the men are weak creatures, without spine or courage but who talk big. Women on the other hand are not afraid to talk and lie, to fight what they want, to abandon what they do not need anymore.

What I liked about this drama is the structure of it: the same story is told from the both main characters' point of view as each episode tells about the same events. What I did not like very much is the usual overuse of voiceover but that is such a j drama thing so we end up getting used to it! I loved the music : the final song was beautiful. But I did not like the ML: he is the most annoying, spineless, cowardly, stupid, idiotic ML I have ever watched. What I hated about this is the predictable ending: I did not want them to end up happily ever after! They had so many opportunities to be happy together but they let every one of those slip through their fingers so they can wallow in misery and pretend to be happy. They actually deserved to remain alone and really miserable while having huge regrets and never acting on them! It was never clear what they liked so much about each other: probably they recognized each other's flaws in themselves: they are both equally insincere!

The drama's 10 episodes, 5 from Rina's POV and 5 from Ren's, span a 7 year period: it took them over 7 years to finally realize what they wanted (especially Ren: he is an idiot when he needs his ex-wife to explain some truths to him!) and timidly try to do something about it. I really thought that Ren was going to run away again in the end when she said "No way!" to his proposal..

Interesting concept but annoying characters with an undeserving happy end! Watching suggestion: watch the two versions at the same time in this order: episodes: 1, 6, 2, 7, 3, 8, 4, 9, 5, 10.

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A different take on my favorite romance trope.

First of all, I have to say- why aren't there 2 separate pages for the 2 separate versions of this story on MDL? There should be! That caused a whole lot of confusion before I started watching these 2 series. It's the same story, but the dramas are completely separate. So there should be 2 completely separate pages for them. No offense to anyone intended. Problem with MDL aside, let's talk about this drama. A bit of a warning, I watched this drama without any English subs using my so very broken Japanese. But I got the gist of the story, so shouldn't be a big deal. Even so, if there's some misinformation in my review, then I apologize beforehand. And sorry if the review is too long and boring.
I was drawn to this drama because of the female lead's actress, Hotta Akane. I liked her performance in Peanut Butter Sandwich, so I wanted to watch something else she was in. Also due to the fact that it centers around my favorite romance trope- friends to lovers. The thing I didn't know is that this story also involves the biggest enemy of any marriage- affair (one more time, I am annoyed that the page on MDL didn't include this very important piece of information). That took me by surprise, as I was NOT looking for that. I also started watching in the wrong order. The Rina version of the episodes take place ahead of the Ren version, which I didn't know when I started watching.
Let's start with the plot. The plot was very meh for me, and I didn't like what they did with the story. I got into it thinking it would be good, since this trope rarely fails in my experience. Clearly, I was wrong. That's all I can say without spoiling it too much. On the other hand, if anyone is into stories about affairs then this might be fun. Also, too many bed scenes for me. The weirdest part is, the main couple didn't get many bed scenes. An affair drama with a many bed scenes, but not enough of them with the main couple.
The acting was fine, I think. Hotta Akane delivered well. I can't think of any complaints about the others' acting either. But, when I looked back at the drama, I realized that maybe Izumisawa Yuuki wasn't the right actor to play Ren. He works when it comes to the plain, sweet and cute platonic male friend and goes "Yo" when he bumps into Rina in the city. And that would've been fine if this story didn't include the affair storyline, with just the "friends to lovers" part. But since they did include the affair storyline, it would've been better for me if they casted someone a bit more handsome and manly for this part. He didn't look good next to the very pretty Hotta Akane. Although, in a sense he was the right option if they prioritized the sweet male friend part. So this combination didn't work for me. Sidenote: Takeda Kouhei playing a playboy douchebag probably for the millionth time. One more misinformation I found on MDL, I thought Jinnai Sho would have a bigger role in the drama. But no, he only guest starred in an episode and didn't have much to do.
The music was annoying. Not because the music itself was bad, but because it didn't fit well with the drama. If this was a more of an innocent story, I probably would've liked the music too. But for this one, whenever the music started playing, I felt very annoyed. Felt more like an interruption.
If I talk about the 2 versions of this story, I think I like the Ren version of it more. I complained that I didn't like Izumisawa Yuuki's role in this drama as much, but he was pretty good when it came to narrating Ren's inner thoughts. He could be a good seiyuu (if he is already and I don't know about it, then my bad). For a story that wasn't so big, I don't get why they spent so much money and went as far as making 2 dramas out of it. I would have liked it better if Ren's version was the only one.
And I don't think I'll rewatch it. Not worth it. Won't recommend it either. This kind of story has been executed better in other Jdramas, for example "Guilty: Kono Koi Wa Tsumi Desuka".
Final rating: 5/10

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