Ai no Nai Koibitotachi Episodes 1+2

I am a simple man, when I see a jdorama with Narumi Riko and Sasaki Nozomi in it, I have to check it out. Ai no Nai Koibitotachi is a looking for love story featuring 3 guys and 4 girls written by Kazuhiko Yukawa who wrote GTO, Majo no Jouken, Oyaki, Koi ga Shitai etc.

The show got my attention during the flashback scene featuring the 3 guys in high school singing Spitz's Cherry. While not my favourite Spitz song, this is the most famous one and a safe choice for karaoke.

On the guy's side you have a struggling jdorama writer who is working at a gyudon chain who never goes on more than 3 dates, a policeman who tries to hard to please the girls that he has no personality himself and of course the virgin who happens to be Narumi Riko's colleague.

On the girls side, you have Okazaki Sae is the owner of a book cafe without any clients, Narumi Riko likes Hongo Kanata he claims he has no interest in love, Fukugawa Mai as the rich daughter who does not want to omiai and Sasaki Nozomi who was the madonna of the 3 guys but now works in a kyabakura.

I watched episode 1 with eveychooey's subs and then went straight to episode 2 with because I wanted to see what would happen next. I am not going to marathon the whole thing in one go although episode 2 ends with a cliffhanger. Ai no Nai Koibitotachi reminds me a lot of Koi ga Shitai which Kazuhiko Yukawa also wrote. Its got that whimsical wanting to fall in love kind of feeling mixed with a bit more humour. 

I really like the laid back comedy aspect of this show. There are hardly any punchlines like Oi Handsome but a few scenes had me chuckling. Dating Apps are also a big part of the show and it talks about how some people in Japan don't know the word goukon anymore.

Ai no Nai Koibitotachi is mostly about a bunch of people having an early life crisis imagining what their high school selves would think if they could see them. Ultimately it is about likeable people trying to find their place in the world.

I like the characters and so far the writing has been solid. I have faith in Kazuhiko Yukawa's writing ability and I suspect I will probably finish the whole 9 episodes at the end of the week. Watchable so far.