Ai no Nai Koibitotachi Episodes 3~9

One of the things that made Hayabusa Shobodan one of the best jdoramas of 2023 was the use long shot during the title scene. In Hayabusa, the title scene would be usually early in the series with the shot establishing the theme or story of the episode and or most memorably at the end of episode 5 establishing a twist.

Instead of the title of the jdorama appearing at the beginning of the show, I like that the title of Ai no Nai Koibitotachi appears near the end of each episode, usually at the emotional climax. Someone put in the comments previously about how many modern jdoramas don't use long shots compared to the old days. It is more time and effort in addition to shooting the close ups but a little effort goes a long way and you can see from the screenshots, they look pretty good and looking at them I can remember the feeling that the shots were trying to capture for the audience.

Don't worry, not of the shots are big spoilers. I finished Ai No Nai Koibitotachi pretty quickly. Episode 3 was a bit meh because the relationship between the cop and the ojousan was very fake but that was the point of it and the show got more interesting again when everything feel apart.

I described the first 2 episodes of Ai no Nai Koibitotachi as evoking the same feeling as Kanno Miho's Koi ga Shitai. After finishing the 9 episodes, I would say it is Koi ga Shitai mixed with another Sasaki Nozomi show Daisy Luck. It is similar to Daisy Luck in that it is a show about female friendship and the show is cliched but goddamn Yukawa Kazuhiko knows how to write an entertaining show.

Yukawa Kazuhiko knows how to write a script to entertain your average jdorama fan. He knows how to give the people what they want and to set things up and reward the audience. Like the early scene with the 3 students singing Spitz's Cherry. The basics of storytelling, set things up and make it pay off. Sometimes jdoramas try to hard to be smart when they just have to do the cliche but fun things.

There is an almost all school vibe to Ai no Koi Koibitotachi despite it covering online dating. The only funny thing is that they really could not afford any customer's in Erika's coffee shop until the last episode lol. I liked how the main character is struggling  working a minimum wage job not living in a big apartment but how can the coffee shop even survive a month without any customers?

If you are looking for a cliched feel good dorama about 3 guys and 3 girls all building up to the pivotal kokuhaku scene with decent humour, you can't go wrong with Ai no Nai Koibitotachi. The very definition of a very watchable jdorama. Thanks to eveychooey for subbing the first episode.

Narumi Riko needs to be in more jdoramas. She was wasted in Keibuho Daimajin.