I watched this show and read the manga in high school and decided to rewatch it recently, 7 years later as I’m in my twenties. I loved the manga and I liked the drama upon my first time watching it. However, my second time watching it I had mixed feelings.

The friendship between the three main characters felt real and was probably the best thing about the drama. I also enjoyed watching Rinko grapple with her career and find her way through her identity as a 30 year old woman in Tokyo. Her struggles with finding her creative footing as a screenwriter felt very relatable. There are repeated connections/ comparisons to Sex and the City and I definitely felt the similarities in those aspects of the show.

Now for the part I didn’t love — the relationship dynamic between Rinko and Key. Using Sex and the City as a frame of reference, Key would be the “Mr. Big” to Rinko’s “Carrie Bradshaw”. In Sex and the City, you can see why Carrie keeps going after Big even though he’s not good for her — there’s undeniable chemistry between them from the first episode and this constant “will they won’t they” push and pull dynamic. So even as Carrie participates in self destructive behavior and abandons relationships in pursuit of Big, you can understand her and empathize to some degree. With Key and Rinko, it just feels like they just argue and randomly run into each other at convenient plot-orchestrated times. On top of that, it’s very clear they’re inherently incompatible. Even as the other characters remark that there’s chemistry between them, I found myself thinking “what chemistry?? Every interaction between them feels platonic and inorganic!!” Don’t get me wrong, I love Sakaguchi Kentaro and I came into the rewatch expecting to root for his character. However, as much as the writers try to pull us in with the not so subtle stolen glances and “what if” debates between them, I’m still not convinced. Even the scene where they slept together feels weirdly attraction-less and robotic. I’m usually a fan of the love-hate relationship trope, but their relationship dynamic lacked the spark of romantic passion that usually makes the trope so compelling when done right. With Rinko’s other romantic interests (Okuda and Hayasaka) you can at least see the romance between them. By the end of the show, I found myself very uninvested in Key/Rinko and rooting more for Rinko/Hayasaka. The way Key and Rinko’s relationship was written made it very hard to stay interested in it or even believe it.

Overall, it was cute with the friendships and career plot but disappointing on the romantic lead front.