Conclusion: This felt like a modern remake of 1996's "Long Vacation".
The key settings and developments so far felt almost identical as per the points I outlined below:
1) Soramame (Hirose Suzu) was dumped by her fiancé who had a new girlfriend and only found out what happened after she came to Tokyo to finalise plans for their wedding just weeks ahead vs. Minami (Yamaguchi Tomoko) who probably had it worse because she was dumped on her wedding day and her fiancé took away all her money.
2) Oto (Nagase Ren) aspires to be a composer but is struggling because his works seem to lack the power to move people emotionally vs. Sena who failed to get into graduate school and could only make ends meet as a piano teacher,.
3) Soramame and Oto end up living under the same roof due to her having no money and cannot go back to her hometown to face her grandmother and family after breaking up with her fiance vs. Minami losing all her money to her fiance and Sena having no choice but to let her stay in the same apartment at her persistence
4) Sena was in an unrequited relationship with his junior Ryoko (Matsu Takako) while at present, what is known is that Oto seems unable to date or unwilling to date anyone due to some unknown reason.
5) The underlying theme of taking a "vacation" from life in the meantime before trying to do something or pursuing one's dreams seems to be the same in both dramas. Soramame and Oto look likely to be seeking comfort in each other's company while staying under the same roof. Likewise for Sena and Minami helped to heal each other's wounds while living together before they could take steps to realise what they wanted in life.
Well, given that both dramas are written by the same scriptwriter Kitagawa Eriko, I'm not so surprised but to have that many similarities, it felt as if she was copying chunks of successful elements from her past hit. And since "Long Vacation" was such a hit back then, it may be unfair to compare this drama with that. Then again, what was novel and refreshing back in 1996 doesn't feel quite the same in 2023.
Perhaps for those who haven't watched Kitagawa's past works or "Long Vacation" in particular, you may not be so bothered by these similarities. However, to see some really cliched settings and hear lines which you typically won't hear from young people these days, these just makes this drama feel really dated and old fashioned. I'm not sure if this is an indication of things to come but I cringe at the idea of having to sit through such a cliched story for another 2+ months.
Then again, I also feel that it might be a pity to give up so quickly especially since the cast turned out to be better than I thought.
It's my first time watching Nagase Ren in action and I was pleasantly surprised by his subdued acting as the unusually calm Oto who only shows a bit of his true self and feelings when he's with Soramame. As such, I'm intrigued by how his character will develop and what kind of painful past Oto might have which led him to behave as he is now. Likewise for Hirose Suzu, although it was a bit challenging to hear Soramame talk in a mix of 2 dialects (she did explain why she spoke like that), I liked her chemistry with Nagase and to be honest, they do look like a really cute and compatible couple. Even for the supporting characters shown so far - Makiko (Matsumoto Wakana), Kyoko (Natsuki Mari) i.e. their landlord and Sousuke (Kawakami Yohei) i.e. Kyoko's son, they all look pretty interesting to explore further. And Endo Kenichi hasn't even appeared yet.
The problem is, if the story proves too much to stomach, I probably cannot force myself to stay on watching this just for the cast. As such, the next 2 episodes or so will probably be the deciding factor for me as to whether this drama is for keeps or to be dropped.
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