To be honest, the premise of the story does seem a bit far-fetched and could go down the wrong way especially if you consider it from a realistic perspective.
Girl loses the key to her apartment and tries to get back to her place through the balcony at her next-door neighbour's apartment. - Seriously, I would be quite wary of letting a stranger into my house or entering a stranger's house in this manner. Well, the perfectly unromantic resolution to this problem is to call for a locksmith but this is fiction after all.
Then when the girl wants to thank the guy for his help, she prepares home-cooked food for him which he readily accepts. Erm...if someone I hardly know makes something for me to eat, I would probably accept it out of courtesy but chances are, I won't eat it. So to be that trusting to gobble up the food...that's quite unthinkable to me.
However, since the story is based on a manga, some deviations from common sense can be accepted somehow as long as they aren't too ridiculous. As such, you may want to view this while turning a blind eye to logic and reality for just 25 minutes.
The first episode strikes a nice balance between the manga-ish developments which are meant to set the viewers' hearts fluttering and the realistic take on the lead character Maki's (Kurashina Kana) situation. Having no boyfriend for 10 years and being at the crossroads of deciding to live as a single or try to get married soon, it is no wonder that Souta (Kikuchi Fuuma) can make his way into her heart so easily. Besides the attention from and interaction with a guy for the first time in a long while, his genuine liking for her food and the feeling of being needed should be the main reasons why she becomes so besotted with him quickly despite her reservations about their 10-year age gap. Things between them seem to be going at breakneck speed based on the next episode's trailer but looks like Souta has some secrets which may break Maki's heart.
Kurashina and Kikuchi have a sizzling chemistry onscreen at such an early stage especially in the scenes when they were looking at each other at a close distance in the kitchen. Actually, the gazes they exchanged at the corridor already lingered on long enough for sparks to fly so the scenes towards the end of the episode felt like an explosion of pent-up emotions. I didn't expect too much from them at first but seems like they are pretty compatible in terms of both visuals and acting.
I was especially surprised with Kikuchi's performance this time. As a disclaimer, I haven't been exposed to his works much other than last season in "Daibyouin senkyo" and my impression of him is largely restricted to funny and playful based on Janino Channel and variety shows. He seemed rather at ease switching from the innocently-looking and harmless neighbour to one really seductive and irresistible man who can sweep a woman off her feet literally. That's pretty impressive, I think.
And in fact, Maki's legs did give way when he said the following words to her while hugging her from the back all of a sudden:
"I want to eat now." (今すぐ食べたい)
"Miss Okouchi, I want to do it with you." (大河内さんとしたい)
"You are cute." (かわいい)
So you see...looks like Souta is going to be a dangerous yet really attractive love interest for Maki and I'm quite eager to find out how things develop between them, provided that the story doesn't become too cliched or predictable. Hopefully, this drama doesn't disappoint.
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