The 124th Drama Academy Awards (Spring 2025) - Best Leading Actor

Overall Ranking Top 3

1) Nakai Kiichi - Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi

2) Shison Jun - Koi wa yami

3) Matsuda Genta - Jinji no Hitomi

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Inoo Kei - Parallel Fuufu
2) Shison Jun - Koi wa yami
3) Masakado Yoshinori - Musashino Rondo
4) Mamiya Shotaro - Ignite
5) Abe Hiroshi - Caster

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Nakai Kiichi - Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi
2) Shison Jun - Koi wa yami
3) Abe Hiroshi - Caster
4) Matsuda Genta - Jinji no Hitomi

5) Uchino Seiyo - PJ ~ Koukuu kyuunandan ~

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Nakai Kiichi - Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi
2) Shison Jun - Koi wa yami

3) Matsuda Genta - Jinji no Hitomi

4) Uchino Seiyo - PJ ~ Koukuu kyuunandan ~

5) Abe Hiroshi - Caster

Source: The Television

The 124th Drama Academy Awards (Spring 2025) - Best Supporting Actor

Overall Ranking Top 3

1) Honda Kyoya - Nami urarakani, Meoto biyori

2) Dean Fujioka - Taigan no kaji

3) Miyazawa Hio - Shiawase wa tabete nete mate

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Honda Kyoya - Nami urarakani, Meoto biyori
2) Yamada Ryosuke - Damemane
3) Miyama Ryoki - Ignite
4) Michieda Shunsuke - Caster
5) Sano Masaya - Dr. Ashura

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Honda Kyoya - Nami urarakani, Meoto biyori
2) Miyazawa Hio - Shiawase wa tabete nete mate
3) Takahashi Mitsuomi - Otto yo, shindekurenai ka
4) Mochizuki Ayumu - Koi wa yami
Shiono Akihisa - Mamono

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Dean Fujioka - Taigan no kaji
2) Honda Kyoya - Nami urarakani, Meoto biyori

3) Miyazawa Hio - Shiawase wa tabete nete mate

4) Ichinose Wataru - Taigan no kaji

Takahashi Mitsuomi - Otto yo, shindekurenai ka

Source: The Television

The 124th Drama Academy Awards (Spring 2025) - Best Theme Song

Overall Ranking Top 3

1) Dansu ni maniau - Koizumi Kyoko & Nakai Kiichi (Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi)

2) Muchuu - BE:FIRST (Nami urarakani, meoto biyori)

3) Blue Amber - back number (Anata wo ubata sono hi kara)

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Muchuu - BE:FIRST (Nami urarakani, meoto biyori)
2) Destiny - Ae! group (Musashino Rondo)
3) Hana no you ni - Ryosuke Yamada (Damemane! - Dame na tarento, manejimento shimasu -)
4) encore - Hey! Say! JUMP (Parallel Fuufu Shinda boku to tsuma no shinjitsu)
5) Damashiai - tuki (Caster)

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Muchuu - BE:FIRST (Nami urarakani, meoto biyori)

2) Dansu ni maniau - Koizumi Kyoko & Nakai Kiichi (Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi)

3) Blue Amber - back number (Anata wo ubata sono hi kara)
4) Maria - Abe Mao (Dear My Baby ~ Watashi ga anata wo shihai suru made ~)
5) mimosa - Hamasaki Ayumi (Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi)

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Dansu ni maniau - Koizumi Kyoko & Nakai Kiichi (Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi)

2) BEAT - WurtS (Koi wa yami)

mimosa - Hamasaki Ayumi (Zoku zoku Saigo kara nibanme no koi)

Muchuu - BE:FIRST (Nami urarakani, meoto biyori)

5) Blue Amber - back number (Anata wo ubata sono hi kara)

Source: The Television

Quick Review #137: Koi wa yami - Spring 2025

Title: Koi wa yami / 恋は闇　　　　　　　　　　　

Rating: 6 / 10

Recommended for: 

For those who want to watch an engaging and romantic love story with murder suspense as a subplot and/or are fans of Kishii Yukino and Shison Jun

* Potential spoilers ahead!

Liked:

- The romance i.e. koi part of this drama was definitely the highlight, thanks to the great acting of Kishii and Shison. Not only did the two of them look so compatible visually, their chemistry from the early stage of their relationship to when they were so deeply in love with each other was very engaging to watch. 

Disliked: 

- As I mentioned before in a post about my impression of Ep 1, this drama might have initially given off vibes as a romantic version of "Anata no ban desu" but sad to say, it just didn't have the same kind of engaging lure like the latter. One key difference between these two stories was the fact that "Anata no ban desu" did not hesitate to "kill off" key characters and often at very surprising paces and junctures of the story. And that's what kept viewers going on and talking about it online week after week even though "Anata no ban desu" stretched across two seasons and yet didn't feel draggy until the finale was such a huge letdown. However, the victims in "Koi wa yami" were not regular cast members to begin with so the serial murders just didn't have the same kind of "significance" to make viewers care about how the suspense plot would unfold. The only surprise was the death of the police detective Owada who figured out the real identity of the killer way earlier than everyone else. What made things even worse was the whole deduction process came across as "lacking in urgency" and there were so many loopholes in the plot along the way that it felt very anti-climatic by the time the finale came about.

- The same issue with "Anata no ban desu" was replicated here - the motive of the killer, modus operandi and Shitara Hiroki's involvement in the whole scheme didn't make sense or you could find lots of illogical stuff to find fault with. Pardon me for saying this but the motive just came across as terribly senseless and trivial for the killer to unleash so much hatred against the female victims over such a long period of time. And if Hiroki had been in cahoots with the real killer for as long as a decade, what happened to the murders that happened before the current string of 5+1 murders (1 survived the attack) was linked to one another by the police and media? And Mikuru's animosity towards Makoto initially - it was not as if she had romantic feelings for her half-brother so why did she behave like that at first? Why would Hiroki have knowingly let his father take the blame for him with regard to Hiroki's mother's murder (well, it turned out that the father went to jail actually not for his son but the real killer)?

Frankly speaking, it was not difficult to guess from the start who the real killer was because he already looked so suspicious in many ways. However, I find it hard to be convinced by his rationale so I couldn't help but roll eyes as I saw the part about his confession.

- NTV is up to its Hulu antics again - in order to find out why the killer behaved the way he did and possibly some new titbits in the romance department, there is a spinoff/special that's on Hulu exclusively. So if you are like me who only watched the full drama and have no intention to pay for Hulu just to watch this spinoff, you'll probably not be able to make much sense of the killer's mentality and possibly change your perception of him. Makes me wonder why NTV just cannot learn its lesson from the criticism it got some years ago by doing the same. Is it really that hard to tell the story in its entirety within the drama series instead of resorting to spinoffs that contain critical parts of the plot? 

Preview of "Koi wa yami" - Spring 2025

Title: Koi wa yami / 恋は闇

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 16 April 2025

Timeslot: Wednesdays at 10pm

Broadcast by: NTV

Theme Song: "BEAT" by WurtS

Cast: Shison Jun, Kishii Yukino, Shirasu Jin, Nekoze Tsubaki, Hamano Kenta, Tanaka Tetsushi, Nishida Naomi, Kobayashi Toranosuke, Okayama Hajime, Takemori Sento, Yamamoto Mirai, Morita Misato, Mochizuki Ayumu, Namura Jin & Hagiwara Masato