Death is a Bro

She's back and she's ready to share. Welcome to my annual year-end drama recommendation project where I share my favourite Japanese dramas I've watched during the year.

I hope 2023 was kind to you all!

I'm certainly not ready to end my year yet. As you can see, I still have 3 dramas to recommend to you all. Starting from today, 29th of December, till 31st of December — New Year's Eve, I will post one review a day, as I do every year and I will continue to do so until the end of the world (or just about when the barely working letter v key finally drives me mad, so please do not mention when there's a v missing in my notes, it's just my keyboard). I hope my short 2023 list won't disappoint! Now, I proudly present

Takahashi-kun from the Bicycle Shop (2022)

8eps, 25min each

Short, but sweet love story between a classic shy OL female lead, struggling in a toxic work environment, and a bleached-hair yankee male lead, who works at the bicycle repair shop owned by his grandpa. Main characters bond over... you're not going to believe this— a bicycle.

The plot is basically it. A slightly bumpy bicycle ride love story. No more, no less. There are no convoluted issues, no deep misunderstandings, and no dramatic scenes. Main couple meets over a slipped chain on Tomoko's precious bicycle, Deep Impact. Later, it turns out that Ryohei hates her squeaky brakes with passion every time she passes by his shop on her way to work, and recommends her to drop by to get it fixed.

Initially, Tomoko is a people pleaser, too afraid to refuse, and giving off the impression of an overly shy person, while Ryohei is bold, brutally honest, and — frankly — scaring people away with his delinquent image. As the story progresses and the couple gets to know each other more, she learns from him and he learns from her. They are wonderful to each other and the communication between them is so clear. The shortness and simpleness of this drama did not deter me from it, and I'm so glad it didn't because the chemistry between the characters made my heart flutter.

"Darn, this movie hasn't come out yet. I got a little too ahead of myself".