Oct 19, 2022
"In my life, I always have been the second choice.
For everyone."
(WARNING, THIS REVIEWS CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILERS)
"Koi No Tsuki" (恋のツキ) is a 2015 josei/drama romance manga written and drawn by Akira Nitta
The story also have a 2018 netflix adaptation tv series that includes 12 episodes of approximately 20 minutes each.
The story talks about a woman called Taira Wako that has recently turned 31 years old (when a woman reach this age in Japan, usually if they are still single and not married yet, they are heavily looked down upon and pressured by society, especially by close minded or traditional japanese families who want their daugther to
...
settle down and have kids, because otherwise no one would want to marry them when they will loose their beauty. This worsen up especially if the woman doesn't have a good job, like she is irrensponsible and somewhat an outcast)
Wako-san, indeed has a quite humble job that however she really loves: working part time in a cinema. She in fact, always had a passion for movies. This passion of hers however, doesn't help her be financially stable and neither be happy with her current relationship with her boyfriend Fu,. Even though they love each other, they started losing passion and having a difficult time living together with respect, especially Fu who at least in Wako's eyes, seems everyday more and more cold and rude towards Wako, hurting her feelings frequently with her trying to ignore it off and be patient.
This situation though, will not get any better,making her everyday unhappier.
One day However, when she is working at the cinema,both a blessing and a curse takes place for her:
Her favourite movie director, called Kagemitsu Okihara, has recently released a movie with his company, which the cinema will project in the halls. That's when Yumeaki, a 15 years old boy with the same passion both for movies and Okihara will show up, completely changing her life, Surprsingly, for the better!
This story in my opinion, is very very important.
First of all, I must say that all the characters are portrayed in an absolultely amazing and detailed way succeeding at making all of them unlikeable, with no flaws in their start and development. I love how each one selfishness is portraited. What I mean by that? Let me explain
Through my eyes, there are a lot of selfishness "Types"
The three most prominent ones, are the selfish type of person that just does their own thing caring about their happiness mostly hurting themselves and not others, and the selfish people projecting thier selfishness on others either by pressure of doing, or using people with their selfishness to be happy
For example, Yumeaki could be the first type with own selfishness, Wako the last one, Wako's parents,friends, and even Fu are the selfish projectors and pressure, could even just be a metaphor of society overall.
Though I profoundly respect and support all types of relationships if born by love and mutual respect reasons, I don't think it was the case for Wako And Yumeaki, at least not how and why it started, with Wako lying and hurting both Fu and Yumeaki, and this in my opinion , is quite unforgivable.
The fact that Yumeaki has forgiven her is truly adorable and I think that his feelings for her (At least for the most part) were way more pure and sincere than Wako, who just wanted an escape for her loneliness and frustration
However in the end, it happens what you exactly would expect from a toxic relationship. At the start, Wako is all happy and exicted, of having such a fresh and new relationship, especially with such a young boy that made her feel special and young again.
However at the end shows that Yumeaki is indeed just a kid: an insecure kid full of naiveness and the dream of being a movie director, who hates school and hates being bullied because of his relationship with Wako and wishes to drop out and live with her, even mantain her, because of his jealousy of her constantly meeting growns up men afraid of her cheating on him again, which i quite fair, however it becomes too obsessive and lead her to have serious problems and gossips at her work place.
Who knows, maybe even him in his heart, felt quite "edgy" and cool of being in a relationship with a way more mature woman, or just was happy that an adult treated him , a minor, with respect and like an adult, when he was in fact, just a kid that wished to have more control in his life but couldn't, he couldn't even control an older man to steal Wako away from him.
At the end, is Wako that truly loves ,cherish, and care for Yumeaki, just like a mother for certain aspects, and wishes him to be way happier, not with and older woman who didn't know what she wanted as well, and that has previously hurted his feelings and put him in trouble. He didn't want to ruin him even more.For the first time, she put his happiness above her own.
She finally behaved like any responsible adult (For the good and right reasons though) would.
It is quite sad, but at the end even after all that pain, all of them have found their own true happinesses, dictated by no one, no circumstance, no pain, no decisions made by the heat or suffering of the moment. They have grown, and they have found themseleves and their purpouse.
I think that it shows, along with this amazing way of criticizing society and in particular Japanese one, is a great example of how vulnerable we all can be and what happens when somebody bases their happiness and life choices over society/somebody else expectations or use someone to project that part of them that makes them feel unsatisfated with their lives, people especially, but it also can be another thing.Or worse, an habit, like gambling for example.
Nobody can make yourself happy if not yourself.
This story truly surprised me and satisfied me in almost all aspects. If I must sapeak the truth, it could easily be trash. If it wasn't portraited in such an amazing and deep way just like for example "Kuzu No Honkai" does, I'm sure I would have hated such a story.
Because even in real life, I would find absolutely disgusting people that would choose relationships only for "Codependency" reasons, or even worse, use them as a "coping-mechanisms", like, why involve people in your trash and cringe? I'm sorry, I may sound rude, but to me it is absolutely ridiculous, embarassing, disgusting and also such a waste of time. I'm glad it the end everything settled.
I'll say very little about the series, but I must say that the actor that played Yumeaki is hot as hell I'm sorry, and also the actors did an amazing job too with their acting, and overall, the series direction, atmosphere and everything, the scenes too, were all amazing and you can truly notice the cure and the hard work behind.
Said that, lastly I wanna say that it isn't a story for everyone, but at least I was satisfied with the story until the very end.
Thanks as always for reading my review and have a good time on mal, I hope I was able to convince someone to read or watch the story.
Byeeee :3
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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