Suki na Hito ga Iru Koto

I won’t bury the lead. This is a cute, binge-able, perfect for a weekend in when you’re looking for that rom-com (with a dash of family heart and soul) drama fix. I highly recommend.

On to the full review.

The female lead starts off somewhat silly in episode one, but she quickly grows and improves as the story goes along. Whenever she finds herself faced with a challenge, she puts her all into facing and overcoming it. The male lead makes the perfect, prickly but with hidden depth, love-interest who starts off antagonistic but very quickly begins to develop feelings for the female lead and a genuine respect for her talent. And of course, the younger and older brother are each great characters in their own right and watching the four of them around the house and running the restaurant is heart-warming.

I’m not actually bothered by the female lead going away to New York to study in the finale as I tink it makes sense for her character arc. But I am disgruntled by the male lead pretending he doesn’t like her anymore and he wants to replace her at the restaurant just so he can ensure she will go. There was no reason for him to not just sit down and have a conversation with her about the opportunity. She’s not gonna be gone forever, and as ends up happening anyway, they can do long-distance while she’s gone. He doesn’t give her the opportunity to truly decide for herself, which isn’t fair. That being said, his decision doesn’t significantly harm the overall drama for me, so I can overlook it.

The only aspect of this series that I think is completely unnecessary is the plotline involving the ‘gangster’ (I assume that’s what he was meant to be) trying to bully the three brothers into selling the restaurant. It is a worthless plotline that ultimately goes nowhere and serves no purpose in the story. It’s easy to ignore, but that doesn’t make it any less annoying.

The thing that really struck me though, while watching this drama, was how consistent the storytelling was. As I thought about it, I realized that that’s what I love about Japanese dramas (at least the ones I’ve watched so far); their consistency. The events of the story always feel planned out rather than random, and even if I don’t like the trajectory of the drama or the behavior of the characters, I never find myself enraged by a writing choice that came out of left field. (Of course, now that I’ve said this, I’ll probably start stumbling upon Jdrama after Jdrama where this is not the case, lol.) For years, Kdrama was my drama land of choice, and I can unequivocally say that consistency is not necessarily common in that realm of the drama world. I cannot count the number of times I’ve been watching a drama and found myself wanting to flip tables, because the writer decided to throw a wrench into the story for the sole purpose of drama and conflict. It’s been refreshing, now that I’ve fully stepped into the Jdrama world, to experience such consistent…consistency, lol.

So, yes. This was a thoroughly enjoyable watch. It made me laugh, it made me shed a few tears, it made me binge-watch it in one weekend, and that…is a pretty good drama by my standards.