Koi Nante, Honki de Yatte Do Suru no? (Who Needs True Love?) follows three friends who experience the hardships that come with falling in love. The main character out of the three is Sakurazawa Jun (Hirose Alice), whose experience with her mother made her believe that falling in love is a messy affair. But her friends and coworkers pressure her into experiencing at least one sexual encounter. Enter Nagamine Shuma (Matsumura Hokuto), a handsome waiter at a restaurant named Salut who is a more than willing volunteer.
Jun’s friend, Mayama Arisa (Iitoyo Marie), believes that she’ll only experience true love when she gets good value out of it. This is why she starts an affair with a married man named Tanabe who becomes her sugar daddy. But when Tanabe starts ditching her for his real family, she rents out the company of Uchimura Katsumi (Okayama Amane), who doesn’t check most of her boxes of an ideal man.
Lastly, Kiyomiya Kyoko (Nishino Nanase) is the first of their friend group to marry. But after years of marriage, she feels unhappy with her husband, who does nothing but work and play video games while she does household chores. Suddenly, she starts getting into cooking when she meets Iwahashi Kaname (Fujiki Naohito), Salut’s chef who seems to be hiding a secret.
What I Liked About KoiMaji
Admittedly, I watched the first episode with some biased perceptions about the drama. Some of my friends who have already finished the drama a few months ago complained about the messy plot and irritable characterizations.
And to be honest, I beg to differ.
If you’ve read some of my previous reviews, you know that I always prioritize character development — the character must have an internal conflict and finds a way to their happiness by crushing their fear and misbelief. And fortunately, each of the main characters have their moments of development which was justified through their past actions — though some may be irritating, admittedly.
Jun and Shuma’s story stands out the most, and I have to give it to Hirose Alice for portraying her so wonderfully. Personally, I can relate to Jun initially choosing a life without love (for different reasons), and you can see her actively make choices, some of which are questionable. But she eventually makes it to the truth, the theme of the drama — love is hard and sometimes painful, but we love anyway.
Contrary to what I’ve read online, the plot isn’t as messy as it’s made out to be. Maybe it’s because the drama runs for only 10 episodes that everything wrong went down in the last few episodes, but I thought that the drama wrapped up nicely with no loose ends.
What I Disliked About KoiMaji
That being said, I do have some issues about some parts of the story:
1. The cheating subplots. I was never a big fan of the cheating trope, which is why I avoid any dramas whose main plot revolves around the main characters having affairs. To my disappointment, KoiMaji has two subplots that involve cheating — Arisa’s affair with her sugar daddy Tanabe and Kyoko and Kaname’s love story. It’s personally a difficult watch even as I appreciated Kyoko’s development at the end.
2. The afterthought on asexuality. In the last episode, it was revealed that Misaki, Jun’s former coworker who now runs a nail salon, is asexual and had feelings for Jun. The reveal felt like an afterthought on the script, as if to just brag that there’s LGBTQ+ representation. As an aro-ace, this part of the script didn’t sit right with me.
Honestly, though, KoiMaji could have done this right if they weaved in a conversation about asexuality. As Jun is never interested in relationships at first, it could have been pointed out that she might be an aro-ace. Then she and Misaki would have gotten into a conversation about how aro-aces fall in love, too, and maybe bust some myths here and there. That would have made Misaki’s revelation make more sense, aside from the not-so-subtle looks she gives Jun throughout the episode.
Is KoiMaji Worth the Watch?
Although I personally enjoyed the journey of the characters throughout the drama, some personal stances prevent me from rewatching it. Which is too bad, because this drama gave me a satisfying story that I would have probably enjoyed more if not for some dealbreakers.
