Episodes: 16
Synopsis (viki.com):
Will life be one of married bliss for Naoki and Kotoko? In one of the most-anticipated sequels, the unlikely couple of the average Kotoko (Honoka Miki) and the brilliant Naoki (Yuki Furukawa) from “Mischievous Kiss: Love in TOKYO” returns for a second season! After the original series ended with the wedding of Naoki and Kotoko, the special episode “Mischievous Kiss 2: Love in Okinawa” follows Naoki and Kotoko on their honeymoon, where a strange couple turns up and meddles in their romantic getaway. As they settle back in their new lives after the honeymoon, can Naoki and Kotoko handle the pressures of marriage and their careers? “Mischievous Kiss 2: Love in TOKYO” is the sequel to the popular “Mischievous Kiss: Love in TOKYO” (2013). It is the fifth live adaptation of the popular Japanese manga “Itazura na Kiss,” following the original in 1996, Taiwan’s “It Started With a Kiss” (2005) and “They Kiss Again (2007), and Korea’s “Playful Kiss” (2010).
Review:
Ever since I watched the Taiwanese version (It Started With a Kiss) and the second season of that (They Kiss Again), I fell in love with this show. I have to say that Mischievous Kiss 1 and 2 have not disappointed me. I fell in love with the dynamics of the show and the characters once again. I liked this version almost as much as I loved the Taiwanese and that says a lot. Watching this, it reminded me of why I liked the show in the first place. The first season is the light-hearted high school romance where things just fall perfectly into place for the characters. The second season is college life and the immediate confrontation of the future. It targets so many more issues and it allows the relationship to expand in ways that wouldn't be possible in the first season. They targeted issues as to how the high school love develops into one that thinks about sex, babies, jobs, what kind of future they want, and becoming codependent of one another while becoming more independent.
However, I feel like Kotoko's character is just exaggerated. I don't think she's honestly slow in learning. She's motivated with a sense of independence. In It Started With A Kiss (Taiwanese version) and even in Playful Kiss (Korean version), we were more worried about the development of our female protagonist because her goals were solely based on what our male protagonist's goals are. I see it in Kotoko as well but she seemed a little better off...just very incompetent in what she does. She was very ebullient throughout the entire drama and I really liked the scene where she fought with Irie. I loved when it happened in the Taiwanese drama and I still liked it in this version. The reason is that it truly showed that despite the infatuation Kotoko feels for Irie, the two are still very different. Love can be difficult when the people are on opposite ends of a spectrum. However, they worked it out and that little fight was a wake up call to all of us and the characters that they are different and will have to work together to make it work.
In episode 9, when Irie's cousin visited and was totally open on confessing her love to Irie (which is kind of creepy but okay). My favorite quote of Kotoko from that episode when she said, "You might have loved him longer, but you'll never love him as much as I do." I liked this because it showed that love is not necessarily about the length of time you've been together but about how deep you love one another. In episode 10, it allowed us to see Yuki's mini romance start with a mini Kotoko. Their little romance continued on with an older version of Yuki and that was just very fascinating to watch. History truly repeated itself.
I really enjoyed this drama. The Taiwanese version stopped at two seasons so I'm hoping that maybe the Japanese version will make up to three seasons? (Though I doubt it because both versions based it on the manga and this was how the manga ended because the author died).
However, I feel like Kotoko's character is just exaggerated. I don't think she's honestly slow in learning. She's motivated with a sense of independence. In It Started With A Kiss (Taiwanese version) and even in Playful Kiss (Korean version), we were more worried about the development of our female protagonist because her goals were solely based on what our male protagonist's goals are. I see it in Kotoko as well but she seemed a little better off...just very incompetent in what she does. She was very ebullient throughout the entire drama and I really liked the scene where she fought with Irie. I loved when it happened in the Taiwanese drama and I still liked it in this version. The reason is that it truly showed that despite the infatuation Kotoko feels for Irie, the two are still very different. Love can be difficult when the people are on opposite ends of a spectrum. However, they worked it out and that little fight was a wake up call to all of us and the characters that they are different and will have to work together to make it work.
In episode 9, when Irie's cousin visited and was totally open on confessing her love to Irie (which is kind of creepy but okay). My favorite quote of Kotoko from that episode when she said, "You might have loved him longer, but you'll never love him as much as I do." I liked this because it showed that love is not necessarily about the length of time you've been together but about how deep you love one another. In episode 10, it allowed us to see Yuki's mini romance start with a mini Kotoko. Their little romance continued on with an older version of Yuki and that was just very fascinating to watch. History truly repeated itself.
I really enjoyed this drama. The Taiwanese version stopped at two seasons so I'm hoping that maybe the Japanese version will make up to three seasons? (Though I doubt it because both versions based it on the manga and this was how the manga ended because the author died).
