Itazura na Kiss - Love in Tokyo 2 (Jdrama)

It's been a while....

So, I decided that I will be writing about Japanese stuffs again from now, be it Jdrama reviews or just my fangirling over Hey! Say! JUMP, because guess what? I'm back to the fandom after 3 years of hiatus and I've never felt so alive before, LOL. Just kidding. I just find them as one of my important source of happiness and I'm glad that I could write about them again instead of my anxieties. So, without further ado, I will start from Itazura na Kiss - Love in Tokyo 2 review. Here we go~

The story

Following the success of ItaKiss - Love in Tokyo, they continue the series to season 2 which tells about the marriage life of Naoki Irie (Yuki Furukawa) and Kotoko Irie (Miki Honoka), which really is a good thing for us who have been longing to see more romantic side of Naoki as a husband, lol 😂 

This season, Naoki also transferred to Medical Science Departments of Tonan University to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor. Although Naoki and Kotoko have finally married, Naoki's quiet and cold behavior hasn't changed much, especially during the first few months of their married life which gives Kotoko anxieties and questioned herself a lot about whether Naoki really loves her or not. Naoki didn't even register their marriage to the ward office because he wanted to make sure that he makes his father's company succeed before he left it to pursue his medical major. He didn't tell Kotoko what's on his mind and it made Kotoko sad and they fought quite terribly. Later, Naoki realized that he needs to put Kotoko's feelings first, and Kotoko learns to believe in Naoki more even when he doesn't tell her anything, she needs to believe that Naoki will not deceive her.

The main story is pretty much the same as other adaptations. In this season, Kotoko also decided to transfer to Medical Sciences Department to become a nurse in order to be helpful for Naoki, and be closer to Naoki. Kotoko meets a new group of friends who become her team to finish every medical task. These new friends have quite absurd personalities, but they will become her good friends for the entire series. I was kinda annoyed at first to see her do this only for Naoki, it feels like her resolve and life only revolves around Naoki, but Kotoko learns that being a nurse and working in the medical field is not as simple as that and there are so many responsibilities she has to bear. Kotoko will also learn the importance of human life, the role of doctor and nurse, and more importantly, she learns to love her job wholeheartedly and not only because of Naoki.

One of Kotoko's friends in the group is Keita Kamogari (Arata Horii), a very handsome and casual guy who's passionate about his dream of becoming a nurse. Keita is a considerate person and he loves to take care of people. He was annoyed at Kotoko's clumsiness at first but later he grows respect for her perseverance and he becomes concerned about her when Naoki acted mean and seemed to never care about Kotoko. Keita thought that he would be a better partner for Kotoko because he will never make Kotoko sad the way Naoki did to her. 

A Genius and Jealousy

Keita told Naoki that as a husband, Naoki did a poor job in taking care of Kotoko. Although Kotoko has told Keita that Naoki never spoiled her and always push her to go beyond her limit (in a good way), Keita still strongly disliked Naoki. Naoki who has noticed Keita's different concern and behavior towards Kotoko felt something he never felt before: jealousy. Naoki who doesn't understand this unpleasant feeling took it upon Kotoko and becomes so cold towards her. Naoki himself doesn't understand why he acted that way towards Kotoko, but later when he consulted it with Kinnosuke Ikezawa (Yuki Yamada), he learns that the unpleasant feelings he felt in his heart are just jealousy. Naoki was surprised by Kinnosuke's answer and realized that he was really being jealous. At the same time, he admired Kinnosuke for being really strong in enduring such troublesome emotions for six years (lol now you know how troublesome it is to be in love, right? 😉)

Doctor and Nurse

As husband and wife who work in the medical field, the couple faced so many problems, Kotoko got bullied by her jealous seniors because she is the wife of the famous Naoki Irie, she had to face random patients who have a crush on Naoki and treated Kotoko as an enemy and was forced to live separately from Naoki who had to work at Kobe's hospital for few years. Kotoko learns not to be selfish. Even with all her clumsiness, she never gives up to be a proper nurse and be accepted by her fellow nurses and patients. Although she makes a lot of mistakes, she realized that she grows more love towards her job and cared a lot about the well-being of her patients, not only their body health but their heart as well. The fact that Naoki is going to be a doctor makes Kotoko loves her profession even more. Kotoko doesn't even remember that the one who made Naoki wanted to be a doctor was Kotoko herself, which I find really sweet ❤

Naoki's Character Development

The cold-hearted, annoying, expressionless Naoki we saw in Season 1 is slowly disappeared in season 2, although he never once loses his cool, sassy nature, as he learns to be a proper doctor, Naoki not only able to master the medical knowledge, he also learns to connect with people around him and appreciate them. Naoki becomes friends with Kinnosuke is one of many proofs that he no longer valued people based on their academic grades only, Naoki also doesn't seem bothered by Kotoko's big family who are filled with loud, clumsy, and "less smart" people, even when Kotoko was ashamed by their behavior. Naoki shows great respect and treats them with kindness and respect. The old Naoki would never do such things 😂

Naoki learns to be more understanding of Kotoko's feelings and make sure that she would never question his love for her. No matter how many times Kotoko felt insecure about her own worth, Naoki's never got tired to show her that she is the only one for him. The scene when Naoki came to visit Kotoko's mother's tomb put me in tears. He loves Kotoko so much and he really cared about her. This Naoki gives such a warm feeling to people around him.

Kinnosuke's Happy Ending

We saw how much Kin-chan suffered in season one because of his unrequited love for Kotoko. We saw how much effort he put to make Kotoko happy even when it's breaking his own heart. In this season, we finally get to see Kinnosuke gets his own happiness. Christine Robbins (Noemie Nakai) is a beautiful girl from England who came as an exchange student at Tonan University and became Kotoko's friend, she and Kotoko later visited Aihara Restaurant and met Kinnosuke. Chris fell in love with Kinnosuke at first sight and has been approaching him ever since. But since Kinnosuke still has feelings for Kotoko, he ignored her and tells her a lot of mean things. Kinnosuke doesn't realize that he started develops feelings for her and when Chris finally decided to give up and leave Japan, Kinnosuke chase after her. Although Kinnosuke still didn't admit that he likes her, his effort was enough to make Chris stays in Japan longer. They later work together at Aihara and Tonan's canteen and getting closer and closer. Chris's cheerful personality matched Kinnosuke's and after they overcome so many obstacles, they got married and declared that they will be the best couple that rival Kotoko and Naoki. It's nice to see Kin-chan gets his happy ending and find someone who loves him wholeheartedly and he loves her as well. 

History Repeats Itself

Yuki Irie, Naoki's little brother, found himself in the same circumstances as his brother. Konomi Sagawa, a girl from class F has a crush on him and wanted to be his friend, but she was afraid to ask him because she was not confident with herself for being in class F. With Kotoko's help, Yuki noticed Konomi's existence but rejected her straight away, saying that he hates stupid girl. Kotoko encouraged Konomi to work hard so she would be in the Top 100 at the school exam to impress Yuki. Kotoko offered to teach her at home which allowed her to see Yuki. Although Kotoko promised that she would teach her, she was unable to do that because Kotoko doesn't really like studying. Naoki who saw all these decided to teach Konomi and found that she is fast at understanding things. As Naoki continues to teach her, Yuki gets mad at Konomi for disturbing his brother at his home. Yuki promised that he will be the one who teaches her and get her into the Top 100. The two developed a closer friendship which continues until years later. It's just a matter of time until Yuki finally admits that he has fallen for Konomi. Although Konomi appeared to be stupid at first, she's could learn something fast, and her character isn't loud and annoying. The annoying part might have been filled with Yuki's character since he's such a naughty brat, lol.

Overall, this version was really enjoyable and made me squealed a lot because of the overloaded cuteness in it. I also love all the hospital scenes and it's really inspiring to see Naoki and Kotoko work as a Doctor and Nurse. A lot of people want to have season 3 but I'm satisfied with the ending the way it was. I don't want to see any feud between Kotoko and her daughter fighting over Naoki's attention like in the anime. So, this ending where Kotoko and Naoki replaced the words "I Love You" with "Nothing" is already more than enough. They no longer need words to understand each other.

PS: All of the gifs were taken from tumblr and google. Feel free to message me if you want to be credited or want me to take it down. Jaa :)