Review of My Love Story!!
Welp, I definitely went ahead and ruined every single other romance I'm gonna watch this year, that's for sure! Cuz there ain't NO WAY this one is getting topped! I am actually deceased! This was an absolutely perfect series! So I've known about this show and its premise for years and I always had a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I was going to hate it. I just had a fear that it was just gonna be filled with a bunch of jokes revolving around the size of the main character and how everyone around him is either afraid of himor repulsed by him. And look, I've lived my whole life being the tallest person in every room. I didn't really wanna watch a whole show about it if the main character was only gonna get used for comedic shock value, even if there was a potential for a happy ending. But no. I was DEAD WRONG.
You don't have to wait for a happy ending. The love story starts RIGHT away with this one! For that alone, this show is LEAGUES above any other romance that spends the whole series playing the "will they or won't they" game. The two leads are together right from the get-go and watching their relationship unfold is the cutest, most wholesome thing I've ever seen in my entire stinkin life. And ya, there's plenty of characters throughout who are afraid of Takego or judge him for the "normal looking" girl that he's with. But they get shut down RIGHT AWAY, either by his friends who love and support him through thick and thin, or by Takego's actions that show people who he is on the inside. Everyone who KNOWS Takego LOVES Takego. And it's SO uplifting to see that. This show has such a strong emphasis on loving people for WHO they are, rather than WHAT they are.
And it's not just with the main two, either! The supporting cast has tons of time in the spotlight and lots of great development for themselves, as well as further developing Takego's journey. I was smiling and sobbing from beginning to end. Romance is such a hit and miss genre for me. I WANT it to be my favorite, but there are just SOOOOO many bad ones out there, because there's such a big audience for romances that just hinge on nonstop drama and love triangles or characters who have ZERO chemistry for one another but get the Hollywood kiss scene at the end and that's enough to satisfy people. But not me. I want characters who complete one another and who show actual compatibility and love and trust and devotion for each other all throughout. You can still have drama and hurdles in the relationship that don't involve them fighting with one another or wild miscommunications that lead to temporary breakups or fighting over them with another person like they're a trophy to be won. This show should be the box standard for how any and all romance story should be made in the future. It's truly perfect in every single way.
I can see people not liking this series due to Takego's design, and I was admittedly one of those people for a long time. But honestly, after going through the film industry and really taking the time to grasp that the various depictions of the world we live in that we see on television are specifically devised by people who are either trying to sell us a product of what society has deemed to be attractive or desirable, or are created by people who are too shallow-minded to have anyone unattractive in their perfect little world due to them thinking that they're "not believable enough" to be in these sorts of roles unless they're meant to be someone mocked or feared. It was just... really nice to see a character so young who looked like that and was treated so kindly, while also addressing the harsh effects of those who judged him only at face value.
Like I've said. I've lived these things. Far too many times to count. Whether it's being told I look "too old" to play a fictional character whose the same age as me, or only ever seeing people my size on TV when they're meant to play the bully or the monster or the one and only fat character that gets mocked relentlessly and whose only scenes revolve around them liking food. It hurts. Its tiring. And it's often debilitating for someone like me whose dream it is to go to Japan one day and knowing full well I'll be the biggest person in the entire country if and when I finally go there. So to have this series come out of Japan and be all about love and acceptance for someone who looks like me... it meant so much. To see someone like me portrayed with such dignity and sincerity.
Yes, there'll still be people who fear me. But there's also people who don't find me scary or weird because they've accepted me as a part of their world. Those are the people whose feelings truly matter. I hope everyone has a show like this that speaks to them and that portrays them in such a positive light. And I hope everyone has people in their real lives that treat them with the love and kindness and acceptance that they deserve. Stories and characters like these don't exist solely within fiction. So long as you're willing to let them be seen, you'll find them.
10/10