I"s (2018)

just give this a skip if you want an enjoyable romance drama

Pros:
- high production quality; seriously, this is some of the best cinematography and video quality I've seen in a jdrama. the budget must have been really high
- *extremely* attractive cast; every single actor and actress are absolutely beautiful. special shoutout to whoever played Morisaki and the king Teratani.
- story that you cannot stop watching, bc you need to know what happens next
- really good OST
Cons:
- the worst, most slow and frustrating romance in television history. so many needless misunderstandings, angst and fakeouts, it made me scream in anger.
- the most annoying main characters in drama history. the ml is a spineless, inconsiderate coward who can't even speak to girls but somehow still manages to treat them like garbage. the fl is a passive character who never fights for what she wants and does her best to misunderstand ml or give mixed signals and then get angry at him.
- this drama must be written and produced entirely by men because the amount of male gaze and fanservice is off the charts - I've never seen this much in a jdrama before and I don't want to. the characters are in school or college and they're played by really young actresses; the sheer amount that their bodies are sexualized and fetishized for the pleasure of the audience made even me, a man, feel uncomfortable.
- this ml is straight up garbage but even he doesn't deserve the fl. you can see that in the absolute dumpster fire of a finale. this man literally fought a psycho with a knife and ended up in a coma.... and she didn't even bother showing up to the hospital... and never once said thank you or I love you...
- so much unnecessary angst.
- literally every other love interest would have been better for the ML rather than the FL

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I have not watched any other Shounen romance as anime or live action drama, and so maybe they are all like this and this drama is exactly what you are looking for in one. I think that this series was intended to be an elegiac, nostalgic lamentation on the awkwardness and uncomfortableness of first love. However, the editorial choices of long, slow shots and pans and extended silences between line readings are akin to that of the worst and most self-indulgent of French film-making of the 60s and 70s, and while that approach does match well with the ceaseless tormenting of the protagonist by this story, in the end it renders the series both boring and dire.

The unfortunate idiot at the center of this bog-standard boy meets girl and pines for her for two years before they decide that they are couple despite having all the sexual chemistry of shower mold - no, I should not select something living since that would be an insult to shower mold, and so let's say all the sexual chemistry of argon - is Itchitaka who likes Iori. He was embarrassingly rejected three years prior to the start of this story by a girl in middle school and as a result cannot ever decide what he wants or say what he means. That's all we know about him. He is unbelievably underwritten. He is not shown having any other interests. We see his father twice, and his mother only serves to tell him various I's are calling or visiting him.

The scenarios, such as they are, are essentially situation comedy set-ups and coincidental climaxes all played for pathos and to insure that the couple never express what they really feel, and, ultimately, to maximize the embarrassment of Ichitaka. It's a world full of sexual harassment, kidnapping, attempted rape, stalking, creeping, up-skirt photography and physical assault all of which apparently might have legal, scholastic and emotional consequences but any of that takes place off screen to make room for more moping.

The acting is, nevertheless, pretty good, and, honestly, Shibata Kyoka does exceedingly well as Itsuki, the witness, childhood friend and supporter of Ichitaka. She has one memorable scene towards the end of her main run on the show which is beautifully moving. Seraishi Sei as Iori has little to do except be passive and gorgeous. I really cannot say anything bad about Okayama Amane's performance as Ichitaka: the character is awful, stupid and occasionally mean and he portrays that as intended, I think.

The original manga ran weekly for nearly three years starting in 1997, and this drama may well be a faithful rendering of the material. It is reputedly a bit on ecchi side of manga, and that fact probably accounts for the many lingering thigh-to-waist shots of the women in this drama. The serialization of the original material undoubtedly also accounts for the lack of any kind of emotional progress in the central relationship until (maybe) the last ten minutes of the final episode.

I will not judge what you like. If you go to the comment thread for this show, you will find several people who were thoroughly invested in this series, and the tone of this series may resonate with you as it did for them. For me, however, I found the series both dull and unrelentingly anticlimactic.

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