The fluffiest part of this drama were opening credits. The rest is a slow burn, angst filled, heavy with secrets and untold truths and I loved it. Moreover it reminded me of my favourite K-drama, SITR with the stress put upon family ties, friends to lovers theme and workplace sexual harassment. Since it is a japanese drama, it is shorter, more succinct and the family is just touched upon but it is just as bad.

Tokyo in April Is... tells the story of Kazuma and Ren, best friends when they were in school but separated due to an incident. They meet again accidentally ten years later and the spark that connected them years earlies is still there. But something is holding Ren back, he does not want to confide in Kazuma so they become sex friends. And then slowly more.

The main theme of the drama is acceptance: how to accept and define yourself, how does the family see you and whether they accept you regardless.

The main leads were excellent, they had good chemistry, were very much at ease with each other and were deceptively obvious. At the start of the drama, Kazuma looked like a shy, sweet and innocent boy while Ren seemed like a much stronger characters, he was outspoken and nonchalant. But very soon it turned out that Kazume, behind his sweet exterieur, hides a core of steel while Ren hides his wounds and his fragility. I liked this non conformity. They met when they were teens and struck a firm friendship which developed into love neither was really conscious of, especially Kazuma. Ren quickly figured out he was gay himself but Kazuma always refused to put the term to the feelings he had for Ren. And he stuck to this notion to the very ending, refusing to define himself as gay but saying he "only loves Ren". This gay-for-you-only trope is really getting old and unnecessary. It was very much obvious from the beginning that both boys have strong feelings for each other.
At this point, I would like to congratulate casting director on casting two young actors who played Ren ans Kazuma at 15(in flashbacks): they were perfect, there was a definite resemblance with the main actors and they portrayed those young man with talent and sensitivity.
The romance between them is an adult one, they are not afraid of physical contact. What scares them both is communication: so they sleep together regularly, practically live together but do not talk about important things. That leads to a lot of misunderstanding and missed chances. And almost to another unwilling separation because of "it's for your own good" classical plot point. The main events, the ones that shaped them and caused them a lot of suffering happen in the rain under transparent umbrellas. (Is there any special meaning to it? Not an umbrella expert, here!lol)

The boys' families are something special. After the first incident, Ren's family disowns him to the point of having him change his surname. Ultimate cruelty of unloving parents. Kazume is a child of divorced parents and his mother seems to be just as bad if not worse than Ren's parents. But her reactions are explained by her being worried about them (since she quickly understood that those two have extremely strong connection!) which was not really clear to begin with.

Personally, I really liked this drama, it is my kind of drama!I wanted to rate it higher but then they went and ruined it with two of my most hated tropes. Still, if you make abstraction of those, the drama is an excellent short watch. Great story, lovely cinematography, excellent acting, natural, subtle skinship; and cuteness overload in credits where they show off their domestic bliss!

When I think I almost did not watch this believing all those posts saying that the second half was bad etc. True, it was not as good but it was far from ruining a great drama (which went, for me from 9.5/10 to 8.5/10 so still an excellent drama!)