Like many dramas, Risa, a naive Japanese girl turns out to be a typical countryside girl without a notion how the city works and relies on her friend to guide her in her questions. However, her friend is in my perception unreasonable and somehow pretends to have the knowledge of how the world works, even if she falls for the tricks, she tried to warn the protagonist.
The friend, Natsuki, ends up falling in love at first sight for Risa’s new boyfriend, Fukami, how ironic!
The Jdrama story is an adaptation of the manga series with the same name ¨coffee & vanilla¨ (japanese: コーヒー&バニラ / kōhī ando banira) by Takara Akegami. Coffee & vanilla manga started to be published on the monthly manga magazine cheese! Since June 2015. Cheese! (チーズ! Chīzu) is a monthly Japanese shōjo manga magazine under the publication of Shogakukan.
The television drama adaptation ran from July 5, 2019, to September 6, 2019. And currently available on Viki and Netflix. It’s a total of 10 episodes.
How do i describe this drama and the social issues?
Well, the soft dark side of society which is represented by the greedy and corrupted-soul man and boys. These people try a few nasty moves with risa, which kind of triggers me in my wishes to hit someone in the nose! (Internal thoughts: violence is not the answer, and repeat)
Forcing kisses, trapping into a corner, and fighting over Risa like she isn’t the one that decides her fate. In my perspective, Risa is a representation of the pure and innocent in a society with emotional damage and creeps. When i speak of emotional damage, i speak about Fukami, the one who grew too fast because he lost his parents, which means whenever there is an issue with Risa, he instantly hugs with the fear she will also leave him alone. He is a bit possessive and has a puppy love that has a good level for both, not something toxic.
Coffee and Vanilla – Main synopsis:
Shiroki Risa (Fukuhara Haruka) is a beautiful young woman who grew up in the countryside and decided to move to Tokyo to continue her education life as a university first year. Although, moving to the countryside to the city, her life, and the attention around her shifts. In Tokyo, at university, male students fawn over her, but she is unimpressed by all of them. And when they stop following and go away, she is suffering a panic or anxiety attack because she is not used to it.
But her life changes fast when she meets Fukami Hiroto (Dori Sakurada), a dashing, heroic stranger who works in the world of business. Although he treats her kindly and is gentle, he appears to have a dark secret that he carefully hides.
Regardless, Shiroki Risa finds herself irresistibly drawn to the new man in her life, and soon discovers that the feeling is mutual, which means her first relationship ever. Many challenges come with it.
Can true love bloom from a passionate romance? And will Fukami Hiroto become the coffee to Shiroki Risa’s vanilla?
Main actor that plays the role of Fukami
Dori Sakurada (桜田 通), born December 7, 1991. He is a Japanese actor and singer. You may know him from the series Alice in borderland season 1 and 2 as the character Nigari.
Personal thoughts about him: he is good, his facial expressions are good for love stories due to the gentle charisma he shows. But sometimes, i wonder what he would look like if he did more ¨action movies, like samurai or Godzilla stories.
Main actress that plays the role of Risa
Haruka Fukuhara (福原 遥) born august 28, 1998. She is a Japanese actress, voice actress, singer, and model from Saitama prefecture. For the ones that follow the many Jdramas and anime, you will probably recognize her voice or her looks.
In 2016, Haruka transitioned from child to a young adult in her first major drama, good morning call, where she becomes the naive Nao Yoshikawa.
Personal thoughts about her: she is amazing! For the list and filmography, she already did, i can tell she tries her hardest. I have no doubt that if she could have an opportunity to do an international movie or something like that, she would do even great and improve a lot more.
For now, I will leave you with the opening song:
Good On The Reel – you & i
I love the strings work. And the tune is just felt right with the melody.
Do you know Good On The Reel?
The Band was formed in 2006, when the members were going on the same school. The band name means “something feels good”. The members are Voice – Takahiro Chino; Guitar – Ryota Imaruoka and Kohei Okazahi; Bass – Tomohiro Usami; and Drums Makoto Takahashi.
Official website: https://goodonthereel.net/
Those were my thoughts about the drama coffee & vanilla, let me know if you agree or disagree. And don’t forget future posts every month on the days: 5th, 15th and 25th.
