More on Majo no Jouken
I have so much love for this dorama!
While in reality I would definitely look askance at the violation of the teacher/student relationship and the nine-year age difference between a teenaged boy and a mid-twenties woman, in fiction, I can happily romanticize it. I'm not sure why I like it here (especially when I liked it a WHOLE LOT LESS in Kaneshiro's dorama Kamisama mou sukoshi dake). In that dorama, I had a really hard time dealing with the young girl/older man situation, but here it doesn't bother me so much. Perhaps it's because Takki's character comes across as very poised and thoughtful (and I think he's also older than that girl was in Kaneshiro's drama). He does also have his "kid" moments, but he's serious and sensitive as well.
I just love how he watches Michi, especially when the other students harrass her. You can see him aching for her and almost willing her to be stronger.
While Takki's Hikaru comes across as more mature for his age (17) (although still rather heedless and foolish), Michi is the immature one. At 26, she's very unsettled in her life. She doesn't seem happy in her job, she tries too hard with her students (she tries to be their friend) who see right through her and don't respect her, she's not really in love with her generous and kind, although oafish boyfriend cum fiance, and she doesn't seem enthused at all about the idea of marrying the guy. It seems like everything she's done up until this point has been to please others and out of a lack of imagination to choose anything else.
Hikaru changes all that for her - he opens her eyes to the possiblity of a "world of freedom," which appeals to her deeply. They both want to run away from the lives they have and the unhappiness and dissatisfaction they face, and they find solace in each other. They are really just like two kids dreaming together.
Everything about their relationship is touching and sweet. They are both drawn to each other virtually from the first moment - it's like that teacher/student line almost never existed for them. Michi sort of helplessly falls into his strength when she's struggling to figure things out and try to make sense out of her life. And in her, Hikaru finally finds someone with whom he can relax and share his vision of a different life, a different future. It's very romantic.
I don't really have the brain cells to say much more, because staying up until almost four in the morning to watch through episode 5 has its price (me=braindead), but I will just say that the embrace & kiss at the end of episode 3 was GORGEOUS. They solved the height problem by having them kneel on the floor, and the kiss was a REAL KISS, not a typical chaste jdorama kiss. OMG SQUEEEEE!!! (gods, I hope that if Kame's kiss in Sapuri actually happens that it looks something like this!) And hooray for the protagonists getting it on that early in a dorama. The morning after scene was also lovely - I LOVED how Hikaru came up behind her and put his arms around her. So tender and touching.
Okay, enough squeeing. I can't wait to finish this, but I am so afraid that it will end badly. How can there be a happy ending when everything is against them? *sigh*