The cliched Japanese "Forced Pity" and "it was me but it wasn't" part of the story works against this one for me.
It goes too far to create drama and pull Junko away from Hoshikawa, only to sling them back together like two colliding planets in a black hole (as any drama or telenovela fan has seen a million times).. But by episode 3, the plot banks on this premise too hard and there's no fixing it in my opinion. The character of Hoshikawa becomes dislikeable in a way that cannot be taken back. His personality is that of a straightforward and confident man, but is extremely passive at times, yet insistent in an off-putting manner.. traits you don't want on your lead.
This problem is exacerbated due to the fact that the character written for Satomi Ishihara is so much better in comparison! She is cute, has attractive mannerism, driven and with unwavering goals, is tested (unnecessarily) yet still comes out on top (even if she didn't care about it, meaning she does her best in any situation), etc. This creates a really big gap and unbalance between the leads.. which makes me not care about their relationship (even desiring a better pair to come along, which the series doesn't have).
Even worse, no other character or plot is interesting! Not to forget I had a better chance at translating the Japanese on screen than understanding some of the spoken English. The production is REALLY good, though! And if you like clichés and these kind of male leads, by all means.. give it a try! I know now that there's nothing this series can do to change my mind.
