Coffee and Vanilla

"Coffee and Vanilla" was just too vanilla.

The romance was too sudden and that's why the intensity of it was thrown out of the window. There was an implied love triangle that was easily swept under the carpet only to be mentioned towards the ending. The mature parts were okay, but it looked a bit robotic and forced, lacking any emotion and romance overall. So, the drama was just like this : boy falls in love with popular but childish and naive girl, they get together, many try to set them apart, boy comes to the rescue every single time, happy ending. There was no character development, no love story build up and no surprises. Plus, the leading lady was, as you can guess, the vanilla of the story, and rightly so. She had no personality, claimed to be immature, but she never actually changed, even though there were some scenes that had potential. Her love interest was a more complicated that was never explored.

So, four out of ten.

Watching Coffee & Vanilla meant for me... wondering which scenes I was re-watching from western eighties/nineties movies. First I was admiring how this live action version matched the manga, but soon I felt myself looking at downtuned scenes from movies like 9 1/5 weeks (1986), Wild Orchid (1989), Sleeping With The Enemy (1991).

Plot

Coffee & Vanilla has the same plot as these other western movies, a shallow twisted Cinderella story that is meant to glue the emotional, intimate scenes together. There is this naïve girl from the country, without an impressive resume or pedigree, who doesn't realize how pretty she is. She gets discovered by a mundane rich guy, full of tricks, but tired from his own lifestyle. Without breaking a sweat he conquers her, takes her in, starts to cuddle and experiment with her, apparently enjoying her freshness, but after a while even this dum girl feels there's something really weird going on. Her Prince becomes suspicious, at times alienated from her, showing signs from some psychic disorder or traumatic event in his former life. The outside world doesn't seem to matter to both of them. No questions or background stories are asked, parents, family, and friends are strangely unimportant. In stead of that, the outside world gets more hostile for this girl. She starts to feel like a helpless chick, a burden to people around her. Main question is, has Cinderella found her Prince Charming, or not?

The Good

I guess it is this long lasting question that the makers are aiming at. "Can I jump to happiness with my prince, letting him in control or better not?" Perhaps the western eighties movies, and also this Japanese version, fill a need. Thirty years ago young western women started to compete for a well paid career of their own, unlike their mothers. It was the Age of the Yuppies, working hard, enjoying luxury at short intervals. The paradoxical result was a collective longing to Cinderella stories. In this series both lead actors are well known, good in acting, so it doesn't hurt the eye to see them. Also the message of this series has some serious undertones. 'Girl, keep your wits when someone starts sweet-talking to you' but also 'In fairytales a girl can break a curse with nothing but her courage and steadfastness.' Both elements are nice to know, and reassuring.

The Bad

Unlike the movies I couldn't feel a spark of eroticism between the couple in this series. A romance can be based on instant attraction and passion, but their story didn't convince me. The casual remarks of the male lead that he already knew her, wanted her, prepared even a house for her, was creepy to say the least. I know there are many people who think otherwise, but I've really had my fill of male obsessiveness, male harems, or males saying Kawaiii all the time. If someone would pat my head like the male lead did to others...I would pinch his face real hard.

Verdict

So, can you spend your time with this series? Yes you can, if you've have been working like a dog all day, got yourself in a black mood, then you can tune right in, enjoy some candy sweet moments and a few unintentional laughs.

The female lead's innocence? Cute at first, but it quickly crosses the line into "how is she this naïve?" territory. At times, it feels more like stupidity than innocence, and it can get frustrating to watch.

Watching her let every single man around her make decisions for her is beyond frustrating. At one point, you just want to scream, "Girl, make up your own mind!" Her complete lack of agency really drags the show down, and it's hard to get behind a character who can't seem to think for herself.

And let's not forget Dori Sakurada's role. Don't get me wrong, the guy's talented, but he's totally overplaying his role here to the point where it becomes uncomfortable to watch. It's so dramatic, so extra, that I honestly had to pause a few times just to breathe.

I still watched the whole series. Despite all the ridiculousness and eye-roll moments, Coffee and Vanilla is one of those guilty pleasure shows that's just so easy to binge-watch. It's dumb, it's cheesy, but yet a guilty pleasure.

This drama was a mix of 50 Shadesof Gray and 91/2 weeks thrown in with a little typical romance novel love story. I loved it and it didn't hurt that the hero reminded me of Suga from BTS. It was cute and binge worthy.

This is my first j drama. It doesn't look like forced romance. He always gives her time to get comfortable, cares about her, and respects her decisions. Dori and Haruka look so cute together. Dori as Hiroto is something else and their sweet moments give butterflies. Love the ending!