Disclaimer: this is a review, and as such it contains spoilers of the whole series. Please proceed to read at your own risk if you still plan on watching this show or if you haven’t finished it yet. You have been warned.

Romantics Anonymous
(匿名の恋人たち/ Tokumei no koibitotachi / Anonymous Lovers)
MyDramaList rating: 7.5/10

Hiya, and welcome to my last review of 2025! Instead of spinning my Wheel of Fortune as usual, I decided to wrap up this year with a new show that I was curious about. I haven’t gotten to watch many Japanese dramas this year and it seemed to be a romantic and atmospheric end-of-the-year show, which I happened to be in the mood for. I’ll say right of the bat that this drama managed to surprise me in unexpected ways. It was very typical at times, but then I would suddenly find myself tearing up at random moments. I also thought they did a really good job at merging the different themes and touching on various important topics, so I’m excited to share my views on it. I’ll keep the intro at that. Allons-y!

Romantics Anonymous is a Japanese Netflix drama with eight episodes of about 50 minutes long. It’s a remake of the Belgian-French movie Les Émotifs Anonymes from 2010. The story centers around Lee Ha Na (played by Han Hyo Joo), a talented chocolatier with a severe case of scopophobia (the fear of being watched or stared at in public). The only person she’s ever been able to look in the eye was her mother, and after she passed Ha Na has been living in blissful solitude, doing the one thing that brings her the most happiness: making chocolate. After a traumatic experience at a chocolatier contest, Ha Na was approached by Kuroiwa Kenji (played by Okuda Eiji) who insisted she come work for him at this chocolaterie, Le Sauveur. Despite the fact that Ha Na’s scopophobia applied to him as well, Chef Kenji managed to comfort her and give her a sense of purpose and belonging. Ha Na started working for him as an ‘Anonymous Chocolatier’; she makes the chocolate at home, delivers it to Le Sauveur early in the morning and always keeps her identity hidden from the rest of the staff.
When Chef Kenji tragically passes away due to a heart attack, Ha Na’s position as Anonymous Chocolatier (AC from now on) is jeopardized when a large conglomerate called Futago Confectionary takes over the chocolaterie and intends to sever her contract since they ‘can’t work with someone they don’t know’. The president’s position is given to Fujiwara Sosuke (played by Oguri Shun), the son of Futago’s CEO. Just like Ha Na, Sosuke also suffers from a mental illness, in his case an extreme form of germophobia: he can’t touch anyone without becoming physically unwell, and even the tiniest speck of dirt on his clothing causes an irrepressible urge to cleanse himself.
Due to a misunderstanding, Ha Na is hired to physically work at Le Sauveur before she can reveal her true identity to the staff. During their first meeting, Ha Na and Sosuke find out that, for some reason, they’re immune to each other’s phobias – Ha Na has no trouble looking Sosuke in the eye and Sosuke can touch Ha Na without feeling queasy – and they decide to help each other ‘practice’ to get better. Despite the fact that Sosuke’s father originally sent him there to steal Le Sauveur’s recipes before tearing the place down, Sosuke gradually warms up to his new team and all the other parties involved in the business, and he and Ha Na find a unique sense of comfort in each other.

I just want to mention in advance that I specifically did NOT watch the original movie because I didn’t want this to become another comparative review like The Beauty Inside. I only watched the trailer and I might watch the movie on another occasion for fun, but not with the purpose of using it as a reference for this review. The only difference I gathered from the trailer was that the main leads seemed to suffer from severe social anxiety, which means that the choices for Ha Na and Sosuke’s phobias were added specifically for this remake, and that’s all I need to know.
I honestly had no idea what this drama was going to be about before I started. I just figured it would be a movie about romance and chocolate, something like the movie Chocolat (2000), and I was down for that. When Sosuke’s germophobia came in I was slightly reminded of I’m Not a Robot, but I ended up being very surprised with the development of this story. Its build-up brought me back to Juuhan Shuttai! in the sense that it goes through specific arcs of bringing on board and improving relationships with various distributors and business partners, who then end up coming to Le Sauveur’s aide in the end. I read very mixed comments on MDL that were critical on various parts of the story, like the ending being ‘too abrupt’ and stuff, but I honestly wasn’t bothered by those things at all. I thought the writers used the limited number of episodes they had very efficiently to build up the story and its main characters, and still managed to leave room for the chocolate theme and the side arcs that all contributed to saving the chocolaterie.

I thought it was very cool and unique that they used Le Sauveur’s signature Rainbow Palette to navigate through the story. The Rainbow Palette is a series of seven chocolates, all with different colors and flavors, that forms the main attraction of the chocolaterie. Every episode was named after one of these seven chocolates, and emphasized its production by exploring the collaboration with the distributor of its main ingredient, stretching from types of cacao to liqueur extracts. It was really cool to see how they ended up improving every single chocolate piece throughout the story, and that the chocolates also were adapted accordingly in the opening sequence, which kept changing based on the piece that was featured in each episode. I really loved the consistency of that theme, also because it connected so well to the conclusion of the story. Apart from that, the Rainbow Palette was also just plain gorgeous to look at.

To start with Lee Ha Na, I thought it was very interesting that they made the female lead Korean, despite her being fluent in Japanese. I felt like, next to her scopophobia, her different nationality contributed even more to her sense of not fitting in and always being the odd one out. You could definitely say that she was the special ingredient that Le Sauveur needed to survive, which in turn tied neatly into the ‘savior’ reference that was mentioned in the final episode.
As to be expected from someone with scopophobia, Ha Na prefers to stay in the background and doesn’t like drawing attention to herself – she even wears a kendo mask during her online consultation sessions, which has earned her the nickname ‘Ms Darth Vader’. Although she manages to keep working at Le Sauveur in person, she never has the urge to take credit for her own contribution as the AC – she just enjoys being able to work with people who are as passionate about chocolate as she is. I thought that was a really admirable trait of her. Even when she tried to reveal her true identity, it was always in favor of helping out the chocolaterie and never with the intention to take credit for herself. This hit me the most when she pretended to be in touch with the AC to pass on the recipe for the Pure Kenji chocolate to the rest of the team. Despite my initial annoyance at the fact that she still lied instead of confessing the truth, I found myself respecting her humility in trying to help out the team without taking personal credit for it.
I also thought her gradual development in getting better was very natural. I can only think of one scene where I found this slightly inconsistent: when the Le Sauveur team goes for after-work drinks at Bar Brush and Ha Na is kind of peer-pressured into singing a song. I found it a bit weird that she managed to actually stand there and sing the song with people looking at her for at least five minutes before still freezing up when she became aware of everyone’s gazes. Then again, it makes sense because she had just learned that her being able to look at Sosuke might indicate that she was getting better, and she probably got a little over-confident/excited for a moment. Apart from this scene, I thought her development was really natural and I didn’t even mind that her phobia didn’t completely go away in the end. I feel like her development had more to do with accepting herself the way she was than with actually conquering her illness. I liked that it ended with Ha Na and Sosuke running away from their wedding ceremony together, fully embracing their own and each other’s imperfections rather than overcoming them to become ‘normal’. The ending felt like a sort of hommage to The Odd Ones Out, which I appreciated.
I’d say the only few annoyances I had with Ha Na were in the scenes where she kept avoiding certain situations, like how she kept ‘missing the chance’ to tell her blind date who she was or tell the Le Sauveur team that she was the AC. In the end, neither of these revelations caused a very big stir, so no unnecessary drama came out of that. I guess the trope of characters not telling the truth under the excuse of ‘missing their chance’ when they literally have every opportunity to do so is just a pet peeve of mine (looking at you, Gisou Furin).
All in all, I thought Ha Na was a really original and refreshing main character. There’s one line that she says at the end of the first episode, when she’s asked why she’s applying to work at Le Sauveur, that I wrote down because I loved it so much: “私には心しかないんです” (“watashi ni ha kokoro shika naindesu“), translated into English as: “My heart is all I’ve got”. It’s such a simple line and at the same time so profound because it sincerely describes her passion. She’s able to convey her heart for chocolate so strongly from the start that Sosuke hires her without even feeling the need to check her credentials or actual experience.
I think Japanese dramas are typically very good at exploring a character’s passion by letting them navigate a certain field and build connections that help them overcome their own issues and insecurities as well as others’. Juuhan Shuttai! did a great job at that, and so did this show. It was really satisfying to see Ha Na gradually find her place within the Le Sauveur team and inspire others to open up about their ‘flaws’ as well. In the end, she was able to participate in that contest and stand in front of an audience again thanks to the support of her team, and that was really heartwarming to see.

Moving on to Sosuke, I really liked his character development as well. I loved that he grew out of the detachment caused by his germophobia and even started showing more silly and funny sides of himself. The scene where he dramatically offered Ha Na his umbrella and walked away, only to ask if he could get it back because he couldn’t stand getting rained on really cracked me up, lol. It was so funny to see him desperately try to withstand a situation, like getting a drop of something on his suit, and then just going: “Nope, can’t do it, bathroom.”😂
As funny as those scenes were, I was absolutely gutted when the origin for his germophobia was revealed, that made me feel SO bad for him. Sosuke (as a kid played by Takagi Haru) used to have an older brother, Shunsuke, who got terminally ill. One time, Sosuke went into his brother’s quarantine room to share some candies with him, as a sweet kind of ‘medicine’. Not long after that, his brother passed away, and from what I gathered, Sosuke felt like he had somehow infected his brother by coming into his room or giving him the candies. In any case, that’s when his germophobia started. It broke my heart when he told Ha Na: “It’s not that I find other people dirty, it just feels like I am.” He couldn’t even stand the touch of his own father anymore, which I think also contributed greatly to the distance that grew between them. It was really touching to see him finally being able to grab his father’s hand in the hospital in the final episode, because that felt like a reward for how hard he’d been trying to get better.
The way that Sosuke was drawn to Ha Na was very sweet and natural, as well. I initially thought he’d be the type of cold-hearted boss that wouldn’t be swayed by heartfelt stories in a business context, but the fact that he immediately acknowledged Ha Na’s heart for chocolate and kept picking up on her expertise without even questioning how she got it was very telling. I also liked that he didn’t avoid his feelings for her, he basically confessed to her multiple times before it got ‘official’. In that sense, I felt like he was very honest with himself and didn’t try to be someone he wasn’t, even in situations where he had to conceal his germophobia.
Speaking of the chemistry between Ha Na and Sosuke, there were actually a couple of moments that really made my heart race. We all know the trope of two people ‘practicing’ together to confess their love to someone else and falling for each other in the process, but there was something strangely intimate about their practice sessions from the start, before they even realized their true feelings for each other. I was actually taken aback when Sosuke immediately went in for that bear hug during their first ‘practice’, like, I thought they would start by shaking each other’s hand, lol. The addition of those scenes in which he remembered hugging his brother as a kid and Ha Na remembered playing with her mother suddenly made it so intense. I was expecting it to become a typically awkward ‘practice’ scene but it became such an emotionally loaded scene all of a sudden, it actually gave me goosebumps.
The other scene that made my heart jump was when Sosuke officially confessed to Ha Na after saving her in Koita. The way he went from SHAKING her hand to HOLDING it, intertwining his fingers with hers and all that, was SO FREAKING SMOOTH. Seriously, that made me go 🫣🫣🫣, haha. Who knew holding hands could be so intimate??? And then there was the way he just matter-of-factly kept saying “sarang“… Honestly, this man.🤭I’m all for deep slowburns, so the gradual development of the chemistry between these two was definitely my cup of tea.

As I’m on the topic of Sosuke, I’d like to elaborate a bit on his family. From what we learn about his father, Fujiwara Shuntaro (played by Sato Koichi), he used to favor Shunsuke over Sosuke, and even got his eldest son specific chocolates from Le Sauveur that he wasn’t allowed to share with his younger brother. There’s not a lot of verbal or visual proof of the relationship that Sosuke had with his father while growing up, but the two have definitely driven apart. I personally didn’t even realize that the Futago CEO was Sosuke’s actual dad until it was mentioned somewhere halfway through the story, because their dynamic seemed so professional. I initially even felt like Shuntaro may have only viewed Sosuke as an inevitable heir after losing his eldest, because he kept finding ways to make him feel incapable. However, my feeling towards him changed once Takashi’s plot came into play.
Fujiwara Takashi (played by Narita Ryo) is first introduced as Sosuke’s assistant when he takes over Le Sauveur, but then is later revealed to actually be Sosuke’s cousin, the son of Shuntaro’s brother who already passed away, making him another potential heir. While he consistenly remains on Futago’s side and keeps reminding Sosuke not to lose sight of their original objective, it’s revealed that he’s actually been planning a coup in the meantime, helped by different committee board members from Futago. I honestly didn’t really know how to feel about Takashi because, even though he did get a bit of a villain arc, he also immediately bounced back after failing to get Le Sauveur’s shares and then suddenly all was good between him and Sosuke again. It felt like a very sudden and quick redemption after all the work he allegedly put into that take-over, so that was a bit unexpected. Then again, I appreciated that the story didn’t linger too much on misunderstandings. I was just glad to hear him say that he immediately felt awful when he realized how much he’d risked to go against Shuntaro, the man that raised him as his own son after his own father passed away, and Sosuke, who’d been like a brother to him.

Another character that kind of pulled a uno reverse on me was Kawamura Motomi (played by Ito Ayumi), the chief chocolatier at Le Sauveur. Honestly, from the moment she was introduced, I expected her to become kind of a hostile factor towards Ha Na. She seemed visually upset whenever Chef Kenji favored the AC’s chocolate over hers, and this slight disdain towards the mystery figure kept coming back, even as she was warming up to Ha Na as a team member. I was totally anticipating a dramatic turn of events when they’d find out Ha Na was the AC and Motomi would get hostile towards her, so you can imagine my surprise when this didn’t happen! I’m actually glad it didn’t. It would’ve been very typical and I felt like this show was more about learning to understand each other than holding grudges. I came to like Motomi’s character a lot. Come to think of it, I don’t think her name was ever mentioned until the final episode because everyone just called her ‘Chief’. I liked that she was able to set her own frustrations aside for the improvement of the team, and how she always (albeit reluctantly) agreed to get the AC’s help, because she knew that the team needed it if they wanted to keep growing and improving. Despite her own qualms, she always kept respecting Chef Kenji’s wishes, which made her a very loyal ally.

Now that we’ve gone through all the chocolate business-related main characters, I’d like to talk a bit about the second leads, whom I’ve purposely not mentioned yet because I wanted to give them their own intro.
First of all, there’s Takada Hiro (played by Akanishi Jin) – I see that MDL credits him as ‘Hiroshi’, but as far as I know he’s only called ‘Hiro’ in the series, so I’ll stick with that. Hiro is an old school friend of Sosuke’s who runs the jazz bar that the Le Sauveur team often visits after work, Bar Brush, which is right across from Ha Na’s house. Ha Na has had a major crush on Hiro ever since he once saved her from getting hit by a car when she absent-mindedly crossed a road near her place, and she’s even taken up private kendo lessons with him since it allows her to spend time with him without having him look at her face. Chef Kenji, who used to frequent Hiro’s bar to get inspiration for which liquor went well with which chocolate, knew about Ha Na’s feelings for him and arranged for the two of them to go on a blind date together right before he passed away, but Ha Na chickened out. At first, Ha Na displays her crush on Hiro in quite a typical way: in contrast to her bickering with Sosuke, she always smiles and happily agrees to whatever Hiro says, and Sosuke eventually offers to help her ‘practice’ so she can confess her love to him.
However, the truth is that Hiro has no interest in Ha Na at all, and he also wasn’t the person who saved her life that one time. That was Sosuke, who just happened to be bringing Hiro his kendo gear that had his name on it. The other reason Hiro has no interest in Ha Na is that his heart is already taken by someone else.

Irene, ultimately revealed to be named Namikawa Airi (played by Nakamura Yuri) is a psychiatrist who happens to be treating both Sosuke and Ha Na for their phobias. I liked how she became kind of a mediator between them, listening to their respective stories about ‘that one person’ that their phobia didn’t apply to, and how she ended up connecting the dots that they were talking about each other. One part of her counselling includes a talking group aptly called ‘Anonymous Circle’, where people can write a fictional name on their name tags and talk about their problems. She even manages to drag Sosuke into a couple of these sessions, despite his reluctance to participate.
I honestly really liked these sessions, since they felt like relevant intermissions. They weren’t just meant for comic relief, they actually resulted in messages that echoed throughout the story. I really enjoyed the revelation that the woman Sosuke gave chocolates to after one session turned out to be Chef Kenji’s wife, and his act of kindness made her buy the final needed shares to Le Sauveur, that was such a good plot twist. Another scene I found unnecessarily funny was the one with the kleptomaniac lady who just produced belongings from all the other participants from her pockets, saying: “I just found it on the floor over there!”😂 Even if this scene didn’t particularly mean anything, it just cracked me up, lol.
Anyways, back to Irene. It’s suggested very early on that she and Hiro have some kind of history together. It’s not specified what kind exactly, but I figured they slept together one time and she bailed on him while he got attached. All in all, it seemed like Irene had some serious commitment issues, and acting like a couple in itself made her physically uncomfortable, no matter how much she was drawn to Hiro.
I thought the episode that elaborated on her trauma with her mother was very powerful. Seriously, imagine growing up with a mother that literally tries to unalive herself whenever a relationship doesn’t work out and then just leaves you on your own when you’re only a teenager – no wonder her image of relationships was messed up. I appreciated that they used Irene’s backstory to build on her reason for becoming a psychiatrist, as well, it rounded her out very nicely. All in all, I found it impactful to see so many types of mental illness being represented in this series, especially since I feel like these topics are often not talked about in Japanese society. I really respected Irene for standing up for her own boundaries. I don’t think I would’ve even minded if she stuck with her decision, because it was such an original perspective, but I also thought it was cool that she actually decided to go to therapy herself so she could ultimately still take a chance on Hiro.
While there wasn’t as much build-up between the two of them as there was for the main leads, I thought their relationship was quite endearing. It was nice to see Hiro, who initially seemed like such a chara-otoko, express such genuine interest and commitment towards Irene. I mean, he didn’t even try to get over her, he just waited for the next time they’d ‘coincidentally’ bump into each other again and always tried to make the most of every moment he got to spend with her.

I think that’s probably it for the main character analysis, because it’s such a short show with such a compact cast (very convenient for writing reviews). I’d now like to give some examples of side stories that particularly touched me and/or jumped out to me. As I mentioned in my intro, this show had a knack for making me emotional when I least expected it. It literally went from the leads dramatically falling on top of each other in slow-motion to a completely random emotional backstory that, despite (or because of?) the short build-up – just hit me in the feels.
While every episode had a significantly touching moment related to the improvement of a Rainbow Palette piece, one that jumped out to me was the episode about the Bonbon Sakura. If I remember correctly, Sosuke took Ha Na with him to talk to the manufacturer of a liqueur that was specifically used for this chocolate, in order to renew their contract. The proprietess of this company was rumored to be extremely strict and picky about which clients to work with and rejected everyone who didn’t pass a specific test. When they arrive at the proprietess’ house, they are greeted by her daughter, Hosen Kiyomi (Yamaguchi Sayaka), who reveals that her mother passed away several years earlier and she’s taken over. Again, there was little to no build-up to this side story, they were literally just going to talk to his allegedly hard-to-please woman. So when Kiyomi suddenly started talking about how miserable she felt in her mother’s shadow, it really caught me off guard. I actually started crying with her when Ha Na said she liked the taste of her liqueur better than the original. I honestly have no idea what came over me, it just hit me so unexpectedly. I was really impressed by the way the writers created such simple yet powerful stories without even needing to build each of them up throughout the series, that was really cool.
I also really liked the episode about the Spécial Orangette, where they literally summoned an ex-employee from Le Sauveur, Saegusa Ritsuko (Kaji Meiko) to recreate the original flavor of this piece because a customer desperately wanted to let her hospitalized sister taste the chocolate they used to enjoy together back in the day. The way they literally called upon someone who’d worked at the chocolaterie thirty years ago to cater to the personal wish of one single customer was crazy. I really loved Mrs Saegusa’s character as well, how she just jumped out of her wheelchair as soon as she got the call to make chocolate again.
Another scene that I didn’t expect would make me cry was when they went to visit ‘Mama’ in the countryside. At the beginning of the series, ‘Mama’, or Yamaoka Sumiko (Ise Shima) was one of the veteran employees at Le Sauveur, but she quit after Sosuke took over the chocolaterie. It’s later revealed that Sosuke knew about her deteriorating eye condition and let her go after taking care of all of her medical needs. At some point, the team visits her in the countryside and even though Mama had only appeared in the first episode before, I literally went “OMG IT’S MAMAAAA 🥹🥹🥹” as soon as I saw her. For some reason, her talking about enjoying the small things in life while knowing that some day soon she wouldn’t be able to see any of it anymore hit me right in the chest. That was such an unexpected emotional encounter, but I really liked that they brought her back to give the team some new insights.
Although I didn’t care too much for the whole trip to Koita (which I believe is a fictional name, by the way), the story from the old lady about how Chef Kenji managed to make chocolate with the usable parts of their rotten cacao beans was also really beautiful. It was such a random trip to a foreign country, featuring foreign actors and everything, but they still managed to drive the point home that chocolate could bring happiness to every single person.
Because of these random yet touching and heartfelt moments, I wasn’t even bothered by the occasional cheesy scenes. Yes, it was typical when Sosuke told Ha Na to picture him as Hiro when they were ‘practicing’ and she visualized Hiro doing the slow-wink (that actually made my toes curl🙈). Yes, it was typical when Ha Na’s head rolled onto Sosuke’s shoulder on the train, or when she pretended to be asleep after busting him from trying to touch her face. Yes, it was typical when Hiro drunk-kissed Ha Na after mistaking her for Irene, or that Ha Na got attacked by a bunch of suspicious guys after coming all the way to some island to find some specific type of cacao bean (that actually gave me Hana Yori Dango in New York vibes). There were a lot of moments that made me go: “Oh God🙈”, but at the same time it didn’t matter, because everything still contributed to the bigger message of how chocolate was able to save people and bring them happiness. I really appreciated how they kept everything so close to the core of the story, even the most silly or random moments.

By the way, as if I wasn’t surprised enough by the appearance of foreign actors, I lowkey tweaked out when that girl suddenly started speaking Dutch during the chocolatier contest in the final episode, lol, I was like, WAIT WHAT?!😂 It’s so weird to suddenly hear your own European language spoken in an Asian drama series.
The last thing I wanted to mention was my reaction to that final cameo appearance of Sakaguchi Kentaro and Song Joong Ki at Irene’s Anonymous Circle group. When Sakaguchi Kentaro came on screen I was like, right, I’ve seen enough shows that wrap up their story by suddenly introducing some celebrity cameo as a new character and then leave it there. But then Song Joong Ki appeared as well and that actually made me yell: “WHAT THE FUCK” out loud.😂 Like, that was so specific and random at the same time. It almost made me feel like it was a reference to something the two of them appeared in together, why would they put these two people opposite each other with such a knowing look in their eye without it meaning anything? In any case, I thought that was just the cherry on top of all the random things this drama had to offer, lol. I loved that.

I just wish to comment on a couple more details from the series that jumped out to me. I already mentioned before that I appreciated the consistency in the recurring chocolate theme and how they kept changing up the opening sequences accordingly, but there were more recurring things that I liked.
In the first episode, Irene introduces a technique against panic attacks that includes crossing your arms over your chest and patting yourself on both shoulders, saying: “It’s fine, I’m fine”. While it was dismissed as kind of a silly exercise at first, I just couldn’t help but love seeing Ha Na do this exact thing again before she had to go on stage for the contest in the final episode. I really liked that they kept this technique in, even just as a simple way to stay calm. I might actually try it myself if the need arises!
I also liked the multiple references to the word ‘anonymous’ in this series. The word used in the original title is tokumei, which is also used in the name ‘Anonymous Chocolatier’ (tokumei no shokoratie). On top of that, Irene’s talking group is called ‘Anonymous Circle’, in English. Although here the reference to ‘anonymous’ is purely used to indicate the fact that people don’t have to share their real names to tell their story, I liked that the word kept popping up in different parts of the story, that was pretty clever.
Finally, I just want to say something about the ‘savior’ reference mentioned in the final episode, because I felt like this tied a lot of things together. Besides the fact that chocolate was constantly defined as something that brought happiness to people, I loved it when they included that final flashback of Chef Kenji telling Ha Na that ‘Le Sauveur’ meant ‘the Savior’. Looking at the entire story and its characters, even the ones that weren’t specifically involved in the chocolatier business, you could say that everyone got saved in one way or another. Saved as in coming to terms with themselves, whether that meant getting treatment or accepting things the way they were. Sometimes this happened in small and unexpected ways, like when Takuya suddenly spoke up to defend Ha Na for lying about being the AC because he’d also lied about not being able to speak, due to a nasty experience at a previous workplace. In my opinion, this series was very much about learning how to understand each other and acknowledge each other’s efforts, and in that regard I appreciated it even more that they didn’t include any extremely dramatic developments or misunderstandings that took ages to be solved. All in all, I think Chef Kenji’s words summed it up very neatly: “If I can offer even a little salvation to someone going through a hard life in the form of sweetness, I couldn’t wish for anything more.” I think it’s safe to say that Le Sauveur, and chocolate in general, became a savior to both Ha Na and Sosuke, and eventually led them to meet each other, the one person their phobias didn’t apply to.
Speaking of this destiny element, I do wonder what could’ve caused the exemption from these two people in particular. One thing I thought of for Ha Na was that she was only able to look at people that she truly felt sarang for, like her mother. Could Ha Na’s love for the person who saved her life (her literal savior) have taken root in her heart to the extent that her brain just accepted that person as worthy of her gaze? It didn’t work on Hiro because he wasn’t actually the person who saved her. Even though she was fixating on him, her heart already chose Sosuke, as he was the one who’d actually saved her. I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t put too much thought into it, but I did wonder how this could’ve worked, also on Sosuke’s side. I guess we could just go along with Irene’s deduction and accept that they are soulmates who were always meant to be together.

Having said that, I think I’ve reached the end of my analysis, and therefore I would like to go over some cast comments!

It was so cool to see Han Hyo Joo in a Japanese drama! I haven’t even seen her in that much Korean stuff (only the drama W – Two Worlds and the movies The Beauty Inside and 20th Century Girl), but I knew enough to acknowledge the transformation she went through to portray Lee Ha Na. I was very impressed with her performance, it’s like she became a completely different person from what I’d seen her in so far. It was nice to hear her speak Japanese for a change, interwoven with the occasional Korean of course, and the energy she brought to her character was very endearing. I also liked her chemistry with Oguri Shun, that was a pairing I definitely didn’t see coming but it worked pretty well! I’m really glad I got to see her in this role. I feel like she does more movies than dramas, but I keep getting impressed by her acting performances, so I hope she’ll do more dramas in the near future as well.

What an incredible blast from the past it was to see Oguri Shun again! This guy was all of my past J-Drama crushes, from Gokusen to Hana Kimi and Hana Yori Dango. Besides that I’ve seen him in Stand Up!, Tokyo DOGS, Rich Man Poor Woman and Nobunaga Concerto, all golden oldies from way before I started writing reviews, lol. Gosh, this man ages like fine wine. I loved seeing him portray Sosuke, especially when he started laughing more. He can literally go from distant and stern to playful and silly, and I love that. It’s great that he’s still appearing in things and I’ll always be happy to see him pop up somewhere, even now that he’s past forty. This series proved to me again what a great actor he is, even just in terms of facial expressions and the way he takes in his surroundings. His chemistry with Han Hyo Joo was great and I loved seeing him act out the different layers of Sosuke’s personality. It was really great seeing him in this.
By the way, was it just me or did Takagi Haru – who played young Sosuke – actually look like a young Oguri Shun?? From his eyes to his smile, I thought he was a spot-on casting choice for a younger version of him, lol. He did a really good job, too!

Akanishi Jin was another blast from the past for me – I remember him from Gokusen 2 and was actually excited to see if I still remembered his face but I didn’t, really. Maybe it’s the glasses and the facial hair, because his profile pic on MDL looks a lot more identifiable to me. 😂 I’m not going to lie: one reason I wanted to check out this series was because I’d seen a Hiro fan edit on TikTok and wanted to see for myself if he was really that handsome. I’m just a girl, you know.💁🏻‍♀️By the way, I see that he’s been out of the drama world for a VERY long time, he did something in 2007 and then some Chinese historical drama in 2024, so thirteen years of no activity there. That’s quite some time. I wonder if he’ll be picking up more dramas after the success of this one. In any case, I think he did a good job. I think it’s safe to say that he got the least in terms of backstory and development and I have to admit he felt a little bit flat to me at times, but he was still a nice supporting character that always jumped in to help. It would’ve been cool to get some more information on how he and Sosuke became friends and what exactly happened between him and Irene, but that would’ve just been juicy extra intel because the story in itself stood well enough. I wonder what he’ll be up to next!

No wonder Nakamura Yuri looked familiar to me, I’ve seen her in a bunch of things (although I might not remember her from everything). She appeared in the movie Like Father, Like Son (from my favorite director Koreeda Hirokazu) and in the dramas Tokyo DOGS, Tokujo Kabachi!, Higashino Keigo Mysteries, Tantei no Tantei and Perfect World. I liked getting a bit of backstory on Irene. I initially expected she’d be kind of a ‘pick me’ girl towards Hiro, but it turned out she was the opposite, a ‘don’t pick me’ girl.😅 I thought it was nice that they gave her character an unexpected perspective and I liked that she was such an independent strong woman who stood her own ground and didn’t need a man to be happy in life. Even as a side character, she was her own person with her own life who dealt with her own life choices, and I respected that a lot. There’s one more drama with her on my list, so I’m curious what else she can bring to the table in terms of acting. What she showed in this series was pretty promising!

I know I’ve only mentioned his character in passing throughout my review, but I still want to acknowledge Okuda Eiji’s performance as Chef Kenji. I can’t say I’ve ever seen him in anything before, but he definitely made an impression through this show and I really appreciated that they kept referring back to him, not only in the dialogue but also through actual flashbacks. It was cool to see that everyone kept remembering him, from the Le Sauveur staff to the people in Koita. He was such a pillar character in this series and he meant so much to Ha Na. I really enjoyed his vigor in portraying Chef Kenji – the way they introduced him was impactful enough to make me genuinely sad when he passed away halfway through the first episode, and that says something.

Even though she has such an easy name, I never seem to remember Ito Ayumi. I just knew she appeared in Watashi wo Hanasanaide. Besides that I’ve also seen her before in Shinigami-kun, Hirugao and Kira Natsuko, and the movie The Story of Yonosuke is still on my watch list. As I mentioned in my review, I initially thought Motomi would be a rival character to Ha Na, especially after she’d find out she was the AC. I just felt like there was something about her that could turn malicious at some point, but I’m really glad they wrote her character to be better than that. She was a well-respected and fun-loving team leader who was able to set her personal feelings aside for the greater good and that was really admirable. It was cool seeing her in this, she always adds something memorable to her roles, even if I can’t remember her name.😅

I’ve seen Narita Ryo before in Gakkou no Kaidan and NigeHaji, and there’s a couple more shows with him on my watch list. It was interesting seeing him in the antagonistic role of Fujiwara Takashi. I don’t know if they meant to reveal later on that he was Sosuke’s cousin or that I just missed it at first, but it was definitely a twist that the assistant was the one pushing his boss not to lose sight of the objective while conjuring his own evil plans in the background (actually, that pretty much sums up Crash Course in Romance, lol). I feel like they could’ve fleshed out his character a bit more instead of springing the sudden ‘I’m actually Sosuke’s cousin and I’m here to take over the company muhaha’ twist on us, but it did help that he turned out to be a good person at heart who realized he couldn’t bring himself to stab the people that raised him in the back. A little bit more rounding out would’ve been nice, but I thought his role was solid enough as it was, and his performance was good, as well.

I’m going to leave my cast comment section at that. As I said, the convenient thing about shorter series is that there’s (hopefully) less complicated storylines and extensive casts involved, which make it easier and less time-consuming to write a review. I’m definitely glad I watched this show, and I can very much recommend it, especially with a cup of tea and a piece of chocolate at hand.
I really enjoy Japanese shows like this, that manage to capture a relevant story and important topics while still retaining the silly and goofy Japanese humor and typical tropes. I appreciated how they made chocolate into a metaphorical savior while also touching on matters like making mental illness visible and finding solace in the small things. The side arcs all contributed to the main storyline and it was very wholesome to see everything come together in the end, with all the people they worked with throughout the story showing up to help Le Sauveur when Sosuke and his dad were at risk of losing their shares to Takashi. Without even being aware of it, Sosuke and Ha Na managed to inspire so many people and make bonds and friendships for life. I really liked how this drama was built up, the quality of the filming and the acting was great, and even the few confusing or cringy parts couldn’t ruin it for me. Everything just contributed to a solid story with a solid message, and I enjoyed watching it a lot. And the very appetizing depictions of various kinds of chocolates helped, as well, of course. I wish I could try them all.

As I said, this is going to be my last review for 2025. I’m not going to try and squeeze one more in just for the sake of another review before the year is done. I’ll be spending the rest of my December relaxing in-between work and I’m probably going to have my head full with whatever the finale of Stranger Things S5 is going to bring, so that means my next review will be in 2026! I’m already looking forward to what new shows I’ll be watching next year, and I’ll be sure to keep these reviews going, whenever I can.
For now, I wish whoever has read this far (thank you) a very happy Christmas and start of the new year. I’ll be back when I’ll be back.

Bye-bee! x