Two People Who Don't Fall in Love
恋せぬふたり
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
An aromantic asexual woman and man build a household without romance or sex, and call it a provisional family.
Sakuko Kodama works at the head office of a supermarket chain. She is warm and good with her juniors, and quietly worn out by a world that assumes everyone wants romance: her family waits for her to marry, and her old boyfriend, Kazu, never understood why she felt nothing. When her best friend, Chizuru, cancels their plan to share a flat because she is back with an ex, Sakuko goes looking for words for herself and finds them in a blog about being aromantic and asexual, feeling neither romantic nor sexual attraction to anyone. Its author turns out to be Satoru Takahashi, who works in the vegetable section of one of the company's stores and once told her that some people do not fall in love. She proposes that they become a family without love, and he agrees to a trial. They call it a 'provisional family', and she moves into the old house where he lived with his late grandmother.
Her family is delighted, until she tells them what she and Takahashi are; then they are lost. Kazu, jealous, scuffles with Takahashi on the steps outside the house, and Takahashi is badly hurt when he falls shielding him. Kazu moves in to look after him, asks all the tactless questions everyone asks, and slowly learns. He offers to be Sakuko's family on the same terms; she refuses, because she does not want him to give up the love he would want. In Odawara, Chizuru tells her why she vanished: she realised that what she felt for Sakuko was love, and could not live beside someone who would never return it. Sakuko's sister, whose husband cheated on her while she was pregnant, goes into labour at the house, and the family stands by her.
In the last episodes Takahashi is promoted and moved further than ever from the vegetables he loves. Haruka Inozuka, who runs a farming company and was once expected to marry him, offers him the chance to start farming in the country, but he will not leave his grandmother's house. Sakuko finds an answer: she will stay and keep the house, and he will go and grow vegetables. They do not need to live together to be a family, and the word provisional can stay. At the end he farms far away, she lives in the house, and they keep in touch. People will still object, she says, but she will decide her own happiness.
Starring
Yukino Kishiias Sakuko Kodama
A supermarket-chain employee who feels neither romantic nor sexual attraction and is tired of a world that assumes she should.
Sakuko Kodama’s story
Sakuko once went out with her colleague Kazu and felt nothing. When Chizuru breaks their plan to share a flat, Sakuko finds a blog that names what she is, aromantic and asexual, and suggests to its author, Takahashi, that they become a family without love. Her family, delighted that she has brought a man home, are lost when she tells them the truth. She refuses Kazu's offer to be her family on the same terms, because she will not have him give up the love he would want, and learns that Chizuru pulled away because she fell in love with her. At the end she keeps his grandmother's house while Takahashi farms far away, and they stay a family, provisionally. People will object, she says; her happiness is hers to decide.
Issey Takahashias Satoru Takahashi
A vegetable-section worker who writes an anonymous blog as an aromantic asexual and lives in his late grandmother's house.
Satoru Takahashi’s story
Takahashi has cut himself off from the parents who abandoned him, and lives alone in his late grandmother's house. He agrees to Sakuko's family without romance as a trial. Shielding Kazu in a scuffle on the steps, he falls and is badly hurt; Kazu moves in to look after him, and Takahashi checks his tactless questions until Kazu begins to fit in. A promotion takes him away from the vegetables he loves. When Haruka, once expected to marry him, offers him a start in farming, he refuses: he will not leave his grandmother's house, and he does not want to be alone again. Sakuko offers to keep the house so that he can go, and he accepts in tears. At the end he grows vegetables in the country and keeps in touch with her.
Shogo Hamaas Kazu Matsuoka
Sakuko's colleague and former boyfriend, who cannot understand her at first and moves in after Takahashi's fall.
Kazu Matsuoka’s story
Kazu went out with Sakuko through their shared love of an idol group, and when the group went on hiatus so did they; he still believes they are together. When he learns that she is aromantic and asexual, he refuses to accept it. Jealous of Takahashi, he scuffles with him on the steps, and Takahashi is hurt shielding him. Kazu moves in to look after him, asks every tactless question, is put in his place, and slowly begins to understand them. He offers to be Sakuko's family himself, on her terms. She refuses because she wants him to have the love he would want, and he accepts that it is over. He stays their friend, keeps the spare key and lets himself in, and at the end his encouragement sends Sakuko to talk things through with Takahashi.
Fujiko Kojimaas Chizuru Kadowaki
Sakuko's best friend since high school, a hairdresser who pulls away when she realises she loves her.
Naomi Nishidaas Sakura Kodama
Sakuko's mother, who tries not to pressure her daughter and struggles to understand her.
Akiko Kikuchias Haruka Inozuka
The head of a farming company, once expected to marry Takahashi, who urges him to live his own life.
Why it matters
Two People Who Don't Fall in Love puts two aromantic asexual people inside the usual machinery of a romantic drama and lets the machinery fail. Everything around Sakuko assumes romance: a junior colleague mistakes her kindness for interest, her family reads a housemate as a boyfriend, an ex cannot stop interpreting. The drama was developed with input from asexual people and advocacy groups, and its writer, Erika Yoshida, said she wanted to face what a romance-first world forgets: that love is only one route to happiness, and that how someone lives is nobody else's business. The script won her the Mukoda Kuniko Award. What stays with a viewer is its patience. It takes seriously a question most dramas never ask, what a family is if it is not a couple, and lets the answer remain provisional.