Ossan's Love
おっさんずラブ
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A salaryman is loved by his boss and his flatmate — the BL comedy that broke into the mainstream.
Soichi Haruta is thirty-three, a good-natured salesman at a Tokyo branch of a property company, who cannot cook or clean and has not had a girlfriend in five years. His mother, tired of looking after him, moves out. Then he finds that his boss, Musashi Kurosawa, fifty-five and admired by everyone as the ideal manager, keeps secretly taken photographs of him on his phone. Kurosawa confesses that he has loved Haruta for ten years. Meanwhile Ryota Maki, a capable young colleague transferred from head office, has accepted Haruta's offer to share his family house and does all the cooking. He falls for Haruta too, and when he learns what Kurosawa has done, he confesses. Kurosawa asks his wife of thirty years, Choko, for a divorce; she suspects an affair and asks Haruta to help find the other woman, until her husband tells her it is Haruta.
When Haruta's childhood friend Chizu loses her home and moves in, Maki prepares to leave for his former lover, Masamune Takekawa, a senior colleague at the branch. Haruta stops him on impulse, and when Maki asks him out properly, he says yes. But Haruta flinches at being seen together in the street, and Maki, deciding Haruta deserves an ordinary happiness, ends it with words he does not mean. Left alone, Haruta falls apart. Kurosawa moves in to look after him, Haruta's work improves, and he is chosen for a project in Shanghai. Kurosawa proposes, and Haruta, carried along, accepts. At the altar he cannot go through with the kiss: all he can think of is Maki. Kurosawa, seeing it, sends him to find Maki. Haruta finds Maki and proposes, Maki says yes, and Haruta leaves for Shanghai.
A film followed in 2019, and a separate series the same year, set at an airline, reused the names Haruta and Kurosawa for Tanaka and Yoshida in a new story. The 2024 season returns to the original couple. Haruta and Maki are married and living together at last after Maki's three and a half years in Singapore, and Kurosawa, retired early, becomes their housekeeper and has to learn to watch over them like a mother-in-law. They hold their wedding on Valentine's Day. In the last episode Maki throws a party to thank Haruta, their friends pose for what Haruta says looks like a family photograph, and they agree that the bond between the three of them can go without a name. Haruta and Maki walk under the cherry blossoms on the anniversary of the day they met.
Starring
Kei Tanakaas Soichi Haruta
A kind, hopeless-at-home property salesman who suddenly finds himself loved by his boss and by his young flatmate.
Soichi Haruta’s story
Haruta is thirty-three and has not had a girlfriend in five years when his boss, Kurosawa, confesses ten years of love and his new flatmate, Maki, confesses too. Told by Maki that saying nothing is not kindness, he tells Kurosawa he does not feel the same. He stops Maki leaving and says yes to him, then flinches at being seen together in the street, and Maki ends it. Kurosawa moves in to look after him, and Haruta, carried along, accepts his proposal. At the altar he cannot kiss him, runs to find Maki, proposes and leaves for Shanghai. In 2024, married to Maki and living with him at last, he gets Kurosawa as their housekeeper and holds their wedding on Valentine's Day. He wears himself out working for everyone's happiness, until Maki gathers their friends to thank him.
Kotaro Yoshidaas Musashi Kurosawa
Haruta's married boss, a model manager who has secretly loved him for ten years and finally says so.
Musashi Kurosawa’s story
Kurosawa is fifty-five, admired by everyone at the branch, married for thirty years to Choko, and keeps secret photographs of Haruta on his phone. Found out, he confesses and asks Choko for a divorce. Haruta turns him down, and Choko, watching unseen, is moved to tears and lets her anger go. When Maki leaves and Haruta falls apart, Kurosawa moves in to look after him and proposes; at the altar he sees that all Haruta can think of is Maki, and sends him to Maki. Years later, retired early and divorced, he is sent as a housekeeper to Haruta and Maki's home. Old feelings stir and he competes with Maki, until Choko tells him it is a mother-in-law's jealousy, and he vows to watch over them as one. At Haruta's party he says meeting them both made him happy.
Kento Hayashias Ryota Maki
A capable junior colleague from head office who shares Haruta's house, keeps it running and falls in love with him.
Ryota Maki’s story
Maki has known he is gay since his teens. He takes the room Haruta offers, and when he learns that Kurosawa has confessed, confesses too. When Haruta's childhood friend Chizu moves in, he announces he is leaving for his former lover, Takekawa, until Haruta stops him, and he asks Haruta out properly. Haruta says yes but flinches in the street, and Maki, deciding Haruta deserves an ordinary happiness, ends it with words he does not mean. Found by Haruta on the wedding day, Maki tries to send him away, then accepts his proposal. In 2024, back from three and a half years in Singapore, he quarrels with Haruta over housework, agrees to a housekeeping service and gets Kurosawa. Worried that Haruta is overworking, he gathers their friends to thank him and tells him he has no happiness without him.
Rio Uchidaas Chizu Arai
Haruta's outspoken childhood friend, who helps at her brother's bar and moves in with Haruta when she loses her home.
Hidekazu Mashimaas Masamune Takekawa
A fastidious senior colleague at the branch and Maki's former lover, who has not let him go.
Nene Otsukaas Choko Kurosawa
Kurosawa's wife of thirty years, blindsided when he asks for a divorce and determined to find out why.
Why it matters
Ossan's Love plays a love triangle between three men with the grammar of a girls' romance manga, and its makers said they deliberately left out the troubles of LGBT life for fear of hurting viewers. That choice is the issue it raises. It made love between men feel ordinary and joyful to a mass audience: its title was among the top ten buzzwords of 2018, and the series is credited with carrying boys' love stories into mainstream television. The cost is that the world outside barely presses in. Real life breaks through only twice, in Haruta's unease at being seen with Maki in the street and in Maki's decision that Haruta deserves an ordinary happiness, and those are the saddest moments in the series. When a 2019 sequel told a new story without Maki, viewers objected online and his name trended. It leaves open whether a fantasy of acceptance helps the real thing arrive.