Rea(L)ove
REA(L)OVE
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Eighteen singles each carry a secret — adult-video work, a fraud conviction, sex addiction, affairs — and must read it aloud when their envelope is drawn.
REA(L)OVE, released on Netflix in April 2018 in nine episodes, brings eighteen single men and women to a beach resort in Okinawa for two nights and three days. All of them use aliases, and all carry a secret they would rather hide. At each 'Real Face Time' the comedian Atsushi Tamura draws a sealed envelope at random, and its owner must read the secret aloud; from then on Tamura's nickname for it appears above the person's name. Mari Yaguchi, formerly of Morning Musume, assists. On the last day the men confess and the women answer.
The secrets come out one by one. Kitazawa, introduced as a magician, is an adult-video actor. Fujii calls himself a sex addict. Ai, the woman six men picked on sight, has slept with ten athletes, many of them married; her date, Matayoshi, recoils openly, and the hosts give her a nickname she carries to the end. Ninomiya, a company executive, once came home to find his wife with another man. Konatsu, a bartender who wants to sing, tells Matayoshi on their date that she is a trans woman. Yazawa served a prison sentence for fraud. Ramu, introduced as a ballet teacher, is a hostess who says she has made more than 300 million yen from men. On the last day Risa, the demure favourite, reveals that she acts in adult videos, and Towako that she is a mother of three, divorced after her husband's affair.
Inaba, Yazawa and Kanzaki, a host hooked on cosmetic surgery, confess to Ramu, and she chooses Kanzaki. Konatsu chooses Matayoshi over a second suitor. Ninomiya, torn between Risa and Towako, says he cannot confess: as an executive, he has decided, he cannot date an adult-video actress. Ai turns Fujii down. Yuko chooses Yamada, who cross-dresses in online videos, over Kitazawa. Amuro kneels before Aya, and she accepts in tears. Four couples leave Okinawa. In a coda, Matayoshi and Konatsu are dating in Shinjuku, Ramu has gone out with Inaba, and Yamada has lost touch with Yuko.
Starring
Atsushi TamuraHost
The comedian who runs the trip, draws each secret at random and gives every participant a blunt nickname for it.
Mari YaguchiHost
A former Morning Musume singer and the assistant host, who follows each revelation and confession alongside Tamura.
Daiki KanechikaParticipant
Appearing as Ryoji Matayoshi, a young comedian who recoils at Ai's secret and ends the trip as Konatsu's choice.
Konatsu KawamuraParticipant
A bartender hoping to sing, who tells her date Matayoshi that she is a trans woman and chooses him at the end.
Risa SatoParticipant
The demure favourite, a former dental hygienist, who reveals on the last day that she acts in adult videos.
Shun NinomiyaParticipant
A company executive divorced after his wife's infidelity, who wavers between Risa and Towako and in the end confesses to no one.
Why it matters
REA(L)OVE set out to ask whether people can fall in love once they know the truth, and then made the truth a spectacle. Each secret is read aloud and turned into a nickname, and the women pay more for theirs: Ai's follows her to the end, while a man's cross-dressing is played for laughs. The sharpest moment is not a confession but a refusal. Ninomiya says plainly that his position at work rules out a woman who acts in adult videos, and a stigma that usually goes unspoken is said on camera. Against it stands Matayoshi choosing Konatsu after she has told him she is a trans woman. One critic called the show salacious and often mean-spirited, and still a window on the gendered anxieties of Japanese dating. In 2024 its format was licensed for sale abroad.