The Grass Is Greener Next Door
隣の恋は青く見える
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Couples who cannot decide to stay or leave live alongside other couples; attraction across the hallway is the point.
The Grass Is Greener Next Door is ABEMA's show for couples on the verge of splitting, first streamed in 2021. Each pair agrees to a trial break-up and spends about a week with the other couples in sanctioned cheating, free to date anyone. Every day each person places weights on a scale of love for whoever draws them. Near the end comes a reunion date, and on the last day each person chooses to split, reunite or start something new. In the first season the sisters Mary Jun and Yu Takahashi tell the story from the studio; in later seasons Murakami of Magical Lovely and the actor Yui Okada host, with ROLAND joining in the fourth.
That season (January to March 2023) sends eight couples to Vietnam. Michiru, a dancer of twenty-six who wants to marry by twenty-eight, is with Ryuhei, a model who will not marry until his career takes off. In Da Nang she grows close to Nias, and on the reunion date tells Ryuhei, in tears, that she kissed him. Kanon, a salon owner, has never let her boyfriend Taiyo into her home, and has come hoping to tell him why: she has a child. Sunny and Shinichiro have drifted since they began living apart. Kaito's jealousy has smothered Rika. In Ho Chi Minh City Yuta, a trainer, gives nothing away until Sena, who had meant to leave him, hears Shion declare an interest and realises she still wants him.
On the last day only two couples get back together. Yuta turns Shion down and returns to Sena; Taiyo decides Kanon's child is no obstacle and goes back to her, promising to visit often. Michiru leaves with Nias, preferring security to what she still feels for Ryuhei, who is handed her letter: the feelings never got through. Rika tells Kaito she no longer loves him and leaves with another man, who has turned down his girlfriend, Megumi. Sunny ends things with Shinichiro, likening their love to a crane game, where every coin makes walking away harder. Yuka turns Tatsuya down. Eight of the sixteen go home alone.
Starring
MurakamiHost
Of the comedy duo Magical Lovely, a studio host with Yui Okada, who says the show is about watching people hurt.
MichiruParticipant
A dancer of 26 who wants to marry by 28, torn between her boyfriend Ryuhei and Nias, and in the end choosing Nias.
RyuheiParticipant
A model who will not marry until his career takes off, and learns on the reunion date that Michiru kissed Nias.
KanonParticipant
A beauty-salon owner who has never let Taiyo into her home, and joins to find a way to tell him she has a child.
TaiyoParticipant
A DJ who learns Kanon has a child, decides it is not such a big thing, and goes back to her.
SunnyParticipant
Shinichiro's girlfriend of two years, drifting since they began living apart, who ends it and names the sunk cost.
Why it matters
The Grass Is Greener Next Door turns infidelity, the thing most couples fear, into a sanctioned experiment, and asks what a relationship is made of once the fear is taken away. Its own host describes it as a show about watching people suffer while the one they love enjoys someone else. What the fourth season actually lays bare is less cheating than the reasons couples stay: the sunk cost Sunny likens to a crane game, a woman's deadline for marriage set against a man's ambitions, a child kept secret from a partner. Real Sound's critic pointed out that long-term couples are rarely asked whether they want to go on, and that the show forces the question. It is striking how many of the most sincere decisions it records are break-ups, and how calmly they are made once someone finally asks.