User reviews

The physical incompatibility of the title is the theme running through this series, but it's not really about that. It's about the Japanese cultural disinclination to discuss delicate matters openly. It's about how Japanese women, in particular, are taught that they should experience a life of depravation and discomfort before they ever deign to bring up something embarrassing. How communication, which is so central to any good marriage, is secondary to cultural norms of subservience and deference.

That's not to say the long silences, and the reluctance of BOTH characters to resolve their physical incompatibility, wasn't aggravating and occasionally infuriating. In this day & age, there are SO MANY options they could have explored -- both to please each other, and to alleviate the wife's discomfort -- but the writers chose not to explore what would be normal, common-sense measures.

I enjoyed the series, even though it occasionally infuriated me, because it gave me such a good insight into a very foreign culture.

Very refreshing topic showing real life problems, rearly talked about. It IS frustrating to watch, but in reality situations like those portrayed ARE frustrating so it feels true to me. There is a lot of silence and misunderstandings and poor communication. I found the acting good enough and believable. Sexual problems are a difficult topic. Netflix production is showing great diversity. If you like the slow paced Japanese style I can truly recommend this. Probably you can also see this series in a context of the sexual problems in Japanese society today, where sexless marriages are becoming increasingly common.

So on the bright side we have nice Japanese actors doing a good job in exploring emotional and physical attraction. The series is shot well and could be perfectly watchable and satisfying had it not been for... a pretty ridiculous problem to begin with. And I don't mean to ridicule the fact that unusual problems may and do exist in sex. But purely looking logically at the data- first since females are biologically prepared to give birth, their anatomy is typically not so rigid. Second assuming that the rare female condition that may exhibit this way for psychological reasons exists in the female lead, then she should have the same condition with every partner and not selectively with one who also ironically happens to be the man she loves. Thirdly based on the data we're provided, there seemed to be nothing extraordinary about the husband to begin with to doubt if he will not fit. Furthermore the couple shouldn't have accepted this status quo but instead sought to educate themselves. Let's face it, most problems have solutions. They apparently also don't communicate too well either. So while the show may be well put together with good actors and an interesting idea- that of difficult sex in a marriage- the implementation is completely lacking in veracity. I have not finished the show and most likely will not because I was not persuaded that this particular specific problem could be applied to that particular couple first but second because even if that were the case, they should look for a productive solution more proactively and not hide in the sand.

Yes it's a bit slow but it was very interesting. There acting was fine. The story was actually really good.

This is sex, love, marriage and family problems treated through the lenses of the Japanese Culture. This series are made of short 30 minutes easygoing episodes,with plain simple dialogues that go down to the core complexity of each subject. It has hot steamy sexy scenes on one side and cold mechanical sex on the other just for the sake of the script, nothing else intended.

I'm not sure what to make of this series - is it a comedy, a tragedy, or just a really honest look at Japanese culture and society? In any case, it is heartfelt and in many ways quite a realistic look into the sometimes dysfunctional Japanese relationship.

One cannot help but feel sorry for the protagonist and to a lesser degree her husband. If only there was more honest and open communication, and less sexual repression, then much of the frustration might have been avoided or mitigated.

Oh well, that's Japan for you. And that is why this series about alienation and loneliness deserves a high rating.

I didn't expect it to be so good. A fair warning, this is not a show for the shallow people. This is a show that's slow with very intriguing dialog between two people in love and that's it, don't expect much more. The story's main problem is not common, and therefore hard to relate with.

I loved slow immersion into Japanese culture that the story about young couple presented. Regardless of plausibility of the problem the couple was having, the story has shined a different light on eternal question "What is love?". Very good acting.

You either love or hate this show. It's slow-paced, but the acting is great and the topic is very realistic. I think they've nailed it with this one, but if you're not into the genre, you're not going to enjoy this experience.

While the characters in this domestic drama can be sweet and endearing they also can be a low key pain in the ass. This is not a good series for couples with physical incompatibilities to watch. These guys never saw a doctor until the tenth episode, and then they still didn't describe their problem! Useful discussion points on disfunctional families and dangerous ways of coping, but this series *really* needs an extra episode in which a counselor guides couples on how to deal with sex differences.

Sorry it's not really going to be a review but I didn't know how to add to the trivia section. I personally liked the series. It is based on a book by an author who goes by the name Kodama in 2017. The story follows her real life experience so it was not made for the sole purpose of entertainment. It would also explain why the technology seems outdated. It's because it all happened a while ago.

I loved it.

I see a lot of people saying it is not possible. Blah blah blah. I think this is a great drama and whatever this couple decided to do was in this story. They could change their decision in future.

I wanted thanos to win in avengers but they had to turn back time and bring forth a ;'feminist movement' and kill thanos. I am not complaining. Just enjoy what this drama offers.

No joke, this is one of the best shows I've ever seen. I don't know how you could not like this show. The show represent how all shows should go. From the start i was intrigued and throughout the show it revisits scenes from the first episode that are important to the future of the story. I love this show so much and i hope they continue to make more like this!! I want to make sure people understand how great of a show this is!! I started an IMDB account just so i could write a review about it :) so awesome so great please watch!! <3

If you can bear through the slow moments you will find a sweet, sometimes painful sad tale of a couple that cannot consummate their relationship. Although they find their own version of happiness in the end, you are still left wishing things would go differently for them. The story does drag at times, only because it does show the mediocrity of day to day life which is not always fun ir action packed. Worth giving a try if you like alternative type drama.

I agree with some of the other reviewers that the passivity around the couple's sexual problem is hard to accept in today's society. There was, in fact, much about the show that seemed from another era. The internet didn't figure in the show hardly at all. Kumiko kept an old fashioned scrapbook. Traditional books were used as well as flip phones so this series might have been made originally 10 years ago. There was almost total lack of communication around the sexual problem which we Americans find hard to believe. It does reflect in perhaps an exaggerated fashion the tendency in Japanese society for acceptance of the status quo and not to complain esp on the part of the woman. Note that Kenichi never apologized for going to a brothel regularly but he felt incensed by the mere fact that Kumiko wasn't a virgin. That double standard was realistic. I loved seeing how the characters lived day to day. The pacing of the show seemed to come to a grinding halt around episode 7. A scene when Kumiko was eating alone and there was a voiceover of her thoughts was excruciatingly slow. The involvement of the parents at the end was very revelatory of cultural norms. All in all even though the plot was weak and strained credibility, the show was well acted and gave viewers an insiders view of modern Japanese life.