Love Shuffle

I just finished watching a Japanese drama serial called Love Shuffle (ラブシャッフル). I normally don't fancy romance-centered dramas because they tend to be formulaic and cliche, but this one succeeds in being fresh with sufficient twists to keep you riveted. The concept is quite novel- four young working adults, slightly jaded with their love lives, decide to try swapping partners with one another i.e. a 'love shuffle'. This experiment tests whether there is truly a sole fated partner for every individual, with very interesting results.

Some of my favourite aspects of the show:

The pajama party that the central characters (who live on the same floor of an apartment) have almost every night in the common area outside their units.

The indoor swimming pool. With its modern fittings and panoramic night view, it's simply SURREAL.

Yukichi + Usami. Yukichi's surveillance habits and Usami's facial expressions are hilarious. They are even funnier as a duo and their friendship is really sweet.

Usami + Airu. What can I say, they're really cute together.

Yukichi's dress sense! The combination of his geek glasses with velvet jackets, funky-coloured pocket hankies, striped bow ties etc. is deliciously wacky.