Drama Review: Love Lasts Forever

Marissa

4 years ago

Love Lasts Forever (also known as An Incurable Case of Love and Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Dokomademo) is a 2020 Japanese drama that is based on a manga with same name (Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Dokomademo).

Genre: Romantic Comedy, drama
Episodes: 10, 45 minutes each

Summary

Love Lasts Forever starts with 18 year old Nanase Sakura who met Dr. Kairi Tendo when she visited Tokyo for a class fieldtrip as a high school senior. There she ran into someone having a medical emergency. Dr. Tendo on a afternoon jog notices and helps. He has her assist him in helping the patient. From that point on, she decides to dedicate her life to the medical field and dedicate her love to Dr. Tendo.

Review

This drama gave me flashbacks and vibes to Mischievous Kiss 2 where Kotoko was going through nursing school and starting off in her career. Despite being similar, this drama is very different.

Story

After Nanase Sakura (Mone Kamishiraishi) aka “Warrior” meets Dr. Kairi Tendo (Takeru Satoh) “the devil” for the first time, she is enamored and commited to studying nursing. In a fast-forwarding montage, she works hard to finally finish her studies and move into her clinicals. In first days of her clinicals, it seems like she may not be cut out for the nursing life. On top of that, Dr. Tendo just finds her a nuisance. Slowly, but surely she establishes nursing mastery in her own way as well as the opening Tendo’s heart.

When she starts working at the hospital, she is joined by other new nurses, Ryusei Nishi (Keisuke Watanabe), Yuika Sakai (Ai Yoshikawa), and Misa Kanno (Mayu Hotta). Nishi ends up falling in love with Ryuko Tendo (Karina) and Ryuko discovers what she is interested in doing as a career.

Sakai is Little Miss Perfect Nurse. She is the natural nurse that unintentionally strengthen Sakura’s insecurities, but the feeling is mutual. While Sakura may be weak (at first) in nursing, she is strong at expressing her feelings. Sakai, on the other hand, is excellent at nursing, but insecure when it comes to expressing her feelings. She ends up having a crush on Dr. Koichi Kisugi (Katsuya Maiguma). Dr. Kisugi is everyone’s favorite doctor. He is kind, caring, and supportive. Eventually Sakai is able to express her emotions to him.

The rest of the characters help make the drama even more fun and enjoyable. They add to the layers of the basic story. This drama is really well written and the actors do a very good job at displaying their emotions as well. Such as Takeru Satoh as Dr. Tendo, he does an excellent job being tsudere during most of the drama, but we are able to see him open up, grow, and change. And when he cries, we feel what he feels.

Music

This drama had only one main song that I know and I love it.

“I LOVE” by HIGE DANdism

Quotes

“We all grow as we cry.”-Anri
“In a hospital, there are many sick people. Doctors look after the ‘sick’ part. Nurses look after the ‘people.'”-Dr. Koishikawa
“Don’t bother separating work and personal life. Enjoy the chaos.”-Dr. Koishikawa

“Everyone is the same. We’re all lacking something, but we all do our best to keep going.”-Dr. Tendo
“Everyone is destined to die. That’s why it’s not about giving up on life. It’s about accepting death.”

Scenes

So the gifs that I pick are related to the scenes that I like. This drama has a lot of heartwarming, adorable, and hilarious scenes. I try to limit them by only posting a few that symbolizes everything I like.

The parts where Dr. Tendo acts Tsudere. It’s a love/hate thing. But I also find those scenes hilarious…except the overuse of the word “baka.”

GIF

2. The times when Dr. Tendo is surprisingly sweet and romantic.

GIF

3. All the times she slowly opens up his heart. I love that he allows her to open it up, which makes for an easy romance.

GIF

Afterthoughts

This drama immediately reminds me of Mischievous Kiss (actually Mischievous Kiss 2). The storylines are similar: a girl, in love with a doctor, goes to medical school and becomes a nurse. I think that if you watch this, you will see a clear difference.

Dr. Tendo is rude but it does not define him. He displays the Tsudere character to protect himself from the feelings of the past. As he learns to cope, we discover that he is tender-hearted. Sakura is similar to Kotoko (from Mischievous Kiss) being that they are both warm-hearted beings. But Sakura is also more competent and self-assured. She can learn from her mistakes, doesn’t make as many as Kotoko, and is comfortable in her love with Dr. Tendo.

Recommendations

So similar to Mischievous Kiss 1 and 2, might want to see Playful Kiss or read Itazura Na Kiss also.
I guess I should also recommend the manga of the same name: Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Dokomademo
Medical: Descendants of the Sun, Emergency Couple, Good Doctor (aka Faith), Clinic on the Sea