Sahara Sensei to Toki-kun (2023)

Started out fun and engaging, even the cinematography (the yellowish filter which reminded me of the horror movies in the 2000s, i thought Sadako was gonna spring out out of nowhere) is A grade, Then somehow it got a little boring in the middle and then i realized i wasnt even looking forward to any of the episodes anymore, i just finished watching just for the sake of finishing the series.

One big problem is the chemistry between Sahara and Toki. I dont mind and i actually like the awkward overacting, but they just didnt show enough to make me care about their characters and to root for the relationship. I didnt even understand the 'slap in the back' thingy which were supposed to be a thing of affection considering those were such strong slaps and didnt they say Sahara has (or had) a back injury?

The addition of Nekoto- and for goodness sake his emo hair is so annoying - n the last few episodes even made the show worse, no wonder why Sahara chose Toki isntead of him.

Let me get this out of the way too. The idea of a teacher getting into a relationship with a high school student is very cringy layered with too many inappropriateness that gets worse when being romanticized. I am not a conservative but this is not something that i would feel comfortable seeing in real life no matter how small the age gap is.

Is this something that happens normally in Japan and i wonder what is the targeted demographic for these kind of contents? it smells of something predatory.

The fact that this is the second Japanese BL within the past 6 months with this age gap (the other one is One Room Angel) kinda bothered me a little. One other BL with this kind of premise is Minato's Laundromat (with not just one but 2 of this kind of relationship) and that even got a second season. In these series, they show the younger leads vehemently pursuing the older guys, and they make you think it is ok. I somehow feel its not. These 3 series features younger HIGH SCHOOL male leads being partnered with adult guys (to be fair Minato's Laundromat handled it better) Im not against big age gap between partners but i think we have to be reminded that these high school students are STILL kids compared to the older guys they are running after. At least make both characters "adult" even if you make a 20-year age gap then it might be ok.

Overall, its a 6.5 for me. This is a series i wont even remember after a few months, and its not even entertaining enough to be rewatched.

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Sweet and Funny

First: There's a lot of pearl-clutching in the discussion section about the age gap, and particularly that Toki is a minor when the story starts. If you're uninterested in this topic, skip down to ANYWAY.

I really don't see how this is objectionable. So Toki has a crush on a handsome and charming teacher - haven't we all been there? My junior high PE teacher was so hot I spent all day in the restroom "imagining" things he could do to me, and I was 13 and he was 20-something.

The point is that Sahara makes it plain that nothing is going to happen, although he does say he'll wait for Toki to grow up, and there is a time skip at the end to when he's 18. It's hard to tell how old Sahara is because the same actor, who is 26, plays him in flashbacks. I would guess he's 6-7 years older. Big deal. My first positive experience was with a 26-year old when I was 18 - it was wonderful to have someone experienced and kind to ease me in, as opposed to boys my age, who just wanted what 18-year old boys are wont to want.

17-year olds do - almost invariably and universally - develop crushes on people of varying ages, and let's be honest, there is nothing you can do about it if you're an adult who has a crush on a minor. If he's 10, there might be something really wrong with you, but if he's 17 with an adult body, it can happen. You just don't act on it. There is a huge difference between having feelings for someone and acting on it. One you can't help, the other you can.

There is an accidental kiss, but it's not sexualized in the least - in fact they're both mildly injured by it and Toki reflects sardonically that his first kiss tasted like blood.

ANYWAY.

Toki is a fascinating character, immature in behavior, but unusually mature in moral fibre and inner strength - it's no wonder what Sahara sees in him, not to mention his looks. The actor does a wonderful job, making Toki both vulnerable and strong, affecting and really funny. Sahara is a less interesting character, but he's not without complexity either.

There is a lot of comedy in the series - most of it is pretty funny, and some of it is too obviously adapted from manga - where running screaming offpage works better than it does in live action.

This is a sweet story with a lot of charm and one of the best BL characters I've seen in a while with Toki - I'd fall in love with him too.

On the negative side, way, way too much time is chewed up by Sahara's former love interest, who brings the narrative to a screeching halt for a character that isn't introducted until two thirds through the series and who it's nearly impossible to care about. I found myself internally screaming "I DON'T CARE GO AWAY" You will want, no, NEED, to take clippers to his ridiculous bangs. I think his stylist must be the ghost from The Ring. There's a flashback to a confession in the rain that we're shown so many times that I nearly bought a plane ticket to Tokyo to go slap someone. Nekoto is dull, depressive, irrelevant, and takes forever to say anything - he should have been limited to one scene, not stretched out over 2 episodes.

Anyway, the payoff at the end is worth it, but I do wish that time had been spent on Toki & Sahara or on the secondary couple, who I hope get their own series.

I highly recommend this - unless you're one of the abovementioned pearl-clutchers, in which case you should probably just go to church instead.

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didn't feel the chemistry

Overall: although I like each lead character individually, the high school student/teacher dynamic was squicky and I thought Nekoto and Sahara worked better together. I haven't read the source material and am reviewing it on its own merits. 8 episodes about 25 minutes each. Aired on GagaOOLala and iQIYI.

Content Warnings: fights, high school teacher/student relationship

What I Liked
- we rarely see a "delinquent" character, he was adorable
- crack comedy (it had the overacting vibe but it worked for me because it didn't have constant comedy sound effects)
- that chase scene in ep 1 was fun
- how a nerd character was good at sports
- styling (except 2 characters were styled younger in the present and older in the past which was strange)
- production value

Room For Improvement
- the writers really got me rooting for Nekoto, they seemed much better matched especially with how everyone (including Toki) continually emphasized that Toki was not an adult, there was a lot of screen time with Nekoto even in the final episode
- high school student/teacher dynamic (the accidental kiss, no shirt/head in Toki's lap, confession) all while Sahara was still Toki's teacher (which has an inherent power imbalance with grades, it is immoral/unethical and in most places illegal as it should be) and then the kiss at the end while Toki was still in high school was squicky, I think they could have mitigated this by having it take place in university (and Sahara not be Toki's teacher, or only for a semester and then they start their relationship later)
- Toki smacked Sahara on the back even though he knew he had a back injury (also reinforced Toki's immaturity)
- the side couple basically vanished

Age Notes: it was difficult to figure out the ages of the characters but in the final episode Toki mentioned that he was in his second year when most of the series took place and by looking at Japan's high school structure (3 years 15-18), Toki would have been 16/17 and then 17/18 at the end when they kissed (still at the high school). In the flashback, it said Toki was in 4th grade. Calculating backwards, he would have been 9 or 10 and Sahara mentioned the incident when he was in high school, let's say he was 16/17 so they'd have about a 7 year age gap. For most of the series in the present, they were 16/17 and 23/24 and then at the very end 17/18 and 24/25.

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Healthy relationship dynamic, Good for one watch, Toki is the best.

(General spoilers only.) One of the few highschool-teacher stories I've seen (so far) with a truly well-balanced dynamic. How their strengths and weaknesses line up made them equals and they grow together. I found it sweet, endearing, and non-cringy. This is NOT a sexually charged, passionate, or taboo-focused story.

Overall light, sweet and easy fun that's good for one watch but isn't that memorable (except for Rintaro as Toki).

I really liked and greatly appreciated that Toki and Sahara communicated, supported/encouraged, and TRUSTED each other. They both had character growth and thrived with the attention and care of the other.

FYI: Japanese highschools are 3 years, so Toki being a second year student is equivalent to being a junior (third year) in the USA.

Rintaro as Toki was awesome and always fun to watch. Toki is bigger-than-life yet acted with nuance. Though Toki is wild in the physically over-dramatic Manga-style way (and often funny), multiple aspects of his personality and approach to things are admirable and even mature for his age. He is a 'doer' and doesn't think too deeply, yet he is thoughtful and puts effort into understanding others. He came across as an actual highschooler with a good heart who was a 3-dimensional character and not a caricature. He's sincere, straightforward, and totally lovable.

General Spoilers below.

There was an obvious balance in Toki and Sahara's personalities and their relationship that made their age gap a non-issue (for me anyway). Especially since they consciously kept their interactions PG, and Sahara had them wait until Toki graduated highschool before verbally making their romantic relationship official. There is a brief lip press at that time.

I mostly didn't mind the time spent on Sahara's past because it highlighted the differences between Nekoto and Toki and further demonstrated why Toki would make a good partner even though he's younger.

What I didn't like:

Takumi as Sahara was okay but not compelling. I liked him but didn't fall for him. He didn't do anything poorly, just didn't have much charisma and felt a little flat in his acting.

The school play bit made me cringe hard. It wasn't necessary and felt like pure contrivance to get an oops-kiss moment. The only thing that made it better than a trip-and-fall accident kiss was the humor of bigger-than-life Toki trying to act demurely as Snow White.

The end felt super rushed. There's a time jump, happy ending scene, and it's over. In that regard, I would have preferred less time spent on Nekoto to get more of Toki and Sahara (or even more of Todo's story since he kind of gets left out after halfway through).

The past connection was a simplistic, cliched, writing cop-out for tying things together. At least it was obvious from early on that it was coming due to little flashbacks and wasn't a complete surprise in the last episode as it is in so many shows.

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Went from Amazing to Great to Just Good

In the first couple of episodes, I was immediately hooked on the story. Toki, a delinquent falls for his PE teacher who is everything opposite, and it starts the tale of a wild, hilarious, and rather touching romance story. I loved this until I didn't, and for a minute there, I was assuming this might be my top J-BL of the year, but that has now been debunked.

Let's Dive In.

Starting off, I was a little thrown off by the topic of the plot. A high schooler falls for his PE teacher. I had to remember that, one, this is fiction, and two, morals of what's wrong and right are different everywhere, so having that mindset made my watch a little more bearable (but also my fave JBL of all time is Minato's Coin Laundry, and that's exactly what this series is in its own way). But the first episode until maybe the episode where we learn more about Todo and Takuya story is where everything was peaches and plums for me. And then it kind of all goes downhill from there.

I wanted to absolutely adore Toki and Sahara's relationship, but I realized that in the end, I didn't necessarily care for the "development" that we received. They make it seem like Toki helped Sahara discover himself, but that's not at all what I got from the series. If anything, Toki is extremely immature and Sahara falls for him because he's the complete opposite and gives him that breath-of-fresh-air feeling that he needs. Toki, on the other hand, is just so head over heels for this dude that he doesn't stop what he's doing for the better, but only because Sahara wants him to. This is why in the end, their relationship feels too unreasonable, even after Toki graduates.

There are some parts that hit the nail on the comedy, and while this series is heavily overexaggerated, that is probably my favorite part. Rinataro as Toki plays up the dramatics so perfectly in this, it's insane. From his facial expressions to the way he talks, to his body language, I loved all of it. But weirdly, what I think I really enjoyed most out of all the characters were the three girls that kind of followed all the guys around. Super over the top, so annoying, and in a way, I really liked it.

Ratings;

Story: 7/10 - Great until about halfway through. I honestly enjoyed Todo's and Nekoto's storylines, it added some dramatic moments, and it was honestly needed.

Acting: 9.5/10 - fantastic acting, I loved all of it. Takumi is a beautiful man and I need more of him in my life.

Music: 6/10 - didn't pay much attention to it.

Recommendation value: 7.5/10 - I feel like this series still has so much to offer, but at the same time, there's something lacking that I can't quite put my foot on. But nonetheless, Sahara is fine as fuck, so go for it.

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Not bad at all, but something is lacking

I liked all the characters in this story. I personally felt that sahara sensei and toki kun didn't quite match that well. Something about them feels like an odd pairing. I did really like the side characters and the romance between the childhood friends. It would have been cool if Rise had a love interest as well.

I think what I dont love about this drama compared to other BLs is that the scenes focus only on the characters and not the environment at all. The pacing also feels too quick and I feel like it could have been edited to be better. The casting of the characters is not bad, but there is a lack of chemistry between the main couple that makes it hard to love. I do commend everyone for their work in this drama.

Overall I would recommend this BL, but prioritize other better BLs before this one.

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Disappointing, tries to do too much in too little time / do not convey a convincing BL story

This BL drama is centred around the encounter of Toki, delinquent highschooler and Sahara, his homeroom teacher for which he develops a one-sided love...The premise of the series was super interesting and there were quite a few good ideas in terms of characters background and even regarding a storyline for secondary characters that was super promising (another rather taboo romance that went regrettably nowwhere).

Unfortunately, the overall scenario is a deception at several levels. First, they really embraced a comedical tone for the first part of the drama instead of really deep-diving into the more taboo aspects of the various relationships...The writing and directing wanted to keep things light and relatively surface level which is clearly not the direction I wanted the show to take. Secondly, the series tried to do too much in too little time. We get a lot of background story on some side characters or on the past but in fact it is to the detriment of the build up of the relationship of the main couple.

I was utterly unconvinced by the relationship between both main male leads. They had no romantic chemistry. Separately they were a bit better (especially Hachimura Rintaro who managed to make his character rather endearing when he could have been very annoying) but sadly it was very difficult to feel engaged into their relationship...The others actors playing secondary roles were quite okay overall, nothing really remarkable but nothing bad neither.

The production value was rather poor, you can feel the limits in the budget with the repetition of the sets and decors, as well as the limits in the directing (fight scenes were just cringe). The music was forgettable but I enjoyed listening to the opening and ending generic.

I would not recommend this to people as there are better school BL out there. This series had some really nice tropes but completly failed to exploit them. I wish they would take the two same storylines (teacher/ student as well as the other side romance) and make it very gritty and dark...I wish they focus solely on those two relationships and give them enough room to develop and be believable. Anyway, too many wishes...It could have been really special but was rather plain instead.

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A Surprisingly Moving Series!

With very didactic moments as well even though it is perhaps categorized under the general category of Comedy. And yet a highly suspect series. One that glosses over a glaring ethical issue that is hard to ignore. Nonetheless, it delicately handles the situation innocently enough as if it is not even an issue or problem. It is the fact that a high school student falls in love with a teacher; and a teacher who falls in love with a high school student. Putting it that way, it sounds immoral, which, most assuredly, it is not. Genuinely a sincerely warm, and smartly done love story done without the slightest hint of impropriety. But I liked this series a lot. It was funny, poignant, scrupulous, and highly principled. Although formulaic at times, it still is entertaining and fun to watch.

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I love a well done adaptation, this one was a little short

To be honest, after watching the trailer I wasn't sure what to expect, it looked corny and the teacher-student relationship seemed uncomfortably inappropriate since it looked like the teacher was coming on to him, no lines were crossed, though there was a bit of an uncomfortable gray area that im not a fan of.

It's the story of a delinquent who falls for his teacher at first sight, and who doesn't love a cute delinquent trope paired with a forbidden relationship. They mostly kept it sweet and innocent, the teacher is recently graduated himself so the age gap is pretty small too, but even still. Oddly enough, there's almost zero mention of the forbidden aspect of their relationship, which is weird because there are a couple scenes where I was like, you guys are just flirting in public orrrrr?

My main issue with this drama is that they really didn't have enough time for plot or character development, this series is too short to do justice to the characters and their stories, even with their relationship they had to speed up the development. Their interactions feel a little forced, and the story feels a bit flat.

The acting is decent, the characters are loveable, although Toki is a bit overboard with his acting, I get that they're trying to stay true to the manga with exaggerated reactions, but it is a tiny but cringe. It gets better as the show goes on though, so you really only have to push through the first couple episodes.

It's a pretty show, the scenery is pretty, the people are pretty, the music is pretty, production was all good quality.

As long as you go into this show looking for a cute shounen ai, knowing that it will have those manga/anime style reactions, you will likely enjoy it. Even with the bits of cringe, and the underrdeveloped story, its still adorable.

ETA-- just read the manga, or at least the first 6 chapters that I could find. Honestly they did a great job, I would have done a few things differently but they definitely did it justice with this adaptation, cute!

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A good "filler" show

Teacher-student story has been around for a long time, but it might be my 1st time watching it in BL and I kinda love it.

I mean the age gap isn't that big and it's not like they do anything "saucy" during those times together. I wouldn't say much to avoid spoilers. Let's say, it isn't as bad as comments section make it out to be. the comments section make it sound like an 18 yo got raped by 70 yo, not even close! LOL.

Anyway, this show isn't really for binge-ing. It's a great episode fo filler when you want sth lighthearted, good laugh and times when you don't want to think or cry or get angry over show

It has a Jap manga vibes, in terms of exaggerated acting and expressions. So, the vibes are different from the typical Jdrama romance. That's why lots of people say they don't feel the chemistry, but I feel it's more of the style of the drama. It isn't designed to be those romantic kind. Although, of course having a better chemistry would definitely help.

I personally feel it's cute to watch, nothing much to expect. Honestly, I watch it because I run out of show to watch, but it's good enough that I don't drop it.

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A sweet and decent show

This is my first Review post so have mercy on me!

Okay managed to binge watch this series in a sitting, And i must say its quite a decent show than most people are saying, But i get we all have our preferences in what we like and not like.

But warning i might get things wrong as i skipped forward on these episodes!

Sahara's and Toki's relationship is pretty cute and sweet throughout the episodes, You maybe grow to like Toki's goofy and exaggerated personality, It is a Student/Teacher relationship but the way they did it seemed pretty decent? I dont really like this trope, because its like very cringy and involves inappropriate things that gets worse when being romanticized and adored, But Sahara's considerate and knows his boundaries between him and Toki's friendship throughout the series.

Some parts in the series are pretty uhh cringy, But its expected isn't it lol? It's not every cup of tea

Toki overthinks certain scenarios with him and Sahara, But he manages to assure Toki once he realizes, Especially the infirmary scene when he fell down the stairs, They had their troubles but managed to work way through it one way or another, Their chemistry together was pretty nice to me.

Nekoto and Sahara on the other hand, I like their chemistry too, Could see it, Not sure why some people hated Nekoto for some reason, He's nice as you finish the series, First impression during flashbacks made you think that hes like, Mean or something but its the opposite, He genuinely liked Sahara but only rejected him because he didn't want to be a bother or ruin Sahara's image as an upcoming national swimmer.

I'm glad they talked it out in the end, It was a one-sided story for the both of them as they parted ways, Shinji's and Takuya's story im quite mehh about, Its a stepbrother trope but they were childhood friends in the past since Takuya's parents died and his Uncle? or Shinji's family adopting him, Their alright but i won't say much.

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An Endearing Romance Between a Delinquent & His Teacher

It takes courage to love. While it doesn’t seem like love requires an ‘I can do this’ mentality, it’s a fragile, easily broken emotion.

Adapted from the manga series Sahara-sensei to Toki-kun by Toriya Ko, starring Kizu Takumi (Sahara Ichiro) and Hachimura Rintaro (Toki Kanade), Mr. Sahara and Toki-kun spins a heartwarming and humorous tale that beautifully intertwines the worlds of a tough-as-nails delinquent, Toki Kanade, and the unexpectedly charming Sahara Ichiro, his dashing PE teacher.

Despite the over-the-top humor and stereotypes, the story unfolds with a keen attention to detail, revealing Toki’s pure-hearted nature beneath his rough exterior. Kizu Takumi’s portrayal of Sahara Ichiro adds charisma to the character, making the growing connection between teacher and student all the more captivating.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/02/07/sahara-sensei-to-toki-kun-series-review-ep-3-to-8/

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