Opportunity knocks...

... and ruins the love story of our leads. Boy, these kids just can't get a break, can they?

But Naoki had to give her that option to leave, even though she said she wanted to stay with him. If he didn't, he'd have come across pretty selfish and that's not in keeping with his Mr. Nice Guy image, the Naoki we've come to know and love. So, yes, this was heartbreaking to watch -- I had hoped the writers would have come up with something fresher than same old separation cliche -- but at least it made sense why it had to be done.

My hope is that everybody gets what they want and it ends well. Will they give me that? I don't know.

Another Snoozer. Hopefully the Last?

A step up from episode 9, but I this has some of the lamest symptoms if the Noble Idiot Syndrome I've ever seen. Full of "We should still follow our dreams to the end" "I'm still your biggest fan" rhetoric, nothing seems to happen except that our leads aren't actually happy, but aren't quite depressed yet.

Here's a thought: Maybe they could both persue their dreams separately but add a little more gusto into their hopes of a relationship? I blame the writers on this one. As much as I hate angst when it's overdone, this is almost too mellow.