The Noona Romance

Are you constantly watching Asian dramas with an older woman younger guy relationship or as it is commonly known “The Noona Romance”? Have you ever wondered what the reason behind your fascination is and why we seem to love the concept? Well I’m here to break it down and try to find out why we love the Noona Romance.


1. The Love Chase
In almost all cases the guy loves his “noona” first. This is a common concept in dramaland but it’s even better with a noona romance because she nearly always rejects his feelings at the start because she thinks it’s absurd to date a younger guy. This might break our little hearts but the love chase is brilliant as the guy does everything he can to get her to like him and his cute chasing of his noona makes us love him even more. 


2. Role Swapping
If you watch a normal older guy younger girl romance drama there is a sense that he’s the person who’s the responsible one. He’s the one who is the heir to the big corporation; he’s the one who has his life sorted out and is supposedly the strong one. But it all gets switched around with the noona romance. She’s usually strong, independent, and she has a stable life. She is doing things her way; basically she’s the real deal when it comes to capable women and she doesn’t need a rich heir to make her happy because she’s doing things for herself. When we see this reversal of roles its really amazing but also gives the relationship an obstacle because she is the one who is out in the real world and is constantly thinking of the real problems she faces, the male on the other hand usually only think of his noona and not much else but that’s one of the reasons why we love him. 



3. How They Change Each Other for the Better

Even though our female leads may be strong and independent sometimes the real world can make them very narcissistic, judgmental and even downright mean. This is understandable in most cases and it is because of years of hardship and striving to be the best at what they do. But when our male leads eventually win their noonas' hearts we can see changes in their personality and see them become nicer people. As well as that our male leads bring out the fun side of our heroine and makes her enjoy life a little bit more and not to be serious all the time; I mean life’s for living right? But there are not just changes in our females but also in our males. Often times the male leads are quite immature and while we love them for that there are serious situations they have to endure with our heroines which makes them mature and realise that although you can have fun, the world is fierce out there. He has to realise life won’t  always be fun and games. 



4. Opposites Attract
This is usually a factor in a noona romance. It’s usually means he is a young immature guy who doesn’t know everything about the world and she’s a tough realistic woman who thinks she has seen it all. It also could mean that they have completely different interests and different ideas and opinions about the world as well. It’s always interesting to a viewer when two people who are opposites fall in love and it's lovely when they can help improve each other’s flaws and love each other no matter how different they are. 




5. Pure Love
When a man falls in love with an older woman in Asian dramas one of the main reasons we love the couple is because he has only eyes for her. A guy who never strays his eye and only has one girl in his heart is every girls ideal guy and we love to see his heart be touched by her and her heart be touched by him. When he’s so sweet and has no other objective than just to be together forever with the woman he loves, you can’t help but love him. 



6. Love Always Wins
Finally we love when the couple is able to eventually overcome all the obstacles they face and fears they have and live happily together. It makes our hearts swoon and realise that no matter what their age difference, they can have their happily ever after. 



Thanks for reading my first article. I hope my reasons for loving noona romances were at least kind of similar to yours :)