REVIEW: ‘Badly In Love’ Episodes 5-7

Love continues to spread like wildfire at Badly In Love Academy. As Hikaru aka Tekarin reflects plenty in Badly In Love Episode 5 through Episode 7, Cupid’s love arrow flies left, right, and center around Nisei Sakurai aka Nisei and Yuria aka Baby. With only four days left before these delinquents have to make their final decisions, everyone is putting their hearts out there and throwing out some nasty love tactics. 

Badly In Love Episode 5, “I Was So Lonely. I Want A Baby”, begins with the sauna talk between Nisei and Otoha aka Oto-san. This is by far the most forward and rough conversation to watch, as Oto-san addresses her feelings towards Nisei, while bringing up marriage and kids.

Easily, Nisei is at the center of stirring everyone’s pot in Episodes 5-7. Nisei is a little wishy-washy when he doesn’t flat out reject any of the girls, and ends up leading them on. It’s unclear if the men or women are picking up on Nisei’s decisions and how he deals with the ramifications.

Badly In Love Episode 5 through Episode 7 ramp up as we approach the end.

One of the funniest lines of Episode 5 is after the men decide to write impromptu letters to the women they’re interested in. When the men go over to the female dormitory, the men prompt the women to check their cubbies for letters they wrote. The women are surprised, and then Shunya Tsukahara, aka Tsu-chan, blurts, “Yes, we let you have them” with a straight face. 

At first, Tsu-chan’s words seem like a translation mix-up, but even the hosts laugh about the way Tsu-chan said that. The impromptu letters are endearing to see the men unilaterally deciding to write them because it doesn’t show the announcer coming on the PA system, or any staff telling them to do that. It feels more organic. In a reciprocative manner, the women simply send back circles and X’s to the men they’re interested in.

Shockingly, both Tsu-chan and Nisei receive circles from all five women. Nisei jokes to the private interview camera, “Finally, my hard work is paying off.” At this point, everyone sees Nisei’s playboy attitude within the dating show, whereas Tsu-chan comes off more as the class clown who gets along with everyone. Sadly, Sho Tsuda, aka Tackle, gets no circles, solidifying that he needs to try harder. 

Then tensions rise further when Nisei is given the opportunity to go on a glamping lunch date with one of the women. When Nisei chooses Baby, the hosts’ jaws drop, and Takumi Sato, aka Milk, is steaming. Rightfully so, since Milk and Baby have been the most solid so far.

Arguably justified, Milk sees Nisei and Baby off on their date at the school entrance, but Nisei and Milk begin to push each other around. If this were an American reality show like Big Brother or a dating show like The Bachelor/Bachelorette, fists and legs would be flying.

But again, these Japanese men only jostle each other until a security guard breaks them up. Milk could’ve played it cool, but now it looks like he’s super jealous—Baby doesn’t react to this, or at least based on what the camera shows. Luckily, the squabble doesn’t escalate or get Milk kicked out for starting the small tussle. 

Badly In Love Episode 6 brings a wholesomeness to the reality dating series.

Crazily enough, Nisei and Baby grow fonder of each other out of the glamping trip, revealing more about Nisei’s bad boy past and how he learned to be a better person by not making her cry when he was sent to juvenile training school. The host, Ak-69, reveals he understands Nisei’s feelings because he remembers that when he was on trial to go to juvie, he saw his dad cry for the first time.

This is what makes Badly In Love’s host panel great and balanced; they have the producer/creator, a rapper, and a comedian. While they’re all funny, Ak-69 and MEGUMI bring the raw connections they have to the contestants because they were delinquents once, too. Meanwhile, Nagano makes witty banter, but he’s also very observant.

And then, there are more hilarious lines when the host Nagano says, “This is the same woman who disliked water,” when Nisei and Baby share a bath together after their glamping lunch together. Nagano adds, “Today, she overcame her fear of water,” as Baby comments to the private interview camera that she finds Nisei’s body hot. Baby tries to hide her blush underwater.  

Episode 6, “Once I Fall in Love, Everyone Else is Just Noise,” is one of the most wholesome episodes of the series so far—with Tekarin as the star. Episode 6 feels like a nice full-circle moment for Tekarin because she starts off crying about her last love match with Isamu Nishizawa, aka Yanboh, but then comes out of the episode calling her older brother about a long-time dispute she had with him.

Ultimately, this reflection and confrontation with her brother over the phone allows her to open up with Tensei Nanahoshi, aka Ten-ten. This situation also sees her overcome what she calls “love-dodging,” in which she always avoids her love interests by acting cold toward them.

The thank you letters from the children at Cafe Chocolate also help boost Tekarin’s self-esteem, and reminds her that she wanted to be a kindergarten teacher at some point after sustaining an injury—and giving up professional kendo.

Nagano jokes about how Tekarin reconnecting with her shut-in older brother throws off the vibes. “Is this still a dating show?” he remarks. But MEGUMI laughs but responds profoundly, “Yes, it’s still a dating show. But these people have pasts and regrets too.” Despite these rowdy cast members exhibiting deviant behaviors, it’s these heartfelt moments that show they’re trying their best.  

Badly In Love Episode 7 takes the contestants on a fate you’d see in any shojo series.

Badly In Love Episode 7, “Better to Jump In Than Sit Out,” sees the Badly In Love Academy cast suiting up in yukatas and heading on a yakatabune/dinner cruise.  The cinematography is stunning, capturing the boat sailing across the Tokyo Bay sunset. Just as stunning, AMO, aka Amo’s menacing smiles, she throws Nisei’s way.

Every time Oto-san pulls him away, Amo follows shortly after, like Kayako Saeki in Ju-On. Amo keeps her love ammo stocked and ready to shoot the moment someone gets too close to Nisei—both entertaining and scary to watch.

Overall, Amo and Oto-san’s rivalry plays up for the camera that she’s the villain, and Oto-san is a victim—or at best, Oto-san is a hopeless romantic. On the dinner cruise, Amo takes Nisei above the boat to talk to him, and the others encourage Oto-san to go bother them.

The remaining group members in the boat tell her, “You should go, it’s the world we live in.” The hosts laugh about that line, “it’s the world we live in,” because that’s a very honest way of telling someone to go fight for your love.  

Tsu-chan makes some promising progress, pulling Baby aside to share some of his feelings towards her—admitting he’s her number one pick from the start. The hosts quickly realize that Baby now has three potential love interests, as Tsu-chan brings out her fun, cute side.

The most wholesome love pairing of the bunch is Tekarin and Ten-ten, as they also break off to talk about their intentions. It’s amazing to see how much clarity Tekarin has and is willing to find love with Ten-ten. She goes as far as telling Ten-ten, “I’m staying on this show for you.” If that’s not pure love, I don’t know what is. Tekarin might be the youngest Badly In Love cast member, but she’s very honest about her feelings.

The only critique of Badly In Love Episode 5-7 is how much Kirei aka Kiichan and Tackle are sidelined for these three episodes. Otherwise, the ratcheted-up love triangle…rhombus…pentagon between Nisei, Baby, Milk, Oto-san, and Amo appears to be the star of this batch of episodes. With less than four days left, episodes 8-10 will ultimately reveal who is badly in love with whom, and who will leave broken-hearted. 

Badly In Love Episodes 1-7 are currently streaming on Netflix, with Episodes 8-10 premiering on December 23rd to finish off the season.