A new reality series offers a refreshingly bold remix of the stereotypical Japanese dating show.
Where such programs usually begin with two painfully shy people engaging in clipped, overly formal small talk, Badly in Love features two yankī — self-identifying young delinquents, often sporting dyed blonde hair — nearly coming to blows. The series doesn’t let up from there, offering intense but always sincere character portraits of earnest, if occasionally line-crossing contestants as they contend with trauma, regret, and the tribulations of on-screen romance.
Badly in Love “feels like Japan’s answer to MTV’s Jersey Shore,” The Japan Times wrote, “another series that centered a maligned subculture and dared viewers to look closer.”