This made no sense
Honestly I agree with you. The characters are fine and cute but it's totally obvious that the author just wanted to make a story with the "teacher x student" trope but trying to make it legal, so of course the context could only be forced... First of all it's clear that the coma was just used as a pretext to make him return to school as an adult, but the point is that this just makes no sense, because you can't have an adult of that age (22/23) who enroll in high school, like that, after years, it was just weird! Imagine if he woke up at 30, or collapsed when he was in middle school, then would he still have been allowed to re-enroll? Of course I'm exaggerating, but that's the logic, apparently.
Oh no, of course everyone has the right to graduate if they want to resume their studies, I didn't mean like that! But for example in my country there are specific courses to attend for adults who didn't graduate at the "right" age and want to get their diploma, but of course you can't be like 40 years old and enroll in high school or in middle school... Only university allows enrollment to people of every ages (but you need to have the high school diploma of course), so this situation was just really weird to me But yes, I agree with all the other things that you mentioned!
Now that I think about it you're right too, eventually he's just 3-4 years older than his classmates in this case, but it didn't help the fact that the professor is the same age as him! Indeed, my disappointment comes from the fact that the whole situation is actually quite bizarre... I don't know but it felt really weird to me that they were childhood best friends and school mates and now they've reunited and started dating in this student-teacher dynamics... It's just my opinion but I think at this point it would've been much better if they were complete strangers to each other, and he still could've been like 22-23 but the professor needed to be a few years older! I might have liked something like this.
I can't believe that so many people are obsessed with Shinpei just cause he is a crazy hot dude. Like let us get some depth in the characters. The backstory was a nice touch and kind of different from the typical I liked you since we were young. Also, so many of you treat Kotaro like he is the bad guy, he is just trying to protect Satoko. Just imagine finding the girl you love and trying to protect in love with a crazy killer who tried to murder you... and yes, I do like Shinpei and hope to see his development, let's just cut Kotaro some slack. He isn't even trying to get her for himself, all he wants is for her to have a peaceful and loving life with someone respectable.
Kothari is also hot and I'd say more than Shinpei cuz he's not scrawny. I'm not gonna cut kotaro any slack. He's trying to control her and taking away her autonomy. He's not thinking of her happiness at all. He could've reasoned with her, found another solution, helped her win her father over or just vowing to support her and kill Shinpei if he makes her unhappy. But instead of doing anything like that he's forcefully taking her away from the man she loves. Does her feelings not matter? She's been coddled all her life and now when she wants and has decided something for herself he's trying to take it away. If he really cared for her happiness, he'd respect her decision. What guarantee is there that Satoko will find peace and love from someone else? Right now she loves Shinpei and wants to be with him and he is also devoted to her. Last ch made Satoko's feelings clear, does the idiot really think she'll be happy marrying into a wealthy and respectable family when she loves someone else? He knows she won't be but still because she fell in love with Shinpei and wants him while he can't have her is ticking him off. It's so obvious that's what this is about. I hate guys like him and unless he gets his head on straight I'll never like him
We're not babies, I like him precisely because he's a murderer. But see, Kotaro's not being like this just because he's a murderer but because Satoko fell for him. Satoko can't control her feelings but Kotaro's trying to control her. Thinking Shinpei ain't good for her is perfectly valid but taking away Satoko's agency and her freedom of choice isn't. Also trying to get her away from Shinpei, whom she loves, and getting married to someone she doesn't love is not thinking of her happiness, it's making her miserable. He's being extremely selfish.
Great point! Not considering the amount of times Shinpei's saved Satoko even at the cost of his own life. Just saying Shinpei's a murderer and not good for her is a very narrow way of looking at things. She feels free with Shinpei, he respects her decisions even if he does try his hardest to make her sway. She was coddled in her home but experienced so many new things with him. At her home no one allowed her to do anything but now she's proved how capable she is. Of course she'd choose Shinpei.
And why is killing criminals necessary? What gives ANYONE the right to kill another person no matter the reason? Why does the police have this power? You think police doesn't kill innocents? That's a whole another can of worms so let's just not get into it. What kotaro did essentially isn't all that different from Shinpei, they've both killed only difference is that one is protected by the law. Shinpei's job is a hitman just like Kotaro's job as a policeman. There's no reason to assume that Shinpei has only ever killed innocents, all sorts of targets must have come to him. Also, Kotaro and Shinpei's circumstances are completely different. While we don't know much about Shinpei it's clear that his upbringing was not good and he killed people for survival. Kotaro belongs to a well-off family he hasn't had a hard life. And as Satoko's bodyguard, if there was a difficult situation he would've also killed people to protect Satoko but that won't be considered a problem because that's his job right? Even tho he killed it's okay. That's just hypocrisy.
Neither man has behaved perfectly ethically. But while Shinpei's hands are bloodier in his past, his current motivations to save Satoko repeatedly demonstrate sacrifice and redemption. Kotaro's motivations come across as more selfish in contrast - he wants the woman he loves to be with him regardless of her own wishes.
Is the ending open?