Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
Takumi-kun is a novel series created by Shinobu Gotoh spanning 28 volumes of complicated teen romances at an elite boarding school for boys. It was published between 1992 and 2014. And the 2025 Japanese live-action drama tries to compress all that in six little live-action episodes, with only partial success.
Shiozaki Daichi plays the primary protagonist, Hayama Takumi, the titular Takumi-kun, an asocial loner with a deep aversion to physical touch or any form of intimacy. However, when his popular roommate, Saki Giichi (Kato Daigo), confesses his love, Takumi is forced to confront his own conflicted feelings for the handsome classmate.
In just six episodes of under half an hour each, ‘Takumi-Kun‘ also peeks into the romantic struggles of three other couples at Shidō Academy, a luxurious boarding school crawling with privileged teens. Takumi, however, is an outsider from a humble background, burdened by a traumatic past that explains his fear of touch. Taya Totaro plays top student Akaike Shozo, a close friend of Gii, often playing the agony aunt/mediator between Gii and Takumi-Kum.
When not weighed down by matters of the heart, these young men keep busy with English lessons, poetry, student council meetings, and competitive sports. The cinematography charmingly captures the rhythm of boarding school life, with a campus that’s a curious blend of nostalgia and modernity, echoing the school’s aristocratic past as an academy for noble sons.
The mercurial Izumi Takabayashi, entertainingly portrayed by Sekoguchi Ryo, is one of the most interesting characters in the show. He is constantly pursued by someone or the other due to his good looks, and is a total brat who doesn’t flinch at physically attacking or slapping people who annoy him. His roommate, Yoshizawa (played by Yuga), is the primary victim of Izumi’s mood swings, although a romance eventually brews between them.
Unfortunately, Takumi and Gii turn out to be the dullest couple in the series. On paper, they’re the classic “opposites attract” duo. Takumi is the shy boy from Kansai, and Gii, the suave, worldly heartthrob raised in the United States. But the series never bothers to show what actually draws Gii to his reserved roommate.
There are already plenty of Takumi-Kun live-action adaptations out there; I’ve seen two of them, and they were quite forgettable. This 2025 version starts off with a lot of promise – the boarding school setting is visually appealing, and the students don’t have the outlandish hairstyles seen in older versions – but with the limited runtime fragmented into multiple tales, many characters do not get enough space to grow.
Visually, this might be the most watchable adaptation of the popular BL series out there.
You can stream ‘Takumi-kun’ on GagaOolala.
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