Love Deadline (ラブ デッドライン) is a Japanese dating reality show released on Netflix on January 23, 2024. It is hosted by Hidetsugu Shibata (from the comedy duo “Untouchable”), Miu Ikeda and Nana Suzuki. Only four episodes with a runtime of about 35-48 minutes have been released with weekly new episodes till February 13, 2024.
In this reality show, single individuals travel to beautiful destinations, ranging from idyllic Okinawa to historic Kyoto, in search of their life partners. The women are tasked with choosing their fate with a man who could be eliminated at any moment. With time running out, and only one chance at proposing, the pressure is on for the women to make the right choice and find their happily ever after.
The cast of the show includes Nona (Konona Shiba), Anna Tsumura, Saki Kamata, Shizuka ‘Shi’ Eto, Sayuri ‘Sayu’ Fujita, Keisuke ‘Kei’ Hashimoto, Takayuki ‘Taka’ Toda, Takuya ‘Okapi’ Okane, Yuta Yanagawa, Yuki ‘Fuku’ Fukuda and Kiichiro Sakamoto.
Love Deadline Review
The show’s premise is that five single women embark on a 30-day trip to various picturesque destinations with a group of 5 eligible bachelors. During this journey, the women assess their compatibility with the men through a series of dates. But, there’s a twist! The men have a limited time on the trip and can be asked to leave the show, at any moment.
The women are given only one opportunity to propose during the trip. She can only do so once the man she is interested in is asked to leave. If a woman proposes to a man and he accepts, they become engaged. However, if he rejects the proposal, the woman must leave alone. Alternatively, she can choose not to propose and continue playing the game, hoping to find a potential match with a different man.
In Love Deadline episode 1, all the contestants are introduced to the audience and each other, against the backdrop of a beach in Okinawa. Although the show states that it’s meant for the women who have missed their chance at getting married, the maximum age remains only 35, and the youngest is 27 – none of them would be regarded as ‘chance missed’.
Similarly, the oldest among male contestants is 37, while the youngest is 29. Which is an appropriate/general age for marriage. As soon as all the contestants are introduced, everyone is given an iPhone, so that the participants can exchange messages and call each other during their free time using the dedicated phones provided. It also means that all their conversations can be accessed by the show creators.
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Right in the start it has been mentioned that the guys only have 6 days to create a connection, although the contestants are oblivious of this deadline. They were free to talk, and date anyone on the first day, while the women were told to ask the guys out on a date, the next day. Yuta seemed quite popular initially but chose Anna to go on a date with. Okapi was asked out by Nona, while Kei went out with Sayuri. The leftover contestants went on a group golf date.
Alternatively, the next day the men asked the women out. In many cases, the contestants chose people they haven’t interacted much with, instead of asking their potential interests out. So far only one game was played on the show, where women had to throw their opponent off the paddle board. Shizuka ‘Shi’ Eto was quite straightforward in pointing to Okapi as her date choice and showed determination by winning the matches. However, their actual date was quite awkward since Okapi wasn’t reciprocating with her love bombing.
Before the first eliminations, the contestants were asked to choose the person they would go on a lavish date with. If both people chose each other, only they would be able to go. In a way, it was a chance to gauge their connection’s feelings or find/appeal to the one they like. Little did they know that by the end of the day, one of the male contestants would be asked to leave. The ladies were given a deadline of 10 AM the next day to show their intent to propose the eliminated person.
The man was asked to wait in a location for interested ladies to come propose to him and if nobody showed up till 10 AM, he would be walking out alone. Simultaenously, a new male contestant joined the show, which could make ladies change their decision of proposing or waiting to find a new connection. With the new entry, they also changed their location from Okinawa to Kyoto. And went to various dates, wearing the traditional attire.
The way things were going, one would have expected that at least one of the ladies would propose to the eliminated guy since he had made good connections with two women. Unexpectedly or maybe not, they seemed quite hesitant to propose. Despite making it clear that women had to be the ones making the first move (mostly), the contestants are quite reserved or passive. They expect the men to approach them first and then stick to choosing them, even if the women go through the list.
Even the editing of the show is quite choppy, they hardly explore the start till the end of any date and only show bits of their conversation. Looking at these snippets, it’s hard to judge if the couple even has a connection or not. It’s quite disengaging as one is unable to know a single contestant or their type properly. Compared to other shows, there’s hardly any restriction. They have phones at all times to communicate and all the free time to meet. Yet nobody seems to initiate anything and stay within their premises until the show creators ask them to.
Unsure whether it’s the Japanese culture or just these contestants, but nobody’s really proactive like people are on a dating show. It could also be due to the 30-day period that they are taking a laid-back approach, however, as a viewer it isn’t exciting/dramatic enough to continue watching further. Overall, it’s a decent dating show with picturesque backdrops of Japan and could be helpful in getting date ideas with your loved one.
Rating: 3/5
Love Deadline is available for streaming on Netflix. New episodes will be released on January 30, 2024.
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