Countdown to Yes – Eng Sub
- Title: Countdown to Yes
- Type: Drama
- Format: Standard Series
- Country: Japan
- Episodes: 10
- Aired: Jan 13, 2026 – ?
- Aired On: Tuesday
- Original Network: YTV
- Duration: 30 min.
Minato Yokoi and Wataru Nakano became best friends in high school after a shared love of photography, and even lived together during university. When Minato moved to Hokkaido for work, Wataru returned to their empty apartment and finally realized he was in love. Scared of those feelings, he stopped contacting Minato entirely. Three years later, while Wataru is working at a local photo studio, Minato suddenly messages him to say he’s being transferred back home.
Wataru is thrilled but tries to convince himself to stay “just friends.” That resolve collapses the moment they reunite, and all his feelings come back at full force. Then, Minato casually drops a bomb: “Let’s live together.”
Wataru can’t hide how happy it makes him, but he still refuses, clinging to the safety of friendship over a relationship that might someday end. Minato doesn’t give up, though. With straightforward words and actions, he pushes closer, determined not to let Wataru run away from love again.
“Countdown to Yes” is a Japanese BL series of 11 Episodes, which finished just recently, and flew a bit under the radar. Japanese BL series always have this special place in my heart. There is this sincerity and gravitas Japanese people show, even in romance series. This is about Minato and Wataru, having been best friends since High School days, sharing an apartment for saving cost, and being united by their love for photography.
This hobby of theirs makes for a lot of truly memorable flashbacks, something I am usually a bit mixed, but those moments with very few words with Wataru is busy with making photos of the landscape and Minato is way more interested by making pictures of Wataru instead. Those are quiet, tender moments, some unspoken love that is there. But Wataru is haunted by the idea, when he realizes his feelings for Minato, if the love fails, would they not lose their friendship?
The series is carried by fine details of everyday intimacy, of growing together over years, when Minato leaves the country for three years, where the main plot sents in, when Minato returns and they struggle with how their story should continue. The series had two really good actors complementing each other well, and since Japan has no ships, you have the benefit to give all into the actors and the story, uncertain what will happen in the end. Overall it wasn’t a huge drama, mostly wholesome, but I found great value in the inner struggles both MC’s have on a day to day level, which was filmed with the typical talent for “elevated realism” typical for Japanese series. You just felt inside a real, lived in world, where in contrast Thai BLs often feel a bit too “fantasy realism”, if you get my meaning.
Here every gesture, every little moment together is like a window in a realistic world of two young men finding a way into their future, and even without great drama, the many small everyday dramas carried the eleven episodes very well, with a soft, wonderful but never intrusive music score. It was well worth watching, lacking nothing, achieving for what it aimed like those nice spring times you remember years later, even if the details escape you.
8.5/10
Recommended