Nicole and I did it! We finished Boys & Girls in the City! As expected, I enjoyed it way more than Aloha State.

Tokyo is truly the best city for the Terrace House concept. With it being the capital and most densely packed city, it’s easy to find interesting people, good food, and amazing sights.

But enough about that. Let's get into my thoughts about the cast members and their progression through the series.

Makoto Hasegawa, 22, university student/baseball player

A college student and aspiring baseball player? How could he not be a fan favorite?

But as they say, never judge a book by its cover. His wishy-washy personality really came to light after the first few episodes; he would eat out, drink, and party all week long and miss practice constantly.

The way he played with Minori and Yuriko’s emotions cemented him as trash tier.

Yuriko Hayata, 23, med school student

Yuriko being a med school student seemed like it’d be a breath of fresh air compared to the plethora of aspiring actors and models we’d been getting. Sadly, she didn’t have much screen presence beyond being the cute and innocent one.

At the very least, I really enjoyed her storyline with her ex-boyfriend. She still had feelings for him, and I was really rooting for them to get back together. It was truly the plot out of a J-drama that ended in heartbreak.

Yuki Adachi, 27, tap dancer

Tap was such an asshole, and made for great television.

He stirred up drama early on thanks to his dream police incident, which was so hilarious. I felt bad that Yuriko kind of led him on, but not that bad.

His Costco rejection by Arisa was also so, so hilarious and cringe. The show needs someone to start shit and get shit on. Equivalent exchange and all that.

Mizuki Shida, 22, office worker

I never really got the hype around Mizuki. Yes, she was a cute office worker, but that’s kind of it?

I don’t want to give her crap for lacking ambition, but it did lead into the dream police, one of the most iconic incidents in Terrace House history.

Minori Nakada, 21, university student/model

Minori was a mood. She somehow avoided the dream police when she was one of the laziest people in the series.

But she was no slouch when it came to drama. She was the instigator of some iconic moments like the coward omurice and meat incident, representing the two extremes of get-his-ass and worst-girlfriend-ever, respectively.

Spoilers: Coward omurice was when Uchi wouldn’t make a move on her. The meat incident was when she let everyone cook Uchi’s effing A5 wagyu beef. (Hundreds of dollars, if not a thousand, worth of it.)

Still, I thought she was cute. She just had a lot of room for growth.

Tatsuya Uchihara, 23, hair stylist

Uchi was awesome and one of the few people who had his shit together. He also went to great lengths to defend Minori against one of the show’s biggest bullies. Unfortunate that Minori was a dumbass and let everyone eat his A5 wagyu, although they did make up and leave the show together. <3

He also seemed like a good boyfriend on the show. One of the top tier cast members for sure.

Arman Bitaraf, 24, aspiring firefighter

Arman was such a lazy dumbass, but like in a lovable way. He was just really nice to everyone. I couldn’t tell if he was just desperately going after every girl or just had bad luck with women.

Despite really overstaying his welcome, he did have a good last-minute romance before the end of the show.

Arisa Ohata, 25, hat designer

Arisa didn’t really leave much of an impression on me. Yes, it’s great she has her own career and is focusing on it. But at the same time, she was so busy with work that she rarely did anything with the group. And her work wasn’t interesting enough to become a focus of her show or have its own storyline.

The best part of her stay was the Costco rejection. Tap tried to ask her out, and she was not having it and suggested they go to Costco as a group. Apparently, some English-speaking viewers misconstrued this scene and thought Costco was a hot date spot in Japan. Hilarious.

Hikaru Ota, 18, model

Hikaru was such a cocky douchebag. Great for drama, but such a trash human being.

It really infuriated me that he was 18-years-old, acted like he was so mature, and got pouty when anyone questioned his “manliness.”

His rejection of Misaki was one of the most memorable, brutal scenes, though.

Natsumi Saito, 26, model

Nacchan was one of the biggest shit-stirring psychopaths. Not quite Cheri level, but pretty bad.

She was constantly berating Minori for no reason. Luckily, Uchi was there to call her out for a time, and eventually Hansan.

I honestly thought Hansan got through to her for a bit, but she went back to being catty as hell toward Misaki. I was so glad when Hikaru and her decided to leave the same day.

Yuto Handa, 27, architect

On one hand, Hansan sucks for coming onto Terrace House while being in a committed relationship. On the other hand, he was pretty hot, dispensed good advice, and generally played it cool during his stay.

He was the voice and reason, and because he was hot, he was able to get through to Nacchan… kind of. He suffered the same issues as Arisa where he was so absorbed in his job/schooling, but the producers managed to show plenty of scenes of him working.

Misaki Tamori, 23, entertainer (Ebisu Muscats)

Misaki was such a mess, but in a good way. She was really cute, emotional, and sometimes cringe.

I couldn’t believe she fell for someone like Hikaru, but it led to some great drama and an epic rejection. She and Nacchan also had their constant drama.

I was surprised she managed to hang in there till the end, and it was a good thing she did so that she could get with someone as great as Byrnes.

Truly impressive how she went from the most devastating rejection in the series to the most romantic and beautiful confession. I’ll never forget that scene in front of the Yokohama ferris wheel.

Riko Nagai, 18, high school student/gravure model

Riko seemed so cute and pure, but little did I (and everyone else) know! She bamboozled all of us.

In one of the most shocking twists of Terrace House, she was fully aware of her on-camera persona and tried to come off as innocent. And she and Hayato would’ve gotten away with it if it wasn’t for that meddling Byrnes who saw them kissing by the elevator.

Which brings me the second most shocking twist, that there’s a friggin’ elevator in the house?!

I was glad she stood up Hayato, an even worse human being, in the end. So she comes out slightly ahead in my book.

Momoka Mitsunaga, 20, ballerina

She was adorable and had a great work-focused storyline. She was so into ballet that she rarely hung out with the housemates, but I was still glad the producers were able to show tons of her ballet.

Her performance in the ballet competition was great. It worked out for her, but she had to leave to focus on ballet 100%. Sorry, Arman.

Hayato Terashima, 29, chef apprentice

This dude is 29 and went for the 18-year-old who hadn’t even graduated high school yet.

If that wasn’t bad enough, when they got called out for faking their relationship on-camera, but secretly dating off-camera, he just shut up and made Riko do all the talking.

Throughout their relationship, he never took responsibility for being trash and always pushed the blame onto Riko, or put the onus on her to make a decision. When he got called out, he’d just act pouty and wait for Riko to say something.

Just a terrible person, and I was so happy when Riko rejected his useless ass in the end.

Yuuki Byrnes, 23, hip hop dancer

Byrnes was one of the few emotionally intelligent people on the show. Sometimes, he was a dumbass, but he had a good heart.

When he inadvertently hurt Misaki and it wasn’t even his fault, he still said it was his fault and tried to make her feel better. When something goes wrong, he takes action instead of waiting for others.

I won’t soon forget how he spilled the tea on Riko and Hayato and got the rest of the house to confront them. Just amazing.

So happy he and Misaki found each other on the show (even though I don’t think they’re together now). Their relationship on the show was very cute and healed me during the final arc.

Masako Endo, 23, model

Better known as Martha. She had a bit of a rough start, but she was bamboozled like everyone else by Hayato, the guy she was trying to get with.

At least that led to her and Arman getting together.

Final thoughts

This season started off strong. So much great drama with the initial cast alone.

It kind of dragged a bit when Natsumi came on. Despite the drama she added, it was more infuriating and took away from other storylines.

Despite Riko and Hayato being trash people, the series ended strong. I’ll take Misaki and Byrnes + Martha and Arman. The house had a great vibe by the end and they didn’t end on a completely dysfunctional note like Aloha State.

And now it’s back to Tokyo 2019-2020!

Hi! I'm Jeff Chheng.
This is my blog where I ramble about web dev, video games, and TV.