It’s nice to see someone on screen begin to understand that love and how we feel about it is a personal experience that shouldn’t be tainted by a portion of society’s standardized view of it.

Adapted from the manga series Kimi to Nara Koi wo Shite Mite mo by Kubota Maru, the Japanese BL If It’s With You starring Hyuga Wataru (Yamasuge Ryuji) and Okura Takato (Kaido Amane) is a poignant tale about opening up and falling in love without feeling judged for doing so.

In If It’s With You, Amane is bullied into being ashamed of his feelings and the attraction he has for men. It steered him into a narrow path blocked by walls of fear. Ryuji tears down those walls, not only for Amane but for the viewers watching.

And that’s what’s so special about If It’s With You. For five episodes, It pushes away the bullies and says, “Love is as personal as the person feeling it.”

Love is much like the reviews we write, the dramas and films we watch, the books we read, and the art we look at. It’s meant to be a personal story between yourself and whoever induces the feelings you have. Which is why every take on it is subjective. The only bad takes on love aren’t how a person interprets their own emotions in a private setting; it’s when someone else feels the need to spew public hate on personal feelings.

It feels good to watch a drama where a character like Ryuji takes that hate and puts it where it belongs: trashed. Safely set aside where it can’t color what he and Amane are working out. Even when Ryuiji’s carefully figuring out the confusion he has over his feelings, he never ruins how Amane feels about him.

Oh, what a world this would be if it were full of Ryujis.

First love should be experienced and enjoyed, no matter how it may end or continue later. Unashamed. Untainted. Unjudged.

Because love beyond our families opens up a whole new world we didn’t understand before it happens. A world we won’t always understand after it happens, but a world where experiencing it–the good and the bad–is part of growing. And being. And learning.

From the first moment Amane and Ryuji meet to the end when they hold hands before a sun-rise backdrop, If It’s With You is a beautiful journey of growth, understanding, and letting go inside a world that doesn’t judge you for feeling something.

We live in a digital world where being free to speak our minds means hearing a lot of voices with a lot of different opinions. Much like the voices and images that Amane sees and hears, the ones holding him back. It’s refreshing watching Ryuji shut that off, watching him switch off the black hole of noise Amane has fallen into.

Freedom to say and feel whatever we want is a good thing, a privilege not everyone has. But we don’t always consider those around us when we speak. We’re safe behind a bubble where we don’t know the extent of the damage we can create with the words we say and the actions we take unless someone bursts that bubble.

We need a lot more Ryujis in the world.

For a drama that loves without judgment and learns to love without shame, check out If It’s With You on Gagaoolala.

Rating- 4.5 out of 5