Better in Fiction Than In Real Life: The Hopeless Romantic

Kurosawa to the right--look at that happy face!

It's hard to see the downside to the archetype of the hopeless romantic (but see below), especially since it is so entirely cute. 

Kurosawa from Cherry Magic is a hopeless romantic. He has spent most of his life being approached by women because of his looks. While he hasn't become cynical (he is far too well-balanced mentally to complain about being handsome), he is bowled over when Adachi (before Adachi can read minds) helps him out after a company dinner. 

Kurosawa is invited to the dinner for his looks, Adachi for his youth. Kurosawa prepares to meet the company head by looking up background information and memorizing products. Turns out, she just wants to chat and flirt and tease the eye-candy. Kurosawa gets drunk--after finishing off Adachi's alcoholic beverage--and is mocked by his seniors: "He had one job to do--to look handsome--and he couldn't even do that."

Adachi trails after Kurosawa to make sure that he doesn't fall into a fountain or something. Adachi then delivers one of Adachi's low-key speeches that makes clear that Adachi (1) noticed what Kurosawa DID rather than how he appears; (2) finds Kurosawa's imperfect side "refreshing" and quite amusing.

Kurosawa falls for him to the nth degree. 100%. No doubts. No take-backs. Over the moon.

Whether anything would have happened between them if Adachi hadn't gained the ability to read minds is anyone's guess. 

In any case, Adachi's mind-reading confronts him with Kurosawa's hopeless romantic side--that is attracted to Adachi's "bed head," that imagines over-the-top dating scenarios, that takes way too many pictures and videos of Adachi, that buys him stuff and bought him stuff even before he and Adachi started dating. 

Adachi is daunted, amused at the "mushiness," and touched. 

Earlier scene that shows Kurosawa's

heartache.

Adachi also becomes aware of the pain felt by a hopeless romantic and moves to (try to) meet Kurosawa half-way. One of the most heart-breaking moments in the series is when Kurosawa confesses and then tries to reassure a flummoxed Adachi that everything will go back to normal. Adachi has (over) heard enough of Kurosawa's thoughts by this point to know that Kurosawa is bluffing and forces himself to make a concrete decision.

Cherry Magic handles the hopeless romantic with gentle insight. Frasier shows us what happens when the hopeless romantic goes WAY too far. Frasier feels left out when Niles and Daphne begin to date. He tries to match them by fast-forwarding a relationship with the next woman he asks out: we met...now, here are five bouquets of roses, a string orchestra under your window, video chats every day, a personal song tribute...

And it backfires. She dumps him. 

In comparison, it helps that Kurosawa not only restrains himself but has an objective side. 

Hopeless romanticism is enchanting to watch but the truth is, I kind of understand Larry from Numb3rs a tad better: Every Wednesday is lunch...every alternate Thursday is...you get one wild card...notice must be provided...

Kurosawa is thrilled to get a present on Valentine's Day

from Adachi--and he eats the chocolates even though

they are too spicy and Adachi tries to stop him.