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As Love Village returns to Netflix for its 18-episode second season, which releases in two parts, it’s with returning hosts Atsushi Tamura and Becky continuing to observe the action from inside a studio – or inside a little box on the screen – as nine new contestants, who this time range in age from 35 to 59, attempt to ring “the love bell.” Will two people declare their love for each other, and depart the compound to spend the rest of their lives together? What about how Love Village is one of these shows that loves to plug in new contestants midway through the proceedings? (That is not a reality show feature specific to age.) And for that matter, who’s gonna handle all of the onsite cooking? As Atsushi and Becky observe the aging contestants’ arrival, it’s with jokes about how everyone looks like they’re from the Shōwa era.
LOVE VILLAGE – SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: As scenes appear from this season on Love Village, the series narrator tees up some excitement. “A real and intense love story of adults entering later life days is about to begin once more!”
The Gist: The Love Village, such as it is, is a compound in Okinawa which includes a 150-year-old house, an outbuilding with its own history as a pig pen, and about an acre of surrounding land, where the pink “love bell” watches over things from a nearby hill. In other words, don’t look for the show’s arriving participants to begin mingling at a poolside champagne bar while they compare notes on spray tans and swimsuit maintenance. The women arrive first, a group that includes 57-year-old dietician Sen-Ne, 40-year-old actress Chii, 45-year-old artist Tamifull, and 51-year-old gym owner Pachi Yumi, who hosts Atsushi and Becky remark is the mother of their fellow Japanese media personality Nicole Fujita. And in typical Love Village fashion, the shared living quarters they discover in Okinawa begin Love Village as a complete mess.
With the arrival of the men – salon owner Akpon (44), businessman “Manhattan” (59), music teacher Gitarin (52), and pilot “Captain” (48), who the series has in a flight suit, just to drive home the nickname – the Love Village-ers get to work cleaning up the place, which gives the hosts an opportunity to observe emerging hierarchies. (Pachi Yumi is an early adopter of the “order everyone else around” persona.) Their living quarters are shared – no beds, but plenty of tatami mats and sleeping bags – there is an itemized food budget for the group – 500 yen per day per person – and as they renovate the old house, they will also live “semi self-sufficiently” by gathering vegetables from the garden for meals. Village also confiscates participants’ phones and devices, making all conversations potential grounds for love matches.
Everyone wants to ring the bell and declare their love, but a big move like that also comes with risk, since the love declarer will get the boot if the object of their desire does not reciprocate. Season 1 of Love Village made its share of matches, so there is precedent for this system to work. Then again, Season 1 also brought in new participants on the regular. Most everyone on Love Village seems committed to quickly shooting their shot for a potential match.
Photo: NetflixWhat Shows Will It Remind You Of? Love Village host Becky also appears in the same capacity on the Japanese road trip romance romp Ainori Love Wagon. (Netflix features two seasons of the series, plus its Africa-based spinoff.) And Last One Standing continues to be one of Netflix’s more intriguing Japanese reality programs, with comedians telling funny or poignant stories to escape dramatic scenarios. And women make moves for marriage matches on the Japanese reality romance series Love Deadline, also new on Netflix.
Our Take: We can’t imagine any contestants on any reality other show with love in the title agreeing to harvest their own vegetables, adhere to a strict daily food budget, agree to live and sleep in a vintage structure where privacy is at a premium, and to be in charge of its maintenance. But those are all real things that are really a part of the program on Love Village, where you’re expected to complete your chores before you gather the points to score. It creates an interesting dynamic, because people seem more than willing to do things like collect and prepare shimana for the group to eat, while at the same time they prepare to make plays for a preferred match.
This does not mean that Love Village does not want to instigate. Titles that call out who it was who kept everybody up with her snoring? This show definitely likes to needle its participants! Chatty hosts Atsushi Tamura and Becky are also funny as they observe the proceedings, either from the studio or via an inset box on screen, and their commentary compares and contrasts what contestants said in their audition videos with how they act inside the house. Atsushi can’t let it go when Gitarin, having described how much money he’s saved for his future wife, seems concerned that his preferred match lives in a wealthy area.
But beyond the novelty of its format, Love Village also feels unique in how determined the participants are to succeed in ringing that bell. For these folks, issues of aging aren’t just for TV. Tears flow by the end of episode 1, as some Village-ers express worry that they’ll never have children. Beyond promises of prize money or viral celebrity, it’s the worth of a match for its longevity that’s driving these peoples’ reality.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Back in the studio, Atsushi and Becky discuss the early potential for a love match that is already seeing some competition. “Their thoughts and feelings on marriage are a little different; unless the gap is bridged, they can’t come together.”
Sleeper Star: Early on in Love Village, the contingent of men in the house seem to be hitting it off as pals in a pretty natural way, which could cause conflict down the road. Their number is already smaller by one to the women’s group. Do these guys stay friends or turn on each other?
Most Pilot-y Line: A lot of the Love Village-ers express their solidarity with Chii’s decision to participate. “My reason for coming here is, above all, to get married. I want to get married quickly. I’ve been actively searching for a marriage partner lately, and I came here really hoping to find my true-life partner who shares the same dreams.”
Our Call: Stream It. In a sea of reality romance drama, Love Village stands out as an island. With its older demographic, smaller helpings of the usual dating show tactics, and participants who seem really committed to making a match – not to mention its setting, which is one-of-a-kind for the genre – there is plenty of potential for the new season of Love Village to find the same enjoyable grooves as its first installment.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.
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