General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Merry Berry Love (メリーベリーラブ)

Merry Berry Love (メリーベリーラブ; Korean: 메리 베리 러브) is a 2026 romantic comedy television series co-produced by Japan's Nippon TV and South Korea's CJ ENM, starring Ji Chang-wook and Mio Imada as a Korean designer and a Japanese strawberry farmer who meet on a small Japanese island. It premiered on October 7, 2026, airing Wednesdays at 10 pm on Nippon TV and streaming worldwide on Disney+.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Native titles	メリーベリーラブ (Japan); 메리 베리 러브 (Korea)³
Production	First series jointly produced by Nippon TV and CJ ENM, the studio behind Crash Landing on You¹^•⁴
Premiere	October 7, 2026; Nippon TV Wednesdays 10:00–10:54 pm; Disney+ exclusive streaming worldwide²^•⁵
Format	10 episodes of about 47 minutes each⁶
Leads	Ji Chang-wook as Lee Yu-bin; Mio Imada as Karin Shirahama¹
Setting	Charo Island (茶呂島), a small, scenic Japanese island⁴
Theme song	"Supermarket" by SEKAI NO OWARI⁴

Spoilers

Premise

Lee Yu-bin (Ji Chang-wook) is a perfectionist Korean spatial designer who built a successful career in Seoul, then loses his status and wealth overnight after an incident: his friend and business partner scams him, and he is forced to sell his firm to settle debts.¹^•⁷ Penniless, he travels to Charo Island in Japan, where his late father left him a plot of land, hoping to sell it and start over.⁸^•⁹

On the island he meets Karin Shirahama (Mio Imada), a young farmer who inherited her late grandfather's strawberry field and is devoted to developing new strawberry varieties, guided by the belief that "strawberries reflect the seasons."⁴ Karin is working toward official certification of her strawberry variety for the third consecutive year; failing again could cost her the relief aid she needs to keep the farm running.⁷ She also lives with a mysterious illness that flares up when her heart rate increases.⁹

After a disastrous first meeting in Karin's strawberry field, Yu-bin schemes to become her desperately needed farmhand so he can win her trust and persuade her to sell the neighboring land his own plot is worthless without.⁷ As the two work together, the plan is complicated by unexpected feelings, and the series follows the pair as they bridge gaps of nationality and language.⁴

Cast and characters

Ji Chang-wook as Lee Yu-bin, a Korean spatial designer who loses everything and comes to Charo Island¹
Mio Imada as Karin Shirahama, a strawberry farmer carrying on her grandfather's farm¹
Nam Yoon-su as Park Kunam, a Korean young man on a working holiday at the island's Asahi Shokai supermarket who falls for Mari¹^•⁴
Rinka Kumada as Mari Mizuno, Karin's best friend, who runs the cafe and bar Serendipity and works as a tarot reader specializing in love¹^•⁴
Kenta Satoi as Kenichi Shirahama and Yasunori Danta as Masaro Kurokawa⁶

A secondary romance runs between Kunam and Mari, adding a second youthful love story to the drama.¹

Production

The series is the first project jointly produced by Japan's terrestrial broadcaster Nippon TV and the Korean studio CJ ENM, whose hits include Crash Landing on You and Queen of Tears.¹^•¹⁰ It was announced in 2025 as part of a strategic collaboration between Nippon Television Holdings and Walt Disney Japan, combining Japanese terrestrial broadcast with worldwide Disney+ distribution.¹⁰

The creative team is largely Korean: the screenplay is by Lee Jae-yoon, and the series is directed by Kim Soo-jung and Noh Young-sub, with Lee Sang-hwa as executive producer.⁴^•¹¹ Although written and directed by South Koreans, the story unfolds largely in rural Japan.⁹ Filming took place in Kyushu, with cooperation from Karatsu City, Kurume City, Fukuoka City, and Noko Island, among other locations.¹² The main theme, "Supermarket" by SEKAI NO OWARI, was announced in September 2026.¹³

The title is an original coinage of the English words "merry," "berry," and "love," and the series is not a remake of an earlier Korean drama or based on any existing manga or novel.¹⁴

Release and reception

The first episode aired on October 7, 2026, at 10 pm on the Nippon TV network (28 stations plus TOS), with Disney+ streaming beginning the same day at 11 pm; TVer carries real-time and catch-up streaming in Japan.²^•¹⁵^•¹³ Disney+ holds exclusive full-series streaming rights, and the show is not available on other Japanese subscription services such as Hulu, U-NEXT, Netflix, or Amazon Prime Video.⁵

Critical response. In a review for the South China Morning Post, journalist Pierce Conran, a Seoul-based film critic and former Korea Executive for XYZ Films, described the series as a glossy co-production that "aims squarely for low-hanging fruit," offering "a procession of cliché-riddled set pieces between its main characters without any real depth."⁹ Audience aggregation on JustWatch gave the series a rating of 8.1 out of 10 based on 139 user ratings as of mid-October 2026.⁶

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › International serial drama and telenovelas › East Asian drama series › East Asian web and streaming serials › Titles Iv to My

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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