General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20264 min read

Why I Dress Up for Love (着飾る恋には理由があって)

Why I Dress Up for Love (Kikazaru Koi ni wa Riyuu ga Atte, 着飾る恋には理由があって) is a Japanese romantic comedy television drama broadcast on TBS's Tuesday 10 p.m. drama slot from April 20 to June 22, 2021, in ten episodes¹. It follows Kurumi Mashiba, a publicist for an online interior-goods company who builds her identity and social standing on dressing fashionably, as she enters a house share with people of very different values and gradually sheds that armor². TBS promoted it as an "uchi-kyun" (home-set heart-fluttering) love story².

Key fact	Detail
Broadcast	TBS Tuesday drama slot, April 20 to June 22, 2021; 10 episodes (75 minutes for episode 1, 60 minutes for the rest)¹
Lead cast	Haruna Kawaguchi as Kurumi Mashiba; Ryusei Yokohama as minimalist Shun Fujino¹
Writer and producers	Script by Arisa Kaneko; produced by Junko Arai, directed by Ayuko Tsukahara, Takayoshi Tanazawa, and Ryosuke Fukawa³^•⁴
Theme song	"Fushigi" by Gen Hoshino³
Premise	A fashion-focused woman house-shares with strangers of different values and finds her own way of living²
Audience rating	3.9 out of 5 on Filmarks from 22,273 user reviews⁵
Spin-off	Kikazaranai Koi ni wa Riyuu ga Atte, a streaming original following supporting character Chinami Chino⁶

Spoilers

Story and characters

Kurumi Mashiba (Haruna Kawaguchi) works in public relations for "el Arco Iris" (Spanish for "the rainbow"), an interior maker popular with young people through online sales, handling press releases, newsletters, media inquiries, and advertising⁵. To help the company, she starts a social media account and ends up with close to 100,000 followers, becoming a fashion influencer in her own right¹. After forgetting her apartment lease renewal and being evicted, she starts a house share with five people of different ages and occupations³.

Her housemates are Shun Fujino (Ryusei Yokohama), a cheerful, free-spirited "minimalist man" who runs a food truck; Haruto Terai (Ryuhei Maruyama of Kanjani Eight), Shun's cousin from Kansai who works as an online counselor; and Ayaka Hase (Anne Nakamura), an aspiring contemporary artist who also works delivery at a nearby upscale supermarket². Around them are company president Shogo Hayama (Osamu Mukai), Kurumi's only close friend, the popular food stylist Koko Saotome (Yui Natsukawa), and junior colleague Chinami Chino (Mizuki Yamashita of Nogizaka46)¹^•². The story's turning points include the sudden resignation of President Hayama, an SNS backlash that leaves Kurumi unable to post, and the housemates' separate decisions about work and love as the series closes³^•⁷.

Production

The drama was an entirely original story written by Arisa Kaneko, whose 2020 series Koi wa Tsuzuku yo Dokomademo had become a social phenomenon². Producer Junko Arai and director Ayuko Tsukahara had previously worked together on MIU 404, Grand Maison Tokyo, and Chugaku Seinikki; this was their third romance with Kaneko, after Watashi, Kekkon Dekinai'n Janakute, Shinai'n Desu and Chugaku Seinikki⁴. It was the first appearance and first lead role in the Tuesday 10 p.m. slot for Haruna Kawaguchi, and Ryusei Yokohama's return to the slot two years after Hajimete Koi wo Shita Hi ni Yomu Hanashi².

The food truck driven by Shun, named FujiBal, was built and supervised by the Food Truck Company, which also advised on the drama's kitchen-car scenes⁸. The truck later appeared at promotional events, including a "FujiBal caravan" tour of Japanese cities through 2021 and 2022⁷.

Reception and related media

On Filmarks the series holds a 3.9 average from 22,273 reviews, with 55 percent of ratings between 3.1 and 4.0 and 36 percent between 4.1 and 5.0⁵. Viewer comments praised the chemistry of the cast and the "Instagrammable" fashion and interiors, while some reviewers found the story failed to hold them⁵. In a 2021 survey of 1,000 people on anticipated spring dramas, it ranked third among women at 15.2 percent⁹.

A streaming-original spin-off, Kikazaranai Koi ni wa Riyuu ga Atte ("There's a Reason I Don't Dress Up for Love"), follows 24-year-old Chinami Chino, a reserved publicist at the same company, as her junior Akiba Ryo (Fumiya Takahashi) sees through her reserve⁶. The main series was rebroadcast on TBS Channel 1 in 2022, in February and again on December 28, with no rerun announced for later years¹⁰. As of 2026 it streams on services including U-NEXT, Netflix, and Hulu, and is available for rental on Prime Video¹¹.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026