Netflix’s popular dating reality show, Badly in Love is officially back for a second season! This time, the setting is moved to a seaside school in Okinawa, where 11 self-described delinquents from all over Japan gather once again, each carrying the names of their respective hometowns, for a 14-day shot at romance. Confessions, jealousy, blow-ups, and the odd genuine breakthrough are all present, and this season is just as combustible as the last. 100% sincerity, 120% danger, 200% out of control: these are men and women who’ve spent their lives letting fists and bravado do the talking, and this time, they’re being asked to actually sit with their feelings instead.
Awich Joins Badly in Love Season 2: Why Her Turbulent Past Makes Her the Perfect MC
The most noteworthy new face in the studio this season is Awich, making her debut as an MC on a dating reality show. Together with returning MEGUMI and Nagano, she observes the relationships as they develop. However, her focus goes beyond just who’s pairing off with whom — she’s also reading contestants’ family backgrounds, upbringing, and even private insecurities, to understand why they make the choices they do in love.
This instinct traces back to Awich’s own turbulent life. Born in Okinawa, she studied in the US in her youth, married, had a daughter, but suffered the devastating loss of her husband in a shooting. She returned to Japan, refocused on music and is now a highly representative female rapper in the Japanese hip-hop scene. Awich has described joining the show as a “spokesperson for marginalised people”; MEGUMI, for her part, has noted that Awich’s own familiarity with Japan’s delinquent culture gives her a sharp eye for reading people. So when a contestant argues, gets hurt, or spirals into relationship troubles, Awich is often the one able to look past what plays as impulsive behaviour and see the life experience sitting underneath it.
Badly in Love Season 2: Marine Academy School Rules
Break these rules, and you’re out:
- Curfew enforced
- No drug use
- No stealing or extorting money
- No confessions allowed before the final day — only anonymous ones are permit
- No inappropriate intimacy on campus
Badly in Love Season 2: New Episode Release Schedule
All 10 episodes of the season are landing on Netflix in three weekly batches:
- August 4, 2026: Episodes 1 to 4
- August 11, 2026: Episodes 5 to 7
- August 18, 2026: Episodes 8 to 10
Badly in Love Season 2: Every Cast Member’s Instagram and Backstory
Want to actually get to know this cast? We’ve pulled together everyone’s Instagram, age, and occupation – fair warning, a few of these backstories are a lot.
- Tai Sei
Occupation: Hairdresser
Age: 22 years old
Dark History: gets so wild he doesn’t recognise his own relative
IG: @taisei_15_31
Born in Hiroshima and raised in Tokyo, Xiao Tai got his first tattoo at sixteen. He made a striking entrance with his facial tattoos, strong presence, and an early declaration that he would have every woman in the room falling for him. Watching the show tells a different story: when a female cast member confronts him, he doesn’t argue back — he admits his mistake, apologises, and even tears up. His genuine fear of insects, a stark contrast to his outward appearance, has unexpectedly become part of the charm.
Leo Yamamoto
Occupation: Darts Bar Owner
Age: 25
IG: @y_1leoyade
Leo, from Kyoto, was once a genuinely dangerous character — shootouts in the mountains involving stun guns, batons, and even Molotov cocktails, among his past exploits. In the dating scene, though, he reveals an almost unrecognisable side: patient, attentive, and smiling more often than not. He’s dated five or six women, with most relationships ending because his sense of loyalty ran so deep it left little room to notice his partner’s actual feelings. When he commits, he commits completely — to one woman, start to finish.
- Ali Kondo
Occupation: Rapper
Age: 29
Dark History: Unlicensed driving, speeding
IG: @ari999__
Buddha Ali, from Kanagawa Prefecture, has Japanese and Pakistani heritage and currently works as a rapper and model, having also appeared in the men’s fashion magazine Men’s Egg. His past is just as eventful: he served in the Japan Self-Defense Forces before being discharged over unlicensed driving and speeding, and at one point jumped out of a police car while being escorted by officers. For all that, Ali is genuinely sentimental and still can’t quite let go of his ex-girlfriend — he’s been seen on the show using her old wallet, and has said he’s hoping to finally move on. His ideal type, at least, leaves no room for guessing: blondes with prominent fangs.
- Mizuki Noguchi
Occupation: Painter
Age: 27
Dark History: biker gang leader, jail time, juvenile detention
IG: Private
Monk is from Kurume City, Fukuoka Prefecture. He was once the leader of a biker gang, and his younger years were genuinely out of control: four stints in detention, two in juvenile hall, and eventually three years in prison. These days he’s settled back into life as a painter in his hometown — and turns out to be surprisingly domestic: wedding, cleaning, and cooking all come easily to him.
In the first episode, he breaks down talking about friends he’s lost. On his love life, he’s dated somewhere between forty and fifty women, making him one of the most experienced cast members this season — though not without cost. He’s admitted to hitting an ex-girlfriend after discovering she was cheating on him, an admission that’s understandably left many female cast members and viewers uneasy about him.
- Masaya Oda
Occupation: Fighter
Age: 28
Dark History: Former member of a biker gang, street gang, and yakuza
IG: @zzz.odmsy
Tattooed head to toe, Makoto moved from a local biker gang into the yakuza as a young man. Later, for his child’s sake, he decided to leave that life behind — cutting off his own left pinky finger to formally close that chapter. These days, he works in construction and competes in the Japanese fighting circuit “BreakingDown,” and shares quieter moments walking his dog, Mei, on Instagram. Having lived through the yakuza, competitive fighting, and everything in between, he’s candid about lacking confidence in love. The sauna segment reveals a different kind of stubbornness, though: when it comes to food, Makoto knows exactly what he wants, and isn’t in the business of compromising.
- Kazuma Shioda
Occupation: Host Club Owner
Age: 29
IG: @kazumasks
Kazuki joined the show in the third episode. Between his refined appearance, full-body tattoos, and background of running a host club, he immediately became a hot topic. He’s completely unabashed about his own appeal, describing himself as “handsome, rich, humorous, and gentle,” and joking that he wakes up every day simply grateful for his own face, having drawn romantic attention since childhood. When asked how many people he’s slept with, his answer was equally unbothered: “I’ve long since lost count. Do you remember every piece of meat you’ve eaten?” Confidence bordering on arrogance, and he knows it.
- Asuka Oguri
Occupation: Top hostess at a nightclub
Age: 30
Dark History: Car theft, driving without a license
IG: @_assunsun_
Ayaka, from Nagoya, only completed elementary school and has said she was riding a stolen motorcycle around town by fourteen. Her most striking feature is a large back tattoo, done entirely without anaesthesia. Today, she’s a top-earning hostess who also runs her own nightclub, bar, and clothing brand, and has appeared on the show LAST CALL — her Instagram following, already past 300,000, has kept climbing since the show aired. On relationships, she’s frank: she’s never really had a normal one, and hopes to find a “good man, the most courageous kind,” for a straightforward, youthful romance. Looks, she says, are beside the point, as long as the personality holds up.
- Hikaru
Occupation: Hotel Hostess
Age: 23
IG: @______hhh912
Hikaru, from Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, has a genuinely difficult upbringing. Her biological father was an abusive drug dealer, her mother a well-known local delinquent, and as a child she was sometimes sent to deliver syringes. She’s said openly that this background left her with a deep fear of being alone, and that nearly all of her past relationships have been with men on the wrong side of the law, including one who worked as a driver for a yakuza boss. She’s never lacked for suitors and is confident in her romantic luck, saying plainly that she expects everyone to like her. Her goal on the show is equally direct — she’s not here to date casually, she’s here to “choose a husband,” hoping to find someone she can marry.
- Marina Takaoka
Occupation: Bar staff
Age: 25
Little Mary, from Osaka, has Iranian, French, and Japanese heritage and was raised from a young age by her grandmother. Her grandfather discriminated against her over her mixed background — beating her with a cane, and telling her to “go back to your own country.” Her grandmother, who was meant to protect her, eventually became a target of his abuse too, leaving Little Mary to feel, from very early on, that she could only rely on herself. She began working in bars and nightlife from the start of middle school, with almost no conventional schooling.
Her relationships as an adult carried the same weight. She’s said on the show that she’s had around thirty past boyfriends, nearly all of them abusive — she’s been threatened with knives and guns, told they’d die together, beaten badly enough to alter her face and nearly cost her life, and had her belongings taken from her outright. Trapped in that pattern for so long, she came to believe, for a time, that being hit was simply what love looked like, and gradually lost the ability to voice what she actually wanted, learning only to comply. She’s said she admitted that she had never truly felt loved, which is why she’s here — still hoping to find something real.
- Ruru Tanaka
Occupation: Model
Age: 26
Dark History: Fighting
IG: @u_r30
Ruru is 26 years old and from Shizuoka. She works primarily as a model, having appeared in the gyaru magazine Nuts, along with a run of variety show and event appearances. She grew up in a violent household — at three or four, she witnessed her mother beaten badly enough to suffer a skull fracture, and was herself left with extensive bruises more than once. As an adult, that same intensity carries into her temper: she’s gotten into fights back home, on at least one occasion leaving someone bleeding from the head.
She considers herself loyal and straightforward, with no patience for games. Her type is equally clear: “men with guts.” Nearly all of her past relationships have been with men she calls “highly honest’ — which, read another way, tends to mean petty criminals. On her own flaws, she doesn’t hold back either, openly admitting she “cheats.” Even with a cast member she’s genuinely interested in, she’s warned him upfront: “I really might cheat on you.” Even so, what she’s hoping for on the show is a relationship she “won’t let go of.” It’s this total lack of filter, flaws included, that’s made her one of the season’s most memorable cast members.
- Hazuki Abe
Occupation: Kickboxing Instructor
Age: 27
Dark History: Worked in a child detention centre
Instagram: @hazuki_19980726
Ha-chan is from Miyagi Prefecture and currently works as a kickboxing instructor, with a background working inside a child detention centre. Asked about past relationships, she’s candid: almost every one of her exes broke up with her because they’d been “arrested and detained” — which, by her account, makes for a fairly unconventional dating history.
Editor
Avril Chen and Bianca LoCredit
Lead Image: @netflixjp via Instagram
