People say that young women (18–22) can genuinely fall in love with men in their 50s or older, judging by the answers here, but I’ve never heard of or seen it happen. I attended an all-girls’ school my entire life, so I often saw students develop feelings for their teachers, but even then, the age gap was usually no more than about 15 years. Men in their late 40s or older were basically treated like mascot characters. I’ve never heard anyone say they liked a teacher in that age range. Personally, I see university professors and papas (male supporters) as Winnie the Pooh or Doraemon—I’ve never thought of them as potential romantic partners. Since starting university, I’ve seen girls my age dating older men, but every relationship seemed to involve some kind of benefit. With professors, it was things like getting credits or having someone write their thesis or reports for them; with ordinary men, it was financial support. I’ve never seen a girl say she genuinely loved the man himself. Seriously, are these women who genuinely fall in love—whom the respondents here supposedly meet—extremely rare? I know countless women between 18 and 22, but so few of them seem to be dating someone out of genuine feelings that I can’t help wondering where these women are. Even those who like older men usually mean someone only about a decade older.

Maezawa from the CEO’s office here as well. I’m not really sure why *After the Rain* came up here, but I thought the anime version was better than the live-action movie. Actually, once you turn a two-dimensional work into live action, it usually starts to feel forced, so I don’t think the live-action version is generally better. Even when a manga is merely adapted into an anime, people complain that the voices don’t match what they imagined. Turning it into live action takes it even further—you almost have to regard it as an entirely different work. Besides, I seem to remember that *After the Rain* ended with the characters parting ways… Didn’t it? Getting back to the main point: when you say you’ve never met anyone like that, it may simply be because you lack experience. Whether you’ll still be saying the same thing when you’re 60 or 70 is another matter. If you are, I suppose it would mean you went through life with a rather narrow view of the world. I haven’t taken any actual statistics, so I can’t say at what point someone would count as rare, but I think there are probably quite a few people like that. Don’t you have one too—the continuation of a season you left waiting?

I’m Dai, a male member. Up through college, a lot can change from year to year, so women tend to move from one male partner to another fairly often. Once they start working, life becomes more stable and they have fewer opportunities to meet men through places like school or work. That’s why dating apps have become so popular. From what I’ve seen, it probably is rare for women in the former group to genuinely fall in love with older men. However, women in the latter group can genuinely fall for older men even when they’re 22 or younger. Affairs with, say, a company supervisor are also genuine romantic feelings, after all. I think it’s important not to generalize about everything based on the questioner’s limited perspective.

It reminds me of the Skypiea arc in One Piece. “Skypiea existed, didn’t it?” That line from the final boss, Blackbeard Teach, is one of my favorites. Here’s my answer: Do “0% probability” and “absolutely impossible” really exist in this world? I’ve never heard of them. President Macron of France looks like he’s genuinely in love to me—but maybe I’m wrong? Though bringing up such an extreme example is a bit unfair, haha. That said, as you say, maybe it’s fine to call it “absolutely impossible.” Even so, I still believe Skypiea exists. I never dreamed that someone who is, for all practical purposes, a middle-school dropout like me could achieve this much success in business. Not only did people around me look down on me—even my own parents did—but I blindly believed, “I can do it,” and grabbed success…and sex. (Sorry, that was terrible.) Also, a man’s appeal comes together with his financial power. It’s much the same as women being judged almost entirely by their looks. There really aren’t that many men who fall for a woman based solely on her personality, are there? I’m not saying the probability is zero, but I’ve never heard of it. If men using money to make themselves attractive and draw in women through “gacha love” is cheating, then I think this debate is over—and the questioner can have the win. —A sore-losing man

I’m in Seattle. I’ve only ever read Papuwa’s columns. > If he’s a professor, you could ask him to help you earn credits or ghostwrite your graduation thesis or reports. Pretty savvy and good at working the system. The professor’s totally being played, lol.

I’m Taro, a male member. I’ve personally heard women mention a 28-year-old woman with a 73-year-old man, and a 26-year-old woman with a man in his 50s. I’ve never heard of anyone under 22, though. Besides, if you mean today’s under-22 crowd, they’d be part of the Millennial generation, right? Their mindset might be different from those of us who were just barely born in the Showa era. Still, it’s not impossible. If you look hard enough, you’ll definitely find people like that. The odds are probably low, of course. The other day, I pulled a rare prize with a 0.6% drop rate in a game gacha. A probability below 1% sounds impossible, but it’s actually surprisingly common in everyday life. That’s why people keep spending money to pull gacha over and over. Long live the thrill of gambling.