Shuichi Okita's unhurried adaptation of Shuichi Yoshida's novel opens in 1987 Tokyo, with its mop-topped protagonist arriving at Hosei University (the novelist's real-life alma mater).
From the start, Yonosuke Yokomichi (Kengo Kora) comes across as physically - and sometimes socially - awkward and the young man from a small coastal town near Nagasaki is marked out as something of a character. Among his many quirks is a habit of sniffing himself when he's nervous.
But there is also something endearing about him, as those who get to know him soon discover. Among them are two fellow first-year students in his business administration programme - the impetuous Ippei (Sosuke Ikematsu) and the cute Yui (Aki Asakura). And despite none of them possessing much in the way of rhythm, the trio join the university samba club.
Yonosuke also befriends the cool Kato (Go Ayano), another student on his course, and through him meets Shoko (Yuriko Yoshitaka), a scion of a wealthy family who is equally quirky and endearing in her own way.