The second lead syndrome

I personally (lol i feel i use this a lot..) like drama guys "bad boy turns good" such as:
MatsuJun (well duh i love him) in HYD
Mike He in DBY
LMH in BBF and City Hunter
The prince in Goong
and so on : D

Frankly, I never understood this second lead syndrome. I mean I do, and it is certainly something worth thinking about, but I am not in favour of secondary leads winning over the main lead of oppiosite sex where there are more suited partners for them...which are practically never shown. Maybe they could make a drama one day dedicated to what happened to the second lead of that or other particularly popular series.

Though admittedly it is somewhat sterotypical. It's like with older and second sisters in fairy takes; they never get the prince, it;s always the youngest sister that is the most noble of them and becaiuse of that gets her happy end with the prince. Whenever there are three brothers, It's the youngest one that is the most clever. That is also something to question , like with the case of secondary leads.

I myself never root, nor intend to root, for the second leads, in fact I am a bit vehement towards them for always meddling and confusing the main lead of the opposite sex. They are like the third wheel. But without it there would be no drama, no tension. And of course they do deserve the recognition for their support. That's what their meant to do.

I do pity them at times, but I really would hate some of my favourite characters to end up with secondary leads. like in hotaru no hikari 2, I was very much put off by some comments about the second guy- whom I never even considered good enough for the female lead- and there are many others like that. I rarely see secondary leads as fitting for the main lead.

Although I was swayed a bit by Lee Philip's character in Secret garden. But not enough. And it was the only time I looked more favourably upon the secondary lead.

That' s probably because they are constructed these way. Secondary leads have thiose fatal flaws: their understanding of their love interest is not good enough, they are too slow in taking their chances, while in the meantime the main leads develop their chemistry. Second leads are mostly just a plot device. But as I say, they do need to be recognised and it's probably a good thing that some of you root for them after all. Also, it shows viewers' interest in the drama, which is always good.

Although, there were actually I think one or two dramas in which it was the case, but in those cases the secondary was simply the dark horse, the hidden lead, which is sometimes a nice twist. Second leads are a plot device. But of course you always have fanfiction for releasin g that pent up desire to see the secondary lead as the primary. Embrace the joy :)


Boys before flowers are an exception, because the secondary was clearly v,. compatible with the female lead. However, his fatal flaw was too much and he was way too slow in deciding. The secondary was poor guy- yes, nice guy- yes, but also a thoroughly stupid guy, since he KNEW very well and yet stubbornly cligned to someone that clearly rejected him, while rejecting someone that he knew liked him. That's what you get for not moving on in time and he got what he was asking for., though he was extremely supportive and a good friend. It was a missed chance and one he missed purposefully and rather angrily and foolishly.

In any case, I do believe the main lead was preferrable precisely because he was so different. It's not always the "soul mate" that makes for a good partner, and it's about how you make things work. I do like the concept of complementary oppositions.

So, for me, it will always be main leads, unless they are anti-leads. I do not think BBF lead was one, though he was nasty at first, but he had those underlying depths that I found stronger and more appealing than the other guy. Usually however, anti-leads will be impossibly cruel. In which case they stop being main leads and secondaries become the main leads. But is that still rom com?

But I will say it once and for all, I'm a primary-lead girl all the way. I rarely ever dislike the main lead but that's because I tend to really carefully chose what I watch and check whether it will satisfy me before I watch a series in its entirety. So I really rarely ever dislike primary leads.

And primary leads are constructed in a way which makes them that way. And I don;t think I like to see it any differently.

Sleepninja wrote: I usually like the second lead more than the main lead. It's not always that way though, it just depends on the personality of the male leads. If the main lead is just a complete jerk, I have a hard time looking past that. I hate arrogance, and a lot of times the main lead is very arrogant.

my feelings exactly. that is my problem with romantic dramas such as hanadan and ikemen desu ne. i mean ren took mio's ring and pretended to throw it in the river, the girl spend all night in the river looking for her one important possession. in the beginning her was a real jerk to her while shu was always looking out for her and treating her nicely. i'm gonna root for the guy who wasn't a jerk.

i will always be reminded of what my bf said after watching an epi of hanadan. he said that japanese dramas like this promote domestic abuse in that they make it look okay for a girl to be with a guy who is a jerk to her because they can hope one day they will change just like the leads do in dramas. i told him he was taking it too seriously but i did see his point. there is no way i would support a guy treating a girl in real life the way domiyoji treated makino so why would i support it in a drama?

rui and ren as 2nd leads have been heroes and confidants and friends which can be the basis for a romance if it is allowed to develop.

I guess, but these are all dramas and the mangas on which they were based have been written in a certain way; they are not meant to promote any kind of behaviour in real life, they are fiction...and I think it;s a bad sign of seeing them as symptomatic of anything; Though to be sure, the kind of bad treatment of a girl is not a nice thing to look at. But it;s the same with fairy tale princes and princesses: it;s always the youngest who gets the happiness, it;s always the youngest prince who's the best and most honourable. Because HE is the one most tested and he is the one who needs to rescue everyone else. It's the same really.

I think it is mostly those teen dramas that have the bad boy no propoer justification cliche...and what about devil Beside you and those drama which promote more than sibling love between siblings? Isn't that more..offputting and wrong? I certainly do not think this kind of thing is any better...I am totally against it, in fact.

The reason I liked Hotaru no hikari was because it was different from the sterotype and yet had the two main leads falling in love- and they are an unforgetabble drama couple Buchou and Amemyia, haha. My goodness, I honestly cannot see it playing out otherwise,m the two are so complementary and it was in fact a drama aboiut accepting one's true self, without the masks, without pretending. I disliked the secondary they introduced in the continuation bit he was there to give the two a lesson and he was likeable without bering too imposing so there.

The same with Pasta,m which was really different in the sterotype department- unforgetabble leading couple, with VERY nice secondaries whose actions are considerate and/or accepting. They ar enice but then,...there is ni chemistry between them and the main leads and they are actually better suited together, which is fine with me hehe.

The same with City Hall, which I think does veer away from the standard bad boy fare towards a better explained one: scheming politician fare- but that one is a more mature written storyline and besides the man is never really despicable, just comits mistakes and knows no different way of lie and he is rather nice from the beginning but progress is good towards a realisation of a need of change and a change...Greatest Love is similar, as well...and Greatest Love is one example where I really dislike the secondary lead for having no charisma whatsoever. He;s nice, but not likeable nice...And Greatest love makes a statement that should really be considered more: don't harass the idols. I liked it. The same with Sweet Relationship really; Dae Mul which I am watching now is too serious for that kind of cliche

There are dramas which veer away from these sterotypes. But really..most of of the dramas are sterotypical in one way or another, because we like our standard fairly tale and drama producers know it and since they like their jobs and their wages, they like t give us what we like. Aside from the bad boy type, there is the playoby type, the orphaned type etc etc. But it;s hard to

There will be one or two which do not do that.

But it;s all up to the viewers. And each of us has different views, tastes and opinions ion what is worse cliche than other. And besides this is more about unrpedicatability factor I think they could do a twist like that where the secondary is really a hidden primary but it's not really known until the very end. It's like what they did in princess man....I think one kind of ending was EXPECTED to happen but they pulled a fast one on the viewers and di something else and extremely nice. Sterotypes aside...if you haven;t watched it, then maybe you shouldn't since there is an episode and a half where the treatment of our poor Princess by her "man" is really....poor.

On the other hand, also what tires me with second leads is that they always seem to have a noble reason to veer away from their love interest, be too self-sacrificing and are either too nice or trying too hard to be noticed, where in fact they may have already lost their chance and they can';t accept it but their fighting for it results rather..poor and clueless and helpless and ultimately they are just too wishy washy.

I forgot the title but there was this drama about a girl who had a friend, she did some sports and then a boyfriend came along, but eventually she would choose the friend after all. I can't remeber the title, urg, I'll let you know when I do. But I know it was based off manga and there was an anime about it too

I was really frustrated with Hana Yori Dango/ BBF secondary lead, the nice guy who was really blinded.

Well then what say you about It started with a Kiss/ Playful Kiss?

Also, if you want a nice romantic thingy with a nice guy as a lead, go watch this drama about a postman who marries a superstar, it's called
That Fool. There is also the japanese kind of remake of Nottiing Hill which is about a famous actress and a nice common guy, but right niow forgot what it's called.

Sleepninja wrote: @Bladey I didn't like Playful Kiss so I'm not gonna bother choosing my preference for that one. lol But I did love ISWAK. And I think the lead in it was great, but he did act like a jerk. I LOVE Ah Jin (Jiro Wang <3) haha

I'm crushing on the second lead, Dylan in Fated to Love You right now.

he was supposed to change, and he did.
I didn't like playfull kiss either. The taiwanese version is the best. Jerk or not, he learned not to be so self-serving, which is I think the point of a drama.

This is drama for you. Not real life. In real life we will want to look out for the real nice guy and hopefully we find him eventually.

But in these dramas the jerks are supposed to be the good guys, the best guys actually, who are only hiding in wait to bloom and the premise for a drama is the idea of maturing, initiation, growing, t;s what make the skeleton of the story, its schmeatics and itls one of the most frequently used themes. The jerks at the beginning of a drama are like a tabula rasa to some extent, because they only know how ti behave how life taught them...now in comes our nioble female lead (or vice versa, depending) asnd teaches the lead that there is another world he needs to open his eyes too. Actually this is the female-male model. The model-female model is that the female lead is ditzy and naive and needs to rely on the man all the time and the man is clever and has everything.

Naive? Indeed. But it's a fairy tale formula everyone is well used to so they keep reusing it because it;s the most tested out one and a surefire way to make something that people may find nice to watch....