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This series is quite refreshing in the sense where the series has volleyball as its theme. There are still other films/ anime which uses the same theme but not many of these films have interesting plots. In my opinion, this series shows more on the romance side than the volleyball side. For those who wondering if they should watch the series if they are more interested in volleyball side, I would say no. In the series, you can see one or two tricks. On the volleyball side, the series mostly shows how the players train, volleyball rules and the basic stuff like spike, defend, all those. At most, you can watch one match and even that, the series did not show fully.
While both couples are interesting and have their own parts in the series, the second couple (the brothers) can be omitted and the series can still be good. In other words, the romance between the brothers is unnecessary. Were they included to make the series more unique and memorable?
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The ending was VERY unsatisfying for how much time was spent building up this couple to get only a few mins at the end of them together. The other ML (the new boy) His character seemed to suddenly changed as soon as he knew he liked the ML which was kinda strange like he was 2 different people it didn't bother me too much I just felt as though their characters were kinda bland and the story was just meh.
The 2 stepbrothers, on the other hand, were super cute, they didn't get loads of screen type except near the end and honestly their little moments was better than all of the main couples altogether.
The series would have been 100% better if it was just about the brothers not that I am into step sibling storylines in BL's but they had so much more chemistry and cute moments I could look past it.
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A Cute Watch
Do I care about the step brothers plot? Nope! But the main leads are very likable. These were my first thoughts watching this series. I know a lot of people really love this HIStory story and I kinda get it. But I also still think this was wayyyyy too short, which is usually the case for mini series. HIStory 3 MODC and Trapped solved this problem with devoting an entire season to each story. So it flows smooth and you get plenty of time for character development and chemistry. This series did well enough with its allotted time, but I couldn't get past wanting much more from it.Honestly I didn't really care about the volleyball stuff, I watch enough Haikyuu as it is lol. Which I appreciate them mentioning that in this series. And Slam Dunk lol. This took up a good amount of time in the show, so I was kinda fast forwarding a little through those scenes. Though they were done well. I liked the plot of Qiu Zi Xuan's injury and Xia Yu Hao taking care of him. That was sweet. Their chemistry was pretty solid, but it would've been amazing with more time. The idea of the sister liking him and having to come to terms with her brother getting Xia Yu Hao instead was also interesting! I wanted more time with that too.
What we did get between them was worthwhile to watch, so I would say give this series a try! It wasn't quite enough payoff for me but if you start off with this one and work up to MODC and Trapped you'll probably have a more solid experience than I did.
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Decent
Decent story, decent acting, really sweet characters. Unfortunately, I wasn't fully sold on the romantic chemistry b/w the two leads. Still rly cute. I love the whole sports anime feel. I can see this being a stellar drama with some extra budgeting and time to develop the story a bit more, but I think they did their best with what they had.Side couple seemed pointless. I think I personally dislike step bro storylines too (like of all the possibilities why that) but in general it just felt like time was wasted on them. As always, I assume it exists due to fanservice and pandering. Sigh. At least everything was kept consensual unlike a lot of BL dramas.
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This review may contain spoilers
A bit incomplete?
The script and plot are both very good, but there were unfortunately some unnecessary scenes. I also felt that it was missing a few scenes as well, for example, they could have included a clip of Zi Xuan’s reaction to Yu Hao’s jump serve.And as someone who plays volleyball regularly, I found that some of the volley scenes could have been more accurate.
The structure is good, with a steady progress in each episode, but despite this, the story felt a bit incomplete. I would have liked another episode where we could see their relationship after they became a couple.
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Still my favorite series!
This is by far my favorite BL series. Even though it is relatively short, I never felt like it was being rushed or leaving out important parts of the story. The development of the relationship and the chemistry between the characters was spot on. And to top it all off, that KISS THO.Overall a very sweet, satisfying story with a happy ending I recommend to anyone into BL.
Also I rated the music a 10 but honestly I was too distracted by everything else to really notice it haha. I assume it was great like the rest of the series.
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NOTHING EXTRAORDINARY BUT NOT BAD. I REALLY LIKED THE MLs
After watching 88 BLs so far, this didn't feel like something new or special. Just another high school love story. Nothing much stood out expect that the MLs were handsome and the chemistry was fine. I felt like the scenes were skipped. The transition of scenes didn't feel natural. Maybe bcz its a short series.Overall - it's fine. Not bad. U can watch it. But don't expect something new or different.
The music was fine. I watched HIStory 3: Trapped right before this and it made to my topmost favourites. And I read some reviews which had this drama "crossing the line" rated more than "trapped". So, I was expecting much more. M not disappointed though. The story was common but wasn't lame. Plus the MLs were so handsome that watching him made happy.
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I found the storyline to be very enjoyable with little confusion or any major plot-twist that could leave me crying for a week. But at the same time, the storyline felt kinda predictable but overall, it was nice. I absolutely LOVED the cast. I feel like the actors have really good chemistry and I don't think it seems forced like in other dramas. All the dialogue is very nice and fitting too, similar to SOTUS, where even one small sentence can make me get butterflies. The music in this show was nice and fitting but I don't think it was really anything spectacular. I didn't want to get up and rave every time I saw the opening but the music was still soothing at times.
This is probably one of my favorite BL dramas and I would definitely rewatch considering the length of the show itself and how much I liked it. I also think it was one of the better if not best series in HIStory. Highly recommend!
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Viki lists this as HIStory 2: Ep. 5-8
This is a sports romance (volleyball) with a good boy/bad boy pairing. There no clear seme/uke dynamic which is nice to see in a BL. Ostensibly it's high school set but Taiwan doesn't care about age appropriate actors. It's a very soft sweet romance with some ridiculous easily overcome conflict. There's great kisses but it's medium heat. The side dishes are using the dreaded stepbrother trope but they’re very tame, and there’s no other triggers in this BL. It’s very soft for Taiwan. It's not just my favorite of the HIStory franchise, it’s one of my favorite BLs. HIGHLY RECOMMENDEDWas this review helpful to you?
Fun and Entertaining but Shallow
This story is just plain fun and entertaining. It is likeable, perhaps not very deep in emotional impact but a very good story. There is incredibly good eye candy here for all those guys are so cute and adorable and look pretty good in their volleyball shorts. (Hey, listen, I am still not dead yet). The major drawback to this story is the lack of character development of the major players. I get tired and annoyed when only the last few minutes in the series does one of them succumbs to his own feelings for the other while they rest of us have known how he felt from early on. I understand the need to focus on volleyball but seriously, not focusing on other things seems like a waste of getting a point across. That is what makes this story so shallow. It wasted so much time when more character development could have occurred where we might have cared more for them.Was this review helpful to you?
Fair & Adorable ...
the actors are perfect in their roles and all have exceptional chemistry with each other. I don’t know enough about volleyball to judge if it was presented correctly but it looked good and several of the actors are volleyball players. I really loved the inclusion of Liu Hung-Min and Liu Hong-Jie, as I always like it when real life professionals are cast in series when it comes to sports. this series is adorable. Both couples are engaging and a pleasure to watch. Xia Yu Hao is such a fantastic character and how Fandy portrays him is the cutest.There is a lovely element of first love in how Xia Yu Hao acts, he is excited and jumps head first into everything he does regarding Qiu Zi Xuan. Qiu Zi Xuan on the other hand is a lot more reserved showing his joy when it comes to volleyball. The contrast between them both is also well done as it is not played up too much which is often an issue some series have. I really liked all of the side-characters in the series too, especially He Cheng En. All of the friendships were perfect and supportive which I liked. I also liked how they connected Obsessed with the series, it adds something a little extra.
It is less dramatic because there aren’t really any threatening people trying to sabotage their relationship. I liked this about the show a lot because it feels more realistic this way. When a drama gets too intense because of an evil person getting in the way, it’s usually not as good. I like it when all the characters are fairly decent and understanding people.
Overall its a kind of a okay drama..
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This review may contain spoilers
In my opinion this drama was just perfect! Of course this also has a lot to do with my preferences for BL stories and characters. Even though it's not perfectly obvious who is the seme and who is the uke in the main relationship (and it's also not necessary to know), I considered Xia Yu Hao as the uke, and I really like delinquent / rebel uke characters because they are usually so soft and loving once you get to know them better which really contrasts with the way they pretend to be. Also I love it when the seme character is a little tsundere and the uke is more active, so this couple was exactly to my liking^^The actors also portrayed the characters extremely well. I was especially impressed with the actor playing Xia Yu Hao who really made me feel the emotions of the character and in addition is simply overwhelmingly cute and pretty! Qiu Zi Xuan's feelings and thoughts on the other hand were not so easy to understand, but that was part of his character who was more reserved and composed. Overall the actors were great and made the story so emotional and enjoyable to watch. The romantic scenes where in no way awkward, but seemed very natural and real.
Many people are complaining that this drama is too short, but in my opinon that is not the case. In comparison to many Thai dramas (of which I have seen a lot) that usually exaggerate with the time given to every single scene to really build up that emotion, I actually prefer this faster pacing of the HIStory Series. Making this series longer (without adding more story) wouldn't have made it better. For me the story is told just at the right speed to not make it seem rushed, but also not let it get boring. And the emotional / romantic scenes are still long and passionate enough to really get involved emotionally. (And if I wanted more I sometimes just watched single scenes on repeat^^)
Even though it was such a short series it also included a second couple that didn't get as much screentime, but still enough to make their story seem satisfyingly complete which I really appreciated. Here we had another active uke (although his confession was kind of unintentional), and I also have a thing for romantic relationships between brothers, so this story exactly suited my taste, too, which made the series even more perfect for me. All the important side characters were also smoothly included in the story and the relationships between the main characters and their respective friends were very beautiful and supporting.
Although I don't have anything to complain about, I gave "only" 9 stars for the story because I didn't feel like it was anything special enough to give it a 10/10. Overall though this series definitely deserves the 10 stars. I will surely watch it again and I can only recommend it to all of you :)
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