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Unhealthy but compelling relationship
Hira is a fascinating character : he wants to worship and be dominated by Kiyoi but he's also very demanding and unwilling to bend when it comes to pursuing his desires. Kiyoi in turn finds Hira's attention gratifying but also dehumanizing. He doesn't want Hira to see him solely as an object of worship but as a vulnerable and flawed human being. They both emotionally hurt each other a lot with the hurt becoming physical a few times. Is this a healthy dynamic? Absolutely not but these two are obsessed with each other and the heart wants what it wants.The actors are strong and have excellent chemistry. Hira's actor is handsome but the production downplays it and leans into making him look awkward and slightly creepy. Kiyoi's actor is indeed beautiful which gives some weight to Hira's obsession. The production design is very good for what is a short and inexpensive drama. I particularly like the animations associated with each of the leads.
I know this is a polarizing drama but if you go in knowing it's a messed up romance between two messed up people you can relax and enjoy it for what it is. Not every drama has to portray healthy relationships.
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I rewatched it 3 times lmao
It's one of my favorite drama! it's short and very poetic, that's why it's truly comforting to watch. however, beware of the fact that if you're single, it's probably gonna make you yearn for a bf/gf lmaooo. i think it was the acting debut of yusei yagi, and he did really well! and i absolutely loved Hira's character, who's heavily autistic coded. i can't wait for season 2, i need more of their love story!! and it made me want to read the book it's inspired of, but i can't find an English translation anywhere (': i hope it's gonna be translated soon!!Was this review helpful to you?
I keep saying "Huh???"
I'm not the type of person who gets hooked on the first episode however mostly after 2/3 episode my attention usually fixed. Not this series tho. even after 3 episodes i'm still don't get excited. The actor performance was A-Okay but the plot of the story are not really eye catching and honestly almost creepy. At first i was trying to understand that maybe the main character is suffering but he always give a weird vibe and that's been proven on the not-so-ethical scene with his photo. and i thought that the main role just having some kind of stockholm syndrome or something but i just don't get it. after watching all the episodes i don't see any interesting grow both from the plot or the character. i even look up when i watch the 3rd episode that this is the best BL in 2023 and honestly i dont really think so.I was told that if someone think that this series is not good, they should wathed it again. and I did.
Okay first and foremost i need to repent my previous opinion because i need to understand that every series is different. and watching this series after a very 'green flag' series probably corrupt my expectation lol.
okay now let's Re- Review the series again.
Yagi yusei acting are definitely good! he potrait someone who is very insecure and broken but he need to have a strong shell outside. he play the character kiyoi so good he gets all the sad, envy, sorrow, loneliness, love very well.
keep it in mind, if you don't think the same opinion as me, he supposed to be a tsundere here. so yeah he is suppose to be harsh on hira while also wanting to love him. he just wanted to be treated for the way he is as human. as hira always looks up to him as "deity"
i just need to dig more about this very low self esteem behaviour of Hira. still makes me very frustated to figure out what he wants.
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ITS A STORY ABOUT A HOMOPHOBE WHO ENJOYS ATTENTION
i would like to say BURN IN HELL to everyone who recommends this HORRIBLE show, are you kidding me? I've seen 3 episodes and in each he's bullying him and taking advantage of him, calling him gross, disgusting, stalker, this what yall like? someone even called it "best BL ever", my boy have you ever seen a BL before??? this is NOT even GOOD. like sure, not every relationship is flawless and healthy, BUT WHY WOULD ANYONE PRAISE A TOXIC RELATIONSHIP LIKE THIS????????after reading the summary i felt weird but i said to myself that im gonna try it because why not. boy i was wrong. i was hoping it would get better with each episode. nope. worse with every minute. it's not worth anyone's time and im judging everyone who enjoys it, im sorry, but this is a just horrible horrible show.
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Almost emotionally abusive relationship in the shallowest of stories
I started watching this series after having read many positive reviews and thus had high expectations. At this point I should say that although I enjoy watching BL dramas, I am not a "fan", in the sense that I do not watch them for the thrill of seeing two cute guys kissing (although this is definitely a plus) but for the story, the development of the characters and the coherence of the plot. Unfortunately none of this seems to be the case here. A (partially) abusive high-schooler falls for the class's most bullied guy, who actually stalks him, but does not tell him and only treats him with superiority. No person in his right mind would fall for him, unless one suffering from some kind of Stockholm syndrome. The fact that he is the "most beautiful person" is psychologically not enough. So in a few words, the story sucks greatly. There is no evolution of the characters whatsoever, the main leads are either self-indulging or continuously self-pitying, and all six episodes spend a great amount of time in blurry reminiscence of past events (not serving the purpose of realization of present ones). The acting is mediocre (the crying is OK, but apart from this nothing more).I was really disappointed, because I thought that today'sBL dramas had moved forward (in fact they have, there are many modern mature stories, the authors of which know how to write captivating stories with real content).
Just a final remark. If I consider this as a low-budget BL story intended for secretly admiring all-male romance, then it's OK.
Perhaps one more remark as after all. I realize that the dating culture in Asia is different, but having lived there and having been in a relationship with an Asian for quite a few years now, I can assure you, things are not so extreme there. At least not anymore (might have been decades ago), so this is also no excuse for poor plot.
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Does the fluff outweigh the rest??
I'm pretty split on how I feel about this series tbh. It has all the aspects of a good BL: fluff, great shots, good music, love triangle. I was very much looking forward to watching it! What made it difficult to watch (and made me pause it a couple of times) was the level of bullying that was present. I get that bullying a trope in BL and normally I'm all for the soft MC melting the love interest's cold, icy exterior. This went beyond that. Here is a boy so clearly smitten (even if it does give stalker vibes) and doing everything he can to spend time with the one he loves. Who, time after time, year after year, treats him harshly. Kiyoi's narrative does help us to empathize with him but doesn't make up for his cruelty in my opinion. Seeing him be harsh to Hira when all Hira wanted was to be close to him was disheartening in a way I don't feel the ending made up for. There's also supposed to be a love triangle but as soon as I saw how sweet and caring Koyama was towards Hira there was no doubt in my mind that they should be together. They shared their love of photography and Koyama was open with his affection.I take BL with a grain of salt bc a lot of the time there can be problematic stories and characters, it comes with the genre. I'm willing to overlook that most of the time if there's redemption and/or a satisfying ending. In this case there weren't enough of either for me to feel optimism for Hira and Kiyoi's relationship. And there's never any follow up about Koyama who had his heart broken and lost his best friend in one fell swoop.
Overall it ticks a lot of the BL boxes and if you're fine with the bullying trope then it can be a fun watch.
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Do you love badly written, tropey toxic gay romance? Well this is the series for you!
Seriously, the main characters were both so poorly written it's not even funny. The main character can barely string a sentence together and has continuously talked about wanting to stay invisible and yet... he *checks notes* follows and actively seeks out the most popular person in their grade to take pictures of him..... sure, checks out. The main love interest is somehow able to abuse the protag both physically and verbally and yet decides to not even budge a little bit upon realizing his deep emotions? Both main characters so deeply unlikable I was actively rooting for them to hate each other because this took tsundere in the toxic sense and turned it up to 100. I gave it a 6 because I couldn't bare to finish this mess. TW for this show: abuse, bullying, IPVWas this review helpful to you?
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Not as complex as people are making it seem
Everyone review I saw is trying to make the story more complex then what it is. I did like how it gave us both sides of the story from the main character’s point of view it’s a nice fresh take instead of having to guess what’s going on in the protagonists head.One thing I didn’t like is how at the point Kiyoi realizes he likes Hira, Hira had already said he liked Kiyoi at that point something should’ve been hinted instead of trying to make us hate Kiyoi to later feel sorry for him.
I understand the creators message of love is messy, complicated and in where you least expect he also portrayed it very well in Dark Blue And Moonlight which has it’s own flaws but I won’t get into that.
To me this was a story of two people unable to properly process and communicate their feelings for one another. The way Hira saw Kiyoi as a god and how Kiyoi thrived off of it was a sign of toxicity in itself so many red flags where present, how Hira was supposed to magically know that Kiyoi liked him even though he treated him terribly, they were stuck in a master/servant relationship Hira was not strong enough to deter his feelings for Kiyoi even though he had not a single likable quality aside from being “pretty” and Kiyoi was not strong enough to tell Hira about his feelings or deal with them in a respectful or mature way, even after they graduated high school.
This was not a love story but a prequel to a toxic immature relationship, the only reason I’m giving it this high of a rating is for the way they told the story and not the storyline itself because for me you can have a love story where there is heartbreak or a certain dislike for a person without making it toxic take Mr.heart for example they did it perfectly
Rewatch value: you will catch on to things quicker when you rewatch it but it just made me dislike it even more because you can see the red flags even more
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Lost in translation
This drama is kind of confusing in the sense that we started off really well, i mean i was hooked on the 1st episode! Then I am not sure what happened after that.I get the synopsis of the story, the bad boy bullying the weak and cheesy high school possessiveness, but the same time it just felt like they were not communicating and just going with the flow, we then jump to what i assume is University and hira has meant someone they get caught by kiyoi and things explode up.
The characters were welln played and suited each other, the whole introvert against the popular bad boy, was a good match, if they only followed through with the story and made it a bit more easy to follow.
Overall it was definitely a good drama minus a few hick and jumping of time lines.
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Never allow yourself to be in a relationship like this
I started watching this series without knowing anything about it. And I just finished it today. I have to say it’s a good series in terms of acting and focus on the characters. But it was really hard to watch this level of physical and psychological aggression and toxicity in their relationship. I have met couples in real life with similar behaviours, and their relationship is like living in hell. At the end, even though I understand the internal problems of each of them and their situations and background, I don’t think what they feel is love, it’s an unhealthy obsession and attraction. Maybe serious therapy could help them improve as a couple, and more important, to deal with each own internal problems and traumas. So at the end for me this was just a story of two self-destructing and problematic people with serious psychological problems getting into a toxic relationship.
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totally waste of time
If i can say that's probabily the worst drama i've ever seen in my entire life. As a fan of romance dramas this one is so disappointing. I really was excited before watching it, but it was delusional. Extremely toxic couple portrayed like it's normal romance, clichè story that i saw a million times, irrealistic, superficial, toxic and difficult to even watch. It was a total waste of my time and i think this drama is too much overrated. Just a random red flag, coedipendent, obne sided, toxic story with literally no characterization, that makes you have second hand embarassment in the first five minutes.Was this review helpful to you?
Some clichés stories are worth a try this one, so not
I mean it did have a cliché plot and I am all about watching cliché but it depends on the way that the storyline is executed. I have also watched a lot of BL dramas through the years and this drama is the only one I have ever wanted to drop (except for A chance to love but I recontinued it).Like the story is borderline terrible, most of the acting is weird and you don't really feel anything, the only reason I even got till episode 3 is that the main characters are pretty. Their are are a lot of weird things in the plot including a lot of plot-holes. The main characters habits encourage stalking and it also explains the meaning of unhealthy, obsessive love. The only good thing was the music which is totally worth listening to I mean follow has such a catchy beat. I don't think I am ever going to want to continue this series or rewatch it. It's just terrible in a way. Everything go's real slow and the first kiss scene is too awful like I don't even know what they were thinking while shooting it.
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