Dramas watched in 2024

When I was 8 years old, Yusuke was my hero. He was a fearless, brave, good boy who was angry at all the injustice he couldn't change. 24 years later, Yusuke is still my dearest shounen protagonist. And Kitamura Takumi played him flawlessly.

Yuyu Hakusho has so much to tell. 175 manga chapters, 112 anime episodes. As someone who grew up with it all, the only thing I hoped for the drama was that it would be fun, and that the action would be good. It was fast-paced, well-choreographed, and so SHINY. I was ecstatic.

Of course it's not perfect. With only 5 episodes, so much character writing has to be sacrificed, as well as bigger story arcs. We're left with the essence of YYH: the goodness of people that makes them strong and unites them. 

Hardcore fans might not like it, and it shot itself in the foot from any potential sequels, but just like the Bleach movie, it got itself a tight story, and it did it well, and it was cool as fuck.

Good for you, Yusuke. You'll always be the number 1.

Initially intriguing, its production values and acting power really set Death's Game apart. But from the beginning you can feel the patronizing tone of its narrative towards suicide victims, and it does not pick up from there. 

The lowest point for me was when Death looped the game, saying, "This is your choice. You brought your own misery. Your suicidal tendencies make you irredeemable. You're all the same." From a country with such a high suicide rate, it feels... needlessly cruel. 

I have witnessed a disregard for life, suicide used as flippant joke. But I have also survived despite my own tendencies; put myself in the shoes of those who care about me. There's so much arrogance in Death's Game for a show that puts the message of "life" front and center.

Maybe Yi Jae was loved and he missed it, like a fool. But should we really punish people for their weaknesses, instead of embracing them? Should we put the blame solely on them? It's not wrong to want the hurt to stop. It's just human.

“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince 

When your world is taken from you, how do you find it in yourself to continue living? 

There was so much hanging on Last Twilight. Mhok's loss and grief. Day's struggles with his disability. The break of trust between brothers and lovers. Parents who didn't know how to care for their children. Every week I learned more about love and kindness.

It is the kindness and understanding that make Last Twilight so important to me. The patience and humanity to understand that someone's struggles are different from yours. They're always a person, have never been less. But how do we make it so they can live with dignity?

Much has been said ever since #LastMemoryLastTwilight. I will not speak over important voices. I know its issues. But Mhok, Day, Porjai, Night, they were so very important to me. They have helped change my world. And they will forever be a whole world to me, happy and free.

Lee Dong Wook and Kim Hye Joon working together was everything I had hoped for. There was love and care in everything Jeong Jin Man did for Ji An, especially in training her. It was the mentorship and gray morality of my dreams, perfectly acted. 

Alternating between past and present to get the audience to care for both leads worked up to a point, until it tipped too much into Jin Man and left the last episode to run and try to solve a few loose ends while making new ones. As it were, it was good w/ a bitter aftertaste.

It's so rare to make a show that feels perfect, but if it exists, Twinkling Watermelon comes so dangerously close to it. Even with its kdrama clichés, even when it was deeply flawed, it had so much heart, I instantly forgave it. 

There's so much to say about it; how it gives voice and agency to its deaf character; how it highlights all diff types of love; how it handles generational trauma; above all, I'll never forget Twinkling Watermelon for putting parental love up front and center. Forever special in my heart.

Dropped. Disjointed, boring, unfunny.

I could really feel how careful they were with this adaptation. There's a lot of positivity and sweetness in CM, and from the show soft palette, to the dialogue, and every recreated mana cover, they tried to convey it. 

I already loved Kurosawa, and I managed to love Karan in his own uniqueness. Achi became endearing to me, and Jinta is so much cuter and entertaining. But there was something missing in there. A type of genuine emotion in dialogue or even eye acting. It felt a little... stiff. 

Between that, the lack of any real exciting development and the slow built, it landed a bit flat. Not exactly bad, but maybe showcasing how tying itself so closely to the original material caged further potential. 

But I do appreciate it. The dialogue was awkward at times, preaching to the choir, but I'll take happy couples with their sunlight-colored frames and the happiest of endings in any BL. I'll support its celebration of love, and its fight for change.

There is so much kindness in Silent. Not because of the understanding between people who can hear and people with impaired hearing, but because #Silent is a show about love of all kinds. Of friendship, romance, family -- reaching people where they are. 

There's so much care in Silent. Are you okay? Are you eating well? Are you hurting? So many people willing to ask those questions. So many characters allowed to be flawed, when society sees them as pitiful. So many mistakes to be made. Silent is perfect in how it sees people.

And it fills my heart with the utmost hope to see people be so kind, so understanding of each other. To accept their own mistakes and grow past it. It fills me with love to see words be conveyed in every possible language. Silent fills me, and I won't forget it for a long time.