Noona or Unconventional Romance

This is my holy grail of Noona romance. If you haven't watched it, and are a fan of the genre, give it a try.  It starts slow, but really picks up, so stick with it. If you like Noona romance with a bit more mature leads, this one really delivers. The B stories and side characters are absolutely stellar also, and it is also extremely funny in parts. The two leads have the best chemistry of any Noona romance I've watched.

It's about a career driven shrew of a lady that has closed her heart off to love and other people, and is secretly lonely. It's also about a heart-broken 'part-timer' that has lost his way. They cross paths, and both tend to rethink their lives, and maybe open their hearts to each other.  

This is about a girl who feels ugly growing up and is bullied for it, and before entering college, transforms herself with plastic surgery. Unfortunately it goes maybe too far 'the other way' and her surgery is pretty noticeable, hence being called a 'Gangnam Beauty' (Kinda like being called Plastic Fantastic). She's still the same girl inside, but her new glamorous looks get a lot of attention from her classmates, from good to bad. Including from the impossibly hot boy who used to go to her highschool and who... maybe recognizes her?

This is more the 'unconventional' lead, not a Noona romance. The FL has pretty noticeable 'worked on' face, and it's part of the plot. I really enjoyed this. It has it problems (the main one being that even though it's about lookism and the importance of loving yourself, it never really suceeds in that message). The highlight of this is just that it's a really cute romance. The FL is pretty endearing and relatable and the ML is just ridiculously attractive and so is the second ML.

One thing i didn't like though is that the B plot romances were non existent, which made me very sad. Apart from the two ML, (and the Dad) the other male peers in the story were the worst. Like no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I'm not even sure they grow as characters or as people, really. lol. It's frustrating.

This drama is about a High School guy that has to pose as his older brother, a successful businessman, for top-secret reasons for two months. He's apprehensive but he finds he has a knack for it, and as he gets into the role as 'director',  he becomes fond of  a nerdy and scatterbrained co-worker.  Unbeknownst to him, she's the older sister of his HS classmate, a girl who has a puppydog crush on him and won't leave him alone. He toes the line between his two secret lives, juggling his life as a hotshot business director with the many responsibilities he has as a high school Ice-Hockey star player, all while his burgeoning jealousy towards a rival business director and feelings for his quirky co-worker grow.

It's a cute Noona romance drama that I enjoyed. The two leads are pretty cute together,  the B stories weren't terrible and the acting was pretty solid. It does suffer from 'drama logic' a bit too much sometimes, especially towards the end, but the very end is extremely cute and as a fan of Noona romance, I found it really satisfying. The chemistry/kisses are pretty intense actually, for a Noona romance, which was kinda fun.

Busu no Hitomi no Koishiteru is a pretty cute drama about a chubby girl that falls in love with one of her voice-actor idols. The pairing has an age gap, too, (Older Guy) but the couple is very cute, even if the lead is very shy and reserved. It's not amazing-- they make a point to call her 'ugly' at times but she is so freaking adorable they should wash their mouths out with soap... but the episodes are very cute and the love story is also cute. The episodes are super short so should be a breeze to watch.

It's about a 39 year old female hair stylist who is feeling the pressure of being a spinster and decices to go to a dating meetup.  That's when a random young guy with a hidden ulterior motive sweeps her off her feet. To complicate matters, her childhood friend and fellow stylist comes back to town-- then he is promoted instead of her-- so he is now her boss! They hate each other but do they really? 

It's a cute Jdrama with an older lady romance.  The triangle is done really well. There is some pretty hot chemistry moments that are worth watching if you like things like that.  It's really worth checking out if you like a kind of 'plain jane' romance with some Noona hijinks in there. The younger ML is unfortunately now deceased which makes it a rather sad watch for me. He's one of the highlights of this drama and it's worth watching just for that. RIP.

This is the Taiwanese (original) version of 'A Witch's Romance' and thus has the same plot. 

It's pretty cute and I enjoyed it, but I felt the Korean version was superior in terms of chemistry and storyline and the B stories-- this one drags a bit, in my opinion and I had to fast forward. Still it's rather cute and worth a watch, and certain aspects are better.

This is about an ace collge weightlifter-- Kim Bok Joo and her blossoming feelings for a really irritable guy on the Swim Team at their sports college. She finds she has to juggle her romance with her goals as she grows up and finds love for the first time.

This isn't really 'unconventional' because the FL is cute as freaking button and she is far far from weightlifter size, she's maybe a little tall, that's it. That said, the show kinda treats her as 'big' because of how they view her sport, and she is also really relatable so I'm adding it to the list. The romance is very very sweet and done extremely realistic, it has such a 'first love' feel to it and the two leads are adorable.  It's a sweet show that drags at the end a bit for me, but it was entertaining.

I've given this a 10 only because it's super underrated and seems to have the rating police rating it pretty low on this site. I would say it's a solid 8 or at least a 7.5. It's a fun, light show, that is pretty basic on the romance and humor. It's nothing amazing, but it's very cute and I enjoyed it.

This is a Noona romance; it's about a 14 year old kid who wants to grow up because his betrothed, a kinda mean girl 7 years older than him, doesn't view him that way and is in love with someone else. So he makes a wish and he literally grows up into his 25 year old self, because he wants to protect her. Suddenly the girl notices him, but there's another lady that seems to need his protection. The woman is Lee Tae Ri (a pun on the Korean way of saying Italy) and she has given up on love.  They form a connection, but he's secretly just a kid, so shenanigans happen. It's kind of like the movie Big, but in a Korean drama format.

It has issues, but it's not bad. The age gap is pretty big (nothing happens with the young version of the kid, don't worry!), but it's still a cute story about the power of love and caring for someone else. The acting is pretty great, the B story is cute and pretty funny. There is a lot cringe with it but if you like Noona romance it's not a bad one to watch.

This is a Taiwanese drama, so it's very over the top and crazy. But usually pretty funny.  This is under the 'unconventional' female lead. She is a kind of tomboy, kinda plain lead.

It's about a good hearted girl who is trying to make ends meet. Her sister works as a assistant for a big time lawyer guy who has taken in his brother's kids after his brother dies. He needs a nanny for them but the kids act out and scare the nannies away most of the time, and the rest of the time, the nannies fall in love with him.  The lawyer asks his assistant to recommend someone kids will like that won't fall for him. She recommends her tomboyish sister, and say she won't fall for him because she's gay. This is obviously a lie. Shenanigans ensue.

This is a cute, if dated, Tdrama that is very over the top. I feel like you either love Ella Chen's flamboyant tomboy acting or you hate it. I personally love her, so I really enjoyed it. I will say the plot is all over the place, towards the end of the drama, the aforementioned kids aren't even a thing any more and there is a lot of weirdness happening in the plot. But it was still a cute, fun little watch, and it was pretty funny.

This is about a hard-hearted lawyer lady who is kinda jaded with life and her job. It's also about a high-school guy that feels alone, but can hear people's thoughts. Their paths cross when, as children, she witnesses a crime against his Dad, and faces danger to testify the truth to get the perp behind bars. Since then, he's always been looking for this Noona. And then he finds her....

This is a sweet Noona romance drama. It's one that is extremely, extremely popular and I feel like people consider it the 'gold standard' of Noona dramas, even there is a lot wrong with it. It is very tropey and gets rather cliche at times and suffers a lot from unrealism. I think part of the appeal of this drama all hinges on how much you're into Lee Jong Suk; he's extermely popular and thus people rate this ridiculously high even though imo it's just okay.  Part of it is that its an old role and he either doesn't have much chemistry with the FL, or he was inexperienced, because the kisses in this are really really tame and kinda PG, especially compared to his other dramas, where they are much much more passionate. Again, his fans don't seem to care as people tend to love this, and complain about other age-gap dramas like Witch's Romance or High School King of Savvy even though the age gap is worse in this. As an aside, Witch's Romance and High School King of Savvy have much much better chemistry/kisses. Like take your breath away kisses. They have also dated better. I re-watched this recently, and I think it's dated kinda badly, which is another reason it's not my favorite.

That said, it's a sweet romance, with an interesting storyline. It's worth a watch if you like Noona romance.

It's basically about two lost people who fall in love; an older lady and a much younger guy. It's also about society's expectations for both of them and how that challenges them and their love.

It's a much more realistic and 'poignant' drama that is portrayed with more art than your typical K-drama. If realism and angst is your thing, this may be for you. It's very slow and artsy. It doesn't hit my 'squee' factor in terms of cuteness for me, but was an enjoyable watch. If you prefer a more happy ever after style drama, this is not the right choice, but if you want something differerent in the Noona romance genre, then give this a try.

This is about a girl who is on the cusp of becoming a nun, (yes really) when she has to pretend to be her twin brother--an accomplished singer on the cusp of joining a boyband. He can't join because reasons, and needs her to take his place. She joins the boy band 'AN JELL'  to help him out, and shenanigans ensue when the hot boy band members are inexplicably attracted to her.

This is cute and I consider her an 'unconventional 'lead because she rather tomboyish. This show is towards the bottom of my list though because it's very very tropey and while it's funny, the FL and MLs can all be very irritating. I also felt the two leads lacked chemistry; she had better chemistry with some of the other band members, in my opinion. Still the main girl is endearing and it's a pretty fun watch.