Eliot_Rulez

heartwarming and beautiful...

Japan does it again with an unconvential story. While the age gap may some people turn away, it shows love can happen regardless of age too. They come closer over food while the younger character is an energized editor, the older character is an experienced but disenchanted chef. Ishida has abundance of energy, he sometimes feels like a child experiencing new things in life. Chef Mitsuya has closed himself off from the world and positive feelings. Ishida slowly but surely changes Mitsuyas views comulating in heartwarming vocal expression in the finale.

Both actors did an amazing job to portrait their characters. There is even fluff even albeit in other ways you would normally expect. Of course it's a classic JBL so they didn't even try kissing, but it does not matter for this story.

I can wholeheartly recommand this show.

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One of the best BL series ever!

After two years I watched this series again and it was as good as I remembered.
This series was amazing in beautifully crafting an enemy to lover trope in an unconventional way and with a heartbreaking ending.

While the second couple had a slow start, it was also a realistic way of showing how lovers could come together with one enthusiastic teenager and an older, hurt adult. I have no clue why there is so much complaining about an age gap. It was not that big and it happens in real life too. You can never decide to love, it just happens!

Also some complain about the ending, but that can happen and I personally think it's great to depicture something like that too. It transforms this series from the typical highschool romance to a mature slice of life.
Everything was thoughtfully executed, the nuances in the acting were amazing. and it will be one of the best BLs of all time imho.

If you can stomach a really heartbreaking ending you should watch for sure!

PS.: In this year (2024) should be a second season, I only hope it can be as amazing.

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simply mostly cute.

I don't understand all the low ratings this show received.
While it's not perfect, it's watchable, with some laughs and some tears.
It's by far not as bad as "The Middleman" or the absolut horrid "Crazy Handsome Rich".

This show has its cute moments, also it's serious moments.
While some of the effects looked cheap, you have to consider that this was not a high-budget series, so you should not take that so much serious. The effects in "Law of Atttraction" were much worse, but I didn't see 1.0 ratings.

For me this show was enjoyable even with some overacting on the comedy parts and with the stupid noises, but the gist of the story and what the director wanted to transport was positive and the acting ranged from cute to good. I don't understand why people have expectations regardsless of who is acting or writing or directing. Regardless, reviews with 1.0-3.0 ratings are unfair compared to many other worse shows.

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Not a love story...

Two boys meet at a playground and since then are often together. Both can't communicate well. One is "docile" and bullied a lot - at least at the playground and the other is a "cool" boy but void of emotions. That's a typical J-Drama, full of misunderstandings and poor communication. In highschool they meet the same girl, and the "docile" boy falls in love but again no communication. The "cool" boy says bad stuff about the "docile" boy, but he seems to be jelous of his love and so he takes interest in the girl and after university they marry. You may think it's a love triangle, but it's not. And then all the bad stuff happens.

While the story is not as good as it could have been, it's consistent and logical. The acting is top notch, I guess you can say it's not natural and a bit over-acted for dramatic effect, but all chars are still believable. Camera, Lighting everthing was very good too giving this series a special vibe (which gets a bonus point in my rating). I would have wished, they would have expanded on the flashback as boys to see if the "cool" boy was always an asshole especially to the "docile" boy, but we will never know. For me it had some bromance vibes surpressed by the "cool" boy.

Overall a vey good show, but nothing "entertaining" in the usual sense.

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Positive messaging...

I won't tell you much about the series but some things that stand out. First the focus of a positive messaging, to have respect for all people regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation or social background. That's the outstanding feature of this show. Second production quality was top notch.

The negative aspects are as usual for thai shows silly comedic sound effects nobody needs, the story is not really focused on the second couple and had a lot room to improve. There was not much character growth overall. It's a bit cheesy at times but gives you a good feeling.

Overall the show was better than expected, gives you fluffy moments, funny moments and mature themes and scenes with a bit of fan service. If you want to have a nice time and there aren't any better shows to watch, it will entertain you.

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much better than the manga...

I did read the original source and I think it was a medicore manga.
But this show fixed most flaws in the manga, reduced the story to the essential but did miss out on Hiros development so the ending feels rushed.

The jerk-off scene stired some controversy but I think it should show Hiros docile character, running like a machine without an option to decide what he wants.

I wished they had at least one episode more to go deeper into Hiros character. I don't think the office scenes were too long, they are essential to understand his struggle but how he did come to the conclusion to change his workplace was too fast, when Hiro has lived in a "treadmill" for five years. Also some flashbacks to Kais family live with his father would have helped the show.

It's always a problem with such short shows to go deeper when all you have are six episodes. I don't quite understand why they have to limit themselves. Two episodes more shouldn't do that much for the budget but could make the show better.

Some are impressed by the opening sequence which I don't like. Why? Because most japanese series show the happy end and they waste 1:19 of only 24mins runtime.

Regardless of the flaws it was a good show with high production value with some fluffy scenes and an adorable couple. MDL is missing a voting for cinematography and design which are also integral for a good series, so my endscore is higher than "calculated" :)0

Update: My perfect BL of 2024 :) (not the best BL/queer drama of 2024, but from the viewpoint of a BL it was perfect)

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Too short imho, but still cute.

That was refreshing and funny without being forced to be funny.

I think a fourth episode would have helped, because it felt sometimes a bit rushed or at least 5 minutes more would have been a godsend. Also when they always talk about the "kissing scene", they should have played out exactly this scene as finale and not only hint it at the end of the credits.

Otherwise the two managers were hilarious and I felt in the first episode they have a more intimate connection, so really well done. Also the supporting cast did a very good job.

The story is more original compared to most, executed so brilliantly. I had laughs and some tears, so I can only recommand to binch watch this short series.

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hard to judge because it has it's lengths

The best thing the show did, was not starting with a sex scene as the manga did.
What was frustrating was the lack of communication overall, but especially on Asamis part. He was in love for years and still can't communicate properly when he has the chance. Of course, if both are in love they don't really need words to convey their feelings, but if the partner is inexperienced, shy and never experieced love in his life, it would help tremendously. They should have shown Asamis reason to love Yuki in Episode 2 also much earlier to give the viewers more to work with and to better understand him, I think to do that in episode 7 was a bit late.

Besides that, the series was beautifully crafted, cinematography was great and they tried to be sensual all over. The mellow pace was not a negative for me per se, but the series draged on a bit. Even with this flaws the MLs did act a wonderful job and only failed with the kissing scenes which was a bit disappointing.

So in summary a good show with some flaws but enjoyable to watch.

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WTF? Did we need that?

If this is the episode 11 (why does MDL state it's 2 episodes?) ?

I think we could have lived without it for sure.

Even when society is fucked up in Japan, a BL should give an positive outlook and not keep Jin in the closet because of pressure... So I hate the story for 100%. All the rest was good as usual, but the story destroyed it for me.
For context: They changed the manga, so his dad made a movie about two boys (in the manga he had a girl & boy), Jins friends were present to watch Hirukawas movie at university (they were absent in the manga). So I do hate it, that they changed the manga for the better but did not finish it with consequence.
Of course I can understand it, when you don't want to out yourself in the company or to strangers who you have no connections with, but at least his dad would have understood and he was not in it. So it's sad, they did not have the guts to do something better and so, if you like the excellent series, you should not watch this!

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What a bad ending...

While I can understand that it can be hard to accept a gay relationsship, I don't understand why the finale needed a female antagonist with the most cliché story imagable. Instead of fighting for the relationsship and a more in depth talk, the antagonist took all the screentime so there was only a "bad" ending left.
The story was quite good thus far, regardless of some hick-ups and unnecessary scenes. The chemestry and acting was very good for new actors in such a genre. So the ending did disappoint even more. Overall better than expected, there is much room for improvement for the writing, but the MLs were the highlight of this short show.

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This is a mixed bag...

First the bad things: The problems of prostitutuion is only superficial mentioned, the acrobatics are only shown prominently in the first and last episode, even when some actors had to do a lot of work to make it believable. The ending is strange as well, especially with the love-triangle... while I don't see it problematic when three people love each other, it was not really explored through the story, it was there in the final episode and I didn't really expect it.

The good things about this series is that the production quality overall was high, and there was a lot of fan-service, which was overdone in my opinion. The chemistry between the leads was also good and they did a good job.

So overall not a bad show, but not a very good one either due to the lack of a more indepth story about hosts in general and not exploring the love-triangle from the beginning. At least you will have lot's of eye-candy.

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Thais can't adapt a foreign story....

After we had Cherry Magic and My Love Mix-Up, I had not much hope that any thai production company can adapt a non thai story. And they did not disappoint.

Why do they think, they have to make anything into a comedy with material that does not match. "Addicted Heroin" is neither funny nor a comedy. It does not make sense to have a serious story made with lot's of comedy elements (and it's stupid sounds). I can't fail the actors who all did a very good job in most scenes. Even Mac as newcomer performed much better than I would have expected. Regardless the writing was as usual lazy especially with the finale.

The final episode was confusing. The bad dad should have a relevation, so it does not make sense that both of them run away... And they are 17 or so... where can they run? Also the second couple was confusing as well and we do not know if they got together after they have chased each other for 8 episodes, than a strange reveal that "Only" was into "Pop" which did not make much sense for me.

What they also did not incorporated was the passion for each other. No time in the series I had the feeling they burn for each other. It was mostly childish or awkward. And due to the underage of Mac there is no kissing. The only highlight of the whole show was the family of Pop's dad. So in summary, this was a bad adaption as well. The series without the knowledge of the novels was not even medicore, especially because the finale does have too many loose ends and unlogical "conclusions".

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Much better than the series, but not exciting...

The bad stuff first: Intel & nVidia placement. No gamer (who really calls himself that) would ever buy Intel in 2025 and no serious PvP Gamer would buy a 600W graphics card. The worst thing: We never see the "new" computer - and the "old" one neither, he only plays on his mobile. His computer was quite essential (for him) in the first season. The usual "funny" soundeffects are still annoying but where used less. And snow in LA is a bit stupid, but I'm sure they meant Boston.

The good: They do not act childish most of the time, there is some seriousness behind their conflict. So at least they did mature. I hope, they keep that up in the 2nd season.

Overall: It's a nice special, but nothing stunning or emotional challenging. There is conflict, there is fluff and of course there is an tasteful intimate scene. I can say it was exactly what I expected.

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Not a BL but worth every penny the taxpayer spent....

Of course this is not a BL, it's a drama about a gay man. We see a real depiction of gay life in Korea with all the harsh realities Korean society (and many other) offers. There is no pink-washing of reality, there is just reality in an unapologetic way. Of course we wished for Ko Young to have a happy life. But life is tough, espeically as woman or gay man. I am glad the Korean culture ministry spend tax money on this show, because it's an important piece of education too. And because it's not a BL, we don't get the happy end Ko so much deserves.

One of the best gay shows ever produced even when some parts of the story were not perfect or not expanded and explained in a way I wished for (mother/son for example). On the plus side is the great acting, especially for the MLs who never played a gay character (and went into it giving 110%), and the stunning visuals.

So overall I can only recommand everyone to watch this series, 400 minutes worth spending!

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