I have a moral aversion to face-swapping plot lines, but I thought I’d give In Blossom a try. For the first few episodes, I enjoyed it enough to keep going, but after a while.. it became tiresome.

There was a lot the writer did not decide to explore. For example, how the parents traumatized all the main characters, how the characters built themselves up from the trauma, and also making sure the characters could stand on their own without attachment to romance.

Pan Yue is obsessed with Yang Caiwei, and it ends up being that this is all we know of his character. It’s a shame, because we get small glimpses into his tough childhood, with his father suspecting Pan Yue of not being his. But alas, the romantic plot is the focus. We lose out on watching Pan Yue become loving and kind after healing from his past.

Yang Caiwei is the only character that develops. She is strong, but very insecure about Pan Yue’s love towards her at the beginning, and at the end. She becomes more self-assured once she realizes that he does care for her. However, Yang Caiwei already had a lot of agency before she met Pan Yue. He simply enhanced this.

Additionally, the SFL and SML relationship was icky to me. I could not romanticize the SFL being second choice for him. It was obvious she was a rebound, and ready to be one, which I think also comes from her parental trauma. She was ready to be used, and I feel really bad for her. Especially because the SML dies.

Overall, I think the characters were not explored as well as they could have been, an it lays in leaning too much into the romantic aspects, when these characters clearly have more depth, that we are given glimpses of.

I do also agree that the FL in the first 2 episodes would be been a better choice, but I still enjoyed JJY performance regardless.