4
16
Heracin
Office Japanese BL with a friends-to-lovers trope that could have been exploited better
This Japanese BL set in an office settings depicts the romance between 2 former friends that find each other back working for the same company. Even though the premise of the series does not seem particularly original, I really liked the first half of the show which provided the context and the background to the beginning of the relationship between the two main leads, back to when they were in middle school. It gave a very painful and real feel to the friends-to-lovers trope as there are a lot of trauma and social pressure faced by the characters at a pretty young age as they are trying to figure themselves out.
However, I was less enticed by the second half of the show which focalised a bit too much on an external conflict with an office manager villain...I'm really not sure if it brought any additional value to the relationship. Given the shortness of the show, I would have preferred the adults version of the characters to spend more time on dealing with their past trauma and handling the internal conflicts than on all the office drama. For me, there was a bit of a missed opportunities in terms of romance, passion, pining and as well as mental health conversations.
Overall, the chemistry between the two main lead was quite average even though they share some relatively noteworthy scenes. I found myself being much more interested by the performance of the actors playing the part of the characters younger. Maybe because that was the part of the story that I found the most compelling...In any case I think they did a good job and were more convincing than their adult counterparts.
The production value was pretty standard for a BL Japanese office drama. Nothing stands really out but it does the job. Similarly, the music was not very present and not that noticeable neither in a good or bad way.
I would recommend this to people looking for a BL office romance. It has some defaults in its storytelling and does not exploit all of its potential but it is still a pretty compelling watch if you like friends-to-lovers trope.
However, I was less enticed by the second half of the show which focalised a bit too much on an external conflict with an office manager villain...I'm really not sure if it brought any additional value to the relationship. Given the shortness of the show, I would have preferred the adults version of the characters to spend more time on dealing with their past trauma and handling the internal conflicts than on all the office drama. For me, there was a bit of a missed opportunities in terms of romance, passion, pining and as well as mental health conversations.
Overall, the chemistry between the two main lead was quite average even though they share some relatively noteworthy scenes. I found myself being much more interested by the performance of the actors playing the part of the characters younger. Maybe because that was the part of the story that I found the most compelling...In any case I think they did a good job and were more convincing than their adult counterparts.
The production value was pretty standard for a BL Japanese office drama. Nothing stands really out but it does the job. Similarly, the music was not very present and not that noticeable neither in a good or bad way.
I would recommend this to people looking for a BL office romance. It has some defaults in its storytelling and does not exploit all of its potential but it is still a pretty compelling watch if you like friends-to-lovers trope.
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