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BL Drama no Shuen ni Narimashita: Crank Up Hen japanese drama review
Completed
BL Drama no Shuen ni Narimashita: Crank Up Hen
1 people found this review helpful
by Heracin
Jan 2, 2024
3 of 3 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 6.5
Story 6.0
Acting/Cast 7.0
Music 7.0
Rewatch Value 5.0

Meta and cute, wish they would have developped more the side story which really intrigued me

This special drama is made of three episodes of 45 minutes (which is quite a sizable duration for a Japanese BL). It is about the encounter of a very trendy actor at the peak of his hype and a former child actor not really known as much to the public. They are both hired to play a couple in the live-action adaptation of a popular BL manga.

I love the premise of this story: it is super meta to have BL actors playing BL actors hired to play in a BL series. I really enjoyed the series but I wish they would have taken the concept even further. It stays very light and fluffy with a lot of comedy. Doing so, it feel a bit limitative in the emotions the main actors are portraying. They are doing a suitable job with the fun and goofy parts, as well as when they are playing characters but I wish I would have felt a bit more the attraction between them in their "real life" arc.

The secondary roles were very nice. There are no crazy woman part used to antagonize the main characters, which is always a good news. I found the two secondary female roles pretty good and wish I would have seen more of them. My biggest regret is coming from the fact that the most interesting relationship in the drama (the one between the two managers of the actors) was not developped enough. The scenario hinted a complicated romance with those two characters and I really would have loved if the show had elaborated much more on that.

The production value was standard for the genre and the songs were not memorable but suitable to the pop and manga atmosphere of the show.

I would recommend this to people looking for a fluffy, cute and fun BL with some interesting meta references and a cohabitation trope. I wish it would have been more angsty and complex but it was clearly not the objective of the story. I would have really loved for the series to develop much more some of the sides characters (especially the secondary romance) but it was still a very easy and pleasant watch pretty entertaining.
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