RandomUsagi

Started watching (Indonesian sub due to lack of English sub) because I heard about the movie. Solid series that has an overarching plot aside from the individual cases, quite emotional as well.

I REALLY hope this will be a good show that can combine comedy with emotional moments.

So Aoi does seem to be vaguely interested in Natsume but doesn't outright state/think it outside from thinking things like that there's a Pomerian-dog/weirdly cute vibe to Natsume and feeling uneasy seeing Natsume acting close with another male friend.


Don't read further if you wanna watch it, as I will now spoil the ending:
And the vague few moments of interest is not truly reciprocated as Natsume turns out to have vaguely hinted alterior motives for getting close to Aoi in the plottwist end. As Natsume faked his pure/innocent personality and refers to some ''incident'' from the past that has changed Aoi. It gives off revenge-story type vibes and shows a ''to be continued'' screen at that point. So who knows, if there is ever a sequel it may be BL.

So its not BL, I saw the 50 minute episode and its really mostly gym-stuff and solely set in a gym.
But is it bromance? See spoiler comment below:

Youtube, but there's no completed fansubber English subs unfortunately as of writing. So you'll have to piece together context from machine-translation and Japanese audio. Episode 1 is subbed and I believe linked somewhere in this comment-section below.

It has an anime now apparently? Well, the og drama was good

You mean those current female presidents, senators, businesswomen, leaders ect.. That have only joined multiple layers of government within like the last 100 years? And who are still, in the vast majority of countries, the minority within the government... Yes the situation improves, but it's not equality yet.
Google ''world leaders summit' sometime and look at group-pictures of countries leaders and tell me the gender-balance between men and women present. I hope that clears up some things.

There's two queen Elizabeths from England so specify which one next time if you want to pick a specific one.

''You're basically claiming that these women have no agency.''
That was indeed kind of a thing with concubines that they had extremely little agency. I mean, again, they were groomed into this role from their early teens and they quite literally were stuck in that palace for their entire lives.

''Either they're responsible or they're not. You can't have it both ways.''

-So you can't understand concubines carry responsibility and they were also underage teenagers groomed into this lifestyle simultaneously? They did awful things and killed others, but they were led into this lifestyle against their will to serve the needs of some powerful guy. So yea I will take their background into consideration when casting judgement on their actions.

''Queen Elizabeth and Margaret Thatcher were definitely not figure heads.'
-As for the rest, that's a case by case thing. Some perpetuate the male-dominant systems and some fight against it I guess. Somehow this went from historical suffering of concubines to now modern politics. Queen Elizabeth with her funding of Andrew and Margaret with her defunding of childcare definitely did some women-unfriendly things.

But the point is; a female leader doesn't equate a system that uplifts women in general (or a matriarchy). Because for that to happen, all layers of power need to have women in them. Which historically has not often been the case. Nowadays the situation has improved but during the time of concubines? Yeah, things were rough.

''Case closed then.''
- Conveniently ignoring the minor-part then, some of these concubines never knew a life beyond the palace-politics. There's responsibility, but there's also an understanding needed on how environments form people as they grow into adulthood.

''I've never seen Alice in Borderland, so no comment.''
- You can still fix that. Anyway these shows are just used as examples of brutal survival-situations.

''the kingdoms were actually run by the Queens.''
-I mean that's a broad statement; did they have influence? Sure. Were they more powerful than the king? In nearly all cases no. If the king wanted them executed, they would be dead.

''Except having a female ruler is one of, if not the most central, aspect of a matriarchy but whatever.''
So a matriarchy would actually mean that women in general would hold powerful positions in society. Not just 1 female figurehead royal surrounded by men.

These women in a concubine situation were absolutely still responsible for their own actions. But if you were thrown into a survival-game like Alice in Borderland or Squid Game I assume you'd also lose a bit of your own humanity. And keep in mind, many concubines probably joined the palace at ages we'd consider being a minor nowadays.

As for queens, for the small amount we've had in earths history, they just join a pre-existing system. And that system is written and enforced by mainly men regardless of royalty figurehead. Thinking that just because there's a female ruler that there is suddenly some kind of a matriarchy is very naive. The soldiers, politicians, law-writers, bankers ect... Were almost all dudes.

The question of blame for mainly men or women for the horrific things that have happened in the past is useless as both men and women have done good things and bad things. But in regards to generally holding power and therefore influence, it obviously was men due to physical advantage over women.

Does anyone please know the story/can someone let me know if synopsis has been updated?

I believe that is the 2025 show called ''Better Halves'' but that is not the 2003 version as far as I could see.

Definitely airing this time 🤡

The romance? Not here for it.
Whatever is going on between Takakura & Kosuke? Here for it

Nice to see the nostalgic 2000s Japan, the songs are alright

Finally watched the whole thing. They go into the experience-backgrounds of the actors to show why they struggle with the script in their own ways and that's done quite well.

Its not as romance-focused as I thought it would be, but its very cute as the assistant is on his mission to smoothen over the rocky relations with advice from the guardians. And the guardian-spirit couple is chill

There is something SO sweet about this

2 very short BL scenes in this one.

No problem, for me it was the lack of English sources that instigated the creation of the entries. Just so the knowledge of their existence is not erased from history as its a very niche genre.

Where did you watch it?