Watchable but Don't Believe the Hype!

I was excited to see a new BL jump up to the top of the MDL BL rankings. This drama currently holds an 8.5 rating and is in the all-time top-ten of BL dramas. I think the problem may the growing popularity of BL dramas and viewers that may not have see many of the BL dramas from the past get excited overly excited about a new show, without the perspective of what some better dramas may be. So before I get into my review, I would ask viewers that love this show, if they really think it's better than other realism style dramas such as Like in the Movies, I Told Sunset about You, The Eighth Sense, Moonlight Chicken or even the unfairly low-rated Kimi no Koto Dake Mite Itai?

[Spoiler's ahead!] The biggest problem isn't the tired trope of the step-brother's falling in love -- although if you want more of that, feel free to watch Stay with Me, Addicted, History 4: Close to You, Gray Shelter, History 2: Crossing the Line, History 1: Stay away from Me, My Bromance or Cherry Blossoms after winter. The biggest problem also isn't the glacial pacing of the series, with way too many dialogue-free montages of the past, or of a character "acting" to demonstrate their emotions. The biggest problem isn't the convoluted story of the gang - particularly when they come back towards the end of the series -- didn't Wei Qian already clear his debt in the the fighting matches years ago? The biggest problem isn't the stalker-ish behavior of the younger step-brother who won't take no for an answer -- over and over and over. The biggest problem isn't the absolutely terrible acting of the Xiao Yuan's teacher who visits Wei Qian (episode 2) who apparently learned that furrowing one's brow and repeating touching and taking on and off your glasses constitutes acting. And the biggest problem also wasn't the over-the-top melodrama of it all -- the trials and tribulations of this family could have been portrayed much more realistically if the director had just pulled back a little bit on a number of creative choices.

No, none of those. The biggest problem with this series is the music. Instead of working harder to find some more unobtrusive music cues to gently support and accentuate the drama that unfolds within this small family, the producers, director and editor chose to use a very limited number of songs over and over too many times throughout the series. The instrumental music with the piano and strings that they used multiple times in every episode got repetitive very quickly. It felt like the acting and the story wasn't creating the desired emotional weight that the producers wanted, so they thought that by playing swelling music that it would lift the scene, but it felt just the opposite like they were forcing the scene to have emotion, instead of just letting the story and actors propel the emotions. It felt overly-manipulated, instead of just supporting. However, the most distracting uses of music were the repeated vocal tracks that they would play under scenes of dialogue. The music was too loud and took me out of the scene every time. Maybe they could have used instrumental versions of the OST pop songs for the show or something. It might have helped, but the bottom line is whoever had the final say on music for this series, shouldn't be allowed to sign off on music in the future.

Now, just in case you think I hated this show, I didn't. I just don't think it deserves the score it currently has on MDL. There were a number of great things about this show. The main actors did a good job, the cinematography was better than many other BLs out there, the leads were quite attractive, and the sex scene, although not explicit, was quite hot. I just think as viewers we should turn the page on the step-brother trope (or at least find a more interesting way to present it), and I think the viewers should start being a little more discerning when it comes to things like logical plots, music aesthetics and melodrama.

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What A Mess!

I'm not sure how so many people are swept away by this, nor how it's scored over eight stars on MDL. However, I also never quite understood the hype around We Best Love: No. 1 For You, which is one of the top 10 ranked BL dramas on MDL. Both shows come from the same author.

IMHO there are a bunch of much better BL dramas that are rated lower than this on MDL, but are infinitely better, including Kinou Nani Tabeta?, Utsukushii Kare, Kamisama no Ekohiiki, Hello Stranger, DNA Says Love You, Once Again, Kimi no Koto Dake Mite Itai, More Than Words, Ossan's Love, Bokura no Micro na Shuumatsu, Oh Mando! and Mood Indigo, to name more than a few. More Than Words and Mood Indigo are particularly well produced shows, though quite serious dramas, and as ridiculous and over the top as Ossan's Love is (the 2018 version), it's actually quite funny and Tanaka Kei is comic genius. Your time would be much better spent on any of these titles.

The cinematography on this show is very similar to what we've come to expect from most Taiwanese BLs -- It's very professional looking, but has a very candy coated sheen which lacks any realism. When you venture beyond schoolboy and cafe romance fantasies, and instead venture into gangs and prison, I think a grittier, more realistic look would have done much to help this show be taken a little more seriously. Having said that, the actors are made to look very attractive, so if you're in it for eye candy, you may like this show. They also did a better job than many other BLs by developing the characters histories and motivations, so you really knew what these characters defining background stories are. This show also did a nice job of bucking expectations about sexual roles in bed, which I appreciated.

Where this series really fell apart however, was the writing and plot. The "never exactly explained" list for the series is troublingly long, and after a while you just stop caring about what's going on.

[STOP READING HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT MASSIVE SPOILERS!!!]

The entire warring gangs storyline was thinly explained throughout. The machinations of Fan Ze Rui hiding from his gang in order to keep his gang looking for him, so that his boss can take over Zhang Teng's territory was particularly convoluted. Then, that the high school let a gang member come in undercover to become a temporary teacher in order to expose a rival gang's drug dealing within the school made zero sense. The connection between the Fan family orchestrating the chair attack in prison also felt very tenuous. Especially after Bai Zong Yi took the fall for Zhang Teng's murder. I understand it's because Fan Hong Da didn't approve of Bai Zong Yi and Fan Ze Rui's relationship, but wouldn't there be some respect for Bai Zong Yi saving Fan Hong Da's grandson from going to prison? And if Fan Hong Da hated is bastard grandson so much, why did he want to keep him out of jail, and why did he care so much about his relationship? Didn't he sort of want to disown him anyway? The motivations here all seem very contradictory. Do you want to know how Ai Di got himself into jail to protect Bai Zong Yi ? I would like to know that as well, but it was never explained! Bai Zong Yi has short term amnesia, but doesn't really seem to forget everything -- except his wedding vows in the final scene. Fan Ze Rui is pretending to have long term amnesia to protect Bai Zong Yi (from the Fan family I guess) and to get dirt on his family's business... maybe? Was he blackmailing his grandfather, or was he offering a bribe to his grandfather? Again, never really explained. There's also the Hail Mary of plotting at the end to throw in a twist from a character that the show kind of ignored throughout the series. And would you like to know why Chen Dong Yang's boyfriend was coughing up blood in the final episode? Well, you won't find out. Those are just a few of the reasons this show is a mess.

My understanding is that this was originally a novel, and with any novel they always have to cut things back to make work in the running time of a show. However, I also read that Chen Yi and Ai Di were side characters with no romance in the novel. If the writers didn't spend so much time fleshing out this additional story and turning it into a romance, maybe they could have gotten the basics down and made the overall plot points connect better and make more sense. It feels like they added an extra story in at the expense of creating a show with an understandable and believable plot.

Oh... and the theme song was terrible.

If you're interested in BL gang's, I suggest you check out Not Me. It doesn't have as attractive actors, but the plot is infinitely more interesting and logical. Another title you might enjoy would be Kinn Porsche, which is also kind of terrible, though not as terrible as this, and it's got a lot of sex, so that's a plus.

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An Excellent but Too Short Adult BL Romance

This was very enjoyable to watch. The actors have an amazing chemistry, and whoever the cinematographer was should get an award for how well they made Hasegawa Makoto and Furuya Robin look. There were so many moments where both men were lit with an amazing golden hue that rivals feature film or big budget advertising cinematography. Plot-wise, I must say that there's a nice feeling seeing two men navigating a past shared teenage trauma and trying to figure out if they right for each other as adults. Amidst the drama, there are some nice comedic touches from Takashi's assistant, and Takashi's "brother." It also presents a nice story of gay man standing up for himself in the face of some traditional Japanese conservatism. They did a great job of casting three teenage versions of the adult men, actually finding young actors who looked like the adult actors, particularly the young Miyata. I think that some very talented hair and make-up people also had a big hand in that. Lastly, although there was no explicit nudity, the sex scenes, though brief, were quite frank and passionate.

My only criticism is that six 24 minute episodes felt too short. I could have used a little more delving into Takahashi's psyche and how he was affected by his broken relationship with his family. They explained everything in the final episode, but whereas I felt I really understood Miyata's trepadations about entering into this relationship again, Takahashi was a bit of a mystery throughout the series. I know a big part of the plot was predicated on Miyata not trusting Takahashi's words, and us not completely understanding his motivations helped elevate that plot thread. Miyata's voiceover gave us really clear insight into his character and I think some time could have been added to do something similar with Takashi's character. But this is nitpicking. Koi wo Suru nara Nidome ga Joto is an excellent series and very much worth your time if you like adult BL dramas.

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Deceptively simple, but astoundingly mature and nuanced!

I was so surprised to see something jump to the top of BL rated dramas on MDL after what has felt like a year (2023) of less than great BL productions, but after watching it I believe it deserves the accolades. I’ve always gravitated to the BL dramas that prioritize a sense of realism and emotional heft, over the shenanigans and illogical misunderstandings that many BLs try to pass off as legitimate plot points. Kimi to Nara Koi wo Shite Mite mo stands head to toe with many of my favorite BLs, like Eien no Kinou, Fujoshi, Ukkari Gei ni Kokuru, Gameboys, I Told Sunset About You, Like in the Movies, More Than Words, Otto No Otto, Bokura no Shokutaku, The Eighth Sense, Mood Indigo, Kinou Nani Tabeta?, and Blueming. So if you like any of those, you will likely also enjoy this. The plot of Kimi to Nara Koi wo Shite Mite mo seems very simple, but hidden inside is a very relatable story, engaging characters, plot tension that emanates from believable human emotions. This show made me tear up (happy tears) many times. It’s incredibly refreshing to see characters be so honest with themselves about what they want. The drama hinges on actual human desires, without any “gotchas” like the forced under-explained misinterpretations and missed connections that many BL dramas unfortunately rely on as plot devices. this show was incredibly well written, and well acted. My only criticism of the may be that it might be slightly unbelievable that these two high school students would be able to communicate with such maturity. A bonus of this show is the amazing theme song, and closing credits song, which both perfectly convey the emotions of this series. I’ve watched over 150 BL dramas and this was one of the best!

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