ShortCircuit

...I just realised I'm dissing Faraway Wanderers, LOL. My bad. I mean, modern world Priest novels hahaha *runs away*

Wait, wait, wait, is this going to be that one Priest novel adaptation that I actually end up liking?!! I didn't expect the first episode to hit so hard, it looks like a lot of effort went into it (so far), wow, 2024 really is promising in the BL dep't, LOL.

Onwards to the second ep, dammit, I should've waited til it finished airing...

So, they're not friends but have a functional relationship, why does InHa feel more like an actual human with feelings than TaeOh, who is as cold as a pre-programmed robot?

And the FL... was the character written like that?! What the hell is her problem? Is it that the actress can't actually act, is it that she has no chemistry (none) with either MLs, or did they actually write in a pseudo-human who just... kind of stands there, no body language at all, and we're supposed to presume what the heck is it that she's trying to do/say/convey?!

I wonder who did TaeOh kill in the beginning of the first ep - I wouldn't be surprised if it were InHa and HyeWon.

So far, TBH, I like the way this is cut, but the story is actually a pretty messy thing. We've been told these guys have a masterplan to come on top of everything, but so far we've only been shown how they've bonded initially (and that too came out kind of a sudden, only because - as I've said before - InHa actually acts like a human), and then WHY are they out of the blue mooning over the same female ice stalagmite?! I would rather see some smart moves to get the conglomerate, not endless running scenes that go nowhere fast.

At least they're good looking.

PS Is it just me or does Lee Jun Young look a bit like Lee Jun Ho, from time to time? And he actually seems to know how to act, I might just take a look at Imitation, too... since he's in it and there are about half of ATEEZ in it, too, LOL.

At the beginning of the first ep, I had a feeling this was going to be something good.

At the end of the second ep, none of these people act like people, has the planet been invaded by the reptilian overlords after all?! What the hell am I watching?

The sword was with him, in his bag (in xianxia/wuxia, items can be stored in such bags - or rings, sometimes - no matter how big they actually are). He found that Yin Iron sword in the cave of the XuanWu monster (that ancient turtle thing), inside XuanWu, actually. The sword's resentful energy "called out" to the energy in Burial Mounds, so that WWX got sucked in it but managed to survive the fall.

Later on, during his three-months stay in Burial Mounds, he forged the sword into the Yin Iron amulet (the Yin Tiger Tally) and also made Chenqing, the flute he's using. The energy he's mastering and directing with the flute comes in part from the amulet, so both are pretty dangerous, but he can use the flute by itself, even if the amulet is not around (because they are independent, he only needs the amulet to control large numbers of ghouls, fierce corpses, spirits, ghosts, etc), else he can control just a few of them with songs only (doesn't even need the flute for that, in an emergency).

As for WHY doesn't he need a sword any more... If you're just in ep22, I won't say, it's one of the best reveals of the story :D

MyungHa killed himself. The Grim Reaper took pity on him (and maybe the wishing on a star helped too, a bit) so he gave him another chance at life, with a mission of discovering what's worth living for. And he put it in the form of a game so that MyungHa never realised (til the end) that it wasn't actually a game.

In the end, MyungHa fell in love and YeoWoon fell for him too, so that YeoWoon's mission in life became making MyungHa happy, too. So the Grim Reaper just... let them have their happy ever after.

He was never in a game. The other reality was presented to him as a game so that he could accept it easier. The grandma was already part of his life, none of his classmates were (he never had any friends in highschool).

For a hot second there I was afraid it'll turn into Sliders right at the end. Also, they seriously should have had Yoon Shi Yoon smile shyly as he does at the end more often, he has a great smile.

Overall, a very nice time paradox thriller, and I seriously am happy with the ending. I even have a lot of feelings over the killer, LOL. So that's all fine.

I wish OCN did more dramas as they used to do...

It's xianxia and it involves cultivation. Wuxia/Xianxia genre cultivators (Taoists/Daoists) want to reach immortality through "cultivating" an inner energy core. Once it's formed and the person reaches a certain threshold of cultivation, they appear to stop aging.

Well, since HOB liveaction isn't going to come too soon, I'm going to assume you've watched the donghua and aren't adverse to donghua recs. In that case, try MXTX's other story, Scum Villain's Self-Saving System (SVSSS). It's hilarious. Only the first season is out though - the novel is already licensed and completely relased, just as the other two MXTX novels.

Other than that, in terms of donghua - maybe try A Thousand Autumns. It's a bit more dark than MDZS and HOB (as in, the gong seriously is fighting it... until he can't fight it any more LOL). The novel is also licensed, but they just started releasing it, up to volume 3 currently. I guess the fan TL still exists somewhere.

Maybe FeiTian's Dinghai Fusheng Records, too. I haven't watched the donghua, but the novel is solid :D

In terms of actual danmei adaptations to cdrama... The definite danmei-based drama trio is TU, WOH and The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty (missing from your list, unless I missed it myself, LOL). It's lighter, but they did allow some hints to escape into the story (and the novel itself isn't that PDA-prone either, LOL). Take a look.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCEJd5EI5rc

It's the story of a cute glutton who also acts as a judge and writes purple prose for extra money, LOL. And how he, one day, gets tangled with a guy who can cook and then some, and also with an Imperial Eunuch set on the path to success, no matter how many bodies he might leave behind. You know what they say... the road to a man's heart goes through his stomach :D

Guardian (based on a novel by Priest) has a lot of the story told in flashbacks to an ancient China setting, so at least in that it kind of fits the idea of ancient China danmei-based story.

If you only want some really strong bromance, with the same kind of setting - maybe Mysterious Lotus Casebook would fit in, too.

Netflix

The plot could've used some more work, though. I mean okay - Daddy Tawara wants out of the business, Mommy Tawara is being bored to become a SAHM (Tae Kimura played her as if she was Jamie Lee Curtis in True Lies LOL, just that she was already trained), the youngest kid doesn't even know the family's business until he's put in the middle of it, the only daughter is idolising her lost brother, who, obviously, isn't as dead as previously thought LOL (I mean, what else is a missing body in a drama FOR if not for a surprise resurrection when the guy/girl has been seduced to the other side, right?)

And then we have tall, dark and broody Kiddo Tawara, who just wants to love somebody. For a shinobi, he's still pretty naive (and a virgin, LOL, though even if this is NF, we didn't get to see but some kissing, who knows if he lost his v-card that night) and a romantic, hahaha~ But hey, he's handsome and can fight. He gets a pass (or more passes, I don't care, I'm shallow like that.)

Darth Tawara is going to be seduced back into the family fold in the sequel, if any (because why not be completely tropey if we're going to use tropes anyway LOL). And maybe he'll bring his own Darth assistant with him (the only girl sporting an actual medieval haircut, LOL. I'm not sure if Kiddo Tawara ever met a professional hair cutter, and Darth Tawara obviously never even imagined hair could be cut until his mom did it LOL. These boys are so lacking in the hair care dep't.)

And then there's Grandma Tawara who is also in the girls' shinobi club, looks like, and can solve things even if she's addicted to soft drinks and burgers. And it looks like she's feeding some of that to the cat, too, that cat is on the way to becoming a oh-lawd-he-coming chonker.

Princess Karen, wait, I mean Kiddo Tawara's love interest (and current possessor of his v-card, who knows LOL) is still un-backstoried much (so she survived some fire as a kid and that's all. I guess it's left for the sequel if any). If there's a sequel, I hope the main cast remains the same, they really have some chemistry together (and trust me... that's pretty hard to come by in some j-doramas, unless they're BL, or very recent.) I almost wanted her to be a double agent for ANYone (the other clan of the gov't, or even the shinobi girls' surprise book club LOL, I don't care, as long as Kiddo Tawara got his heart officially broken by her betrayal and moved on. Now he's caught in a web and if NF never does the sequel, that's where he'll stay forever. I'd like him to go knock some heads together in that BNM agency. Just for the giggles.

So, in the end, everybody got manipulated into doing whatever the freak the enemies wanted done, and here we are - from the officials to the shinobi, everyone's going to dance to the tune of their enemies, LOL. That can't remain like that. Oh well.

I enjoyed it, TBH, and that's all that matters. But it needs a sequel, for the redemption of Darth Tawara, some (a lot) more screen time for Eguchi Yosuke, more lovey-dovey shyness from Kiddo Tawara (those are some seriously dangeous dark looks, and I like shy&quiet VERY much LOL), and yes, some head-banging for the BNM (of which I totally LOVED the newbie, LOL, he was hilarious!!! I want to see him bond with Kiddo Tawara and be his trusty sidekick!!)

Though a more tight plot definitely wouldn't hurt it, if it gets made. Hear me, NF? Also, if you make it... leave off s*x scenes, you perverts, okay? kthxbye.

You know what... this isn't half-bad at all. I thought it was going to be a snooze fest (I stalled a lot on the first two-three eps), but then it got into a groove, and while I could totally see the twists coming... can't help it. Even if Eguchi Yosuke wasn't that much in focus as I'd have wanted, I'd have still watched it for him. And then I found more reasons (it sure doesn't hurt AT ALL that Kaku Kento is tall, dark and so damn fine.)

The plot follows more Western lines than I'd expected, too, and the music kind of fits that. Overall... If you decide to watch this as if it was a low-grade superheroes story, it totally works. Don't put too much importance on shinobi lore and the like, though, LOL. And dammit, NF, learn that every season of any drama ever NEEDS a freaking complete-feeling ending, even if you leave some doors open for a possible sequel!

Well, at least there's no sudden s*x scene in the middle of nothing, like the other series that shall remain un-named here. And yeah - Kaku Kento. Definitely worth it :D

PS Eguchi Yosuke will forever remain the perfect Saito Hajime for me, though, Daddy Tawara won't cut it after all :D

Again, what I saw is that he does NOT make any decisions for her, exactly because he's not her father. And maybe he does feel guilty for taking her family away indirectly.

He lets her decide what she wants at every step and never pushes her in any direction she didn't already choose. And when she does choose he's always in the shadow to help her if it goes into extreme... but otherwise he lets her find her own way to survive.

I have no idea what his own childhood might have been like, for him to get involved into a merc company and eventually turn into an arms' dealer. It might be something he finds perfectly normal and so it's the only way he knows to prepare JiAn - throw her in the water and let her teach herself to swim.

TBH I don't like stories where parents or found family do absolutely everything for their children/people they're responsible for, up to and including sacrificing themselves. I mean, we all live for ourselves before everybody else. I can understand JinMan's POV in giving her complete freedom, as much as he's able, to do whatever she wants to do. He's treating her as an independent adult and that's just that.

The pacing of this drama is completely off, I wish they'd make up their minds what they want it to be after all.

It's like we watched two completely different dramas, LOL.

So, JJM did train her to save herself, but he's a VERY hands-off kind of teacher. Pasin DID teach her Muay Thai and knife work, JJM taught her how to shoot (good enough to almost take a sniper from across a field, on a diagonal upwards angle), through a reflecting car window and very little visibility. And they both never wanted her to become a mercenary, so she didn't NEED complete immersive training, like MinHye.

And I guess it also involved a lot of WANTING to learn and train. MinHye wanted to be trained and became a well-known name that other killers fear a lot. JiAn wanted to move to the city, go to school and have a normal life. JinMan presented her with a choice for herself, too, when he left the offer of having her walking away from it all or stay and inherit murthehelp. She chose, in the end. And was well-enough trained to take over anyway, despite not going through merc school of continuos fighting.

In the end, logically speaking, if JinMan would have died (because of Bale or Babylon or simply struck by a car when walking pass the crossroad), JiAn would have HAD to manage everything by herself. He (and Pasin) gave her the tools to survive and let her survive on her own.

And JiAn, for all her training and eventual decision to accept the job, is still almost a teen, who just (supposedly) lost the only family member she had left, who isn't USED to think in terms of advantages and disadvantages and not trusting anyone, and who, considering the very short timeframe (a few hours one evening), manages to adapt as well as it can be expected to a terribly new situation in her life.

The alternative would've been for JinMan to train his young niece as an assassin (which she maybe never wanted to be), and have her afraid of all shadows throughout her whole life, whether the shadows come alive or not, and maybe break her off from all possible friendships and other relationships of all kinds.

PS And there might be a moment after she sees him coming back bruised but alive, when the relief passes and she shoots him in the kneecaps anyway, LOL.

Seriously, it "just" came out that the patient's father had DIED and she was taking over the business, with rivals in play, and NOBODY thought to look at them before?!

And then they just waltzed in, placed the heparin in the bag, and set prints on the bottle... and then the anesthetist never went to the police? Or mail them the video, incognito? Or why the hell would he put MORE cameras in JeongWoo's HOME? Did they all have the same recording?

But it made no sense - the anesthetist's OCD involves secretly filming everything? And so, what's the glasses doctor's thing? Why was he shown as potentially a suspect? Is he going to matter in the rest of the drama? Yeesh.

Then again - JeongWoo's analogies were FINALLY some salt and pepper for this drama. And his repeated drunken confessions, which I BET he forgets next ep, because it's that kind of drama.

Anyway... I like the jobless brother, I like the second pairing (S)ML, and I hope the drama doesn't drown in "sweet" moments only from now on, I'd like to see some comback for both of them and getting some "sweet revenge" and recognition, too. So I guess I'll keep watching for now. Just not immediately, in case they lose the plot again.

Well, the ending to the 7th ep made up for everything that went before (the whole series so far, LOL). That drunk confession made it worth watching.

Though the way they solved the whodunit really is lame.

I've been burned by promises before, then again, it's a doctors' drama, I guess there should be a Burn Unit somewhere LOL

This is still so damn slow, but it's watchable in 2x speed. If there's going to be some progress on the whodunit side of the story, it should be happening already, it's like watching paint dry. (By ep 6 btw).