22
22
2
Zii3
This review may contain spoilers
Major Slow Burn (falling in love with souls, not appearances).
General spoilers only. For enjoyment, I'd recommend watching for the interactions between characters and not taking the plot too seriously. Despite the weaknesses in plot, pacing, and some of the dialogue, I only fast-forwarded through some blatent product placement scenes and some of the secondary couple (which weren't a large focus anyway). The way they tried to determine who was their portkeys was drawn out in odd and contrived ways, and I could see that getting a bit annoying for some people. Overall I found it entertaining and enjoyable and easily binge-watched it.
The story was intriguing but it took a couple of episodes for me to get invested in the characters. Once I did, I was along for the ride and able to shrug off the weaknesses in the screenplay. I liked and cared about all of the main and secondary characters, everyone was cast well, I smiled a lot, it tugged at my heartstrings multiple times, and was resolved satisfyingly.
Jimmy and Sea have good chemistry but it comes across differently than many BLs. The focus is on their growing affection for each other as humans and not on physical attraction because they are in other people's bodies for most of the series. This purely mental-attraction type of slow burn was something new and I enjoyed it. It added emotional impact when they did finally kiss. I thought the story could have done something about them getting used to each other's physical appearances once they're back in their own bodies though, and maybe introducing physical attraction. I feel that was something obvious that the screenplay missed entirely.
The production handled the body-swap between universes very well. It's very clear and easy to follow. What I loved is that once they made it clear that Sea and Jimmy were in the bodies of Ohm and Nannon, they transitioned back to Sea and Jimmy playing their characters. You know they look different in that universe, but you get to see the actors play their character all the way through.
They did okay with world building and kept to the "rules" they established. The dialogue got a little cheesy with a couple cliche lines in the last couple episodes, but it was bearable. Music worked well but nothing really memorable for me. The coloring of scenes was often pretty or appealing. I'll certainly be more aware of this aspect of post-production going forward (the series prompted me to learn more about colorists and their job).
The thing that dropped this from a feel-good 8 to a 7.5 is the screenwriter's inane decision to make one of the leads (Talay) averse to affection after they confess to each other. I hate this trend in BLs. It's a cheap, unrealistic, and ineffective way to create sexual tension once a couple gets together. Seriously, "I love you but I'm going to freak out if you try to be affectionate, let alone kiss me" just does NOT make sense if you love someone and they love you too. They could be shy, sure, but not constantly uninterested, avoidant, asking "what are you doing", and giving bombastic side-eyes. Sigh.
At least Sea only acted moderately put-off and didn't act disgusted (like many actors do when it's written like this).
Overall there's some skinship and a couple good kisses.
I could see myself rewatching this in a few years.
The story was intriguing but it took a couple of episodes for me to get invested in the characters. Once I did, I was along for the ride and able to shrug off the weaknesses in the screenplay. I liked and cared about all of the main and secondary characters, everyone was cast well, I smiled a lot, it tugged at my heartstrings multiple times, and was resolved satisfyingly.
Jimmy and Sea have good chemistry but it comes across differently than many BLs. The focus is on their growing affection for each other as humans and not on physical attraction because they are in other people's bodies for most of the series. This purely mental-attraction type of slow burn was something new and I enjoyed it. It added emotional impact when they did finally kiss. I thought the story could have done something about them getting used to each other's physical appearances once they're back in their own bodies though, and maybe introducing physical attraction. I feel that was something obvious that the screenplay missed entirely.
The production handled the body-swap between universes very well. It's very clear and easy to follow. What I loved is that once they made it clear that Sea and Jimmy were in the bodies of Ohm and Nannon, they transitioned back to Sea and Jimmy playing their characters. You know they look different in that universe, but you get to see the actors play their character all the way through.
They did okay with world building and kept to the "rules" they established. The dialogue got a little cheesy with a couple cliche lines in the last couple episodes, but it was bearable. Music worked well but nothing really memorable for me. The coloring of scenes was often pretty or appealing. I'll certainly be more aware of this aspect of post-production going forward (the series prompted me to learn more about colorists and their job).
The thing that dropped this from a feel-good 8 to a 7.5 is the screenwriter's inane decision to make one of the leads (Talay) averse to affection after they confess to each other. I hate this trend in BLs. It's a cheap, unrealistic, and ineffective way to create sexual tension once a couple gets together. Seriously, "I love you but I'm going to freak out if you try to be affectionate, let alone kiss me" just does NOT make sense if you love someone and they love you too. They could be shy, sure, but not constantly uninterested, avoidant, asking "what are you doing", and giving bombastic side-eyes. Sigh.
At least Sea only acted moderately put-off and didn't act disgusted (like many actors do when it's written like this).
Overall there's some skinship and a couple good kisses.
I could see myself rewatching this in a few years.
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