the title isn't there just for show at least

wow. this was probably one of the most disjointed k BLs I've ever seen. and that's saying a lot for k BLs.

i can forgive the obviously lower production, and even some of the not-good acting, but the script? wow. i just....had no idea what was going on half the time.

time just kinda jumps around randomly from the daytime to night, characters have...a little bit of a visible reason for why they're acting like they are? kinda? i've watched this twice and i really don't understand why either of the leads like each other, like, at all, besides physical attraction, which doesn't really work with the conflict given in the plot....unless I want to believe that their love for each other is shallow which. eh. either way, it was hard for me to really understand why junho ended up killing his 500-year something long friend for minhyun, or where minhyun's faith in junho not accidentally (or purposefully) killing him came from.

also, what was up with junho's friend sudden over the top villain acting after the convo about junho's ex and the hug? it was such a 180 degree turn from how mostly-normal he was acting before that i got confused and genuinely thought he was a random third vampire dude who came into the movie.

me being baffled about the plot aside, the leads' acting and chemistry was surprisingly decent for such a bad movie. they're not AMAZING actors, but decent enough that you can believe that the lead characters actually like each other, even if you have no idea why. junho's actor had that predatory "i want to eat you" vibe down well, while minhyun's actor gave off the "innocent naïve prey" energy in return well.

the chemistry is a bit off in the beginning because of that, but that's actually not a bad thing as minhyun was probably more confused/unsure than fully all-in with what's going on, and it works better later when they're both fully into it rather than the predator-prey dynamic at the start. you can also visibly see this in the good kiss they gave us later lol.

the sad ending makes...sense i guess, but i do wish they would've tried for a happy ending even if it wouldn't have made sense or been too contrived because. honestly it would've matched the rest of this movie. it really is not that good.

tl;dr: didn't disappoint with the kiss, decent acting and chemistry, terrible writing.

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bite sized series, sweet

honestly, I don't think there's much more I would ask for from this series. (and there really isn't much, just maybe one more hug at the end? lol)

it's cute, short, and thankfully, simple enough for a 4-episode series so you don't get left feeling like it was cut short without much resolution. the story is so simple that i'm not sure this series COULD have dragged it out to more than 5, 6 episodes maybe, which is also partly why it worked here.

the story doesn't drag out nor does it feel rushed despite being confined to only 4 episodes, the pacing was surprisingly well done for a series with the name "21 /days/ theory". whoever worked on the story did well in balancing out the storylines with Toy, Frank, and Q so that none of them felt draggy or like they were taking away too much screentime from the other plotlines? I know some people complained that there was too much focus on theirs but I believe it was needed so that we didn't get sick of X and Q lol.

Another pleasant surprise is everyone's acting? I think most of the cast did surprisingly well for what seems like most of their first or second roles. Q in particular did well in showing his growing feelings and softening towards X near the beginning, which is very sorely needed in one-sided enemies/rivals to lovers plots like these. Usually I'm left questioning when the feelings changed from annoyance/irritation to like, especially when there is a third party girl involved, but I didn't need to at all here.

there's a surprising amount of heart that went into this story to the point that I worried it might end bittersweet but no, it still remained sweet and cute at the end. Just a cute high school love story with some very /teenager/ high schoolers and an equally mature conflict to match, if you understand what I mean by that.

Other misc comments I'm not sure how else to fit in here but want to mention:
-We need more older queer figures like Uncle Man in our BLs.
-I do love a good friend group in my shows, Q's friend group would probably rank among my top ones if this were a longer series that let them get developed more.
-This was a very PG show! I don't particularly mind that but I do wish we got to see them do a final hug or something at the end.
-I also do wish we got an actual reunion instead of the cut away we got. It made Q and X's whole last conflict feel like it fell flat after all that build up when we never get to properly see them make up...

Overall, this series felt surprisingly...honest? Our teenage characters acted like....teenagers, a bit immature and stupid, but not ridiculously so. This was mostly refreshing and sweet, much more than I could've expected from a bite-sized series but it is still a pretty short series, which is also why I recommend people giving it a shot anyway if they think it sounds up their alley. It's only 4 episodes and doesn't have a sad ending!

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mostly fluff and sweet

the story definitely.....fell a bit to the side by the end and either gets wrapped up too quickly or never gets a satisfying resolution, (like the parents? erm), but this was still an overall sweet and heartwarming watch.

all of the characters feel about as awkward as teenagers tend to be, (although tbh, I'm...not too sure if it was intentional or not), but nonetheless added to the overall "youthful" charm of the series. they're all very sweet and range from being slightly awkward to Quite awkward, which balances out with the seriousness of Ye Guang's parents.

i do wish they had more time for the story, because it's clear by the end that a lot of plot threads got dropped or seemingly just....forgotten, and the few ones that weren't WERE rushed, some more clumsily than others. scenes and time noticeably jumped around more near the end (without seeming choppy somehow?), but it still wrapped up mostly okay. (Ray and Jian are adorable but I still had no idea what was going on with them by the end lmao.)

One of my only and biggest criticisms is just that they went too hard on making the parents horrible when they didn't have the space/room to give it a proper resolution. It's quite off putting especially when put next to the cute little scene with the leads...

in the end, besides the emotional abuse and neglect coming from one set of parents, this is just a typical high school coming of age series full of fluff and heart (+ angst), despite the lack of cohesiveness in the story. Also, Ye Guang's actor kept reminding me of a sad puppy this whole time while watching and I just had to put it in this review. That's what made it so satisfying to see whenever he smiled or actually looked happy, especially by the end.

Would probably rewatch and skip most of the parent scenes, because, ow

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not bad, not great either

*btw i didn't watch tharntype 2 before this, i watched this as a standalone along with that special episode that gave a brief recap of what happened before the show

this is one of those shows that honestly? wasn't very good, but I enjoyed it anyway for some reason. it's not THAT bad to the point where I would call this a trash watch but that's probably what it was for me lmao. i've rewatched this series a few times already

this is a stupid show. it's cringe, corny, and silly even without those over the top sound effects being dabbled in everywhere they can be. basically more of a "turn your brain off and watch" type of show where you watch the leads be cute and smooch until the mandated episode 11 conflict that's probably the most contrived thing you've ever seen lol

tbh i don't think that the sex scenes in this are done....that well? i don't entirely fault JaFirst for this because i think they can do it! i'm not sure what happened behind the scenes but it seems like JaFirst weren't entirely sure of what else to do beyond neck kissing? it gets more distractingly obvious if you rewatch the scenes more than once since the show....really likes to...linger. and drag these scenes out lmao. they really should've just cut away after a minute and leave it up to the imagination

in return though, i do think JaFirst pulls off the awkward sweetness of their characters quite well. i find them cute, even if their characters strike me as more Unreal even more than usual when it comes to these types of shows lol. like the leads do sorta have a little depth to them?? but it's certainly not written that well.....which is this show in a nutshell.

i 100% rated this show based on my personal enjoyment and not on how good it actually is. i also could not tell you for the life of me why i even like it

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very strange but cute?

i honestly genuinely had trouble understanding what was going on like 80% of the time but regardless, the leads are surprisingly...cute? the story is strange and VERY hard to comprehend on a first watch, (especially with lackluster subs), but it's still so clear that the leads like each other romantically.

it seems that they mostly had to cut out kissing/almost kiss scenes? which is so wild to me because idk how they were able to get away with some of the stuff they DID get away with lmao. the dick size AND eat me convo had me pausing and rewinding to make sure i read that correctly.

this is less of an actual series and more of like a slapped together mess of vaguely connected scenes tbh, but somehow i found myself not really minding because it's so obviously Gay instead of a bromance....idk this whole thing is a mess but the leads had some cute scenes.

Yifeng in particular comes off more like an awkward overgrown puppy more than anything at times and it's.....cute. I wish they could've done more with the series but this was....an okay effort ngl.

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cute if a bit simple

throughout the entire movie I kept feeling like something was missing? even through the pacing was pretty decent for a k BL, and I realized it's because the story felt a little.....thin? It's fine the way it is but I also kept feeling like there should've been more, idk it's odd to try to explain in a way that differs from other k BLs that may have similar story-related issues

even if the story felt too thin to hold up the series/movie, the characters are cute. the most important thing to me for k BLs is relationship development, and it was VERY cute to watch how the tsundere chef started to soften up, which naturally lead to the moment where you can see how guilty that made the flirty chef feel lmao

(I"m very bad with names sorry lol, but I trust that you'll know exactly who I'm talking about.)

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above average amount of cuddling

it's so hard to write a review for this series because. what even happened in it? the main leads dance around each other for about half of the show and then....continue to dither around each other for the rest of the show with a weird finale.

and don't even get me started on the rest of the side characters, especially keam. i don't think even keam knows what's going on in his own life?? (not that i really fully understood whatever was happening with Most of the characters, frankly.)

regardless, i actually enjoyed this series anyway? it's weirdly complicated for such a simple show where nothing........really happens. it's kinda like if you filmed a documentary about university students without them knowing that there's a camera? so stuff gets repetitive since they have daily/weekly routines, no real drama happens except Life, and sometimes you just, do not get the answers/closure to some hanging threads, but life moves on anyway.

even if it makes sense though, some stuff just doesn’t make for the greatest tv, and this was...............okay, if you can stand chill, simple stories without any real drama ala Oxygen the series.

the only real standout thing to me was how cute jin and bbomb were together even though i was never entirely sure why they liked each other. and bizarrely, i could actually easily see the confusion/conflict to sorta realization coming from jin when he started developing feelings for bbomb even though i didn't understand why he started liking him back? he's unsure, he's confused because emotions can be a jumbled mess that are hard to untangle. it was about as weirdly realistic as it was frustrating to watch at times. because of that, i felt mostly understanding towards jin's character so he didn't annoy me as much as he did other people since I mostly understood where he was coming from, but. yes, it was annoying to watch sometimes.

i would've forgiven him even more if they stuck the landing (ending) better but, uh, oh well.

(also, the cuddling? there's so much cuddling in this series. that, the drunk dorm puppy pile, and the head in lap scene was adorable. i think that's about the closest i could ever get to describing the plot of this show lmao)

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all fluff

yeah, nothing really happened plot wise but i always feel like that's usually what happens in special episodes?

all of their friends' intensive interest in leofiat's sex lives still continues to be weird! but since do we really take anything seriously from the "good" characters in this show? this is still a mame series after all

i got annoyed with how leonpob's plotline ended in don't say no, but this felt even more stupid lmao. i really don't think their conflict can hold up an entire series by themselves without it getting tiring fast, but uh, sure we can continue getting out these spinoff shows i guess

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aepete carried

yeah uh, I'm not ashamed to admit at all that this got a much higher score than it probably should be because I'm mostly rating it based on 1 couple out of 4 lol

aepete are just sweet. something about them just tugs at my heartstrings but not in a painful way. i love saint's acting, and i love ae's character, (who seems heavily demisexual coded to me, even if I would say that's probably NOT intentional lmao). I don't know. they're SO cute and maybe a bit cliche but this is one of those instances where cliche tropes can be done right. i'm rewatching an aepete cut of the show for like the 4th time as i'm writing this review. i really adore these two so i'm clearly very biased...

tincan are actually.....okay? the dynamic is kinda funny and is a good contrast to the instantly soft and sweet dynamic aepete settle into, but i still struggled to feel any actual romantic chemistry between the two. the dead fish kisses certainly didn't help, but they also actually make sense to be dead fish kisses in context so i'm not blaming those.....but yeah they still didn't help lol. their back and forths can be entertaining though, especially if you find Can's stupid antics to be more funny than annoying.

KlaNo.................................................honestly. my major problem with this storyline isn't even with the rape or unhealthy one-sided obsession, but because of how the rape gets treated within the show. the rape isn't cool either mind you, but what makes me actually Hate this storyline is that Techno's rape gets played off for comedy?? like you're supposed to laugh at his confused and ridiculous faces the morning after? i'm usually fine with darker storylines, and from TumTar's story it's clear that the show does know how to not play off rape as a comedic thing so them choosing to still do so is deeply annoying.

TumTar. something about them just made me......deeply uncomfortable. even if nothing happened here like with KlaNo's storyline. good on you for actually treating Tar's assault with the seriousness it deserves though, I guess.

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cliffnotes BL

the story moves So Fast and without any real sense of actual reasonable time or movement. I think the show's clock was broken that resulted in the plot being what it was.

I don't know. All of the couples have good chemistry, which makes up for the absolute lack of sense that the plot makes. I'm not sure why they put in three separate storylines for the couples but they all kinda got equal screentime? which on one hand is nice but they all lowkey made about as equally little sense as the other.

I actually kinda enjoyed it, but no, it did not make much sense. It was cute, and it was kinda funny to have two characters having a coherent conversation even though they were both speaking in two completely different languages that aren't mutually intelligible. It really is like watching a series that was made in cliffnotes and nothing else.

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oddly honest, maybe bittersweet

idk, for some reason this made me cry and feel melancholy without really understanding why i was sad, but not in a bad way? something about this just had a slow burn hurt, like that stitch in your clothes slowly ripping open and falling apart instead of a quick rip and tear.

It's a lowkey subtle show, done in the typical "imply don't show" manner you may know from k BLs in general, but especially from series like To My Star. (which, btw, has the same director as TMS s1 and s2, and Where Your Eyes Linger). It's a soft, subtle show that may or may not really hit home for some with its understated realism while others find it boring and underwhelming because of exactly that. idk, i liked it

minor crits:
-they gave just a LITTLE bit too much screentime to the side characters. without any background knowledge of the manhwa this was adapted from, it really seemed like the male friend with glasses had a crush on the female artist friend or siwon lmao. it was probably a nice nod to the manhwa and his plotline for people who did read the manhwa but it was just confusing more than anything to me
-i wish they showed a bit of why daun likes siwon so much. that little convo they had about it near the end was cute, but i wish they had showed some of the those qualities more before they got together? you kinda saw a glimpse of it when siwon felt bad and went out of his way to apologize to the female artist, but otherwise....eh

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kinda like the go to basic meal when you don't feel like putting a lot of effort for dinner

the funny thing about this series that I pretty much agree with a lot of the crit people have about it., because frankly, it's true.

the story is thin and built on the most contrived, single brick of "JUST SAY IT"/"why can't you guys just talk???" but somehow....i liked it anyway? Maybe I shouldn't have, but I enjoyed myself a surprising amount while watching this.

Dao is a lowkey harem protag with a thin personality where you're not entirely sure why he has like 4 different people vying for his attention except that he's cute and nice, and Kluen is a man of few words who prefers actions over words. The whole series is literally just everyone trying to get Kluen to finally spit it out as he keeps unintentionally giving Dao mixed signals and confusing the heck out of him.

ngl it got a little infuriating to watch by the end, and I think the whole thing with Gia at the last minute was absolutely /Ridiculous/ on a lot of levels, (domestic abuse? really? if the show could barely linger on it for like the minute they needed to for the plot, couldn't they have chosen another emergency to excuse Kluen to running over like her house is on fire...), and i dislike how Dao suddenly seemed so touch shy when they finally got together when it doesn't? seem that's how he was from how we previously saw him but otherwise i found this cute. a little annoying and dragged out at times, but cute.

I think I probably liked this better than most because, even though the plot is built off the most ridiculous miscommunication excuse, (and who the heck even likes miscommunication plots?), but it still made sense with these characters. Dao seems like the type to confess first and in fact, he even did! But Kluen gave him a non-answer that would obviously get taken as a rejection. Obviously this would mean that it's up to Kluen to resolve/end the mutual pining between both of them, even though it seems like trying to get him to be direct and straightforward about his feelings is like pulling teeth. It's honestly stupid but...understandable. Some things are just way easier said than done.

Another thing is that I did like how the show even points out Kluen is being stupid, multiple times. Several side characters call him out about it, and Dao gets understandably mad/frustrated from his end, although I will admit that I think that was a great kiss lol. Prob the best kiss in the show ngl

I've seen a few people say that they probably should've just combined the sky and star series into one series and flip back and forth between the couples and....I agree. I minded the miscommunication/misunderstanding plot less than most people, but even I was starting to get really annoyed by the end. Maybe they should've combined both series to help cover up the thin story in both shows and make the frustration of having to watch Kluen slowly work through his emotional constipation more bearable by having another plotline.

tl;dr it's not awful. if you want a chill university setting story with no serious drama and low expectations, go ahead

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meaningless fluff

if you liked both couples from both series and wanted to see them be cute, sappy, and domestic together? the special episode is for you.

there's not really much else to say because......uh, not much happened? I personally really did NOT like SIYH so I ended up skipping through all of Mek and Prince's parts, and I don't think I missed much by doing so besides them being couple-y. Probably would have missed about the same amount with the other couple if I didn't watch the episode at all.

KluenDao as a couple remain almost nauseatingly sweet and so cheesy that I'm torn between cringing and just finding them cute. I still kinda don't like how shy Dao suddenly seems when he seemed so much more direct and upfront in SIMM before they got together but...he initiates more kisses now? Progress!

Also. probably an unpopular opinion but Dunk (Daonuea's actor) seems a little....awkward sometimes? Which isn't something I particularly noted in SIMM so that might mean it's from the couple scenes they act out. I'm not sure if that's a sideproduct of having to act out a character being shy or squirmy with affection from his boyfriend, but I think it sticks out more because I don't find Joong (Kluen) to be awkward at all. He's all in for the cheesefest and doling out sugar like Willy Wonka at the chocolate factory which I found both weirdly cute and amusing. Seems like after the entire "can't spit it out" mess of SIMM he went the complete opposite direction and now won't shut up about how much he adores his boyfriend lmao...good for him? even if I feel like I gotta check my teeth for cavities from all the sugar

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it's like a very cute but small purse

the crash hello in the beginning was Very Cute, i actually had to go back and replay it the first time i watched this because i found it so charming. on the other hand, it foretold what the rest of this movie was like: cute but lacking substance

it's something to be expected from k BLs, so i'm not upset about it, although the conflict here does feel really....overblown and dramatic for how it developed or turned out lmao.

the pacing was actually not rushed, which is a rarity for what we tend to get in BLs from South Korea, but actual development of the plot? wonky. We sometimes jump around places without any much sense of where stuff actually is or...why the characters are there (or How did they get there, like can anyone just walk into Haewon's place without anyone stopping him? is there no locks in his room? lol), nor do you really ever understand why a 15 year friendship gets threatened so severely over Haewon...I mean the characters do tell you but you don't ever get the sense that it was ever THAT serious, even when they're legitimately fist fighting over it.

it IS still quite cute, Haewon in particular reminded me a bit of a calmer but still adorable puppy, (his smile is also very Luminous, it's unsurprising how the two friends were instantly attracted to him), but substance? nope, not here. I was already somewhat aware of this when I watched it but yeah, do your best to turn off that brain lol. is otherwise pretty okay considering the entire movie is literally 1.5 hours and the original series was only 10 minutes long per episode.

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