It had a perfect balance of tense, emotional and fun scenes. I really hope there is a season 2 because i cant get enough! I highly recommend this series to everyone. And to those who have never watched a korean series before, this is a great place to start!
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This night however results into a unexpected pregnancy and Kaokla willingly wants to help Saikim with whatever decision she wants. They elope, fall in love and get married and later on gets cruelly separated from each other. Both gets so broken inside that a piece of them dies, especially Kaokla who almost loses everything..even his life. No wonder his anguish and heartbreak turned into hatred...no wonder he wanted to ruin everyone who wanted to ruin him. His heart turns stone-cold...wanting to punish his beloved wife and family for destroying his family.
What a journey this has been.I never wanted this to end. So many smiles, tears and laughted i shared with these characters that were to die for, especially Klaokla & Saikim. Their unstoppable love...always growing. I felt so bad for them, my heart hurt so much when they tried to hurt each other. This was such a epic slap-kiss story, i just could not stop watching. Yaya & Mario did incredible job in this story, i am so amazed and in love with their passionate on-screen chemistry. Bad Romeo has become on of my favourite lakhorns to re-watch!
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Funny and entertaining with a bit of a drag towards the end
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed watching The Forbidden Marriage a lot. It had a strong start and I'm glad I watched it. But somewhere in the middle it lost a bit of it's steam and funny moments and felt like it was moving far too slowly for my liking.The comedy is amazing at the beginning and I loved it a lot and I can't say that for many shows. It has a lot of references to other dramas and present world situations which is where the joke lies since this is a HISTORICAL setting. Later on, the jokes were very subdued though they still managed to make me smile.
The romance is good. The story is predictable so you are just in for a fun ride. Yes, there is a love triangle and I did actually like the second lead a lot so I was partially rooting for him too. Both male leads and nice. The main male lead did a wonderful job with his role playing a man who is broken to one is who more capable of being a leader. Kudos to him. The female lead is fiesty and charming as heck. It's lovely to see her in a completely different role than where I first saw her in Mouse. I love when actors take different kinds of roles. That's when they stand out the most for me. So the only thing I didn't like is that she was more subdued towards the latter half of the show. Guess you can call it "growing up".
There have some actions scenes but it's limited. There are plenty of dramatic scenes and mystery which I enjoyed.
The big finish was great. Just what we deserved but I just wished for a few more scenes of romance. A happy ending nonetheless. If, at times, I didn't find it too slow for my liking, I would have given it a 10. Either way, it's between an 8.5 - 9 for me which is still great.
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Not Bad But Not Great. Lots of yelling.
(Side note: I have seen all the other 4 live adaptions. [Tw, J, K, C] and the anime)The pace starts off really fast. I enjoyed the first episode but then the pace sort of stays fast with little reprieve. Normally I would like this but here they seemed to jump from one pivotal moment to the next, introducing new characters and situations without proper ebb and flow. I wish they would have slowed it down a bit because it felt so choppy and rushed, making it a bit hard to connect to the characters.
One thing I like is how the bullying is portrayed in this version. I love the setup of the old stadium and how they included social media. The stadium provides an excellent visual while the social media bits gave the story an updated feel. This may be one of my favorite things they did with this version that felt superior in comparison to other adaptions.
As for the ML, perhaps they felt they couldn't get away with some of the original material because this version of the ML’s character is really watered down as far as his arrogance and almost devilish superiority complex. While I feel Thyme is certainly emotionally damaged by his mother, one big problem for me is that the FL doesn’t really hate the ML in this version. That strong intolerance for his behavior is an important element of their relationship arch. Even though the bullying is more present here than in the Chinese version, at least in that version the ML did some cruel things to the FL that made her hate him specifically, not so much F4 as a whole (forced kiss, hitting her in the face with the box of food...) Even the bullying Gorya received as directed by Thyme isn’t all that harsh in comparison to other adaptions.
For me, this lack of dislike from the FL to the ML is actually a big flaw in this version because it’s a major reason that despite his character’s constant efforts to show the FL that he likes her, she continues to fight her feelings for the ML even when the 2ML is already out of the picture and it’s abundantly clear that she does actually like him. I just didn’t feel that level of dislike from Gorya that would cause her so much apprehension towards Thyme.
However, instead, there are things he does mid-relationship that were quite aggressive. Perhaps these things would have fit better with his character at the beginning of the story but mid and later in the story just made me feel like their relationship could be an abusive one. Maybe it was Bright's acting that left me feeling that way but I don't remember feeling that way in the other versions.
As for the rest of the F4. I like them. I didn’t find anything not to like exactly but I would have liked to have seen more character development for their characters. Kavin had some development but it felt a bit unfinished. I’m confused why they had him admit to Mona that he liked her, then she wants to show him something (to also confess) and when he doesn’t show up she never went back to talk to him even though he had already admitted his feelings for her. I just find this version of his character’s storyline strange.
Let me say I love Ren. What a great guy. Learning that this is Dew/Jirawat Sutivanichsak’s first leading had me impressed. However, the way his character was adapted left me a little wanting. The manipulation tactics for his character were diminished to a minimal level which is something that makes his character stand out as opposed to a typical 2ML. In that sense, I think they did his character a bit of a disservice.
Additionally, I would have liked to see F4 together more as a group of friends. Hanging out or going out places or in their lounge. That’s definitely something the other versions have above this one.
Another loose end is Thyme’s sister. They sort of glossed over her as a character as well as Lita’s.
This is a tough one to rate. I think it's a good stand-alone drama overall which is why I rated this an 8.5. It's a very visually appealing drama. I like the direction they took with some of the points of the story (Kaning, Hana, even the amnesia was okay), but there were times were this version left me feeling like it really wasn’t the Hana Yori Dango story. They left out so many storylines and moments between the MC that really deepened their relationship and the story overall. I think it would have been better to make this into 2 seasons and spend more time on character development. Again, it’s not a bad drama but it’s definitely lacking in terms of a Hana Yori Dango adaption.
Stand-alone rating 8.5
HYD Adaptation 6
Would Recommend
Possibly Re-watch
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I Don't Know What at the End of the World
Overall: based on the title, production name (Temporary Insanity Productions), 4 couples in 8 episodes, the summary and the trailer, I knew this wasn't going to be some standard fluffy series. However, it was worse than I thought it would be. It has an experimental film feel at times, but just total nonsense. I watched ep 1, 2, 4, 8 & 9.Content Warnings: character death, multiple suicide attempts, suicide, gore, very explicit sex scenes (I normally don't list NSFW as a content warning but these were very explicit), incest?, homophobia, a slap not between m/m couple, dub con kissing/touching (asleep)
What I Liked
- the overall production value was good
- most actors seemed to do a good job (some lines were really terrible so maybe that impacted acting)
- the first episode had a nice food sharing scene
- there were kernels of potential interesting stories like the addicts relationship
- the nsfw scene in ep 4 (except for the dub con)
- the single shot was a neat idea in ep 8, they could have that be ep 1 and then shown the fallout based on what happened in subsequent episodes
Room For Improvement
- the timeline/plot is confusing because there are flashbacks (or forwards?) to guys frantically running naked in the dark. Also there are flashbacks (I think) during the story. And in the last episode no one is running around bloodied or naked so wth?
- The asteroid disaster. I can suspend disbelief that no one knew this asteroid was close (because in real life they track them when they are years away), and also none of the countries had any solutions for moving it or blowing it up, but here is what an asteroid 7 days away is doing.
A. an odd rainbow in the sky
B. downpours of something (rocks)?
C. chickens/birds following a guy a long distance
D. earthquakes
They should have just had random strange things happen without an explanation.
- total randomness, 2 random guys at the very end of the final episode saying that an earthquake meant the end of the world (the Philippines is in the ring of fire so I'm assuming they have earthquakes on a regular basis, why would someone say it's the end of the world?), what was with the sticky notes? what was with the location change/fishbowl and the addicts? a merman at the end?
- the second episode, that guy has sex with his adoptive dad, vomit. Also, hid dad had just tried to kill himself and the other two guys were getting it on while he was recovering a few feet away, wth???!!!
- too much tongue, I'm all for more realistic kissing but do people kiss like that (ep 1)?! I like well done NSFW scenes that make sense with the story but I felt as though I was watching porn. And both explicit scenes with 3 guys felt like it was done for a shock factor. And what was that saliva (or something else) sharing in the final episode. We don't need to see that.
- many scenes felt thrown in just for shock factor and did not enhance the story
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A true Wuxia hero
Wang Xiaoshi is such a great, classic hero of the Wuxia genre: pure, selfless, moral and righteous. Joseph Zeng does a solid job portraying his earnestness in the beginning, his sense of duty and justice later, and the pain that comes with the losses and sacrifices encountered by all the greatest Jianghu heroes.The heart (and heartbreak) of this story is in the bond between the three sworn brothers. Romance is secondary, maybe even tertiary. The female lead is admittedly pretty underdeveloped as a character, but she is not the main focus (to me, she is almost a supporting character, with the 2nd and perhaps even the 3rd FLs carrying more weight). Despite that, and despite her seemingly fluffy and somewhat spoiled personality, I still found her quite likable and very sensible. It's a healthy and supportive relationship with no annoying misunderstandings.
Like most Wuxia stories, our main character is but one of a large ensemble cast of important supporting characters who get a ton of screen time (but not in a boring, draggy way, IMHO): friends, family, respected elders, and powerful villains. Some are simple and somewhat one-dimentional, while others are compelling and intriguing from the moment they are introduced. Yang Tong, especially, is perfectly cast as the mysterious and complicated Di Feijing, and definitely a favourite. I'd love to see him in more leading roles. This is also my first period drama with Baron Chen, who was great as a revered hero and martial arts master within the Jianghu world.
I haven't read the novel, so I have no source material to compare it to. On it's own, I found Heroes to actually be one of the better Wuxia dramas I've seen, especially recently. It is visually well done, and the actors convincingly pulled off the respectable martial arts choreography. Nothing more distracting than obvious wirework and overdone slow-mo-fast-zoom effects! There is a bit of unevenness in the storytelling and some of the character developments, but in my view, none of it is as messy, convoluted or hackneyed as some have suggested. I have a Gold Standard for egregiously butchered storytelling and endings, and this one doesn't even come close! While it won't be high on my rewatch list, it was still worth my time. Don't let the 7.8 (at the time of this writing) fool you. While imperfect, Heroes deserves a much higher rating. (It's a 6.6 on Douban, which is a lot higher than Douban scores for other dramas with much higher ratings than Heroes on MDL (5.8 for Who Rules the World, for example) , in case that helps.)
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Long & Really Dragged Out
Honestly, I really thought there could be some potential to this show with the relatively high ratings. However, what truly transpired was probably the most frustrating push to complete this show out of all the shows I've watched in so far.I could be quite biased as my very first kdrama ever was It's Okay to Not Be Okay and that set the bar for all subsequent dramas to hit what I still consider to be a balance of romance, fiction, thriller and real life illnesses. This show is clearly not a great representation of any of these and the flow of the show is too forced in my opinion. I would surmise it as the romance is quite abrupt with no real lead up or progression but rather just happens. The storyline is all over the place in that you will have love/romance scenes juxtapositioned with thriller scenes and no real transition between the two aside from their connection to the main character.
In this show's entirety, I would have loved for the thrilling part of the show to not be as forced and drawn out. It truly seemed like the more idiotic the characters were the more aneurysms I would get watching and it wasn't the funny kind either. You'd get a mix of odd gang member violence, superpower main character, love triangle and psychopath thriller all jumbled into one episode and you come to wonder what is going on.
I can't in good conscious ever recommend this show to anybody. The story is just all over the place and even with good acting the storyline cannot be saved. It felt like watching an episode of the Bachelor where there's unnecessary drama in places that make no sense.
TL;DR storyline is all over the place with no clear goal in sight with the acting over dramaticized.
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For a rom-com lover like me, this drama's a big hit. I really love Aom and Mike's chemistry. Their acting seems real for me. My heart's melting every time there's a sweet scene coming. These two are just perfect for each other. #AoMike is LOVE and I'm looking forward for the future projects of these two.
As for the story, there's not much difference from the original. But if I were to choose between the two, I'll go for this version. I don't know. Maybe because it has much lighter view of the story. You'll laugh when there's a funny scene, you'll cry when there's a sad scene, and you'll melt when there's a romantic scene.
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This review may contain spoilers
"People are ghosts, and ghosts are people."
The cold stone complex with glowing red eyes in Zhang Yi Mou’s Raise the Red Lantern bids young women into its luxurious lifestyle. Afterall, it’s just as easy to marry a rich man as it is a poor man. Or is it?Gong Li stars as Songlian the newest concubine of a rich man in this gilded cage of competitive horrors. Educated but with few options after her father dies she marries an older man. She quickly learns that the women and servants are pitted against one another in a popularity game to garner the master’s favor. Red lanterns are lit in the courtyard and living apartment of the woman he chooses for the night. The clickety clack of massage hammers used on the chosen one’s feet turns into a Pavlov’s bell for the women. The master’s idea of foreplay is something akin to “brace yourself darlin’” but the women do what they must to attract his attention and keep it.
Other than the privileges the chosen one temporarily receives, the concubines hold no power. They are largely interchangeable, this is the territory of the powerful master and his game and rules. The women’s fate is tied to pleasing him and gifting him sons. In the ruthless conflict between the concubines, betrayal and tragedy are always near at hand.
Master Chen’s face is never focused on. His is the face of oppression and rigid familial customs, the ringmaster in the tragic circus.
Songlian discovers that the people in the huge complex are largely ghosts living in the house abiding by the rules of ancestors long gone. She tries to rebel, game the system, and in the end becomes ostracized and alone. When she witnesses an unspeakable act she realizes that she is trapped with only two ways out-death or madness.
Raise the Red Lantern criticizes a number of social structures as well as the plight of women during this time. Outdated cruel traditions that guide their everyday life are firmly in the director’s bullseye. It is gripping and difficult to watch at times.
Songlian is not an easy character to like as she can be very abrasive and snobbish. Her youth and independent nature cause her to chafe under the ridiculous rules and volatile hierarchy. She learns the hard way the price for disobedience. Gong Li’s expressive face helps us to understand how we should feel as well. Rebellious. Trapped. Isolated. Horrified. She gives a gloriously understated performance as a young woman caught in the chains of family customs; the players involved more like ghosts ensnaring fresh faces to drag into their macabre story.
Zhang Yi Mou saturates some scenes in a rich red light, the color of birth, life, and death. At other times an icy blue hue overtakes the scene driving home the solitariness of the one not chosen. The large complex could almost be given a credit as well the way Zhang lovingly uses the stunning architecture to showcase the concubines’ limited stone world. There was no soft place to land amongst the hard edges. The lush colors of their costumes played in stark contrast to the institutional banality. It was a remote facility both physically and emotionally.
The sets, concubines, and costumes are intoxicatingly beautiful but lying beneath them is a grotesque cruelty. Raise the Red Lantern is a treat for the eyes as most of Zhang Yi Mou’s films are. Though difficult to watch this story of the powerful’s abuse of women and tradition is one worth trying.
“What do people amount to in this house? They’re like dogs, cats, or rats, but certainly not people.”
1/12/23
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Only watch this for Xu Kai's handsomeness and Wang Yang's charisma
Completed - 8/22/2022If you are not a fan of any of the actors, this might not be worth your time. For me it takes Xu Kai’s handsome face to get me through the first half of the drama, and then add on Wang Yang’s charisma to finish it.
I was quite excited about this drama in the first 1-2 episodes. I was pleasantly surprised that there were some decent fight scenes and creative fight choreography. I’ve already heard that the CGI and green scenes were horrible, and yes, they were indeed not good (running on rooftop and flying around with statues). The production value of this drama is quite low. Even so, a handsome Xu Kai + charismatic Wang Yang + Cool fight scenes = What I like. Unfortunately, my interest and excitement died in the next 10 episodes. All they did was talk talk talk about that stupid bone, with no action. No wonder so many people dropped the drama after the initial episodes. But if you are able to tolerate such boredom and poor plot with the help of Xu Kai’s handsomeness, the plot did get better in the second half of the drama with more action. But such a positive trajectory did not last until the very end. The last episode was rushed and we also have a poor redemption plot that was quite abrupt. The ending was a mystery. What the heck happened? Did we lose a full episode and jump right to the last 2 minutes? Is this due to censorship? (very likely).
Let’s talk about romance since it’s my favorite topic. The short review is: BLAND. Our leads started off as good friends and they are supposed to slowly develop feelings for each other. Well, I didn’t quite see this development. What I see is our FL suddenly really wants to marry ML not because of the bone, but because she is in love with him. I then see our ML never really showed much romantic interest in our FL, and then all of a sudden he is in love. If the friends-to-lovers trope is not done right in the beginning, then the latter part of the romance will become friends-to-lovers-with-no-chemistry. In the second half of the drama, the romance has gotten better once they are together. There’s enough decent skinship and I’ve always loved Xu Kai’s expressive beautiful eyes. But overall, the romance is lacking.
Our male lead, Ding Yun Qi, is a genius. He’s never wrong and is always steps ahead of others. He may not be the warmest person initially, but he’s not a cold tsundere either. He’s smart, loyal, caring, has the best martial arts skills, is a doctor, and also knows everything that the Heaven Official should know even though he left home for 6 years and really didn’t have a lot of time to learn. Well, basically he is perfect. Our female lead, Wu Shuang, is the opposite. She’s outgoing and friendly, curious and likes to fight. Luckily, she’s not dumb and can be quite smart in her own ways. Many dislike Wu Shuang, but I am ok with her. She is usually on the sidelines until the latter part of the drama.
The acting is decent and I don’t see anyone especially bad or cringey.. As much as I love Xu Kai (I bet by now you know I really like him), this is not his best acting. I think the acting all around is OK by the younger cast. The better acting is done by our veterans, Wang Yang as Luo Yun Song, and Morni Chang as Zhou Qiu Hai. These two never disappoint, no matter how bad the script is, you can trust their acting abilities. I also like that they use their own voices. I think I can recognize Wang Yang’s voice by now as he always dubs his own voice. Props to him! There are a couple interesting supporting characters that I quite enjoy - Meng A Sai as Sun San Xuan and Bao Bei Er as Luo Jiu Tian.
I don’t think I can wholeheartedly recommend this drama, UNLESS you just want to look at Xu Kai’s handsome face and Xu Kai looking dashing in a variety of nice suits. There are too many other good dramas out there.
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Couldn't hold my interest
Being a fan of Shen Yue's works and down-to-earth portrayals, I decided to give this show a shot. While not a hard-core fan of coming of age/slice of life dramas, I'd seen some recently that were fantastic, and the trailer for this one looked good. The first few episodes were okay, but the plot soon flatlined into a dull buzz, and I found myself fast-forwarding through a good bit towards the end.Great acting from pretty much all involved. That's about it for me, honestly, in terms of good points.
As for cons, the biggest is the script. At times it wants to take itself very seriously and tries to set up moments of intense realism/realistic issues but then uses the most ridiculous and fantastical scenarios to "solve" them. The conflicts are repetitive and (without revealing any spoilers) don't really show much growth in the characters - just a dull acceptance from the characters themselves or those around them, which I don't believe was the intended takeaway.
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I have to say, as a someone who also work as a prosecutor I have always laughed over how people potray us. But this drama... reall... This really slapped me on my face with how realistic they potray a prosecutor work in the office. You may have enough watching us fighting over a case in trial, but have you ever wonder how was those prosecutor did before that?
They potray the work of prosecutor here really well, although with every episode being episodic and some case haven’t been solved yet until the drama ended, but I have to say that the execution with the acting on every cast and the writting is really good here.
I’m also glad that they also took upon the story of female’s prosecutor here and the way they potray tge struggle is SO FREAKIN REAL.
I hope they are making a second season of this drama!
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Why this is a must watch drama:
1) The friendship between the 2 leads and among their classmates. From BFF to BGF, this is a fresh concept which I enjoyed alot. Nowadays dramas tend to be a little too unrealistic for me- I don't believe in 'I-love-you-once-I-see-you'. The BFF to BGF pace is just nice here, giving the drama a realistic touch.
The friendship between the classmates is a must watch too. I believe many viewers enjoyed the 'current-vs-past' concept. The 'present' scenes intersect the 'past' scenes at the correct moments, either adding on the the tension audience is holding or highlighting the fact that despite being 10 years later, friends will ALWAYS be friends. Nothing change. All the childish quarrels classmates have when they are teenagers (about idols) are dismissed. The 2 leads still share a 'predator-vs-prey' relationship lols. He still do the little things that seem insignificant but are not.
They might have matured, but they still hold the teenager bit in them. Eunji (I forgot her character's name) is still crazy over HOT even when she has a kid and is pregnant with another. Her fanatic actions are still prevalent, leaving her husband in despair. (those are the funny scenes!)
2) The highlight of the 1990's KPOP fandom and Korean sports arena, when HOT, ???? (forget the English name)and SES are the limelight, followed by DBSK. The era when there are no lightsticks but balloons, when fans have to really queue outside the bank and skip school to get the tickets (now we have the internet), when fanwars are literally fanwars (now different fan groups have 'fanwars' over the internet. It is alot 'darker' now!)
After watching i really appreciate how we can fangirl/boy over our idols with much ease with technology developments. We can purchase our tickets online, we can catch a glimpse of our idols through photos posted on the internet, taken by fans everyday, we are able to catch up with what our idols are up to blah blah blah. We tend to take these priveleges for granted at times.
But some things remain in the fandom though. Fanwars are still prevanlent, queuing for tickets overnight too, fans waiting outside their idols homes/hotels just to catch a glimpse of them.
I guess even if the world has developed economically, human mindsets (going all out for idols) just don't change that easily.
3) The fact that there are no bad characters. The parents are so jolly, especially that of Eunji's. So this drama is very lighthearted, we need not be frustrated over unreasonable mother/father-in-laws who are against our very much anticipated love.
4) Although there are many new actors/actresses, their acting is considerably good. So I can safely say they have the looks + skills!
5) The OST. Although it is very simple (I think only 1 song - 'All for you' sang by the 2 leads), it is enough to enhance the drama. The lyrics revolve around the leads relationship, and the melody is catchy.
This shows proves that a good show need not be one with fanciful OST sang by big shots, or a cast consisting of award-winning actors/actresses, or a director with excellent directing skills. Everything are just average, but it is how well these aspects (right choice of cast, OST, storyline, directing, acting etc) complement each other that make this drama so successful!
I strongly recommend KPOP fans to watch to increase our exposure on the 1990's KPOP arena which is not known to many these days. If not for these pioneer KPOP idols who set the base, the KPOP industry may not be as successful now. Drama fans will enjoy it too for its good storyline!
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A drama that's cute and funny. A light but a fun watch!!
This drama is really good. As someone who is too much into esports, I found that aspect of the drama to be quite fun. It is cute and fluffy. The bickering of the leads as well the team members is just so funny and also cute at times.Lu su cheng is portrayed as a cold but caring character and Tong yao feels somewhat like a realistic character. What I liked the most is both the leads have a lot of bickering scenes and they are just so funny. Lu su Cheng loves pulling Tong yao's leg and the reaction of their other teammates when they bicker, that makes the scene even more funnier.
Also I love the scenes between lu yue (lu su cheng's brother) and Tong yao. They quarrel and compete like siblings.
Moreover ZGDX other members K, fatty, cat, god ming and the manager, they are like cherries on top of the cake. And also the second ml jian yang , he is just so cute. He makes me feel bad at times but then he surely was at fault and he missed his chance.
Also FL's best friend, Jin yang and her boyfriend, Ai ji a, they have a great chemistry. They are just so cute.
It's really been a while since I have enjoyed a cdrama so much. I just love this drama.
P.S: It's already been more than a year since it ended. I tried rewatching this again and I found it a bit cringy but nevertheless funny. Also, I really do love the esports aspect. The acting is a little stiff but honestly if you ask me it's still worth a watch!! And now I would say it's a 8-8.5 rather than a 9 but based on what I felt then I don't wanna change the rating.
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