Pâtissier Misaki Sakurai longs for a boyfriend after staying single for a long period. After she was fired from her previous bakery, she finds a new job at her high school crush Chiaki Shibasaki’s family-run restaurant for the summer where she would live with him and his younger brothers (Touma and Kanata). Hoping be able to develop her relationship with Chiaki, she agrees, but soon finds that the summer will be much more than expected.
Review
This drama is the typical shoujo manga styled drama with an expected development of plot and LOTS OF CUTE GUYS OF COURSE ❤❤
BUT what is worth mentioning is that Misaki is unlike the typical female lead who almost always does not know who she truly likes, is wishy washy, and ambiguous with all the guys she is involved with. Instead, Misaki makes clear stands about her feelings and does not lead anybody on when she does not have feelings towards them.
Overall, I don’t exactly have a strong opinion about this drama because it is very light hearted and somewhat slice of life in the sense that there isn’t a lot of dramatic twists (definitely milder than in Korean dramas).
Despite this, I still find the drama strangely addictive? I like how the sweetness and mellowness of the romance in the drama is akin to that of a first love. Although the romance is high school styled (their kisses are really mild) but it is able to give you the pure warm and sweet after feelings and reminds you that happiness can be derived from simplicity.
I feel that it’s still worth watching but probably isn’t suited for people who prefer that the leads have a dramatic/turbulent relationship before they eventually end up together.
It’s probably about time we address the white elephant in the room - namely what the heck our blog name means. It may not be particularly important to anyone why this name exists, but still…
To break things down first, Shoujo (shōjo) means “young girl” (少女) and should be a very familiar term in manga terminology designating manga that is targeted at audiences of young girls. As accurately described on Wikipedia, this “genre” of manga “covers many subjects in a variety of narrative styles, from historical drama to science fiction, often with a focus on romantic relationships or emotions”.
Similarly, we as the admins who generally watch dramas (and read stories) of this genre, the focus of our blog would inevitably be related to such content hence the “romance-centric” direction. Of course, this doesn’t mean at all that we don’t watch any non-romance dramas, which brings us to our next point.
The “investigation” in this case stems from the topics of discussion that we usually have amongst us admins. The types of dramas we talk about usually ends up being the romance-centric ones as mentioned above. We’d discuss and also rant about overdone tropes, problematic characters or even attempt at analysing when some things work and do not.
Some ideas that we conjured up were lists of common tropes, ones that we were tired of, with examples of tropes that were used but in a likable fashion, lists of typical male leads (because there were tons of them) and rants on problematic things like Bai Zi Hua from Journey of Flower……. orz.
Thus, we started this blog in hopes to be a platform where we can share our two cents about what we hope good romance-centric dramas should be like by investigating in all that is shoujo!
(Of course with time and procrastination, many of these articles have since been left hanging, but we still do have new plans for the blog in any case!)
Hong Ra On has always lived her life as a boy by the name of Hong Sam Nom, providing advice on romantic relationships for a fee. She meets and mistakes Prince Lee Yeong to be the lover of a client who paid her to end his romantic relationship with Prince Lee Yeong’s sister. Neither were aware of each other’s status/identities, but Ra On’s natural and unrestrained interaction with the Prince made him interested in befriending her.
Unable to pay off her foster father’s medical debt, Ra On was sold off to work as an eunuch in the palace. Through a series of lucky misfortunes and purposeful intervention, Ra On is assigned to assist Prince Lee Yeong. Love starts to blossom between the two but is met with much hurdles and dark secrets.
Review
What I really liked about this drama is the portrayal of Prince Lee Yeong. I personally feel that this is one of the few dramas where the male lead portrays a consistent character throughout the drama.
Prince Lee Yeong is consistently decisive and clear about what he wants, and is unafraid to do what he feels is appropriate for both work and romance. This is usually not observed in other dramas whereby male leads are usually shown to be bold and decisive with work but wishy washy and afraid to take action for romantic affairs.
I also like how he does not side track in his duties as the Crown Prince even when his relationship with Ra On is not smooth sailing. Even though romance is the main aim of the drama but I feel that not side tracking his work adds a more realistic touch to the character instead of just reducing him to the role of being a lover to the female lead.
Another lovable part of the drama is the many cute and loyal side characters ❤ ❤ ❤
However, I feel that there is still some room for improvement for the script.
More plot development can be added for the episodes in between (around episode 10+), if not the total number of episodes can be reduced. Half, if not most of the time, in these few episodes were spent elaborating on the evil deeds of the ministers and portraying the sadness of Ra On for being unable to be with the Prince. While these scenes were necessary, it felt like an overkill to have a few episodes dedicated to it, especially when it can get repetitive and draggy.
*spoilers alert*
I also quite dislike the treatment of the 2 side characters, Kim Byung Yeon and Kim Yoon Sung.
At the end of the drama, Byung Yeon was revealed to be part of the rebel gang and was seriously wounded by the army for drawing his sword against Prince Lee Young. However, his character was revived again.
One would have thought that his revival would have some sort of meaning or contribution to the story but nope his revival was purely because he is a good friend and loyal servant to the Prince (and probably also because he is a popular side character with the masses so they revived him for viewership).
As much as I like Byung Yeon’s character, but his sudden death and sudden revival just feels a little too abrupt and somewhat meaningless. It would have been better if there was some purpose for his revival.
*spoilers alert* *rant alert*
A major flaw with the plot is the treatment of the death of Yoon Sung. Yoon Sung is the 2nd male lead who likes Ra On. He is also the evil Prime Minister Kim’s grandson and Prince Lee Yeong’s childhood friend. Towards the end of the drama, he was forced to make a choice between seeing Ra On die because of his grandfather, or to save her and betray his family. He chose the latter and paid for it with his life.
What made me rage was the fact that his death appeared to be so meaningless. He died trying to save Ra On from the professional assassins who were supposed to escort her to the Prime Minister but in his dying moments, Ra On just looked at him as though his death was nothing.
We have to consider the fact that Yoon Sung was supposedly Ra On’s friend and a person who helped her out in tricky situations numerous times. But when Yoon Sung died, Ra On did not shed a single tear and her expression merely looked more surprised than shocked that he is dying.
I don’t think that I’m being too emotional but isn’t it normal for one to feel sad when your friend is dying instead of merely surprised??! And this is especially when he died to save you??!!!
Even if Ra On had no romantic feelings towards Yoon Sung, but I find it too cold hearted with the portrayal of how she viewed Yoon Sung’s death. What’s worse is that while the injury of Byung Yun, the supposed rebel, is given so much fanfare, Yoon Sung’s death is merely carried over with a mention by the eunuch.
There was no closure like showing a scene of his funeral or at least an acknowledgement of sadness by the other characters. It was as if Yoon Sung’s death is such a small matter.
I feel that Yoon Sung’s character is the most heartwrenching one and his death the most indignant. He was Prince Lee Yeong’s best friend when they were kids but became hated by the Prince because his grandfather killed the Prince’s mother (but Yoon Sung did nothing). Despite this, Yoon Sung was silently helping out the Prince in his own ways (although not always but we can see that Yoon Sung always helps out the Prince in critical times).
Although Yoon Sung did somewhat challenge the Prince by declaring that he will give his all to win Ra On over, but he never actually did anything to sabotage the relationship between Ra On and the Prince, nor did he pressurize Ra On to like him. He merely silently helped Ra On in whatever ways that he could and to hope that she will someday reciprocate his feelings.
From the standpoint of a friend, he can be said to be a good friend because he did nothing bad towards his friend, Prince Lee Yeong. Even when they’re both in different camps, he still helped out Lee Yeong sometimes. Hence, I really find it heart wrenching that nobody ever cherished him as a friend. If there is ever anything that he can be faulted for, it’s that he is the grandson of the Prime Minister but it’s not his choice to be and neither should he live his life shouldering the blame of his grandfather’s deeds. I can go on about how outrageous his death is but I think you get the point.
Overall, I think that this drama is still quite light hearted and comedic. You can check it out if you like one of those coming of age youth romance.
And lastly, here’s a boombastic dance by Park Bo Gum \(^0^)/
P.S.: I think it references history which states that the actual Prince in history really enjoys wild dancing.
