はいーーー、そしてそれが終わり！！
Cherry magic was very cute and very hard hitting. Tbh Honestly I'm gonna be REAL... when I heard the premise it rlly rlly just sounded like fujo bait.. like its SUCH a cliche fanfic premise omg... like I rlly expected it to be kinda crude and simple. Like it's so gimmicky.. the fucking virgin magic stuff... it's such a gimmick omg.. I rlly rolled my eyes when I first heard abt it. Esp making the connection of cherry and virginity in the title like HELPGJFJDJSJ. Like I wasnt sure I'd like this but i know a lot of yall liked it and i trust my mutuals taste so i watched it and rlly I'm glad. The first 5 episodes made me like...bawl with how relatable and down to earth it was. Ik half of my lb was in japanese and maybe 1 person put it thru google translate outta curiosity but wow like that shit HURTED. God... when all u do as a 20 yr old is overwork urself and feel alienated from all ur peers and even ur friends for being boring... this hits a little different xoxoxo (I'm fine ♡)
The characters were a lot more fleshed out than I thought and while I can still see the tropes in them, I think the live action aspect rlly did it a service. Like if this was animated I wouldve 100 percent written it off as just fujo bait no matter what yall posted idc. But this as a drama felt super real. It was so on the nose abt the kind of anxieties someone like Adachi would have and treated his character with grace.
I rlly only have one notable complaint. I wouldve liked to see and that is having adachi initiate things a little more. Again, ik hes like 30 and never held a hand so hes timid and thats like part of his appeal. But I do wish the relationship seemed more balanced in terms of that stuff. Like if I was kurosawa and I always was the one intimating that stuff I would feel a little strange but it's fine. It's just a small pet peeve but I feel like that stuff and rlly the whole concept of adachi always being so timid goes into like yaoi couples being written with heteronormative ideas behind them. Like yes they're a gay couple but iirc the author is a straight woman or at least isnt mlm and I dont trust and idk.. there were a few moments were I was like... This seems like they're trying to be heteronormative and make adachi the "girl" in the relationship but it was mild but still I'm just a little :^///. Though the scene of Rokkaku standing up for minato and straight up saying like "so what if hes gay" made me drop it. Bc I'm rlly glad they just said it like that. Though again I'm still critical of the instances where the characters were like "but we're both men!" Usually it was like deconstructed like when Kurosawa said it in ep 4 I think. But then when adachi did it a few times I was like... king pls stop. Like generally speaking they did rlly well on the front of not making lgbt relationships taboo and there was no unnecessary homophobia subplots minus rokkakus misunderstand of tsuge. And Adachi never had any big crisis like "oh no I'm gay!! What shall I do!" but i still wish those aforementioned things didnt haooen as much but ANYWAYS... I just will ignore that for sake of I want to enjoy the rest of the series but still, I have my complaints.
Also.. just a personal thing but I WISH they wouldve used each others first names like at the very end.
My personal favorite trope in japanese media (I guess this would apply to most east Asian media but sh) is first name basis bc like family names are the default way to address someone so when I see a couple use first names or change to using first names when their relationship deepens I just Go Crazy.. I rlly love this trope but ik that most ppl probably dont care abt this thing.
Anyways.. cherry magic was rlly solid and made me cry like.... more than it had any right to and honestly I dont think I've had that sorta reaction to smth since I first watched cql. Maybe my first read of tgcf i had that kinda reaction but man... the gay stationary salary men got me.. they got me.
Edit: oh also I hated the little imagine sequences with the fucking choir music... like omg... pls stop that's so cheesy I was embarrassed for the actors watching all of that