For the asks game: 1 (Kieta Hatsukoi and Theory of Love), 9 (Cherry Magic and The Untamed) and it seems you already answered the majority of the others but I hope no one asked 14 yet? 💌
hi! @midnight-sun16! Thanks for these asks!
1. name a drama and I’ll pick my favourite scene in that drama:
Kieta Hatsukoi - I'll go with the scene on the swing set (apparently I have a thing for scenes on swing sets?) where Aoki and his friend Hashimoto realize that they don't actually have a crush on the same person. I just thought it was very cute how they had resignedly agreed that they were love rivals and then when they finally said the names of crushes out loud they figured out that the eraser had erased part of the name. It was funny and cute and a good depiction of a sweet friendship.
In my drafts there's a gif of the scene where Aoki spill juice on Ida; that one is also very cute, so maybe this is a good excuse to post it. Honestly, while I enjoyed Kieta Hatsukoi a lot, the details didn't really stick in my mind. Perhaps if I rewatched a different scene would stand out.
Theory of Love - There's a scene in a train station in episode 11. I don't want to give spoilers so I won't say more, but... yeah.
9. name a drama and I’ll pick my favourite character
oh, these two are both hard ones. I could have so many favorites from each, for so many different reasons.
Cherry Magic - ok. I've decided I'm going to use this opportunity to go on a mini version of my rant about Cherry Magic that I've been meaning to write. So I will pick Kurosawa, for who he was and who the story wouldn't let him be. He had so much interesting potential - this "perfect" guy who had a crush on the awkward one, the guy who thought he always had to be perfect and please other people... It's such an interesting character, but the show never allowed him to change. We got a glimpse at his own struggles in that flashback about the dinner where he was being sexually harassed, and where Adachi helps him catches Kurosawa's eye. But then it felt like that thread just got dropped, and Kurosawa never got to have his own story, it was all about Adachi.
I mean, it's also possible that Kurosawa was less static than I thought and I just missed some stuff. If so, please let me know!
Basically I wanted to this aspect of Cherry Magic to be more like Blueming. I loved Blueming for subverting this idea of the "perfect" love interest. Da-woon was very similar - someone commonly considered perfect, crush on an awkward guy, feels pressure to please other people - but the story allowed him to be flawed and change and grow. I loved Kurosawa enough to want to give him the same chance!
(The longer version of the still unwritten rant includes stuff about virginity, the title and the lack of focus on sexuality, Kurosawa's thoughts as heard by Adachi, stories as fantasies vs. stories as stories... probably some other stuff too. I did like the show! It just also frustrated me in ways that detracted from my enjoyment. I possibly went into it with expectations too high.)
And if I was just going to pick a pure favorite, it would be Fujisaki, their aromantic colleague. I liked how here they subverted expectations of her being a love rival, or a overinvested gossip or something, and had her be a sweetly supportive friend, but also with her own story happening so that her world did not revolve around the main characters.
The Untamed - Look this is really hard. I'm basically throwing a mental dart at a mental dart board to choose.
Wei Wuxian. His whole... everything. Self-sacrificing, arrogant, loving, brilliant, teasing, playful, clever... I honestly don't know how to write about him or The Untamed right now. I watched it just this spring and was obsessed with it for a time, but in many ways that seems forever ago. I feel like it's sunk into my psyche in the place before words. Perhaps someday I'll have more to say.
14. drama you dropped within the first 2 episodes (we’ve all been there)
There have been several, but I'm going to say 2gether. This world, where everyone's approach to getting what they want seemed to be stalking other people and everyone ignores the word "no," just does not appeal to me. (Interestingly, this meant that the depiction of Green as a predatory femme didn't bother me as much as I expected, because a lot of people in the show seemed predatory.)
I ended up dropping it at the scene where Tine somehow manages to play porn on his classroom's projector; the secondhand embarrassment was too much for me on top of everything else. I had intended to pick it up again, and maybe I will someday since it seems to be one of the foundational Thai BLs, but it doesn't feel like a priority.
And yes! You were the first to ask for 14 :-)
