First Love is a 2022 Japanese drama that focuses on two former high school sweethearts who have grown apart as the years passed. They end up crossing paths again 20 years later in the city of Sapporo, and the story follows their journeys both individually and together as they've grown into different people than their teenage selves could have predicted.
While the story is told non-linearly, both of the main characters are at 'present' 35 years old; one of them is a security guard, and the other is a taxi driver and a single mom. I really appreciated that these characters were a bit older, had regular jobs, and had been in previous serious relationships. Not that 35 is old by any means, but a lot of romance media is focused on young people or takes place in high school and college. While this story does contain high school and college romances as well, it felt very fresh to have a different demographic take the protagonist seat.
The characters in this story are very likable and immediately sympathetic, however to me they also feel a lot more real and grounded than many other fictional romance protagonists do. And this is because these characters are not perfect; far from it. They make questionable choices, hurt others, hurt themselves, and while you may find yourself frustrated and disappointed with some of the decisions they make, they are still human decisions. If you go into it with an open mind, you will end up loving and appreciating these characters despite their flaws.
An interesting aspect to this drama is that the story was loosely based on the song First Love by Hikaru Utada (in addition to the later song Hatsukoi) and several songs from the First Love album are featured on the soundtrack. Hikaru Utada is practically a character in the story; they are the same age as the protagonists, and their music often reminds Yae and Noguchi of several important moments in their life and their relationship with each other.
One last thing of note is that this show is extremely well shot, showcasing both the beauty of the Hokkaido countryside and Sapporo's city landscapes. I was amazed by the cinematography and had to mention it in this review somewhere.
If you like romances stories that are a bit more grounded and dramatic than rom-coms tend to be, I highly recommend First Love. It's also fairly short at only 9 episodes, so it won't take you too long to get through.
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To start off, I have a lot of mixed feelings. I don't think it was AS bad as some people are saying, and I definitely don't believe that everyone's characters were ruined/OOC. In my opinion, the overall plot was more of an issue than any individual character's choices (barring a few exceptions). I'm not even going to go into the individual characters, actually.
Because to me, the biggest issues were this:
Lack of a focus on politics
Lack of a focus on Jinx/Vi's relationship
Classism is one of the central themes to this story, and an unavoidable aspect of season 1. It's almost too obvious to talk about. The overarching conflict of Arcane has always been about the tension between Piltover and "Zaun". So why was Viktor and his little army of mannequin clones the big bad of season 2? I do not buy even for a second that Zaunites would suddenly start banding together for Piltover just because they were both at risk of being murdered by some freaky aliens. Why would people in the undercity care? They're already dying and being mistreated. It was lazy, overdone, and not consistent with the thesis of the story. Yeah, having Sevika on the council representing Zaun in the last 10 seconds of the show was great, but how did we get there? Why was that not the focus?
As for #2, Vi and Powder are the main characters and their relationship is at the core of this story. It is the most important relationship in this story. Objectively. And their relationship was not resolved in a satisfying way whatsoever. It didn't have to be perfect, it didn't even have to be happy, but it had to be satisfying and make sense. And it did not.
I truly believe that if those two aspects remained the focus of the story, every other issue that people had with the show or any individual character's choices would no longer be a problem.
I keep seeing people mad that some characters died or their ship wasn't canon but the thing is, this has always been a tragic story. I am not mad that all traces of Vander are gone from Warwick. I am not mad that Jinx and Ekko didn't end up together (even though I literally actively ship them). I don't think everything has to be wrapped up in a nice happy bow for a show to be good. It just has to make narrative sense and be consistent with the thesis of the story, which it was not.
Here's my take: I think many of this season's issues could have been resolved had episodes 1-6 been spread out over 9 episodes with the events of episode 6 being the season finale.
Episodes 1-6 had elements of the central theses that I mentioned earlier. Jinx's attack reignited the suspicion/dislike of undercity folk, therefore upholding the classism aspect; Salo even says "I can't believe we were almost about to give those people rights" (not a direct quote but you get the idea). Vi had lost all hope that her sister was still 'in there', was thinking about Jinx and mourning Powder. The physical fight between them and the role Caitlyn played in it was narratively consistent. These episodes weren't perfect, nor were they as cleanly written as s1, but they had the heart of the story in mind. The real issue is what happened afterwards. They lost the plot, quite literally.
When I heard this second season would also be the final one, I was surprised, but considering there's nothing I hate more than when a story gets drawn out just for the sake of it/because it's popular, I felt like I couldn't complain. However, considering how much convoluted bs they tried to shove into this one 9 episode season, I am confused as to why it wasn't drawn out more. Was it a budgetary reason? An issue with Netflix? I can't figure out what the problem was.
In conclusion, I don't think this season was horrible. Definitely not the worst Season 2 of a beloved Season 1 I've ever seen, at least. But it's still disappointing that the impeccable writing of Season 1 was unable to be matched.
I think I have a greater appreciation for the silly Nanami episodes after several full rewatches of RGU
On my first watch, I was so hooked on the mystery and intrigue of the main plot that all I wanted was to find out what was going on, so every time a Nanami episode came on I’d be like oh great this means I have to go another full episode without finding out more about this story!
But now that I know everything that happens, the Nanami episodes provide a much needed respite from the darkness of the main storyline. Plus I am able to interpret/appreciate their value and symbolism outside of comic relief as well
Our Beloved Summer focuses on a pair of former high school classmates, one who was the top of their class and another who was at the very bottom. While they were still in school, a documentary was made about their situation and it went viral due to their comedic dynamic and surprising chemistry. Right after the documentary was finished, against all odds the two fell in love and started dating. 10 years later, a documentary sequel is proposed, however the now working adults are no longer together and seemingly hate each other. What happened?
That's all you need to know going in, but if you like romcoms you're already in the right place. From the protagonists Yeonsu and Ung, to Ung's childhood best friend/practically surrogate brother Jiung, to the strange and impulsive young pop star NJ, to Yeonsu's quirky and nosy coworkers, each and every character is likable but complex enough to feel real.
This show is very pleasant and easy to watch. While there are heavier topics sprinkled throughout the series (and I can't deny I teared up at times) it is overall a very soft and fluffy show. One of the main themes the series focuses on is that who you are in high school does not necessarily reflect what your future will look like, and you can't judge others based on superficial notions of success.
The show also has a surprisingly vulnerable portrayal of how poverty can harden people in ways not often talked about. I found this to be one of the most compelling aspects of this series that gives it some much needed depth.
This is a side note but as someone who watches a lot of anime where the average age of a protagonist is like, 17, I really love that this show focuses entirely on characters in their late 20s. Really, most kdramas are centered around working young adults, so if that is something you value I'd highly recommend looking into more of them.
Seriously though, if you haven't watched any kdramas this would be a good one to start with. I actually watched this show with my mom. She had never seen a kdrama before, and she really loved it! Especially if you like rom-coms, I'd really recommend giving Our Beloved Summer a shot.
(in FMAB specifically) Hohenheim is not nearly as bad a person OR dad as some people in the fandom make him out to be, and it's honestly insulting to see him be compared to deadbeat anime dads such as Gendo Ikari for example when he's nowhere near that bad
Now, firstly, I admit that the cold and distant way he treated Ed and Al while he still lived at the house was not ideal, but oddly enough he seems to get more flack for 'abandoning them' than anything he did while he was still around. Which leads me to believe everyone either completely forgot or chooses to ignore his reason for 'abandoning' them. He (temporarily) left so he could stop himself from being immortal. Because he wanted to grow old with his family.
Hell, the reason he was even cold and distant with the boys in the first place was because they were growing up right before his extremely old and immortal eyes and he couldn't fathom the idea of missing any more of their childhood because for his 100000 year old ass, a child growing up happens in the blink of an eye.
Now of course, having a valid reason for what he did still doesn't excuse the trauma his actions imparted on Ed and Al (particularly Ed). His emotional and physical distance still had a negative impact despite what his intent was, and there were several moments even after his return where he did/said some stupid stuff. Like, I get it. He is very flawed.
But I still cannot see how an awkward self hating immortal who had his wife unexpectedly die while she was supposed to be watching their children is being put on the same level as these other anime dads who either purposely shirked fatherly responsibilities or straight up abused their kid! They are not the same!
*if you haven't seen the show, read my spoiler free WYSW post first!!*
This post will continue what I started with Boys Over Flowers (where I wrote a long unsolicited dump of all my thoughts on a show I really loved). And, needless to say, I really loved this show too. I honestly haven't cried this much at a tv show in a long time, and that's saying something because I cry very often. I think I teared up at least once every episode, and don't even get me started on the final episode because I'm pretty sure I was full on crying for at least 1 hour straight.
I guess the reason I was so attached to this show, and likely the reason this show is so popular, is because it's so relatable. Even if you haven't lived in that one particular alley in Ssangmun, most people can relate to growing apart from friends, moving out of their parents' house, leaving their childhood behind, etc. I felt like I watched this at a really appropriate time in my life, and maybe that's why I was especially emotionally impacted by it.
Characters
If you've ever read my blog before you'll know that I love a large cast of characters! So I was very pleased with all the characters and the different dynamics they had in this show. As an anime fan I'm used to teenagers/young people being the focus with adult characters being kind of an afterthought, but I really loved how developed and important all the adult characters were. The parents weren't there just to be parents, they had their own goals, lives, and struggles.
Sunwoo was probably my favorite character, but it was hard to pick a favorite because they were all so great. Funnily enough, Bora was originally my least favorite character (due to how cruel she was to her siblings at the start), but I'm happy to say she really grew on me. The development she went through due to her relationship with Sunwoo made me like her a lot more. The two of them were so cute together and I really enjoyed their secret dating era in 1989.
I also loved Taek and Sunwoo's blended family, I thought it was so nice how they became brothers after being friends for so many years. The way the show handled the two boys' reactions and adjustment to their parents dating was really well done as well.
The Romance Subplot
As I've said before, I like love triangles, and this show was no exception. Coming directly off of my watch of Boys Over Flowers (in which the love triangle lowkey had me ripping my hair out), this love triangle was a breath of fresh air. Honestly I have never been so conflicted as to which love interest I'm 'rooting for' before. I think I may have been subconsciously rooting for Junghwan because that 'fake confession' episode hit me right in the gut, but I loved both Taek and Junghwan so much I genuinely didn't even care.
One of my favorite scenes in the show is how after Sunwoo explains to Taek that you can tell how someone feels about a person by how they look at them, the episode ends with Taek noticing how Junghwan is looking at Deoksun. It's a great dialogue-less moment and really sets the tone for their dynamic for the rest of the show.
While I liked this love triangle, I do think the implications of the time jump put me off a bit. As I said, I was kind of rooting for Junghwan, and the episode where he realized he lost Deoksun to Taek was heart wrenching. But as Junghwan said himself, what exactly had he been doing for the past 5 years? It was a bit hard to pity him when he had so many opportunities to ask her out and beat Taek to the punch.
Other Stuff
Honestly, I didn't love the 2015 flash-forwards too much, they were too few and far between and took me out of the immersion of the 80s/90s setting. I think the first one was ok, the others felt a little less necessary, and then it went so many episodes without a single 2015 scene that I almost forgot they were a thing. I enjoyed the 2015 scenes in the last episode after we knew who got married to who, but it still felt like the show could've done without those scenes. The most important/emotional moments in the series happened in Ssangmun anyway.
The time skip from 1989 to 1994 had me kind of displeased at first, and I didn't know why, because I've watched tons of shows with a time skip before and had no problems with it. I think it was in part because the first 17 episodes of the show took place over the span of less than a year, and then all of a sudden in the last 20 minutes of the 17th episode it jumped ahead 5 years without a warning.
But to be honest, I think my dislike of the time skip came from the fact that I really enjoyed these characters' daily lives and the regular pace the show had been going at that such a far jump ahead was making the end of the series feel more imminent.
I'm really glad I gave Reply 1988 a chance, especially because I barely knew anything about it before watching. I'm really enjoying kdramas so far and glad I've been trying to watch more of them.
As someone still fairly new to kdramas myself, I really believe that Reply 1988 is the perfect kdrama for someone who's never watched one before. If you like slice of life, coming-of-age stories, and large casts, this is a great show for you.
The story focuses on several families living on the same block in Ssangmun, Seoul, South Korea, starting in the summer of 1988. The families are very close friends due to living in proximity, and they are able to share in each other's happiness and each other's struggles.
Honestly, while watching this show I found myself consistently envious of the families' sense of community. One of the first scenes in the show starts off with a typical dinnertime for the families. The teenage children of each of the families are being sent to share and trade food items, to the point where nearly everyone is eating the same several foods. While crossing paths with his friends during this trade process, one of the characters notes, "why don't we just eat together?"
While the majority of the family members (both adults and children) are important and developed characters in the story, the protagonist of the show is Sung Deok-sun, the only girl in the group of 5 same-aged friends on the block. I found her very energetic, likable, and realistic. In general, all of the characters felt very real, like they could've been people and families you may know in real life. You will certainly get attached to these characters and miss them when the show is over; I know I did.
While there are definitely serious moments on occasion, it is overall a lighthearted and funny family show that will lift your spirits. You can also expect some off-beat humor, including a goat-bleating noise inserted after comedic or ironic moments where one might normally expect a laugh track.
If you've never watched a kdrama before and are interested in checking them out, I'd highly recommend Reply 1988 to be the one you start with. If you already know and like slice of life and situational comedies, then you will be familiar with this type of story.
My Favorite Character from each of my Favorite Anime
Hi! I’ve done a few separate posts about my top 10 anime and my favorite anime characters, but I decided I’d combine those ideas into one post and try and pick out my favorite character from each of my favorite anime. This is going to be hard because I know I have multiple favorites for most of these, but I will do my best. Let’s go!
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood- Hohenheim
I usually cycle between Ed, Hohenheim, and Mustang being my favorite character, but recently it’s been Hohenheim. I think he’s both under appreciated and misunderstood by the FMAB fandom. Long story short, I love characters riddled with guilt (not sure what this says about me lol). If you’re interested, I’ve already written a whole post about how much I love him!
Revolutionary Girl Utena- Utena
I always shift between Utena and Anthy being my favorite, but I really have loved Utena from the start. I find it very compelling how she hides her internal anguish behind her cheerful, positive persona.
Toradora- Taiga
I’ve already written so much about Taiga (in this post, spoilers) so there’s not much else to say besides that I’m the number 1 Taiga defender. I love her, she reminds me of myself in some ways, she’s great. I think she’s the perfect example of a ‘flawed’ protagonist.
Chihayafuru- Chihaya
Chihaya is such a ray of sunshine, comic relief, and a total fuck up, and yet she is an incredible karuta prodigy and the protagonist of the show. She is also one of the most realistic neurodivergent-coded characters I’ve ever seen. I think it’s fun how she defies expectations as well; she has the appearance of a beautiful cool model, but as soon as other characters talk to her they realize how much of a nerd she is.
March Comes in like a Lion- Hina
There are a lot of sub-plots and semi-important characters in this show, but the side character that I was always the most interested in was Hina. I think the way she is so open about her emotions is inspiring, and as she goes through hardships it’s nice to see how she matures while also maintaining her cheerful attitude.
Your Lie in April- Tsubaki
I haven’t watched this anime in a long time, but I do know that when I first watched it my favorite character was Tsubaki for sure. Her unrequited love plot line was heart wrenching and compelling.
Love is War- Ishigami
I also cycle between a few favorite characters in Love is War (I adore both Shirogane and Kaguya of course) but at this point in the story in the anime, Ishigami is my favorite. I think he is such a realistic portrayal of an insecure, awkward teen, and I love how noble and selfless he is behind the scenes.
Haikyuu- Kageyama
What else is there to say, truly? I loved Kageyama the second he was introduced. His dynamic with Hinata is what makes the show, and his stubborn, cold personality is something I tend to be drawn to when it comes to my favorite kinds of characters.
Madoka Magica- Homura
Sayaka is a really really close second, but after finishing the series for the first time I couldn’t get Homura’s story out of my head. Her determination and willpower are honestly unmatched, and each new watch of the show makes me appreciate her more.
Monster- Dieter
I feel like Dieter may seem like an odd choice for a favorite; as you may expect, Tenma (many people’s favorite I’d assume) is probably a close second for me. But I think I liked Dieter so much because he was proof that love and support are capable of saving even the most traumatized individual. He was so cute and I loved how much he loved Tenma.
If you made it through this whole thing, thanks for reading! Also, I highly recommend watching all of these, I’ve linked my spoiler free reviews in the titles if you haven’t watched them and are interested in finding out more.
Hi everyone! This is going to be an extremely long, unsolicited recap of all my thoughts about Boys Over Flowers. I don't know a single person in my real life who has watched this, so I'm using this blog as my space to infodump because this show has become my new hyperfixation. If anyone at all ends up reading this, I really appreciate it! But this is mostly entirely for myself lol.
As someone who is pretty deep into the shoujo anime world and just recently getting into kdramas, I have heard of this show in passing many times. Kkotboda Namja is referenced in Korean media a lot and Hana Yori Dango is lauded as a classic shoujo in the manga sphere, so I figured it might be good to watch the show just to be able to get all the references and consume a piece of shoujo history. Originally, I thought it would be a mindless watch that I might have to force myself to finish; I started off concerned about getting through 25 episodes, but in the end, I ended up wishing there were more lol.
I'm gonna be honest, when I first started watching it, I was like uhhh this is... kinda bad. especially in the beginning. But I became endeared to the quirks I originally criticized. The slow motion dramatic replay shots, the shaky camera, the questionable acting skills all are an essential part of the show itself.
In general, the story was more compelling than I was expecting. But the characters were undoubtedly the best part of the show for me. I always find myself getting attached to media where characters are the focus, and I believe that's why I enjoyed this so much. So I am going to go into each character a bit more in depth.
Thoughts on Jandi
As far as shoujo protagonists go, Jandi is pretty quintessential and standard. She is poor, she is hardworking, she is kind. We've all seen this before. But I always liked her, and she grew on me even more as the series went on. She has the ever-present shoujo 'hard working poor girl' trait, but the show took that to a more serious level than I was expecting. The arc where she had to essentially raise her little bother by herself forced her to mature so quickly, which felt very realistic to me.
I also really loved how much of a 'girl's girl' she was; as far as earlier episodes go, the episode that focused on Minji was one of my favorites. I loved how she called out those popular girls on their hypocrisy for criticizing Minji's plastic surgery when they've all had surgery themselves. She also was such a good friend to both Minji and Gaeul and a very strong, assertive person.
As far as her indecisiveness goes, that is kind of a requirement for being a shoujo protagonist in a love triangle, but it did still get on my nerves even though I was fully anticipating it.
Thoughts on F4 (ranked in order of how much I liked them)
Yijung
Yijung was my favorite F4 boy by far. I just thought he had the most interesting and complex backstory. His struggle with his parents was very humanizing and the way he handled it so poorly felt like a realistic response to that kind of trauma. Ultimately, he made bad choices, but in an understanding and forgivable way that made him complex, not unlikeable (unlike someone else... but more on that later).
Jihoo
Jihoo was another character I grew to be very fond of. I was interested in his backstory a lot too, and although we knew from the beginning that he experienced a tragic loss as a child, learning that he carried the guilt of thinking he killed his family for 15 years really gave extra context to his stoicness and sadness. His reunion arc with his grandfather brought me to tears several times, and it really gave his character a lot more depth. My biggest issue with Jihoo is that I felt like he was almost too perfect sometimes; it's why I liked the grandfather reunion arc so much, I thought it gave him some much needed flaws.
Junpyo
Speaking of flaws, look who it is! Obviously, I have a lot of conflicted feelings on Junpyo. As someone who is actually very open minded about redemption arcs, I didn't have too much of an issue with him being a bully at the beginning, but his, truthfully, abusive tendencies were such a turn off and felt completely unnecessary. Unlike Yijung, Junpyo's trauma/bad choices made him extremely unlikable and nearly unforgivable. The constant physical violence against completely innocent people and his unwillingness to listen to Jandi explain herself were hard to watch, knowing that he's one of the romantic leads that we're supposed to be rooting for. I also felt like until the final arc, any character development he had gotten just kept undoing itself every time he found a new thing to get angry about. Despite all this, I enjoyed what his character became towards the end of the story. I just wish it wasn't such a painful and unnecessary journey for him to finally become that way.
Woobin
Woobin was kind of a disappointing character in general; I can only assume that he was a bigger character in the manga and they just didn't have time to really develop him in the show, because that's pretty much the only valid explanation for his lack of substance. At the beginning of the show, Yijung and Woobin got less screentime than Junpyo/Jihoo did, but as Yijung started to get more development, Woobin became even more noticeably lacking. They threw in that one scene where he was stressing over being the son of a mafia boss or something (which felt completely out of left field by the way) but because it was the only scene where he was given any backstory it might as well not have existed at all. Overall, he was nice to Jandi and a good friend and I enjoyed him in all the F4 group scenes, I just wish he was a bit more of a fully developed character.
Other Characters
Before I get into the friend characters, I wanted to say that something I really loved about this show was how genuinely kind all the older female characters were to Jandi. For some reason I was expecting most of them to secretly be evil or mean but they were all extremely kindhearted and helpful people, which just made the viewing experience better. Even Minji, who was literally the only one who actually did turn out mean, was able to reconcile with Jandi and end their friendship on a neutral/positive note.
Gaeul
I loved Gaeul from the start, I thought she was so adorable and the perfect best friend character for a shoujo. I honestly wasn't even expecting her to be a fully fleshed-out secondary character in the show, I thought she would just be Jandi's coworker who she gossiped with on occasion. But the fact that she became such a major player in the story made me very happy. I also really loved her with Yijung and was practically screaming at the screen for them to get together, but more on that later.
Jaekyung
Jaekyung was interesting. She was a little ditzy and out of touch, but extremely kindhearted despite her wealthy background. I think her introduction into the show, which subsequently threw a curveball into the relationship of Jandi x Junpyo, came at a good time. I found it refreshing that she was always nice and friendly to Jandi, but also didn't want to give up on Junpyo just because Jandi liked him. My biggest issue with Jaekyung was that her concession at the end of the wedding felt a little out of left field, considering how adamant she had been previously about her pursuit of Junpyo. But based on the nature of her personality, I can see that being believable. I also wish she made another appearance after the wedding arc was over, but we didn't see her again after that :(
Junhee
Junhee was yet another character that I expected to be kind of bitchy/mean but who turned out to be extremely cool and nice. The literal only thing that bothered me about her was that I couldn't fathom how she and Junpyo were supposedly raised in the same home but turned out so different, lol. I guess it's a testament to how girls vs. boys were treated in their patriarchal household, but still jarring.
The Romance
I want to start off by saying that I'm someone who is ok with love triangles. I think there's a lot of people who are tired of them and don't like them, but I am okay with it so long as it's interesting.
That being said, when it comes to love triangles I think a lot of people conflate the character they like better with the character the protagonist very clearly wants more. To me (and to most people I'd assume) Jihoo was just overwhelmingly the better choice. I'd go as far as to say he's the objectively better choice. He was always a million times more kind and thoughtful than Junpyo and truly loved Jandi for almost the entire show. However, I could never fully see him being endgame because Jandi was simply more focused on Junpyo and had more history with him.
I know this is a hot take, but I actually really enjoy the 'bickering couple' trope. I think a little back and forth roasting of each other is fun and entertaining! But bickering is not the same thing as genuine cruelty and one sided bullying. Which is pretty much what was happening at the beginning of the story. However, by the time Junpyo finally mellowed out, I really grew to love his dynamic with Jandi. The teasing was just that; teasing, and not bullying anymore. I just wish there was about 200% more of that dynamic and 100% less of whatever the hell they were doing in the first 2/3rds of the show.
As for couples outside of the main trio, I was the BIGGEST Gaeul/Yijung shipper from the minute they first interacted. I cared way more about them than the main love triangle and was on the edge of my seat whenever they showed up. My biggest criticism of them though is that it took WAY too long. And believe me, I can handle a slow burn, but at a certain point it felt so dragged out that I almost stopped caring (it wasn't confirmed canon until the literal last 10 minutes of the whole show lol). Of course, I was still pleased, but man! Give me a break.
The Show In General
I think it became obvious to me early on that this is like, the mother of all shoujos. Most of the common shoujo tropes I mentioned in this review probably either originated or were popularized by both this show and the original manga. It really set a standard and became iconic, despite its many flaws.
(Side note, I hope I'm not in the wrong for still calling this kdrama a shoujo, I think it being based on a shoujo manga makes it a fair enough label but correct me if I'm wrong)
I also just started reading the manga and wow, they uh... toned some stuff down for the show didn't they? I do like it though, it's different. But I can definitely see why some changes were made from the manga to the show. So far out of all the characters, Jihoo and Junpyo's manga versions feel the most different from their kdrama equivalents, which is a bit surprising as they are the main characters. But we'll have to see if that changes as I get further in.
I also am aware of the several other adaptations of Hana Yori Dango such as the Japanese drama and Meteor Garden (although I am put off by the fact that it's 50+ episodes?? are they an hour long too? if so... I'm not sure about that one) but I knew Boys Over Flowers/Kkotboda Namja was the one I wanted to start with due to its popularity, and I think that was a good choice.
This is a 15 year old show but I know there is still somewhat of an active fanbase for it on here so if you're a hardcore Hana Yori Dango stan please go easy on me! These are just my opinions so take them with a grain of salt.
Anyway, if anyone ended up reading this to the end thank you for reading. I'm going to be posting more kdrama reviews on this blog that I promise will be way shorter. Bye!
This is a part of my series First Impressions, where I talk about my thoughts on a show after only watching a few episodes of it. In this case, I've seen 2 episodes so far.
I just started watching the Japanese drama Good Morning Call (2016). This show is about two high school students trying to live independently for the first time, however they get scammed into signing the same exact lease for the same apartment. In an effort to save money, they decide to stay in the apartment together and attempt to make this living situation work for them both. Perhaps romance will follow? (of course it will, this is a romcom)
Usually, I am a sucker for these kind of classic shoujo romcom shows. I am typically pretty open minded to questionable acting and writing choices in k/jdramas as long as the overall plot and dramatics are generally entertaining, but I am not sure yet how I feel about this one.
I think the protagonist Nao is kind hearted and cute, but she makes some very questionable decisions early on that make her very frustrating. To be honest, she's kind of a bad roommate! At least at the beginning. She directly disobeys multiple of the reasonable boundaries that Uehara sets, and has blatant communication issues, which makes it hard to root for her. And I have a higher tolerance than most when it comes to 'annoying' characters, so I can imagine other viewers might have even more negative feelings about Nao.
As for Uehara, I think he's a fairly standard 'cold' male love interest. He's actually a lot nicer and more reasonable than I expected him to be. When Nao disrespects one of his boundaries he doesn't even get as mad as I expected him to, or honestly as mad as I would have been if I were in his situation lol. I do think he could use a smidge more of a personality, although this may be an acting issue rather than a writing one.
I'm not yet at a point where I think I need to stop watching, but with every new episode I've been kind of on the verge of giving up. I think it's a strong concept with the potential to get better but I don't feel super drawn to any of the characters yet, which is a big indicator that this show might not be for me.
If this is a show you like and really think is worth the watch, please feel free to give me some spoiler free encouragement in the replies. Thanks for reading!
Hi......If you don't mind, can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....
Hey, thanks for the ask! I don't mind at all, I love talking about my favorite things!
I actually have a post up about my top 10 favorite anime, but I don't talk much about those other types of media on this blog, so I'll just give one top favorite from each and why I like it so much.
Favorite manga: 20th Century Boys
I love Naoki Urasawa and this series is just so unique, creative, and compelling. I read each volume back to back without reading anything in between because I was so invested. it's one of the only longer form manga series I own in its entirety.
Favorite book: Murder on the Orient Express
I really love mystery novels in general but especially Agatha Christie's. For an author whose works came out literally a century ago, in my opinion she has a surprisingly modern perspective on crime, violence, and murder, and it's why so many people have tried to emulate her style in the past 100 years.
Favorite movie: When Harry Met Sally
Best rom com ever (in my opinion), flawless friends to lovers execution, I can watch it 100 times and not get sick of it. Just an excellent movie and makes me happy every time.
Favorite TV series: Twenty Five Twenty One
This show is absolutely gut wrenching, but it got me through a really difficult time in my life and truly changed my perspective on love and romance. It will always be extremely important to me.
Thanks for asking that, I hope you all got to know a little more about me through this because I normally only ever talk about anime!
Hi everyone! I'm back for the first time in a while with a review of Naoki Urasawa's Pluto anime that debuted on Netflix in the fall. Let's check it out!
Here's a short summary of the plot: Pluto focuses on a detective robot named Gesicht who is on the case of a serial killer who's targeting both beloved well known robots and humans who champion for robot rights. He hopes to find the killer while grappling with the knowledge that he is a target himself.
I think the series started off a little slow/rough, but I was hooked by the end of the first episode. The episodes are all 1 hour long, which allows for more time to develop the plot in each episode. As a mystery anime enthusiast, I thought the story was super compelling. The characters are all extremely likable, even if they appear for only a short time, and they all have memorable designs and characteristics. I was especially fond of Epsilon and Atom.
Something everyone should know going into this series is that Pluto is a retelling/reimagining of one storyline in the Astro Boy canon. Astro Boy is an extremely popular comic series in Japan that originated in the 1950s, and Naoki Urasawa was given permission to adapt the story in 2003. I’ve actually never seen or read anything about it, and I was worried at first that I'd be confused. However even though I had no prior knowledge of Astro Boy I had no issue following the story of Pluto. If anything, it just made me more curious about the original series and made me want to check it out later.
I will say, some of the animation in this series I was less than pleased with; during moments that in other anime would typically be higher budget, more detailed, or a higher frame rate, in some cases actually looked worse than the regular non-action scenes. This may be due to my personal gripe with the use of 3D models in 2D animation, so I'll write it up as a me thing for now. Either way, in my opinion the animation is definitely the least impressive aspect of this series.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable show and honestly a great introduction to Urasawa's works for someone who might not be familiar. I highly recommend this series to anyone who enjoys mystery or sci-fi anime.
Revolutionary Girl Utena is an older anime with a huge legacy. Having aired in 1997, it was definitely the inspiration for many of the dark magical girl series we know and love today. Not to mention, this show was revolutionary in more ways than one, particularly because of its early LGBTQ+ themes.
I won’t be able to say much as to avoid any spoilers, but here’s a short summary of the plot: Utena Tenjou is an unconventional, gender non-conforming girl at Ootori academy, who was once given a ring by a mysterious prince on the day her parents died. One day she has a run in with kendo club member Saionji, who is also on the Ootori student council. When he challenges her to a duel, Utena discovers that the student council all have the same rose signet ring that the prince gave her many years ago. She becomes roped into their peculiar games to win betrothal to the rose bride, the unusual Anthy Himemiya.
That is as much as I’m willing to describe, but if you’re still unsure if you’ll enjoy this show, I’ll mention that it’s categorized as comedy, drama, mystery, and psychological. The plot also gets much wilder and deeper than what you can surmise from my spoiler-free summary, I can assure you.
Despite its low budget, the show manages to have absolutely incredible visuals. Every shot is very carefully thought out, and I genuinely think it’s one of the most visually stunning anime I’ve ever seen. The backgrounds are very intricately drawn, and it has really incredible direction/cinematography.
An important thing I should mention is that RGU is a show made for mature audiences, and as a result it has some intentionally inappropriate/problematic aspects. So as a warning here are some parts of the show that might be triggering/upsetting to some: large age gap relationships (though I will say, these are not portrayed in a positive light), sexual abuse/assault/rape, domestic violence, incest, and homophobia, amongst other things.
However, if you can handle those difficult elements of the show, it’s an incredible watch and absolutely worth it. It might require a few video essays to fully understand, but overall Revolutionary Girl Utena is genuinely one of my favorite shows now and I hope it can be one of yours, too!
If you’re already a fan of Utena, feel free to add to this! I didn’t want to spoil too much but if you can add more convincing details without spoiling please do, because I think more people should watch this anime.
Hello! I know I’ve made posts about anime openings before a few times already, but there are just so many that I couldn’t help myself. Here are more anime openings I love!
Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu OP 1
On this blog I frequently talk about how underrated Rakugo Shinjuu is, and its OP is no exception. I love this opening for its cool and mysterious vibe, and how well it manages to fit all of the different time periods in the story.
Vinland Saga OP 1
I never would’ve thought that a modern rock song would work so well for a show about Vikings, but this song really hypes you up for the content of Vinland Saga and the lyrics are very fitting to Thorfinn’s story as well. The animation also manages to showcase many important moments from the show without spoiling anything, which is impressive.
Haikyuu OP 5
This is already such a classic I almost don’t even need to mention it, but Hikariare is not only my favorite Haikyuu op song but also the OP to my favorite season of the show (so far). The visuals of this opening are just as stunning, like the mountain transforming into the eagle? Come on. Amazing.
Ranking of Kings OP 1
Ranking of Kings protagonists Bojji and Kage are the cutest ever, and this opening is mostly just the two of them running around and being cute. The second opening of the show is also very good, but it’s more serious, so I like the calm and sweet vibes of this one more.
Chihayafuru OP 2
As much as I love Chihayafuru and plug it on this blog as much as possible, I have to admit it doesn’t have the strongest openings. That being said, I like the second season’s opening song the best, which is fortunate because the second season is my favorite so far (same thing as Haikyuu I guess lol). I really love the last few seconds of this OP, where Chihaya is animated practicing karuta alone. Anyway please watch this show it’s great :)
That’s all for now! I’m sure I’ll come up with more to add to this series because I love anime openings. Side note: I’m linking youtube videos which tend to get taken down for copyright/other reasons but I usually keep the post updated with newer links. So if u see this with a broken link, just head back to the original post and you should be able to find it!
Paranoia Agent has been on my to-watch list for a while, since I've seen all of Satoshi Kon's movies and generally like his work. I had a lot of mixed feelings about this show and want to talk about it, so let's get into it!
Here's a quick summary of the plot:
After work one evening, a popular young character designer stressed about her upcoming deadline gets suddenly assaulted by a young boy on rollerblades with a bat. Soon afterwards, various people all over the city begin to claim they have also been attacked by this boy, known by the media as 'shounen bat', and the citizens began to speculate whether shounen bat is real or a figment of the victims' imaginations.
Knowing that Satoshi Kon's other stories often focus on the disparity between reality/unreality/imagination, I was intrigued. I am critical of many of his portrayals of individuals with mental illness in these stories, but overall enjoy the way he writes about the uncertainty between what is real life and what is not. With this show, the audience is in the same position as the characters. The entire time, you will be questioning who shounen bat really is, and why he exists.
I thought this anime was great for the first couple episodes, but around episode 7, it really stagnates and the quality drops significantly, in my opinion. To me the show seemed like it was reaching its climax at that point, but this is a 13 episode show, so I knew there had to be more of the story left. The episodes in between episode 7 and the finale aren't bad by any means, they just seem to disrupt the flow set by the first several episodes. This is just my opinion though, I'm sure some people may disagree about the pacing issues.
This is a side note, but I also think this show has one of the most unsettling opening songs/animations I've ever seen in anime. It's just deeply unsettling, lol. I don't know how else to describe it. This is a good thing though, I think it captures the mood of the show perfectly.
Overall, if you like some of Satoshi Kon's other works and are curious about Paranoia Agent, I'd say it's definitely worth a watch, but it's not something I'd necessarily recommend, especially to anyone who isn't familiar with Kon's directorial style. But that's just me.
Hey everyone! I know this is SUPER late, I usually do this the first week of January but things have been a bit crazy. SO anyway let's get into it! As usual, these are anime I watched in 2023, not necessarily ones that came out in 2023.
Death Parade
Yes I know, it's taken me so long to watch Death Parade. But I finally got around to it! This show is so creative and unique, every episode was its own little story. My one complaint was I wish it was longer. Not just because I loved the characters and the world and wanted to see more of it, but also because I felt like there was a lot more that could/should have been expanded upon, especially in the last couple episodes. Besides that though, I really enjoyed this series.
Kaguya-Sama Love is War: The First Kiss that Never Ends
Kind of cheating since this isn't a new series, but I enjoyed it so much I couldn't not include it. Kaguya really only gets better and better, and since I finished the manga a few months ago too I was in such a Kaguya mood in 2023. The character development in this arc is so great, and it's so rewarding to finally see Kaguya and Shirogane's relationship progress. I highly recommend the whole series to anyone who likes comedy anime, it's really top tier.
Pluto
And lastly, my favorite anime I watched this year was definitely Pluto. I was so excited for this as a huge fan of Naoki Urasawa, and watched it in literally 2 days. As soon as I finished the episode that focused on North No. 2, I was hooked. What a great introduction to the world and to the series as a whole. There were some aspects of the animation and pacing that I wasn't a huge fan of, but the character designs were great and the story in general was so good. I am not sure how much the adaptation differs from the manga, but it really made me want to read the manga super badly. I really loved all of the characters, but especially Atom and Epsilon.
Anyway, thank you for reading! I'll be back soon with some one-off recommendations and reviews as well. Thanks again for all your love to this blog as always.
