At 25:00, in Akasaka

hard to judge because it has it's lengths

The best thing the show did, was not starting with a sex scene as the manga did.
What was frustrating was the lack of communication overall, but especially on Asamis part. He was in love for years and still can't communicate properly when he has the chance. Of course, if both are in love they don't really need words to convey their feelings, but if the partner is inexperienced, shy and never experieced love in his life, it would help tremendously. They should have shown Asamis reason to love Yuki in Episode 2 also much earlier to give the viewers more to work with and to better understand him, I think to do that in episode 7 was a bit late.

Besides that, the series was beautifully crafted, cinematography was great and they tried to be sensual all over. The mellow pace was not a negative for me per se, but the series draged on a bit. Even with this flaws the MLs did act a wonderful job and only failed with the kissing scenes which was a bit disappointing.

So in summary a good show with some flaws but enjoyable to watch.

Read More

Pretty Darn Good

I don't have much to say cause this was one of those J-BLs that's pretty freaking good, but not great enough to be memorable. However, throughout my watch, I enjoyed myself fully. I'm starting to like these kinds of tropes with the leads in a BL falling for each other in real life, it might just become another one of those concepts that garner it an automatic watch.

Let's Dive In.

Yuki and Asami's dynamic was the cutest. You get a little bit of that bubbly seme/stoic uke trope, but not so cutthroat. I adored the way Asami treated Yuki and watching the younger slowly fall in love. My only real negative about them is that a very minor, very minuscule mishearing drove the entirety of the plot at the end. Yuki literally just could've asked Asami who he was talking about, and that would've killed off an irrelevant 3 episodes, and a couple of non-sensical crying scenes. Oh, and their kisses, minus a couple of them, were all pretty bad. But besides those two things, I really enjoyed them.

Speaking on the production itself, so many amazing and beautiful transitions happened in this that looked fantastic. Whoever was behind this definitely took their time to craft these very creative transitions, and I really enjoyed them .

Ratings:

Story: 8/1 0 - gets a little eh by the end, but most of it is good.

Acting: 9/10 - It's good! I liked Taisuke (Yuki)'s acting the most. I like seeing the difference between his actual character and the character he played in the series.

Music: 6/10 - didn't pay it any attention.

Recommendation Value: 7/10 - I really like it, but like I said earlier, it's not too memorable since the ending kind of dies down the hype of this. However, I think it's a beautiful story told, so I would definitely recommend giving it a watch.

Read More

Series was overall fun

The series is a fun take from the manga. I enjoyed seeing the characters grow alone the way. Its a fund series to watch over all but it felt off at times or dragging its feet with showing the interest. Good actors but I felt there was a lack of chemistry with the leads a bit. I enjoyed seeing the behind the sense work of making the BL. It was a nice fresh take, but the kissing looked more forced then fun and intimate. I felt the ending was lacking a bit as well. Its an overall fun take on a different type of Bl. The actors were good in telling the story but it just felt like something was missing and the story felt longer then needed at times. I over all did enjoy the play and how it all came together.

Read More

Cute but Extremely Frustrating

The first half of this drama was really cute and enjoyable, I really loved it but the latter half could sometimes be quite hard to get through. I really don’t enjoy miscommunication trope and it was even worse because Yuki was jealous of his damn self. I wish that the person Asami was hung up on had been left a secret for a while longer because it was infuriating watching Yuki get upset and pull away over himself. I found the backstory crush super cute and I’m happy they included it but because of that inclusion, we the audience were stuck watching a character act against his own self interest. The one that angered me most was the last episode, when they sleep together but Yuki leaves. Asami should’ve been vocalizing his affections while they were sleeping together, at least once, but also Yuki didn’t bother staying long enough to hear him out. It was extremely frustrating watching him walk away, I was very happy that Asami chased after him but oof it was annoying. Overall I really liked this drama, it was cute with lovable characters and no toxicity. But the miscommunication did make the second half of the show annoying to watch a lot of the time. Overall I do recommend but if miscommunication isn’t your thing, I’d advise you steer clear

Read More

A very Japanese type of storytelling

I have mixed opinions about this BL. It started frustrating me at one point, the pacing is very slow and the story almost feels like it's not progressing at all. Then I tried to look at it from another angle : how the japanese express emotions and feelings. They do it through language, through words or even through their absence. The acting feels quite rigid many times, to the point I felt like the actors themselves are just bad. The last episode kind of changed my mind, particularly related to the guy playing Asami. This is a very Japanese show in every sense, probably harder to relate to than other BLs like Thai or Korean. I still would not call this a great show, however I don't think it's as bad as some of the comments make it out to be.

Read More

It is sweet.

At 25.00 in Akasaka is a BL from Japan. It is about two actors falling in love in the set of their new show. Basically, they are hired to play lovers in the show but emotions tend to be a bit more than what they expected as they learn that it really takes more to be in this industry. Asami is a more experienced actor who is known for his looks and Shirasaki is around the same age as him but he is a new actor. He is struggling to get roles so he is super thankful when he booked this one and wanted to give an authentic experience so he agreed with Asami to be his boyfriend. Little did he know is that Asami have been pining for him ever since they were in college and this will be the journey of them starting a more romantic relationship. This is a simple BL story and I am a sucker for a well-made BL from Japan. They are seriously giving us concepts here and there but this one is a bit simpler in terms of the story but what I like about this story is that the chemistry of the actors really is evident. This is a full-blown romance story and that is the focus here. They are so good together and it worked out just fine. They are creating a BL series within a BL series which is interesting for me because we are seeing the behind the scenes and the way that they made this series is interesting for me. The look is simple. You will be able to see when they are watching scenes from the BL that they are doing and the scenes that they are doing as the actors because of the cinematography. The more realistic tone is when they are just being themselves around each other and the BL scenes that they are doing in the show have more light in it. It had a more romanticized feel to it which is a good way to represent some BL series nowadays. It is surely an interesting journey between these two characters as they are trying to navigate how to admit to each other that they are interested. It is not irritating. It is actually quite romantic to watch the push and pull. Shirasaki is, obviously struggling with his emotions but they addressed it well. The addition of Nagumo Shoma as Yamase Kazuma is pretty entertaining too. He is such a strong guy and the abs is ridiculous. He is a fun character but he did not go much storywise. The romantic scenes are good. The ending is sweet and it is surely a feel-good show that I just enjoyed watching.

Read More

Don't judge by cover

1st of all the storyline was very i don't how to describe. It's just it was complicated or simple enough to not make me watch it for 2 times. Fr, i tried watching this drama for 2 time but every time after 1st ep i gave up watching on it. 1st time i tried it cz it was a new drama. Just was curious, 2nd time tried it bcz i had nthg to watch and watched some edits related it. Tbh it was not that bad that i had give up. Don't know why i didn't i finished it. And for acting all actors acting is good. But my fav is character is yamase!!! His character is so cool!!!!! I thought it would be a love triangle but thankfully it wasn't a love triangle or i would have been very devastated. And just found out he is the one in love in the air's japanese version bcz of his long hair. I almost didn't recognize him.
Overall the drama was good bcz the misunderstanding troupe is in every drama. Even if there is no love triangle there always will be a misunderstanding. I don't get it sometimes the mains talk about everything and sometimes doesn't talk about important stuff just why???? Okay now overall for me it was 8 out 10. I won't say must watch but you guys will probably like the interaction between yuki and kazuma. I am giving it 8 mostly bcz of that.

Read More

underwhelming start but it picks up in the second half

Given a quick skim of the other reviews for this show, it seems like a lot of people hated the miscommunication and were frustrated by Shirasaki Yuki's struggle to pick up on Hayama Asami's feelings given their intimacy. Honestly as someone who typically hates miscommunication, I think it makes sense here - Hayama has been pining after Shirasaki for years and is unsure of how to admit those feelings (been there, rip) and Shirasaki keeps overhearing things that make him misinterpret his dynamic with Hayama (also Shirasaki's struggle with social cues gives maaaaaaaajor autistic vibes. while he frustrates me at times, I could never hate him.) They're both convinced the other cannot possibly reciprocate but desperately want this relationship to be real as their feelings continue to deepen as they keep "pretending" to date outside of the "Hiru no Yume" set.

It honestly took me until episode 4 when Shirasaki started to realize he was developing feelings for Hayama before I was fully locked in. And then episode 5 gave me SUCH a buzz when we saw their "rehersal" kiss intercut with the on-set first kiss. Seeing the continual push-pull of their dynamic as Shirasaki tries to turn off his feelings and protect his heart was entrancing, and Hayama's willingness to go as far as Shirasaki asks bc he just yearns so much for him was thrilling. Like I honestly was shocked by how much I enjoyed the drama due to their struggles to just admit they like each other.

Honestly, I think my biggest frustration with the show is that they successfully create a sensual atmosphere (in large part due to the soundtrack I think) but then most of the physical intimacy doesn't live up to that energy. The first kiss that leads to them "fake dating" is pretty awful, although it makes a lot of sense to me that Hayama would want the kiss to be very tame to not push Shirasaki into the deep end immediately. And most of the kisses up until the last couple episodes are very chaste, which just kinda makes you feel blue-balled as a viewer. The fact that they are rather adorable in their more tender moments does help ease this frustration a little though.

Also I need to say that Komagine Kiita totally makes this show. He's brilliant in the two episodes from Hayama Asami's perspective. Devoted loverboys are everything to meeeeeeeeee <3

Read More