WingedBean

Overpromised but Underdelivered

I remember binging the 1st 3 episodes and coming on here where I wrote a note that said in part, 'Great chemistry, pacing, and tension. Hope they keep it up till the end.' Clearly, I was thoroughly impressed by those episodes; unfortunately, the chemistry, pacing, and tension all but disappeared after that. We got some of that chemistry and tension back for a while in ep 6, but then it disappears again. Then, 2 episodes later, the show ends very anticlimactically.

Let's go back to those 1st 3 episodes coz this is where they overpromised - and show the multitudes(?) that are AE/Enaga. As AE, he is the walking, talking definition of debauchery. He's very sexy, not just in how he carries himself, but his face. The man is gorgeous. And also because he parties, drinks, and smokes, something that is foreign to Chiaki. I think AE even mentions at some point that he wants to 'ruin' Chiaki. Ruin that air of innocence that he has (I'm paraphrasing here). However, as Enaga, he's naturally clumsy, very shy around his design idol (who he eventually likes), slouches when he walks, and has this quiet sexiness, more like cuteness, about him.

I was very curious to see how these two sides of him would meld together. Especially when you remember that in ep 3, AE is jealous of himself when Chiaki tells him that he had fun with Enaga on a night out. How far was AE going to push Chiaki? He'd already gotten him to drink, party, and smoke, so... what else was there? Well... Nothing. There was nothing. Because after ep 3 AE basically ghosts Chiaki, and we spend the next episodes bouncing between Chiaki's & Enaga's heads/thoughts and prepping for the fashion show. The chemistry, pacing, and tension that I was very excited about are sacrificed for a series of inner monologues.

I guess you could argue that his realization of his lie (and feelings?) made him step back, but I feel like he sacrificed a part of himself. AE is Enaga and vice versa - two sides of the same coin, two halves of a whole. The side of him that loves partying and is very forward and flirtatious doesn't go away simply because he likes Chiaki. I'd have loved to see that side of him more. I think seeing that constant struggle happening in real time as he interacts with Chiaki would have shown a better light on this tentative IdolxFan relationship and his larger-than-life vs everyday clumsy classmate personas

🤘🏾Aside from that🤘🏾
🧷Music gets a 4 coz I don't like it when shows use the same song over and over again - not including the OST. Can't change that. I mean the songs within the episodes.
🧷If anyone were to twist my arm to rewatch, I'd stick to the 1st 3 episodes
🧷I didn't quite like how Sumiura was portrayed. I never like that wide-eyed, innocent, submissive look UNLESS it plays a part in the characters/relationship dynamic. E.g., underlying tones of a D/S relationship - My Beautiful Man and My Personal Weatherman are great examples of instances where I think this character portrayal works best

All in all, the show let me down, and the story feels unfinished. From what I've seen, the manga only has 1 volume, which would perhaps explain why this story is the way it is. I lowkey wish that those adapting this for TV had worked with the mangaka to expound this story to better fit a well-rounded TV storyline

Side Note:
If Mr. Kim Namjoon, my ult bias randomly showed up infront of me, I doubt I'd go wide-eyed, submissive, and clumsy like Sumiura did. Chances are that I'd run and hide like Soobin did when he met that babe from KARA😅

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This drama made me convene the group chat - and they don't even watch BLs

This show was sold to me as a BL, but it's honestly so much more. After I finished it, I simply sat in silence, then started talking to myself, trying to figure things out as it made me think about way more things than I expected. Things that I hadn't ever thought about; about myself, love, sexuality and gender, the physical form of your partner vs the soul, and much more.

Other than almost all characters, but especially Kenta, figuring out their bisexuality, there was the main question of whether your love for your partner would be affected if they changed not only their appearance but also their gender. For the cast, the answer was yes. The soul is what matters, and the body is simply a vessel.

For me, it's different. I don't think I'd still love a person if they changed their gender, coz my attraction is towards men, so if they became female... idk. We'd probably be besties for life. We'd be soulmates

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So Cute I Keep Coming Back

One review I saw on here describes this show perfectly. It said "Reserved cool kid who must lean to communicate to keep the tiny disaster nugget he’s madly in love with." I couldn't describe it better. I genuinely love this show. It's cuteness personified.

A great exploration of first love - the excitement, uncertainty, jitters, and angst (due to overthinking) that come with it all. I love how these two get straight into a relationship and stay there, trying to figure things out. Best friend Katori is also the MVP here. Without him helping them communicate, this adorable pair would have ended up in flames.

I also love how utterly THIRSTY Takara is over Amagi. The man WANTS him, and it's hilarious. I appreciate the portrayal of him choosing to keep his desires at bay and wait for Amagi (his poor, blushing virgin) to be ready. Bare minimum, yes, but in the world of BLs, they tend to sometimes overlook consent & glamorize abuse. I appreciate the writers for this one

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I always come back

The 1st time I watched this was in April 2023, now in Oct 2025, I cannot count how many times I've rewatched this - which is a big deal in my world since I don't reread books and neither do I rewatch shows

What I love about this show (plus the 2nd season and the movie) is the complexity of the characters. What at 1st looks like a toxic bully romance, overtime (basically after ep 3) reveals itself to be more complex than that. It is a story about 2 layered characters. Both of them feel like they don't quite belong in their respective worlds and somehow fit in each others'.

Hira has been bullied for most of his life because of his stuttering. He also doesn't like or find anything beautiful, and also feels like he doesn't belong in the world, so he withdraws from it, hiding behind his camera. Till Kyoi casually strolls into his life and upends it. Makes him find the one beautiful thing in this life and want to be more than he's ever been. He doesn't know what do to with all that other than the fact that he wants to be near Kyoi, but also that being near Kyoi and trying to reach him hurts.

Kyoi, on the other hand, comes off as cold and dismissive, but that's because he felt rejected by his immediate family. Even the people/friends who flock to him always want to use him. He is beautiful, and people are drawn to beautiful things. That's until he meets Hira, and for once, he finds someone who seems to see him. He looks at him with this revelence he's never experienced before and somehow just wants him for him, and our Kyoi -who's always wanted that thus why he wanted to be a celebrity- has no idea what to do/make of that.

Now take these two characters, throw in a whole lot of ego, emotional immaturity, miscommunication, and time and you get this incredible story that draws you in - just like how they are drwan to each other depsite their best efforts. The pacing and acting are also top-notch, which is why I always and will always come back

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NC as a crutch for bad acting & horrendous pacing

I started this largely because I have a niche interest in stories that revolve around sex work and sex workers. See, 99% of the population engages in sex in some way or another. However, sex work, actually, sex itself is still, oddly, very taboo.

Because of that, I like to see how those who engage in sex work, especially publicly, deal with the repercussions of it. I wanna delve into their minds and see how their lives are. Who they are and their motivations, past the naked self that the population sees on some 18+ website. One of the books I've read on this is Insatiable by Asa Akira.

Going into this, I thought that that'd be the kind of story we'd be getting. A man who got into sex work because he wanted to get close to his favourite p🌽rn actor, and his life (as well as their love story), once the videos go live. I blame myself for not reading the synopsis in full, as clearly, the videos shall never go live. What I thought this story was is, in fact, not what it is.

My misplaced expectations aside, as the title says, so far, the acting and pacing have been utter shit. This is unfortunate, as you can see that there's a story here.

🎥Sasom is a popular mainstream celebrity who also does p🌽rn videos as a means of escape from his life. Specifically from the pressure of the image his fans expect and his bottom of the barel parents. He feels constricted, and publishing those videos helps him feel free.

🎥Po, on the other hand, also got the short end of the stick with his parents (read, his dad). You can see that motivations exist that push these two people into a very unconventional career path.

🎥There's also the story with Sasom's ex. So far, the teaser dialogue we've heard from him is him blaming Sasom for ruining his life. How did he do it? Was it because in the videos, Sasom's face is covered, but the exs' face was not, and someone found out? I am curious.

Regretably, the pacing of this plot and the acting —by honestly all the characters— do not help sell this plot. I find myself watching episodes in 1.5x & 2x speed (Episodes 1 and 3 were watched in 1.5x and episode 2 was watched in 2x speed). I find myself struggling to pay attention to the plot or care about the characters, their struggles, and their blooming love story.

The NC scenes are also unnecessary. OK, most of them, not all. Look at me calling smut unnecessary. Who even am I right now?😭😭.

From my perspective, they are used as filler to help further derail the plot. Of all the scenes we've seen so far, I think the only ones that were pertinent to the plot were
1. The 1st time that they met, with Sasom saying that he needed to 'taste' Po *insert weirderd out shiver here* — basically test drive him. I guess you could say he wanted to see if they meshed s3xually for the videos

2. After Sasom came from meeting his dad. That scene said a lot, notably about Sasom's relationship with his dad

Apart from these two, everything else has been useless filler. It's like they saw the success of 'My Stubborn' with it's never ending NC scenes and chose to run with that

I feel like continuing to watch this would be me putting myself through so much nonsense, filler, bad acting, and boredom JUST to pick out a crumb of plot per episode. I refuse. Life's too short for that. I've always been pro-DNFing books, and that'll not change with a TV show. Until next time...✌🏾

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Meh...??‍♀️

It's been almost 2 months since I started this, and I cannot seem to convince myself to watch past the 6th episode. I'm not sure what drama I was watching at the time that pushed me to look into more mystery C-dramas. Or was it revenge stories? Honestly, I forget.

What I know is I wanted a story that had a brilliant female lead and that paid a lot of attention to the mystery/revenge element, without letting it get overtaken by the romance. But now, not even quarter-way through, and I can tell this is not what I was looking for or promised. It's a lot more romantic than I thought

As for our main characters...,

The female lead feels wooden to me. They decided to make her smart and resolute in her ultimate goal, but forgot to give her a personality. Or facial expressions. It makes her uninteresting. Like watching paint dry. I know I should be rooting for her, but she's done nothing to make me want to walk with her and see her see her mission through.

The male lead of the other hand, is not quite convincing as this martial arts expert, military fellow. He's giving me pretty boy vibes. Lots of 'pretty boys' play military generals and martial arts experts in C-dramas. It's a known fact. But they have some aura about them to make it believable. He has no such thing. I see him as a pretty pampered prince.

Also, as per ep 6, he's already halfway in love with her, and I don't understand why. Because she's smart? Y'all met two seconds ago?!?! Like.. huh? I could understand if he was intrigued by her and that curiosity slowly developed into love (think Duke Su in 'The Double'). But this insta-love nonsense... Yeah, it does not work for me.

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