John Master

Speaking of Time Lords, isn't the Doctor back this week, too?

This comment is exceptionally well written. It raises valid questions and lays out relevant issues in a cogent way.

I also appreciate that just because you are enjoying the series (as evidenced by the first paragraph and your subsequent replies) it doesn’t mean you switch your brain off and ignore aspects that trouble you. Sometimes folks lose track that one can enjoy an entertainment yet still engage the material critically.

Thank you for the kind words. Glad you feel inspired to explore new content!

I have no issue with a story about a misogynistic stalker/kidnapper. Such a fare has the makings of high drama. I just did not think the stalker story blended well with the overall tone of the story. The series was light comedy, screwball comedy. The stalker belonged in a serious exploration of the topic. By contrast, the caricature gay character actually fits the tone of the series. My objections tonthat had nothing ro do with a mismatch between the vibe of tue series . He is funny, its just that he is funny for reasons i find offensive. If the kidnapper had been bad at his job, kind of buffoonish, that would be a better fit for tis series. This stalker was relentlessly violent, and inthink he belonged in a darker, more dramatic series.

This list is "body swap" and not "gender swap" precisely because Vice Versa needed to fit the list! If it doesnt always feel like a body swap it is because 90% of the time we should see Ohm and Nanon but instead see the two actors whose characters jumped into those bodies.

Also, Kamisama heads the list because it is superior to the others. That one went for deep philosophical reflection whereas the items below 3 are more romps. Which can be fun. Each series has delightful bits. But don't expect to be as impressed as by Kamisama. Ryu was the first K-BL that failed to connect with audiences. More misfires followed, but my summary here (and on the List "BL SERIES WITH HISTORICAL SETTINGS") lays out its conceptual shortcomings as both body swap and historical genres.

Youre just on a Reaper/death high at the moment!

Dont forget to see my additional comments on this series at the List "Body Swap Series With a BL Flavor."

Thank you, Lynn.

Id like to be selective about the list to keep it lean, but if you think of hybrid series inhave missed, let me know!

Thats why I write these things. Lay out strengths and weaknesses of a series, amd let people draw their own conclusions about whether to watch.

Did you get the recipe? If so, how did it turn out?

I really appreciate the sharpness in your reviews. The humorous YouTube videos led me to suspect you might like everything, in the sense that your evident fondness for the genre would lead you to hold your punches when you write a review. But the ones I've sampled have been fair: praise where it's deserved, harsh when that is deserved. Most MDL "reviews" boil down to uncritical gushing about why the reviewer thinks Series X is "the best" they've ever seen. It's refreshing to see some actual thought put into why a series works well or doesn't.

It was a good review. This series requires the reviewer to choose between holding back necessary details or revealing too much. Not much middle ground. You walked the line well.

"Meen feels like he's overacting..., but it's deliberate. When he's being sincere...." i read your meanings here like this, but correct any misconception: What at first seems to be Meen overacting, is later recognized as a deliberate choice to express Tiew's character. Later, when Tiew is sincere with Mork, it is easy to see subtley and power in Meen's acting.

In other words, when you wrote "he's being sincere" its not clear whether the sincerity is Tiew's or Meen's. Put another way, the original sentence starts out and concludes discussing Meen as an actor but seemingly analyzes Tiew in the middle. Or i am wrong and younmeant something else.

Thanks. I think that was meant to reference Ossan's Love, but I just deleted the reference. I never did like howit disrupted the flow of that sentence. Lol. Thanks for the fact check.

Any chance you could copy this comment and paste it as a "new" comment to my review of the series? I like the way it spins what I wrote but isn't coming from me....

@4563g: I consulted a friend about Ep 1. While she disagreed with you (she read Takara as a college student), her take still made me wrong. So I fixed that passage to make it safely generic. Thank you for the fact checking.

Ok. I know the actors are the same age. I read his wardrobe in Ep 1 as a school uniform, but that may just may have been me assuming: too accustomed to dramas about high school students and seeing them everywhere. And if there was a subtitle that clarified that, it probably popped up in one of those moments my eyes were not on the bottom of the screen. I'll adjust the text at some point.

Fair take. I found your other comment about Yujin repressing his feelings after reacting here, and I agree so much with that, i think the "consumption" question (who has agency?) actually must account for that self-deception in reckoning an answer.

Does Yujin consume Takara? Or does Takara subsume himself to Yujin?

Your usage of the passive voice was telling in this instance. I see Takara as the one with agency in their relationship, at least insofar as either "consumes" the other. [Thru 8/9 available to me attjmeof writing]