If You Ignore the Last Two Episodes this Show is Nearly Perfect
For the most part this series was absolutely amazing, though I’d advise against watching the last two episodes as they do nothing for the relationship between our leads and is mostly just one long ad against smoking mixed with heavy crying porn and unneeded melodrama that really hurt the tone, story, and pacing. There was SO much they could have done with those last two episodes but they went with THAT and it was just…unnecessary. You could end this show at episode 12 and miss absolutely nothing (aside from your own personal annoyance and aggravation).
That said, just because the last two episodes dropped the ball (and dropped it hard) doesn’t take away from the previous 12 episodes and just how wonderful this series was as a whole. Honestly, if not for the last two episodes this would have been a solid 10/10 for me and a fast favorite for sure. Their relationship and dynamics felt real. The characters were all charming in their own ways. This series was a showcase on: Healthy family relationships, friendship, and people acting like people would act in real life (i.e. there is a scene of a bunch of high school boys just acting like genuine high school boys which made me laugh and say ‘yeah, they’d do that.’).
While neither main was perfect and had their flaws, you could always see that their hearts were in the right place and really balanced each other out. Even during parts where I actually rooted against them being together (in the first half), I never harbored bad feelings for either lead and sympathized with them both equally because I could fully understand why each one acted as they did. All around they were just genuinely believable characters and all of their actions made sense given their personalities.
I will say in the second part there is a huge shift and their characters change A LOT, but given the time jump I found it refreshing as more often than not the characters never show growth after a time skip – they just pick up where they left off and I, personally, didn’t see that in this one. They both evolved for better and for worse – even more those changes in character were clearly shown, addressed, and discussed. A lot of characters showed great growth and maturity over the course of the series. Even when one of the leads cried, they still showed more maturity than some other dramas I’ve seen. It really shows that it’s okay to cry about something yet still be mature about it. Also, I loved that this show actually addressed sexuality instead of pretending as if sexuality doesn’t exist like so many others I’ve seen. It was so refreshing.
The only problem I had with the second half was that we don’t see how Cake’s feelings evolved from friendship to romance, but given this was mostly Seeiw’s POV, that made sense. Instead of having those two nonsense episodes at the end, we would have been better off with at least one episode that followed Cake’s character to see how he came to see Seeiw as more than a friend. Sadly, we didn’t get that. Even so, it’s still compelling and believable for his character/personality.
Honestly, I just really love this series. I just wish I could erase the last two episodes from my mind. This series deserved better than that.
That said, just because the last two episodes dropped the ball (and dropped it hard) doesn’t take away from the previous 12 episodes and just how wonderful this series was as a whole. Honestly, if not for the last two episodes this would have been a solid 10/10 for me and a fast favorite for sure. Their relationship and dynamics felt real. The characters were all charming in their own ways. This series was a showcase on: Healthy family relationships, friendship, and people acting like people would act in real life (i.e. there is a scene of a bunch of high school boys just acting like genuine high school boys which made me laugh and say ‘yeah, they’d do that.’).
While neither main was perfect and had their flaws, you could always see that their hearts were in the right place and really balanced each other out. Even during parts where I actually rooted against them being together (in the first half), I never harbored bad feelings for either lead and sympathized with them both equally because I could fully understand why each one acted as they did. All around they were just genuinely believable characters and all of their actions made sense given their personalities.
I will say in the second part there is a huge shift and their characters change A LOT, but given the time jump I found it refreshing as more often than not the characters never show growth after a time skip – they just pick up where they left off and I, personally, didn’t see that in this one. They both evolved for better and for worse – even more those changes in character were clearly shown, addressed, and discussed. A lot of characters showed great growth and maturity over the course of the series. Even when one of the leads cried, they still showed more maturity than some other dramas I’ve seen. It really shows that it’s okay to cry about something yet still be mature about it. Also, I loved that this show actually addressed sexuality instead of pretending as if sexuality doesn’t exist like so many others I’ve seen. It was so refreshing.
The only problem I had with the second half was that we don’t see how Cake’s feelings evolved from friendship to romance, but given this was mostly Seeiw’s POV, that made sense. Instead of having those two nonsense episodes at the end, we would have been better off with at least one episode that followed Cake’s character to see how he came to see Seeiw as more than a friend. Sadly, we didn’t get that. Even so, it’s still compelling and believable for his character/personality.
Honestly, I just really love this series. I just wish I could erase the last two episodes from my mind. This series deserved better than that.
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