Feardorcha

I really don't think I can. Maybe I'll watch the final episode in a few months, once my disappointment/temper has sufficiently cooled. I damned near threw my tablet across the room at the Ep12 preview.

Thank you for the kind words. I'm not really into fluffy, lovey-dovey fanfic, but I do subscribe to a few fandoms via AO3 that have a mix of fit types that include the lovey-dovey. Are you on AO3?

I am thinking about taking this micro-fic & turning it into a rewrite of this entire season, episode-by-episode. The relationship between Shin & Minato-san does have so much potential, I just feel S2...well, fucked it. I'm more angry about what S2 didn't do than what it did, if that makes sense.

Ah, apologies for making you cry. But, I'm also flattered.

I haven't read the manga, so I have no idea how it actually ended, though I can only assume it ends with them together because they typically do.

This is just how I personally WANT the series to end. I legitimately don't want them to be together, so I wrote myself a mini fix-it fanfic to brighten my mood.

Shin never recovered his memories of Minato-san. Though he visited the coin laundry every day, he never again felt the intense emotional obsession he had been told he felt for this man—this man whom, for reasons now obscure to him, he once called 'lover' but never called by name. As the weeks bled into months, the residual sentiments—jealousy, care, even perfunctory physical desire—bled away as well, melting into the abyss where his memories of Minato-san used to be. The enormity of that hollow held a weight, even now, of a love so great that its absence occasionally overwhelmed him.

Yet no matter how hard he tried to remember, he seemed unable to leap the hurdle of why he even should. He and Minato-san shared no interests, no dreams, no goals. As they struggled through conversation after conversation, their communication styles so diametrically opposed as to be mutually alien, it became increasingly clear to Shin that all they had in common was a history they no longer shared.

"Why did I love you?" Shin asked one night, as he waited for Minato-san to finish locking up the coin laundry.

Minato-san froze. For a long moment, Shin expected this to be yet another response he wouldn't receive. But then Minato-san turned, moonlight reflecting in the sheen across his eyes. Shin heard it then, the past-tense of his words, the confirmation of the end of their shared journey. Before he could apologize, Minato-san patted his arm and gave him a brave smile.

"I saved your life once," he said.

Minato-san told him the story as he walked Shin home. Shin listened attentively but with no hope he'd actually remember. He thanked Minato-san for telling him and bid him goodnight. He ignored his sister's sad look as he made his way to his room; her unhappiness over his broken relationship wouldn't bring his memories back. Lying in bed that night, he thought of Minato-san's story, and wondered if the Shin he'd once been had ever known the difference between hero worship and love.

Eventually, Shin stopped digging at the past, and focused on building for the future. Taking his mentor's advice, he applied to transfer to the Faculty of Medicine at University of Tokyo. He explained to Minato-san that he wanted to pursue a career in clinical neurology. They both understood but did not acknowledge the role Shin's systematized amnesia played in that choice. At the very least, in this way, they would always be bound by their memories.

Minato-san saw him off at the station on the day he left for his new life in Tokyo. They exchanged a brotherly hug and Minato-san admonished him to study hard and make their small town proud. Shin promised he would. Waving from the window to Minato-san waving from the platform as the train pulled away was the last memory they ever made.

---

That is how this ridiculous fucking season should end. Watching those two faff about at the amusement park and the pool and around town just drove home what a nothing relationship they had, and how poorly matched they are. I know S2 will wrap up all sweet but I can't recall the last time I yearned so much for a couple to break-up and go their separate ways. I wrote this short fix-it fic in response to the HEA ending that's coming.

Everyone involved—them, their friends, you, me—has wasted entirely too much time on this nonsense. I cannot even bring myself to make it across the finish line.

Dropped.

What do you mean "justify" or "make sense of"? Shin was a teenager with a crush on an older man but nothing happened between them until after he had turned 18 in S1 (I think he may even have been 19 at the time they kissed, if I recall the timetable between Shin studying for entrance exams & then being admitted to University).

Personally, I would've preferred to see Shin go off to University in Tokyo, do some more growing up, & get some distance from Minato to evaluate whether his emotions were truly those of love or simply hero-worship from that one time Minato saved his life. Honestly, I feel this way even more with S2. I want Shin to just leave Minato behind for good.

Other than that, I didn't & don't have an issue with their age gap. They are both Adults (well, Shin is; Minato is stuck in some kind of arrested development), making their own decisions. If anything, I think Minato is far too immature to be in a relationship with anyone.

Do not even bother. Seriously. If you couldn't even make it through S1, you will absolutely detest S2.

Ach, this should've been released on a schedule of two episodes per week. I am loving the series but I think I'll have to wait for it to finish airing & then binge it. This 25-minutes/week release schedule is just...no.

I'm still watching because I legitimately like JaFirst & Bosston. Seriously, Bosston is doing the absolute best he can with what he's been handed, & I like the complexity he's managed to give his character despite the bad script. I really want him to get a breakthrough role & I hope the display of his range here will push his career forward.

I am going to miss JaFirst as a pair, as Ja has chosen not to renew his contract. Despite the terrible director for this, they have managed to occasionally infuse their scenes with the fantastic chemistry they've demonstrated in their other projects. I am convinced the dip-into-kiss that Ja did was improvised, just judging from how genuine First's reaction was.

Ah well. It's definitely not my favourite airing series at the moment but I do appreciate what the actors are giving, to whatever extent the production allows.

It's all so ridiculous.

Punn is simply not the type of character who would view Ashi's method(ish) acting as an offense. He's Ashi's #1 fan as well as his faen, knows everything about Ashi's process as an actor, & is himself versed in how actors often create their characters by drawing from their lived experiences. Just NOTHING about the conflict makes sense. Not Punn's anger, nor his refusal to listen to Ashi, or even Ashi's choice to back off. Sure, Ashi's been about as present throughout the series as a semi-dissipated fart but, still; Ashi has shown that he knows how to communicate with Punn, & it makes zero sense he'd just give up & walk out like that.

Also, that "Let's be friends" rubbish with Title is just the icing on this shit cake. Title has been an absolute snake throughout the whole series, & I just cannot accept that either Ashi or even Punn are naïve enough to think a bastard like Title would make such an abrupt about-face.

The script wasn't great to begin with but this episode has derailed everything it managed to set-up in terms of characters, motivations, & conflicts. I don't even really believe that Title would think Ashi's character notes could drive a wedge between Ashi & Punn. Title is an asshole but he is also a consummate professional in his field, just like Ashi. I just don't see him viewing an actor's work process as some kind of weapon. It makes him look stupid rather than conniving.

I am so, so, so pissed this is likely JaFirst's last project together. They deserved so much better than this.

But hey, maybe BosstonJo will get new work. I actually like them as a pairing, they just need solid material.

It isn't even within context of Punn's character. The Punn we've been shown would've been thrilled to bits that Ashi was channeling their love story into what may be the greatest role of his career. Punn would be gushing that goofy-ass grin in his brother's stupid face & bragging his ass off. For Punn, seeing Ashi invoking their love on the silver screen would be the equivalent of a big, flashy, neon sign announcement. He would treasure it close to his heart as proof that Ashi is always thinking of him, of the layers of their love, & absorbing it into every aspect of himself so thoroughly that it becomes a part of his acting craft.

The Punn we know would've creamed his whole trousers when Title showed him those photos.

This script is just dumb.

Excuse me, what are we mad about? That Ashi, a professional actor, utilized his only experience of devoted love to inform his understanding of his character's romance in a romance movie? For real? Are they fucking serious? What utterly contrived nonsense.

Speaking of nonsense—what even was the point of that Mueang & Doctor thing? If that's the most the script has to offer by way of their story, just let them—& us—enjoy the fucking in peace. At least the sex has better writing & more of a plot. That was their very first time doing it in an onsen, the stakes were high—they could've slipped & drowned! Doctor nearly got kneed in the eye—by his own knee! The whole scene was fraught with passion, danger, & fluids. Absolutely riveting stuff in comparison to the rest of this mess.

Good grief, this show...

Thank you!

This is the longest 7-11 commercial I've ever seen.

Does anyone happen to know the song name & artist(s) of the song played during the NC scene of the pilot? I've tried & tried to identify it but I keep hitting walls. The lyrics I think I hear:

"Heart of gold, will of steel
is what you have,
Pick me up when I was
sinking in quicksand..."

Honestly, I'm surprised the scene directly after the Wave/Trin flashback wasn't Wave & Trin apologizing to one another & becoming bestest buds again. Immediate conflict resolution is this show's default. Maybe they just couldn't get the scheduling to work with Pod & Guy, & thus had no choice but to leave a conflict...*le gasp*...unresolved.

As with everything else, wish we'd spent more time on the Wave/Trin story throughout the series. That few minutes of story was, like the JengPok story, so much more intriguing than anything JokeZo are doing.

Also—I am so angry at how poorly this series is handling the JengPok relationship. It has made Jeng look like a manipulative sociopath, & Pok a pathetic weakling. I saw what they were trying to do in that car scene (& AouBoom are terrific) but the script simply never set the stage for or supported that type of emotional payoff. Poor AouBoom.

Anywho. Do we care about this debate competition? It's seriously the show's only real conflict but I keep forgetting they're even on a debate team until it comes up. Which is sad because I won my share of forensic competitions back in school & really love the sport, but this series has made even that aspect mindnumbingly dull.

Frankly, I'm more interested in Zo's Father's back issues. It seems he's in hospital next week. Perhaps those "back issues" are far more serious than he's letting on? Is he hiding an illness by lying about his back so he doesn't stress out his family? Will this be the ultimate breaking point of his marriage? Will he be diagnosed with cancer & realize life's too short to stay with that woman, no matter how much he loved her, & he'll abandon the farm, divorce his wife, move to Bangkok, & open a boutique farm-to-table eatery with a handsome semi-retired baker he meets at a dog park after adopting a three-legged stray he finds on a rainy night while strolling the Ratchaprasong Skywalk...

Meh. Not spectacularly good, not particularly bad. It's watchable.

This was a deeply disappointing series but I would absolutely watch a second season featuring Song Hyun Jae and Simeon. Those two had more chemistry, humour, personality, & meaty backstory in their handful of scenes together than Choi Jun and Lee Jun (and the final episode cemented for me that Lee Jun did not, in fact, remember much of anything about his childhood friendship with Choi Jun).

I still cannot fathom why they wasted so many episodes on three men lusting after Lee Jun. He was bland even for the character archetype he was. I could believe it in Choi Jun's case because the series did manage to portray that Choi Jun's childhood friendship was the single most impactful relationship of his entire life, so I bought that he'd be in love with at least his nostalgia-influenced, imagined version of Lee Jun, even if the actual adult Lee Jun was a non-entity. But what the other two, especially Simeon, saw in him eludes me.

I put Hyun Jae down to mistaking brotherly affection for romantic love, which can happen when you have that much responsibility for someone else's life, but Simeon seemed like the type of character who would find a guy like Lee Jun outright boring, especially in comparison to the dryly sarcastic, effortlessly charming, smoothly teasing Hyun Jae, who was able to spar word-for-word with Simeon and match his energy. I really wish we'd spent more time with those two and less time with the Gossipy Bitches in the office. I mean, we really should've spent way more time with Jun and Jun, since this was, in theory, their story, but, if choices had to be made...

Overall, it's just an unnecessary and forgettable series.

This series is immensely frustrating.

I am actively rooting against Shin remembering. I want him to permanently forget Minato, transfer to a University in Tokyo, and find himself an actual boyfriend who isn't emotionally constipated.

When Minato was telling the others to "lie" to Shin and say Minato was just a brotherly figure who loaned Shin a room temporarily, I thought, "That is PRECISELY what your relationship is". They were just roommates.

Soooo...why was he in the trash? Or, rather, under the trash? Just not even going to give that a brief explanation, a flashback, something? Nothing? Ok.