FreshKicks

Same here. This is a notch or two below "Cupcake" but enjoyable nonetheless.

I had to google "uncanny valley effect" ... I'd never heard the term. Very interesting!

Now, I wish there was a term for the way production designers always seem to think that an empty coffee cup will easily pass for a full one. In this episode the cups that Jun was carrying were so blatantly empty it was ridiculous. And from the way he carried them real coffee would been flying everywhere. The actor didn't even try. :)

You bring up a question about translation that I've faced myself. There's the "hyper-literal" school and the "resonant, local vernacular" school.

I contributed to an English translation of the novel "My Gear and Your Gown", where my job was to take the hyper-literal English translation and make it over in English vernacular. I wouldn't have it any other way. I think it makes the reading experience much more enjoyable. It also avoids having the reader of the translated text chuckle to themselves thinking that the original text must be similarly awkward and disjointed.

Which I guess means it also does better service to the original author.

Played hooky from work and watched again today. It really is all that!

Surprisingly a ghost town over here.

By recycling the movie edition did IdeaFirst finally have a bad idea?

There will be inevitable comparisons to that *other* series (or should I say "franchise") based around online gaming but this has a simple charm of its own.

Watch the first three episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSMm93_HtiY

I thought Tin had died at the end of Episode 8 but he miraculously survived. That's one of the reasons I think we're now headed toward the finish line. There's a lot of conspiracy to unravel, plus Sing and Gap need some continuous unlooped screen time or their ship will never sail.

Included in a 100% translation on Viki would be all the signs, text on menus and phones, etc. -- i.e., all the non-dialog that's in Japanese. I believe the "segmenters" on the subtitle team create the spots for the translators to insert the subtitles. If they happen to include segments for non-spoken text then that will count toward the 100%, and if any of that gets skipped by the translators the episode will never reach 100%.

So, don't sweat the 89% too much. I just watched the 89% Episode 2 and there wasn't a single line of spoken dialog that went un-subbed.

Talk about a sneak attack! Seemed to come from out of nowhere and it's brilliant, absolutely brilliant. I felt giddy the whole time I watched.

ikr!

I can imagine a cliffhanger toward the end where someone like Rit or even Tol is on the operating table, about to get a kidney harvested by Dr. BallSak, as Dr. Tin races against time to stop it.

Since things have accelerated and advanced as far as they have, something tells me that we are now in the final loop, or rather, this loop will no longer loop back.

Plus, can you imagine how frustrating it would be to Tin to make all this progress, only to be blown back to start?

As for Sing and Gap, they need to close the deal soon! Iceman Dr. Sing seemed moved by the way Gap put his head against Sing's chest when they were hiding in the cabinet.

Confession: I think that evil kid Win is hotttttt. So sexy and dangerous. He can be cruel to me all day.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

She was there to generate a crisis that the two boys could respond to together.

Yes, I'm bitter. I loved Season One, and this absurd and gloomy tropefest has ruined it for me.

I do agree about the great production values and the acting.

I see your points but must differ on Ji Woo's coldness.

In Season One, it was amusing because he was directing it at a generic celebrity. His reaction to Seo Joon's absurd sense of entitlement was funny and relatable and the two characters played off each other beautifully.

In Season Two, Ji Woo's coldness has evolved into cruelty, and it is directed not at the concept of celebrity, but at the man who has loved him. Totally different head, especially when you see the contrast in how nicely he treats his ex gf. I'm surprised that the screenwriters didn't realize the difference when they took the story in this direction and that so many viewers don't either. He's no longer an endearing, grouchy "old man" (as Seo Joon commented in Season One.) He's a mean, thoughtless a&&hole with a dark side that seems a little unstable.

As for the little girl, okay, good points, but WHY? Why is she there, and why did they waste almost an entire episode on her personal drama?

For me, any explanation needs to make Ji Woo's abrupt departure and year of silence immediately understandable--like, "Oh, of course! No wonder he had to leave without warning and disappear for a year!"

So far, all of the theories I've read on here would be feasible in a standard breakup story, but not here, because they don't account for the cruelty of Ji Woo's method and the way he dropped out of sight for such a long time.

Extraordinary behavior demands an extraordinary explanation.

I think the main reason I'm sticking with the series is I'm curious to know if we'll get that.

Thank you. You state everything better that I did. I wrote my comment fresh off of enduring this week's episodes and realizing I will never be able to enjoy Season One again. As a character Ji Woo has become too toxic.

I'm not mad at her, I'm mad at the screenwriter for using the character the way they are. I was indeed a child once but I didn't fake running away to get attention. The one thing that character is not lacking in this story is attention. And the "running away" segment was a waste of precious screen time.

One of the great things about Season One was that every scene and every character's actions were in the service of the story. It was a marvel of storytelling economy. Season Two is messy, like they know they need to slap on the padding to delay the big emotional reconciliation until the final episode.

She's there to pluck your heartstrings, and clearly she has succeeded.

As @jpny01 states so well in his comments below, they want this girl to be smart and emotionally mature enough to tell an adult to be more kind, but a big baby when it comes to realizing that her mom has a job and that a different adult might have to pick her up at school.

I don't think she's a hateful brat ... just a brat who should be punished for causing such a panic. All that screen time was wasted on her disappearance and it did nothing to advance the plot.

Yes, I agree. He's like a puppy -- a little undisciplined but ready to love someone in a big way.