Lilaika

Beautiful to watch and listen to, but plot- and character-wise disappointing

The next three paragraphs contain my overall opinion and no spoilers. After that follows a very long rant containing many spoilers about what didn’t work for me.

I really liked the cinematography and loved the music, but a big part of the plot and the characters were underdeveloped in my opinion. I did not need the romance and frankly, I think the story could have been better had that time been used to further develop other parts.

It had some really beautiful moments, but other parts I just didn't care about because the story spend too little time on them. Especially the character development disappointed me. There were several characters that were not just flawed, but simply unlikeable in my opinion, so I did not care about them and was glad whenever the story moved onto the next scene without them. Other characters showed up, then disappeared for a while and then suddenly showed up again when it was convenient. And this story did not feel like it had four main characters...

My initial reaction after finishing this drama was to not recommend it, but now about two weeks later I don’t feel that strongly about it anymore. If you like the actors and enjoy a well produced show and good music, you can give it a try, but if you are looking for a really good story with well developed characters, this is sadly not the one. Nonetheless, I don’t think it was a waste of my time to watch it, it just fell short in too many aspects to rate it higher.


SPOILERS or me ranting about what I did not like:

I did not care about the romance, especially not as a love triangle.
When Akane and Naoki confessed to each other, she told him that she wasn't sure at first if it was love, admiration or fear she felt. And the series never really convinced me that she was actually in love and not just admiring him and gobsmacked by his talent and passion. Which could be an interesting inner conflict if they actually showed that, does she love him or does she simply admire him, but apart from addressing it in one or two sentences the series never dives into this topic.
I also didn't believe Naoki had romantic feelings for Akane. Love, maybe, the same he had for Sho and Kazushi, but with how deeply his character was drawn to making music and getting lost in it, I just didn't see when and why he would suddenly develop romantic feelings for anyone.

And I am really annoyed at how the script treated Kazushi and Sho.
Apart from one or two brief moments about his relationship with Naoki, how he feels about Naoki's work and his ambition, and why he joined the band, Kazushi's only point of being in this story was seemingly so they could have a love triangle. Similar to the other two, this was underdeveloped. Setting aside the fact that I wouldn't have liked this part either way, I also don't think they did a good job at showing how he fell in love, he suddenly just liked Akane. Further exploring his reasons for joining the band, his admiration for Naoki while also struggling with Naoki's way of working, and being somewhat jealous of him could have made him a far more interesting character.

And Sho... this might be my biggest disappointment, he was barely present until the last few episodes. There were some good moments that showed how calm and caring he was (unlike many others I did not see a potential romance there (although I understand why some people did :D), because, as stated above, I didn’t see Naoki developing romantic feelings for anyone, he was married to his music and to his music alone), but Sho was mostly a background figure. Sure, he was in a lot of scenes because he is part of the band, but it didn't matter to the story that he was there. Had they shown sooner how he and Naoki met and decided to start the band, I might have cared about him more.

I didn't like Kai, and the conflict with her as well as her character itself felt redundant, I cared about it so little I wish they would have cut this out.
Toya as a character was a lot more interesting, or maybe just more charismatic, but also just there for that little bit of rivalry and then gone until that brief appearance at the end. Again a character that could have been utilised in a better way.
Isagi was also not fleshed out enough in my opinion. I am not sure the story actually needed this character, but the reason for that might be that I was constantly annoyed when he was on screen.

The part towards the end about whether to try and save Naoki's life and have him get treatment, but at the cost of his spirit and taking away his music, what he cares about most, could have been great and deserved more screen time. The moral conflict of wanting to save someone and what that actually means, the wish to keep him alive, which is so human, clashing with the question whether it would ultimately be selfish to save Naoki's life at the cost of keeping him from making music which would make him utterly unhappy and ultimately break him because he would then just survive, but not actually live, was interesting, but only touched upon briefly.
It’s not even that I think this is the best potential conflict for this drama, but it would have been a great opportunity to let all the band member characters shine and show more about their relationships with each other.

There were some moments, especially in the beginning, when I did not believe in the driven genius, whenever Naoki ran around with the notebook or drew notes in the sky or whatnot, but other moments worked incredibly well. When he stayed in the studio until exhaustion, when he played and played and replayed melodies on his instruments, it was terrifying and it was beautiful. Akane had a few similar moments, showing not the same obsession as Naoki has, but her passion and determination, those were also great. I could have watched more of that, especially for the other two band members, show me more of that passion, that sparkle, that willingness to push through and create something, show me people who don't just like music, but burn for it so much that they chose to make it their life.
Whenever the show had moments like that it worked incredibly well for me. Characters who live and breathe for their music, who are driven, who are not always likeable because of that… Had the show focused more on this aspect and cut out all the scheming (the scale of which was sometimes just laughable), I would have liked it a lot more.

As I mentioned above, what annoys me so much is mainly that this story had so much potential and some of the good parts were truly great, so to have it fall flat in others parts that I would have been more interested in, feels even more disappointing.

Read More

Silly, but charming set-up that dragged too much in the second half

It took me quite a while to finish this series because it did start to drag somewhere in the middle and never fully picked up its pace again. Overall, I think this story could have been told in maybe ten episodes and would have profited from more concise storytelling. However, I ultimately liked more than I disliked about it and while it is not among my favourite series this year, I would still recommend it.

While Nut is definitely the star of the show (the comedy can be a hit or miss, depending on what you find funny, but he did a good job with the type of comedy they went with) and fabulous as Prince/Worradej, the biggest surprise for me was Pop, who played Banjong. I kept forgetting or rather struggling to remember that he also played Winner in Pit Babe. There he was always mean, scoffing and obnoxious, and here he was this insecure, soft, lovesick puppy for most of the time, so simply because of his acting his characters looked nothing alike to me.

My biggest criticism in regards to the writing are the female characters. It only took this drama ten episodes to make the only female character up to that point that was not an extra likeable… when will BL writers stop doing that?

Apart from that I don't have a lot to criticise about the plot. Is it silly? Sometimes ridiculous? Over the top? Full of unlikely situations? Yes, to all of it, but that's part of the charm, and there were many scenes throughout that I found funny, or heartwarming, or truthful.
Like I said though, the plot tends to drag a bit, especially in the second half, so I really don't recommend binge-watching it.

This series has beautiful sets and costumes, a mostly compelling, but somewhat dragging plot, and if you don't mind silly, often over the top humour, you can definitely give it a try.

Read More

Overall lighthearted and very charming

This is a lighthearted watch which can sometimes appear to be a bit silly and shallow, but I found it incredibly charming and the characters very endearing. While it is not remarkably deep, it has some good messages, plays with gender stereotypes and conformity, and avoided some of my most disliked tropes in romances.

Before watching this series, I had only seen a clip of a cross-dressing* young man telling a young woman that she doesn’t need make-up, which was enough to get me interested. I loved it from the first episode on and the series continued to put a smile on my face throughout the following episodes. While it might sometimes seem a bit silly with some over the top acting, the characters are actually often quite mature and had some great conversations. I found especially the main characters, who both had their insecurities, and their friendship, but also the supporting characters really likeable.

This avoided some of my biggest annoyances in romance dramas: possessiveness, extreme jealousy, dragged out stupid misunderstandings... instead we got nice characters who are able to communicate.
What I am also not a fan of are makeovers in romcoms, as they usually showcase (at least in my opinion) that a person (usually the woman) needs to get attractive enough and adhere enough to the beauty standards to finally be desirable by a man and only then can she be happy, but they did not go down that route here.
And I usually prefer female characters to be… well, less clueless and naive, but Haruka was in certain situations so straightforward and loyal, that I still really liked her.

Some nit-picky things:
You learn very little about the characters outside of their relationships to each other if it is not relevant for the plot, e. g. I have no idea what Haruka studies as it is never mentioned, nor do I know what Kurotaki does besides working part-time at that restaurant.
And don't expect great kisses, they were quite bad. I don't need characters in a romance to constantly snog, but these dead fish kisses without moving their lips just look weird and uncomfortable. However, I was so charmed by everything else, I was able to mostly look past that here.

This is easy to binge-watch (and easy to rewatch which I have already done) and if you enjoy a slightly silly and lighthearted romcom with throughout likeable characters that also has a bit to say about gender stereotypes, I can highly recommend this.

*I don't necessarily like the term cross-dressing because I believe clothes have no gender and everyone can and should wear whatever they like, but I am aware that in most societies certain types of clothes are often associated with a specific gender, and this drama is advertised with a cross-dressing-tag which is why I use the term in my review.

Read More

Dropped it because one supporting character pissed me off too much

If you like enemies to lovers this might be for you, but this series also heavily relies on the second chance romance and misunderstanding tropes, neither of which I am a fan of.

What didn’t help was that I enjoyed the parts where the main characters were teenagers in high school more than when they met again as adults. The constant bickering and fighting as children and then teenagers was done so well, but despite them constantly competing and fighting they were actually kind of friends which made that part more realistic and enjoyable in my eyes. The bickering and fighting continued when they met again as adults, it was still well done, but there was now so much unresolved resentment that I mainly just waited impatiently for the reveal of what happened in the past and couldn't enjoy the bickering as much.

This might have worked better for me as two separated series. I generally struggle to understand why there would still be unresolved feelings after almost twenty years. Reminiscing about the past, sure, not getting closure back then and it being stirred up, fine, but with how it was presented why they went their separate ways as teenagers, it just wasn’t a good enough reason for me to still feel so strongly about each other and the whole situation almost twenty years later.

I might still have finished watching this were it not for an utterly annoying supporting character.
This character does several incredibly unkind or downright cruel things because of liking someone who does not reciprocate those feelings and it pissed me off immensely. What that character was doing, as well as the premise of having unrequited feelings for someone for about twenty years, is something I just cannot relate to at all and it is an incredibly stupid trope in my opinion.
I get that having an unrequited crush hurts. But willingly hurting your friends because of that by omitting information, spreading false information, and sabotaging them, makes you not only a bad friend, but also a mean person in general.
And frankly, if someone really has an unrequited crush for almost twenty years, they should consider getting professional help if they really cannot move on from that person after such a long time, especially if they use those feelings to justify their mean and petty actions.
It is not like that character only did those unkind and mean things as a teenager which still would have been bad, but in that case I might have been able to show a little bit of leniency. But no, as an adult that person is just as petty and continues to be a bad friend and a selfish person, and justifies it all with their romantic feelings for all these years.
Liking someone for a long time does not entitle you in any way to be liked back and you shouldn’t claim to care about someone if you purposefully hurt them for your own gain.
It was also lazy writing as this character seemed to have no other traits except having an unrequited, decades long crush and behaving really despicably because of that.

I usually don't rate shows that I drop, but since I can't upload a review without a rating, I had to give it one. There were some really enjoyable parts, and while it had started to stagnate a bit before I dropped it, I probably would have continued watching were it not for this utterly useless nuisance of a supporting character.

Read More