MadeAUsername

Horrible live version of Itazura na Kiss.
The fast pace due to it being a movie killed it. The anime is charming, well paced, lovable characters. This was just blah. I'd give it a 35/100 for how much I enjoyed it but the movie honestly is about a 55/100. How it got a 83/100 is the reason why I don't take ratings on kisskh very seriously. Joke ratings. That's why some of the most highly rated shows here has people wondering what the heck were they thinking?

It's because people like upvoting shows simply because they like how good looking the actors/actresses are. There are TONS of overrated shows topping the charts.

I think a lot of the top rated shows are overrated. Some people shouldn't be allowed to vote. I hear some people like voting up shows simply because they like how good looking the actors/actresses are, which is just...to put nicely...not good.

DROPPED
6.3/10
Watched 8 episodes, was promising but the main female character Zhou Ying played by Betty Sun, I thought it was bad acting. A lot of the time, I just didn't feel the charm from her, when she goofed around and pretended to be a tomboy, it felt like she was doing it for fun rather than to fulfill the role required of her. I felt like she was overacting, artificial, and it didn't feel natural. Felt out of place.

Recently I watched Story of Yanxi Palace, now that was a strong female lead with some amazing / outrageous / exciting / refreshing moments.

It wasn't just her, key moments fell flat, romance didn't have the time to build up, the humor to lighten up the show wasn't good enough. The drama and tragedy was also weak, lot of holes in the plot, not convincing. Just bored and kind of stressed watching. Perhaps it gets better but I can't handle more of it to find out.

On episode 11:
At the moment, I'm not liking the older Jang Geum. When she was a little girl, she spoke up more often. The grown up Jang Geum is rather frustrating to watch. She talks quietly or looks like a deer caught in the headlights. I hope it gets better. It feels like the beginning of the series looked promising, but it's slowly going down hill. After you watch a series like Yanxi Palace and see the heroine in there, you watch Jang Geum and it's just hard to bear.

Like for example when she was at the garden and was able to grow that herb/plant when everyone else failed, it was short and it didn't really explained how she was able to when so many people for so many years tried and didn't succeed...and this was throughout the country so it had to be an extraordinary method of sorts. Definitely feels weak.

This also has the Dong Yi issue where like, a few moments later, they have a flashback repeating lines that you heard minutes ago.

8.3/10 for me.

First 20 something episodes 8.7/10: Hooked. When she pulled off that stupid act, I thought "wow, this is the kind of good acting that I was looking for". It felt surprising, refreshing, exciting. Absolutely love the badass problem solving...This series starts off pretty good, very amusing to watch. Though the clever solutions, many times, are unrealistic and full of holes. (For a small example, the needle. Anything that goes to so and so must be examined extremely thoroughly by many people so it wouldn't have passed that easily not to mention the trickling down of liability that would've caused MANY people to be hurt and possibly lose their head as one of the characters mentioned. So reality is that it would've been a bad and very improbable thing for Yingluo to have tried). It's fun to watch, but don't try it at home haha...

Around mid-point of the series 8.0/10: Kind of slowed down, dragged a tad, got a bit tedious to watch, kind of sad and disappointing in terms of how things turned out. Though I did find it somewhat interesting still. There were a lot of devastating things happening during this time that was rather disheartening to watch and to bear.

Around episode 40 (the return) 8.3/10...I would rate it higher because at this point I'm thinking "this is why I originally watched this!" because it got fun and exciting again. Love to see her refreshing strategy to get attention and the chemistry between the two was fun to behold. Very natural feeling.

Last Ten Episodes or so 6.3/10. I thought it was a very different series at this point. If the series started off at this level, I probably wouldn't have made it very far into this. Moments into this part and I was already contemplating skipping or discontinuing my watch. The final two episodes were, IMO, crappy. It felt boring, predictable, just sloppy. Definitely didn't live up to the rest of the series and is a pale comparison to the beginning. As said, felt like it was produced by different directors/writers at this point. It was still watchable but at the start of these last ten or so episodes, I was thinking "okay, I think I'd like to have this end now so I can watch something else".

My other personal feelings: Was disappointed about one death after episode 40, won't say who but it left me feeling pretty heart broken, I was really hoping for something to cheer me up and was a bit sad at that.

I also didn't like how the 'brother' became (trying not to say spoilers and being vague). The whole time I was really hoping that the two of them would team up and really destroy their enemies, I was predicting some great twists but it came out rather straight forward and disappointing.

A great series but I guess like most longer series, it kind of dropped off.

I don't, I mean most of the time I try to avoid it. However, if a series is good then it's good and I don't mind it being long. I'm on ep 50 already for this series. Bit of a drag during the halfway point, but thankfully it's picked up again. I consider it to be a really good series so far.

I'm about to try to watch this as well and am also fearing the drag. A lot of series with over 40 episodes makes me nervous and a lot of time, it's proven correctly. You know it's going to drag when you're ready to wrap the show up and realize it's not even half way done...

6.5/10 for me.
The only thing that REALLY worked for this series and made it bearable was that it was on the shorter side so even though there were some draggy and boring episodes or episodes that were heavy and burdensome to witness, it didn't last long enough for it to become too much (too much as in "time to watch something else!").

The romance was so so, probably a very few (single hand finger count) of scenes that were truly memorable/heartfelt.

For me, the romance never was good enough to be made that believable. The kiss scenes were weak and felt fake. The characters kind of didn't fit the roles like Park Bo Gum's character, the crown prince; he looks more like a fun, goofy, mischievous character and didn't really fit the role of a romance partner. The show also didn't further exploit his personality as there are very few humorous / fun / exciting scenes as shown in the beginning when they were trapped (won't say more to avoid spoiler).

The evidence gathering and scenes relating to politics and corruption were done very half-arse. I mean, watch DONG YI for example and see how thorough and detailed it was. This was just to the bare minimum.

The show needed a lot more breaks in between seriousness like the romance and interactions that happened between the other characters. They could have expanded it and made it funny and interesting to give the viewers a break.

Also, we never got the fan-service torturing of bad guys as we should.

I shrugged over most of the deaths, the ending was a bit lukewarm, but I did like the slight twist.

Wasn't a bad series, but I didn't care for it and glad it was over, just wanted to have it check on my "to watch" list.

The problem with this show is the odd script and the choppy scenes that make watching a bit of a head-scratcher and awkward. Feels like the editing isn't too well done sometimes and the person that directed this wasn't sure which shots to take.

Most of the show is decent, I love it for the reverse harem, but I think many times, it fails in executing the right scenes to make the key moments work to their full potential.

For me, I feel this is around a 6.7/10.

I just feel like it could've been a lot better and am a bit disappointed. I'm still on episode 8.

So I'm on episode 39 and the dialogue has gotten better between Dong Yi and the King and there were a few parts where I did realize that the pacing of this show was well done. There were episodes in which there's a lot of tension to the point where it became annoying and I almost stopped watching, but just when it got to the peak, the show was able to finish it up with a pleasant surprise.

HOWEVER, at this point, I'm shaking my head at the King's decision, trying to be vague in order to not say spoilers but:

1. Why the F is she STILL in the palace??? Does he not realize that she is a major threat to everyone's safety, ESPECIALLY Dong Yi? Stupid decision, stupid King, he even says so himself how stupid he is.

2. The people that deserved to be executed the most ended up being exiled. Really? He was the worse one in the bunch by far and he got exiled, like come on. Again, a stupid King also realized how stupid he was.

3. How many times you gotta be screwed over by a person to learn? I mean if someone screwed me over a few times, I would imagine I'd get to a point where if something goes wrong, I'd march myself over there and be like "alright, what the hell are you up to now?" "Nothing? Don't give me that bull, men, interrogate this B!"

4. Does this show not believe in spies? Was it that hard to have a spy spy on the Queen? I mean, she had folks spying on the King. They're just all hanging out in her place conspiring evil shit all day and no one does a damn thing.

5. Having flashbacks/repeats of dialogue or events that passed not more than mere minutes ago. I find this to be a cheap way to extend the show and a horrible way of usage. Thankfully, it doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen enough to be easily noticed.

6. Whenever there's a big meeting in front of the king, there's always 2-3 people talking, everyone else is like a clone and all they do is parrot in unison.

Unfortunately, the chemistry between Dong Yi and the King is weak. Most of the time, they're shown laughing like little school kids; in this case, two grown ups that giggling insanely like two mental patients. Their dialogue are weak, the romance is long but surprisingly bland. The humor isn't that great. It's a nicely made show, but I thought the palace romance between the two was very lacking. The series shows us that they are deeply connected and falling in love, but I don't feel it at all. It doesn't tug at the heartstrings. It feels more like two friends that care about each other, even like a brother sister. Have you guys heard their dialogue and when they're joking and caught laughing together? It's quite horrible. Very few impactful, romantic scenes.

I just started this and the child version of Dong Yi is annoying me. She always has that look of confusion spread over her face with her mouth slightly opened like:

:o

All the freaking time.

Here's my impersonation of the actress that plays the child version of Dong Yi, almost all the time too:

(: o)

Always has that apparent "wtf is happening??" or "did I just see my parents hump?" look with her mouth slightly opened.

No way does this deserve a 8.7/10....

Decided to call it quits after 19 episodes.
8.7 means a fantastic, extremely well made drama with superb acting, script, makeup, environment setup, etc. This was definitely NOT that.
So far I find this series to aim too high for what its budget allowed. I mentioned some other stuff in a previous post but here's a few more stuff I noticed (not all, just a few more):
- A goofy portrayal of the palace, rules, discipline, etc. Watch other well known Kingdom/Palace series and you'll see. This series made it look like a joke, a joke that makes it lose credibility and isn't even funny.
- Whoever directed this did not bother to care. People hiding behind pillars that were way too small to hide them, not being seen even in plain sight, aiming crossbows with no arrow, scenes not connecting (has something on face, next moment in different angle, it's gone as a small example, countless times throughout the series), hands to cover ears only to show scene with ears clearly exposed yet they still act like they can't hear, etc. Numerous flaws all over if you bother to think about it. Not asking for perfection, just make it look believable.
- This series is cheap on the staff they can hire, both main characters and civilians. You'll see in civilian gatherings and the town that it's very vacant. It's okay when the show first starts but becomes more and more apparent later. This show is very afraid of killing off their main characters, the bad and good guys. They just keep going and going when I'm thinking "why is he still alive??"....say that a dozen times and they're still there, some obnoxious characters just there.
- Bad show of consequences. Blatant corruption seen by the whole court and to the King? No problem, we'll just brush that by like it never happened. Wanna pull a sword out and wave it around the Emperor or the Empress's neck, No Prob Bro! Hey, it's just a prank, right?
- I've never seen anyone show their affection to another person by making them the food poison tester. This is what the show believes to be romantic SMH....
- Can fight men in battle, dodge fatal sword swings, etc but can't dodge a servant girl's lazy slap.
- Horrible makeup and environment setup. Battlefield that looks fake, dead bodies with a little bit of red marking on them. No flies, no dismembered bodies, battle props, the sound of death, most of the stuff that'll make it truly believable, they've done the bare minimum here if even that.
- Back and forth scenes that had little or no connections to each other.
- Horrible facial reactions. When you're standing there and suddenly someone says something like you're to be brought out and killed, there should be more of a reaction than looking down at the ground.
- The most pathetic King I've ever seen.
- Overall lazy writing, directing, acting, etc.


Seriously, this series is littered with mediocrity. The acting, the build up in relationships, the humor is super lacking, the battles are weak and short, annoying characters that you wish were gone from the show but keep poking their heads up. I only hung on 'cause I have a weakness for palace romances and even at this point it isn't worth it.
8.7 ... yeah right!
It's not a horrible series...more like a 6.5/10
I hear some people like giving high scores simply because they like certain actors/actresses?
At this point, it's lost so much credibility that I just skip around and finally decide it's not worth continuing....

Show starts off promising, the starting girl sounds so cute! Too bad her role was short and weak.
However, I'm on episode 4 and for awhile now, the show has been on a gradual decline in quality, where at the moment, I feel like it's a 6-6.5 / 10. A bland and overly shortened beginning that never gave relationships and emotions time to grow, a promisingly deep plot that unfolded in an uninspiring, lukewarm, over simplistic manner, and in turn also killed off the connection between me and the characters. At the moment, I don't especially care for any of the characters.
I hope it gets a lot better though.
The other issue is that it doesn't have the cool fight scenes nor the humor to support it. Nothing I haven't seen before, that's for sure.

Not really, I mean, there will always be some bits of romance scenes, but it's not a significant part to say "hey, this is a romance drama". Other then her trying to seduce the king, but you won't see any rated R stuff, it's just the insinuation that things happened and they don't fully go into the scene.

Eavesdropping to the next level. "Don't mind me acting blatantly suspicious as fk and eavesdropping like a baWs, it's normal where we live :P ... don't gotta waste your time announcing that I'm here"

Cute and interesting at the start but becomes cliche with the typical overused cliffhangers that gets extremely old and dragged out. Wore me out and I never finished.

I thought it was boring. Gave up after 10 episodes, skipped around a few. Just nothing new or refreshing. Very few exciting key moments.