warrenaa

Well, the curse of Ep. 11 has reared its ugly head and things are at their bleakest for our boys and Rose as Boss and his minions appear to be holding all the cards and even Jack is about to be captured as well. How this can end well is anybody's guess but it will certainly take some sort of extraordinary miracle.

Their characters and circumstances are polar opposites yet the simmering attraction they have for each other is palpable, waiting to go to the next level, which I'm sure will be led by Haruki with Jin putting up little resistance and succumbing to his charms.

We aficionados of BL series have become attuned to accepting a multitude of transformations and otherworldly occurrences on screen such as body switching, time travel, gods and spirits interacting with humans, corporeal ghosts, cats becoming cute boys, a bear plushie transforming into a cute boy and here, a penguin and a panther who have miraculously become boys who meet and become friends in a boarding school, and for good measure, there's also a tree spirit who can see and talk to both boys but no humans can. Definitely original, I'll give it that. We've had the backstory of Junior, the former penguin, but not as yet Sun, the former panther and indeed, if not for the given storyline, we wouldn't even know of that. I really like the way they were initially drawn to each other and by the end of Ep. 2, how events quickly led to a sweet little kiss given by Junior to Sun. It was also so refreshing to hear Junior blurt out to the swimming coach why he was late entering the race (which he won, to the chagrin of Nam), blaming it on this odious boy, prompting all the boys to chant in a jeering fashion that belittled him. So far, I'm enjoying this a great deal. I hope my score of 8.5 brings up the rating a bit.

Phun has such a commanding presence that no girl would dare come between him and Noh as he won't allow it.

You're forgetting that in most series, Ep. 11 is the penultimate episode but this has 15 episodes so I doubt it will have the proverbial curse.

It could also be bad directing, in that the director allowed sub par kissing to be seen in the final cut instead of opting for something better.

Vietnamese BL series have dedicated channels on YouTube.

You're being too generous calling this odd show a drama.

Production values are high in this entertaining series from the Philippines, the boys are cute and the script is above average. Three episodes in and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Such moral outrage! So much hate! Goodness me, I feel this is rather OTP.

One immediately has to feel sorry for Haruki's domestic situation with his abusive, drunk father. Along comes Jin who sees this by accident and the decency in him wells up inside, making him feel he needs protection so he eventually invites him to his place, where all of a sudden while watching a movie, Haruki inquires whether Jin has ever kissed anyone before who replies he hasn't. Haruki wants to try it. Jin dares him. Haruki makes all the right preliminary moves, yet the kiss itself, though a bit shocking for Jin but not unpleasant, doesn't amount to much - their lips touch fleetingly without a response from Jin. It is right to point out that with his experience of seeing kisses on screen, Haruki's kiss should have been fuller, warmer, lips closed but with feeling, all that was required but missing in practice. One has to wonder why.

Additional comment, a day later: Fortuitously, the same situation came up on the Vietnamese BL series, Teenager Judge Ep. 8 2/3, during which Dat asks Bach while they were sitting on his bed if he could kiss him, then tentatively leans forward and does so. They kiss a few times more, each one a little more fervent than the previous one, after which Dat abruptly rises and goes to his room. As expected, we soon see a split screen with both boys lying on their beds touching their lips and thinking of this first time experience, smiling slightly. This portrayal of first kisses is more realistic and a much better portrayal of such an experience than we see in Our Youth. I felt this comparison needed to be pointed out.

No storyline as such, just a manic rom/sitcom with an ensemble cast playing for all their worth, and I'm loving every second of it! Arc and Arm are stealing the show presently and doing a great job of it. The little bit we saw of [real names] Perth and Santa hasn't established them much so far, but I was struck by how cute Santa is and Perth is lucky to have him as his love interest.

Really? Arc and Arm are stealing the show presently and doing a great job of it. The little bit we saw of [real names] Perth and Santa hasn't established them much so far, but I was struck by how cute Santa is and Perth is lucky to have him as his love interest.

So ends another forgettable series from MLV. The worst thing about it was the music soundtrack, especially the repeated guitar chords with the top note remaining the same - just lazy invention.

These kids wear their hearts on their sleeves for all they're worth, regardless of whether it's for the same sex or the opposite sex, nobody cares, which is unusual but also refreshing. Other things to mention:
1) A new phrase, used twice, has entered the lexicon: I'm 'in crush' with someone.
2) The formal breakup of Phun and Aim was honest, amicable and revealing. She told him she likes girls and he told her he likes boys. She guessed correctly that Phun likes Noh, which he didn't deny. After leaving Aim and returning to Noh, I can't quite understand why Phun refused Noh's invitation to sleep over. Similarly, Phun needing time to get over it is even stranger as neither of them was in love with each other.
3) Earn is sitting quietly by himself drying his hair when he is approached by Pete, who offers to help him. They're both cute and they begin making eyes at each other. Another romance is about to take off, one I'm most pleased with as it will heal Earn's broken heart of being rejected by Noh.

In this day and age, who on earth uses 4 character passwords when most sites ask for at least 8 characters and one each of lower and upper case, a numeral and a special character. Four characters is used for a given code and could be hacked by an amateur. Yet they were sophisticated enough to position a tiny spy camera that records sound and vision perfectly and embed a virus into the files Thiti transferred to the thumb drive. Ridiculous.

I'm used to stories jumping around in time but this one took it to the extreme, making it unnecessarily hard to follow and work out what was really happening. Admittedly, the fact that for most of the time Khen turned out to be a ghost and he and his friends died in a car crash, which was only revealed in the second last episode, was a deliberate ploy to keep everyone watching so the overall confusion could end. What I don't get is near the end of Ep. 10, the scene in the library where Khen has a brief encounter with Mas when most of it is set in the past. Are we supposed to presume that all of what happened was just a figment of Khen's imagination he put into a story to promote the house where most of the action was set? That means they're all still very much alive and all the ghost stuff adds up to nothing. I won't go so far as to say it was 10 hours of wasted time but it wasn't far off that.

All these negative comments are way too critical for what this was - a small production telling a simple uncomplicated story that ended happily.

All these negative comments are way too critical for what this was - a small production telling a simple uncomplicated story that ended happily.

What a lovely episode, with the best of human relationships coming to the fore and so much love generously spread around.