andoR

I wholeheartedly agree. I thought Yell (and now Anpan) was ok, but the only other two married couple Asadora I remember off the top of my head watching (Gegege no Nyobo and Manpuku) are some of the worst Asadora I've seen, in my opinion. For me Gegege no Nyobo was just a disrespectful bum and a wife who's job was apologizing to everyone for the idiotic things her husband did while he sat on his butt and wasted the money they didn't have to survive and Manpuku's main characters were all the inventions the husband invented while both main humans took a backseat (the woman even more than the man because she actually did nothing but be a housewife). But I have to say I dropped Gegege no Nyobo after about 90 episodes or so because I couldn't take it anymore, so maybe I missed all the good arcs. I think even Tsubasa was better than those two and that's saying something.

I'm not from an English speaking country and granted, I never really gave much thought about it until I started watching more Japanese stuff 15 years ago, but I never saw an already English title changed to another English title for anything before Netflix came and did it with a lot of Japanese media that already had an English title. To go back to my example, with Brush Up Life they renamed the drama when they bought it 2 years after it already aired in Japan... I don't believe that anyone in Japan had anything to do with that.

As I said in another reply here: it's not about what it means, it's about renaming every (Japanese) medium, even if the name is already in English. Or simply translating a title and giving it a completely different name by doing so. To me it's just stupid and oftentimes disrespectful to the original author/writer because they probably had a thought behind it before the US company (in this case) goes and just renames it to something completely different.

Thanks for writing the review, you basically took the words out of my mouth.

The only thing I would have written differently is that I wouldn't have used Gegege no Nyobo as an example to compare... because I think that one was an absolute disaster ;)

The story kind of lost me when they got to the 60s. I really enjoyed the first 2/3 of it, but the last 40 to 50 episodes felt more like an autobiography written by someone who wanted to humblebrag. The hardships feel more like a minor inconvenience than them struggling to make ends meet. It all seems way too smooth and linear. I think they needed to bring the old 156 episode format back for this one to have a well enough payoff at the end.

It was kinda funny, in a cute but also cringey way. I don't particularly have a problem with that, but the more serious parts were totally superficial and they should've made it into a pure comedy instead. I also don't know if I like the whiplash I got from Belle's character throwing a tantrum like a 6 year old in one scene to getting intimate in the next. But aside from that their acting was pretty good and their chemistry was aswell, but the script and direction were pretty bad outside of the comedy.

Did they really make the last episode 5+ minutes shorter than the others? I haven't watched the drama yet (was waiting for it to end), but just from that it seems like their money ran out and they needed a quick ending. Well, by now Kongthup comes across more like these Youtube mini-series channels than an actual production company that produces stuff for TV anyways, so it wouldn't be really surprising.

Not through titles, but through localization of subtitles. Like ignoring the typical Japanese reserved nature and, for example, making it seem as if everybody is calling each other by first name on the first day in school/at work. Or like random people start talking about politics/some kind of agenda, even though that would probably never happen with Japanese people, etc. It's been a topic for years in anime, especially with streaming services like Netflix, Crunchyroll, Amazon, etc.

Thanks for the explanation but I was being sarcastic, sorry. I hate the fact that Netflix renames every single JDrama, even if it already has an English title. Like with Brush Up Life. As if it wasn't enough that they're eradicating every bit of Japanese culture out of a lot of JDrama and Anime subtitles.

We are basically one step away from carrying contracts around to confirm consent in written form, with signature and all. I see it the exact same way you do. It's not a "person kisses a random sleeping person" thing, it's a "they clearly like each other" thing. I really don't know how that's being lumped together all the time. I really miss the times we saw stuff in grey tones instead of the constant black and white thinking of social media today.

So, how does "Downtime" translate to "Plastic Beauty"? Excited for Matsuoka Mayu Netflix drama though.

So... does this have any structure at all? It's a bit like a 50s/60s b-movie, basically just random events happening one after another. And the sound overdub is the worst thing I've ever heard. The romantic scenes are like if an innocent adolescence GL (it really doesn't look like they know how to kiss in a romantic relationship) meets a cheap porn (constant lipsmacking and moaning/sighing). Their lips never match the audio and even the ambience, like footsteps for example, is way too loud in relation to what happens on screen. Makes it unwatchable for me, unfortunately. I could've overlooked the lack of structure and purpose, because the couple(s) and the overall drama was pretty cute... but not like this.

On my rewatch, I noticed that the characters of Kawi and Nene are really poorly written. Nene keeps saying "I want to destroy their happiness"... but it's apparent that there isn't a second in which any of them is happy, so what is Pam supposed to do? And Kawi tries to force a relationship with a person that's 100% clearly not into him and then cries and curses everyone when the other person doesn't feel the same. I can't really take these two characters seriously even for a second... which is a shame because if those two were actually well written this could've been one of the best Thai GLs so far. As it is, the only real obstacle was the old "parents want to own their child" trope, which is probably the most boring one there is by now in a GL.

One of my favorites of 2025. The only real critique I have is that Nao & Shiho are portrayed excessively pure, which is unfortunately basically a trademark in Japan when it comes to Yuri couples. They have these "super lovey-dovey scenes", but those look more like interactions between high school super-best friends that don't know yet if they like each other romantically or just as friends. But if that rather unimportant point is all the critique I could think of... I must have really enjoyed it. Another excellent work by Okada Yoshikazu.

I think I have "rich girls in skirts that are too short and heels that are too high" fatigue. Why is basically every romance only GL like this in 2025? Including that, the show is filled with stereotypes, like the OST being played every 2 minutes, every romantic scene is slow motion, homophobic family, near death experiences and pretty girls who can't help but show off how pretty they actually are a few times per episode. Basically the only rather unique things are that one character basically steals the other away from a straight wedding and the naive going after her love part. Other than that there's nothing really good, bad or outstanding in any way.

No problem! Maybe your insightful comment will help someone answer a question they could have when they watch the drama in the future.

I know everything you described. But it seems like you misunderstood my complain because your post doesn't really have anything to do with the scene that left me frustrated.

In the scene it was an emergency case, the patient was critical and nobody knew what to do, until the pharmacist found out what the issue was and got permission from the doctor to administer the medicine. Afterwards the new pharmacy hire who saw all that goes to that pharmacist and asks why the relatives go to the doctor and thank them that the patient survived, aka why they give him the credit, not to her and wanted her to make a fuss that she was the one who saved the patient so that she would get the credit.

Clearly the doctor was the the person with the most authority in this case who oversaw the whole thing, so he got the credit even though the pharmacist figured out what the right medicine to administer was. My problem is here that the newbie's a grown ass woman and should know that the people with the most responsibility get the immediate credit for success because they also have to take the fall if something goes wrong. But she seemed to be mentally 6 years old and doesn't understand basic societal structures. And that's what frustrated me.

I really loved the first 4 weeks. But why did they almost completely ignore Natsumi and therefore Hiroto's and Natsumi's lives together just to hyper focus on the friend's story in the last week? I'm sorry but I really didn't care about him. He was a side character that brought some humor into it for me, nothing more. And what happened to Yomogi? She was just completely erased after all that destiny talk the week prior.

Unfortunately, all in all the drama felt either half completed or just totally misorganised when it comes to the episode order in the last weeks.

One of the best GLs of 2025. The acting was a bit shaky at times, but except for that it was really well executed and the story was well written. I just really don't know if I was supposed to dislike Air to the degree that I did. But if you ask me, she was probably the best GL villain of 2025. If she wasn't supposed to be one, then I'm sorry, but I can't really feel anything but dislike for a crybully like her.

"Snowdrop no Hatsukoi" -> "Death's First Love". I didn't know the very Japanese word "Snowdrop" means "Death" in English. You learn something new every day by just looking at Japanese dramas and movies with English in their names.