denryion

This started mediocre, and only got worse as it went on. The finale was genuinely terrible.

Zen sucked. He was just generally unlikable, like when he blamed the journalist girl for exposing the basketball team for doing drugs instead of blaming the players doing drugs. Or when he was opposed to the autistic kid joining the team because he assumed he’d be untalented and slow to pick things up. And maybe it was because the actor that played him sucks at basketball, but every time they showed him playing, he looked really bad at basketball. Except they kept saying he was supposed to be good. Plus, I don’t think he ever gave back to Ryu what Ryu was giving to him in their relationship.

First of all, he never once drew boundaries with Atom. Atom liked him and Zen knew it, but not once in the entire series did he actually tell Atom that he and Ryu were together, not even when Atom confessed his feelings. Atom only knew because he saw / overheard them, and he went on flirting even after that. Like there were times where Zen would seem uncomfortable, like when Atom was holding his hand and flirting, or when Atom agreed to take photos with him for a BL shipping website. But he never said no or stopped him. And he would let Atom towel dry his hair instead of doing it himself, let Atom stay over and sleep in the same bed, touch Atom’s shoulder, and say Atom was looking handsome now that his wounds healed. He should have drawn strict platonic boundaries from the get go.

And Ryu would always be the one initiating physical affection while Zen would always be protesting and dodging. Both physical and also verbally. Like Ryu would always be the one initiating statements like, “I miss you.” There’s a scene where Zen tries to save Ryu from the gang boss but gets caught and they’re both beaten. Ryu tells Zen not to risk his life again because he worries, and Zen kind of just nods and says okay. Like why is he not reciprocating that sentiment? Saying that he also worries and can’t stand by while Ryu gets beat? And when the two of them are on a team with Atom, I wanted Zen to give some level of preferential treatment to Ryu, but he always treated him completely equal to Atom. He didn’t look at, touch, or pay any more attention to Ryu than he did to Atom.

And the fact that Zen chose to transfer to another school at the end pissed me off. Because Ryu was literally trying to run away from his mom so he could stay with Zen and play with him like he promised. And Zen not only left voluntarily, but he left to go to a different school with Atom. I get it, it’s high school and your dreams and career need to come before a relationship that probably won’t realistically last. But this is a BL, and I’m not looking for realism; I’m looking for romance. And Ryu offered an alternative so that Zen could stay where his mom could pay, but Zen turned it down because of his pride. But he was sitting there talking about, “it’s life and some things are out of our control,” when this was quite literally a decision entirely in his control. Also, the fact that when he left, he didn’t even hug or kiss Ryu goodbye and walked out with Atom’s arm around his shoulder was the worst. And Zen didn’t even bother to tell Ryu that this was something he was thinking about doing, or tell him before he told everyone else.

The finale was a mess for a number of reasons. First of all, Ryu was only upset about Zen leaving for 0.2 seconds before suddenly he was able to get his head back in the game and also wasn’t at all angry anymore, just sad. Their separation takes place 11 minutes from the end of the show and then there’s a 3 month time skip and they’re reunited with 5 minutes left in the show. Nothing was explained about why Zen came back, and although they said the basketball club disbanding was postponed, they didn’t say whether it would be around the next year. And the whole reason Zen left was because the club was disbanding and he needed to play to be eligible for a college scholarship. And when they reunite, they don’t even kiss. Just hug and get on with it - no emotions, no surprise, no nothing. They didn’t even explain whether they broke up or were in contact for that period of separation.

Atom and Q were super annoying. Atom was a nice, kind dude. The story could have easily been written to have him as the main lead instead of Ryu. But why would you make the love triangle be with someone that’s so nice and never does anything wrong? I as a viewer don’t want to see him as a viable option. Especially since he’s ALWAYS around and Zen never draws boundaries. And I don’t get Q at all…he slept with the gang boss a number of times to protect Ryu and then ultimately killed him to protect Ryu and is now living life on the run. Even in the finale, he’s on the run. Is he going to do that forever? Are we supposed to believe he’ll never be caught? And how old is Q anyways, because I thought he was an adult but he has a crush on a 16/17 year old and that was never addressed. Are these two ever going to take a hint and move on or are they just going to be pining around forever?

Also, Ryu’s back story made zero sense. We’re told he disappeared in middle school, missing the final basketball game, and ended up on the streets. Why exactly did he disappear, what happened right before the basketball game final, and how did he end up on the streets when his mom was so rich and controlling? Like you’re telling me she just let him runaway? He never even explained any of that to Zen. And what happened between Zen and Ryu in middle school? It’s implied that they may have had some level of feelings for each other, and Ryu says he treated Zen badly in middle school. But how deep and how far did the romance back then go and what happened between them after? And after disappearing for so many years, why does he keep bumping into Zen every 5 minutes now?

Also, Ryu was hellbent on not speaking to or interacting with his mom. He refused to go to her for money even after the basketball club was about to disband due to having no budget. But when the coach was implicated for past drug use, he was suddenly willing to speak to her to get her to vouch for the coach. And not only that, but he agreed to move back home AND study abroad in the UK. Like what? Why was he suddenly willing to do all that? And why didn’t Ryu just leave after getting what he wanted from his mom and having the coach keep his job? Why didn’t he just leave to avoid having to study abroad and live at home with her controlling nonsense? And why did the mom, after literally physically restraining him to force him to go to the UK, suddenly do a complete 180 and decide that he could stay after all? I would have so much preferred it if this series took place in college and Ryu gave a massive “fuck you” to his mom and stayed living with Zen.

The physical intimacy / NC scenes in this were a complete shit show. For the first few episodes, there’s so much naked ass from random extras and side characters. It served zero purpose. It wasn’t like they were even part of NC scenes or anything. And then suddenly the show gets super chaste, because all the ass disappears, the kissing slowly dwindles from proper but closed mouth kisses to hugs and cheek kisses and the occasional peck. Even the finale just had hugs and cheek kisses and pecks. The finale has the worst NC scene of all time where they trash around completely under the covers while the grandma sits downstairs with headphones. It was like a comedic scene in a crack show - it wasn’t intimate or emotional or sensual and they don’t kiss. There’s also a scene where they talk about “taking their relationship to the next level,” but only a peck is shown, so I’m not sure if that was supposed to allude to sex. And there’s one other scene with them in a shower and a hand job is alluded to…but at least there’s a proper kiss in this one. Plus one scene (face only) where Atom masturbates. The contrast of the naked asses and explicit concepts, like alluding to a handjob and having Atom masturbate, just didn’t make sense given how chaste the actual physical interactions were as the series went on. Like them just fist bumping when Ryu moves out or just doing a friendly hug when they reunite after 3 months…what even is that?

In terms of consent issues, Zen plays the BL “reluctant, shy, blushing virgin” role, so there are a few scenes where Ryu initiates and Zen is protesting and dodging. I hate that trope because why are you making it dub con when it could so easily be consensual? Also the scene where Atom masturbates to either photos or texts from Zen was creepy. Because why are you masturbating to photos of your literal friend without their consent, especially knowing he’s interested in someone else and likely wouldn’t consent if you did ask? Atom also almost kisses Zen in his sleep, but instead pulls back at the last minute and kisses his forehead (still non-consensually) instead. There’s one shorter scene at the beginning, where the gang boss forces Q to interact with a naked dude at an ongoing orgy after Q refuses. Also, Lin (journalist girl turned team manager) has the idea to have a bunch of minors objectify themselves by putting them in dunk tanks and posting pictures of them shirtless, sweaty, and wet online. Everyone is hesitant about this, but after Zen agrees, everyone else gets on board, but it felt like no one really had the option to say no after Zen said yes. Also, Zen and Ryu are both hesitant to actually be the ones shirtless and in the tanks, but people offer to pay “anything”, and then Lin and the crowd peer pressure them to do it.

There were a couple overly possessive moments on Ryu’s part as well. Saying things like, “Don’t let anyone get close unless it’s necessarily. Don’t serve Atom food. Don’t smile at Atom. Don’t let Atom get within 3 feet of you.” But he does calm down and at one point says that he’s jealous of Atom but doesn’t want to overreact, and Zen assures him that he’s already chosen him. Ryu is never controlling though, and never demands that Zen stop being friends with Atom, even when Zen completely fails to establish appropriate boundaries.

The pacing and writing weren’t great either. By episode 3, pretty much nothing much had progressed from where things stood in episode 1. It was slow and boring. The whole concept of having adult actors play both high schooler and middle schoolers (in flashbacks) did not work because they looked like college students, at minimum. Like why does a middle schooler have tattoos? The basketball shop talk was kept to the bare minimum, most likely because I don’t think the writers knew anything about basketball. There was zero coaching aside from drills, and the coach only gave the most surface-level nonsense “strategies” once a while mid-game. Atom was initially written as a swimmer, but then suddenly they made him a basketball player and the switch was never acknowledged. The entire series is spent trashing street basketball because the money comes from shady places, but when Zen’s grandma gets sick, everyone including the adult coach is completely onboard with them playing for prize money. The coach was an alcoholic, drinking on the job around a bunch of minors, but somehow this was never acknowledged, even when his past narcotic use was brought up and they were contemplating removing him as a coach. And as much as they showed his drinking, they never showed him addressing it, so the show ends with him still an alcoholic.

It was also hard for me to see these characters as high schoolers. They all look like adults, and there’s no real adult supervision at any point in time. The only thing “high school” about any of it was that they had terrible communication and made high school level decisions…stupid and not thought out. I think this would have worked better in a college setting.