freshchesnuts

I’m not too well versed in review writing, and this is my first on MDL, so please bear with me!
I decided to watch this show because I am a fan of Co-ki, and the idol premise is something that I was really excited about, as a lover of all things idol. For the most part, I would say it’s enjoyable and fun, but I did find myself frustrated by a few spots.
I’ll start off with the characters. I absolutely adored Asuka, and I thought the portrayal was pretty good. I thought she was a fantastic and complex character, and spent the whole show rooting for her and wanting what was best for her. Dan on the other hand… I thought he was very well written, and was very interesting, but personally I found him to be very frustrating and unlikeable for most of the show. His acting was pretty good, though I do think his idol performance skills left a bit to be desired unfortunately. The other members of 8loom were all lively and fun and overall I found myself enjoying them a lot and wishing we got to see more of them. Naru was a very fascinating character and I liked the glimpses into his inner workings we got to see and really wish we could have looked closer. I was particularly frustrated by his sudden switch up in personality though, from being the gentle, mature mediator type to the complete opposite when the scandal arose. I think the motivations for the switch were very clear, and in theory it made sense, but it felt very out of the blue and I wish we had seen more of that kind of insecure, almost codependent nature make itself known earlier on in subtle ways so it wasn’t so blindsiding (as mentioned, spending more time with his character or just making it less dramatic of a switch would have helped). The others I don’t really have any issues with and found myself loving watching their dynamic the entire way. I suppose I found their weird bouts of immaturity weird, and would have found them all more believable as high schoolers rather than adults. My only other issue is, like with Fumiya/Dan, the idol performances were honestly… not great. Which strikes as odd to me and as someone who is familiar with a good portion of these actors/idols that play them, I know they can do better so it just leaves me confused. But more of that later. I really loved Kousaka, she was fantastic, genuinely no notes. I loved her character progression, performance, etc. I thought Kenji was hilarious and a fantastic part of the cast. Yuri was adorable and I loved her. The president, I absolutely adored as well, I thought she was a fantastic adversary/ally, depending on the moment. I love characters like her. Noa… was another source of frustration. Her existence felt like it was solely there to cause unnecessary tension and inconveniences, but not truly in ways that mattered, and honestly I feel like she could be written out and little of the story would change.
The idol performances, as mentioned, were lackluster. I enjoyed the songs themselves a lot, it’s the exact kind of thing I’m a fan of anyway, but when they performed them… they lacked body. At the beginning I excused it, but even by the end they are still lacking stage presence and that idol passion that you can find in any performance. The choreography was… I hate to say it but overall, mostly bad, and aside from when Ryusei and Takara were supposed to show how good of dancers they were, the moves all felt very half hearted and small. It didn’t seem like they tried to cast particularly good dancers, which if you know anything about male jpop idols, you know that typically, dancing capability tends to take priority over say, vocals. Unfortunately, I found the vocals to be pretty weak too. I found Naru and Takara’s characters to be the strongest performance wise, especially Naru when it came to steadiness (which makes sense given both of the actors idol professions and training). I feel like this show would have actually benefitted from more actual idols in the cast in this regard, at least for the more side-character members. The lip syncing was also almost always off, and it honestly looked really bad and weird, especially when combined with the shaky vocals. When they are obviously lip syncing though, I did wonder why they didn’t just record better sounding versions of the songs.
Before I get into things like the romance and the story, I want to mention that I absolutely adored the sets and the locations filmed at, especially the dorm. Additionally I found the costume design to be very nice, and liked that I could see the taste of the costumer frequently with those collarless button up shirts. There were a few moments where the sound was a little weird (mostly just outdoor scenes) but it was barely noticeable. Aside from the bad timing on the lip syncs, I think the technical side of things was, for the most part, very well done.
I will outright say I did not like the romance. I could give the teacher x former student thing a pass if it was done well but… it wasn’t really in my opinion. I was expecting the unethicalness of it to ignored like usual in this kind of show, but it was actually mentioned more than once, by Asuka, and that’s part of what drew me out. Don’t mention it if you’re not going to address it properly, otherwise it just draws attention to it and makes it feel more questionable. But that’s not my only issue. The truth is, the bond between Dan and Asuka, I adored it! I thought their connection was really special and great, but I wish it never progressed into romance, or at the very least never became two sided (I went into this knowing it was a romance too). Aside from the teacher x student, my main issue was the stakes. The very first episode we know there is the major stake of “do not engage in romance with any of these boys, or you will be fired.” This is a hefty stake that I feel like the romance doesn’t hold up to, and thus means the risk doesn’t feel worth it. Asuka is not passionate enough about her feelings for Dan that it feels frustrating watching her not shut him down even when she obviously knows how he feels. She knows it is unethical to date a former student, and her job will also be on the line if she does, and also this little family she has made while here. If her love for him were more intense, I’d find it more captivating and it would make more sense, and the struggle to choose would hold more weight. If this romance had to be reciprocated, I wish the writers committed to that a little more.
As for the plot, for most of the show, I loved it. I thought the concept was fresh, Asuka was a great protagonist, and it was a strong plot. However, at episode nine, I got really, really frustrated. Trying to avoid too much detail here, but the disbandment plot was extremely irritating, and felt like it was undermining everything we had watched previously. I genuinely don’t understand the choice to go here, but it happened I guess. I almost couldn’t get myself to finish the final episode because of my irritation, but I persisted and… I hated the final episode. It was a happy ending, sure, but it felt like a slap in the face. I knew after a certain point in the episode that they would have a big discussion and was just waiting for it, and I was lowkey kind of annoyed that they waited to have it until the moment they did. I have a lot of thoughts about this ending, but for the sake of not getting TOO spoilery, I won’t go that much into them. Essentially though, the last episode was extremely disappointing and I kept pausing it out of irritation… never have I said “seriously?!” And “are you for real?!” so many times over one episode of a drama. It was such a great story that ended on a flop. This last minute plot they added at the end had the potential in my opinion, to be an entire second season, that would’ve had way better pacing and would have worked SO much better.
I really did like this show, but the disappointments were really strong, especially the ending, which unfortunately left me on a sour note.