ivone

personal fav drama ever.

my first drama + greatest drama i've ever seen. the aesthetic is so perfect (this drama is likely responsible for my addiction to 2000s taiwanese media, as niche of an interest as that is), the ost is so memorable, xiangqin is THE CUTEST portrayal of kotoko i've literally ever witnessed she is simply SO ADORABLE!!! i think i first watched this as a kid? maybe 12 or 13 or so, i was quite young so it definitely left an impact on me. this one gets rewatched frequently it's absolutely my comfort drama of all time. DEFINITELY watch if you're a fan of itakiss in any capacity, it's hands-down my fav adaptation of it, ugh just quit reading this review and watch it already, it's available for free on youtube with captions!

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watched this entirely in one day and felt insane for like a week afterwards.

gonna be 100% completely honest: i watched entirely because keum donghyun is in it and he was bias wrecking me SO BAD at the time and now he is in fact my epex bias and one of my ults. do with that what you will. kind of insane about that boy now he won't get out of my head, can't even watch this without giggling kicking my feel like a schoolgirl every time he is on screen oh it's Bad. didn't care too much for the main couple honestly? i liked jebi with the other guy or even with hanse (and THAT went nowhere smh) + no kiss kinda made some of it feel a little nothingburger at times and sometimes i kinda wished jebi would just be gay and kiss dami cuz even she would have been a better love interest than suoh. another thing i didn't really care for was the eating disorder plotline with dami, i really feel like it could have been left out and it left a bad taste in my mouth as someone who has struggled with that kind of thing myself. however, a very fun and quick watch, it made me feel a little bit crazy at times but that was definitely more donghyun's doing than anything else. especially when hanse like. signals to jebi that he knows she's from the real world in the most cryptic and terrifying way possible???? kinda set it up like he was going to be a threat or have some sort of villainous arc which i'm glad didn't happen because i fear i would have never recovered from that emotionally, i love it when such a sweet sweet person with such a friendly demeanor plays a character that is so sinister and conniving and unsuspecting, it's like the perfect recipe to make me fall head over heels in love. so yea i like keum a little bit.

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super cute! but not a great adaptation. [very long]

i'm currently re-reading the manga for the first time in about 10 years. i was thinking "the only thing missing about this is a 2000s jdrama adaptation that takes itself way too seriously" and i stumbled upon this. so allow me to make a couple comments:

1. as a lolita myself, the amount of btssb all over this movie had me close to fainting. i saw a girl holding an usakumya plush and then i look up at her face and see that it's MISAKO MF AOKI HERSELF. i couldn't find the name of the dress akira wears to sneak into the girls' school (i'm not as familiar with btssb/aatp catalog as i am with angelic pretty) but i DID see that baby collabed with pullip to produce a doll of him??? insane collector's piece i fear it's on my lolita grail list right next to milky-chan the fawn jsk. i adored seeing so much of this fashion that's so near and dear to my heart. however, i do still kind of wish that more masculine looking women had been cast to play blaue rosen.........the manga makes quite a point that mizuki is often mistaken for and treated as if she's a man, and while the actress cast to play her was very cute and expressive, i really don't find that she fit the bill appearance wise. however, i do find that akira's actor was quite well cast, he's decently androgynous-looking for the role and i think he pulled it off well. he also looks great in a jsk and otk socks lmao.

2. if you're looking for a faithful adaptation to the manga, this is not it. i kept waiting and waiting on the topic of kaoru moving overseas and the band breaking up to become a topic, since this is quite literally what propels the plot in the manga. kaoru moving away is the driving force that brings akira to mizuki in the first place, which then leads to the plot of him joining the band as their new vocalist. like i'm actually shocked that out of all the parts of this movie that were faithful to the manga, the primary plot of the entire story was completely omitted. i'd understand taking out some parts for time constraints, but i feel like SO much of the story was changed that it doesn't exactly feel recognizable. if you're okay with viewing it as it's own separate media independent of the manga, then go ahead. but if you want a good adaptation, maybe skip it.

3. i find that compared to the manga, many parts of the story were quite sanitized for a lower age rating. for example, in the scene where ran discovers mizuki is a girl, the manga has him jumping on her and tearing her clothes open quite violently. whereas in the film, i believe it's a bit of an ouran situation of him accidentally feeling her chest. seeing as the film is much more comedic in tone than the manga which takes itself quite seriously, i can see why this was done, and i do appreciate it a bit for being more tasteful than the manga. there's actually quite a bit of sexual theming and serious topics such as assault/harassment in the manga (seeing as the target demographic is adult women rather than teens or young girls), so the choice to omit these for a light-hearted romcom feels more appropriate and respectful than if it hadn't been.

in conclusion, i really did love this movie, it was really cute and fun and sweet and the music blaue rosen played in universe is exactly what i pictured while reading the manga! that being said, the manga is MUCH different in tone, and while i'd advise to use discretion regarding the topics of sexual harassment and such, it really is a great read. i'd strongly recommend it to anyone who's a fan of josei romance like nana or paradise kiss. i feel like it's one from its era that tends to get overlooked quite a bit.

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hatewatching gone wrong

i watched this because the male lead is so incredibly fine. and then i HATED the premise cuz why does nobody have an issue with the fact that HE IS IN LOVE WITH HIS SISTER i don't care if they're not actually related that's just ODD. but by time i got halfway thru it, i was like ok well we have to finish it now. and then i got attached to everybody????? especially when lin di came into the picture.
arguably the worst part about this aside from the massive elephant in the room was the fact that the rival girl had zero irredeemable qualities. like she felt so unrealistic, there's no way someone can be THAT obsessed with another person and have no other hobbies or interests or personality traits. i get we're supposed to dislike her, but man she could have been written better. and also yifeng's boss tryna be romantically involved with her just gave me mad ick the whole time idk.
6.5 out of 10 i'm just gonna settle for following ryan ren on instagram and fangirling over him that way instead of ever bothering to rewatch this. his face + zihui and diyin and mu visceral hatred for the plot were the only things that kept me watching honestly.

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