labcat

There is likely some weak writing here, but it can be rationalized to some extent. When Pi pursues Muang Nan, the diffident part of him probably expects failure anyway, and he sees himself as simply an inferior person going after someone unattainable. Furthermore, it is suggested that he has already subconsciously started loving Mork while he is expressing his love for Muang Nan, so he doesn't really have that much to lose chasing Muang Nan.

With Mork, Pi becomes the fish upon the sky, and this is something he can't imagine happening for real. The taste of love and happiness he feels with Mork is so precious to him that he doesn't want to risk it by making the relationship public and be subject to all the possible objections and toxic comments.

Ultimately, the toxicity he has to contend with while pursuing Muang Nan is the same old crap he has been confronting all his life. But with Mork, he feels special and loved for the first time, and he also really loves Mork, so naturally he doesn't want to lose this feeling even if he has to keep his relationship secret. When they are alone without having to worry about the public eye pouring cold water on them, like in the handwashing scene, he really basks in the moment of bliss. But the happier he is with Mork, the more afraid he is to subject the relationship to the stress of comments from others. (I think this is also what he is trying to tell Mork in Ep 11.) He might even, I speculate, consider leaving Mork because he thinks the longer he spends with Mork before they break up, the more painful it would be.

Thanks so much for the summary! Now I'm enlightened. The harassment sucks, but I'm surprised people stood up for him.

The money seems to belong to Nice's friend and Nice is safekeeping it for an unknown reason.

I'm not 100% sure, but it may be that the bag belongs to Nice's friend and Nice is just safekeeping it. Whatever the bag is, since Win has this obsession with neatness and sets rules for Nice to follow, Nice doesn't dare to leave the bag lying around and keeps it in a cabinet.

Win finds the bag, Nice returns at that moment, and Win hurriedly puts it in a different cabinet. However, when Nice finds the bag missing from the original cabinet, he thinks Win has discovered the extra thing lying around at home. But he doesn't dare to ask Win about it in case Win gets upset about messiness or about a third person's belongings in their home.

Win also doesn't allow Nice to bring his friends home, so Nice has to sneak home while Win is outside to look for the bag and quickly sneak out again to pass it to his friend.

This doesn't make everything logical (it's probably impossible to), but basically Nice hides the bag because he doesn't want Win to get annoyed. As Nice's friend says, Nice does it because of Win.

Can you tell me what went on with 2moons2? I'm a little lost.

I think their characters do change, though not in a way that is implausible.

Gene as a kid seems outgoing (he talks to Nubsib first and stretches out his hand first to hold Nubsib's hand behind Nubsib's mother). He is also good natured (he defends Nubsib from a beating, and he doesn't want Nubsib to feel neglected because others do not want to play with him). However, the scene in which he plays by himself without paying attention to Nubsib seems to me a little off character (for now--maybe more will be revealed?). I think Gene as a grown-up does become different. The incident of Nubsib failing to send him off could be a cause, but maybe there's more. There are hints about his father's homophobia, which may have affected him in some other ways as he is growing up.

Nubsib is a bit more withdrawn as a kid (so I can see why you think he seems more like the adult Gene). He does not readily speak with Gene at first. When he sees the older boys playing by themselves instead of playing hide-and-seek, he quietly goes away. Also, he doesn't tell anyone why he doesn't see Gene off (imagine keeping this deep sense of loss to yourself all these years). He really wants Gene's attention because Gene is a special friend, probably the only person he feels comfortable with, so Gene's departure affects his development as wel. As an adult, Nubsib seems to be the more assertive and outgoing one, but I think this is a front that conceals his more vulnerable side. The way the adult Nubsib looks at Gene when no one is around to observe him does show genuine tenderness and affection.

Ultimately, both Gene and Nubsib seem to have inner demons from their past experiences, which account for the shifts in their characters.

I would say it's not really proper in the sense that you can't expect that much of a great story there, but there's a bit of BL.

There is also some BL fan baiting/teasing plus a gay character who inexplicably becomes a straight character (in the sense that he supposedly has been pretending to be gay).

The series has been dropping hints about a more devious side of Aey (and the actor seems to convey it too), so I'm just taking Mork's warning to be one of those hints. It would be disappointing, though, if all the hints amount to nothing eventually.

I like the breaking of stereotypes, but it appears a little too deliberate. This is one of the flaws of the series, imo. Some stuff is made a bit too obvious, as if the audience won't get it otherwise.

Possibly unpopular opinion:

Regarding Ep 6, I can see why people seem to think that Gene is overreacting to how Nubsib has hidden his identity from him, but there are strong hints that the issues goes deeper, probably linked to what happened when they were kids and Nubsib going overseas.

Gene seems traumatized not just because Nubsib hasn't revealed that they have known each other for a long time, but also because of bigger issues or misunderstandings many years ago that lead Gene to think that Nubsib is just out to make a fool of him. This also explains why Nubsib doesn't say anything even when Gene is keeping quiet--it's a long story, but Gene isn't calm enough and Gene may not believe what he says anyway.

The things that happen when Gene and Nubsib are kids are probably linked to Gene's refusal to acknowledge that he is gay and his rather reticent personality. (Remember the dinner with his classmates when Tum tells his friend that if Gene is not ready to come out, no one should compel him to?)

I actually like Episode 6 because the narrative threads are starting to be woven together: Gene's personality, Gene's issues with coming out, the undercurrents of tension with his father, the hints that there is something about Nubsib that he is not showing to Gene. If things are done properly in the next few episodes, we can have a nice build-up to a climax (instead of the same old Episode 11 crisis). The main weakness, however, is that it's also a little too obvious that the truth is not just hidden from Gene but deliberately hidden from the audience too , with an all too brief teaser flashback to their childhood.

Hi Naf P,

I'm not altogether against sad endings, but they are often poorly delivered. I haven't watched Grey Rainbow, but Make Our Days Count (HIStory 3) is an example of a sad ending that simply doesn't work. Sometimes a sad ending reflects how harsh society is to gay people and has an element of realism to it, but sometimes it feels as though a sad ending is made simply because it's possible to make one. Most BL fans are not into this, so out of commercial interest, most BLs are not going all out for sad endings these days, which is a good sign in some ways. It was actually refreshing to see the happy endings in HIStory 1 and 2.

Hi jpny01,

Thanks for commenting. You can certainly disagree with me. I'm reviewing based on my limited knowledge and understanding. E.g. I do understand that political commentary involving Marcos is relevant to the Filipino audience, but I don't really get what the message is, and it could be because I'm not familiar with the history of the country.

Benjo is not directly involved in the politics of another era, so I do get it that he is not depicted in a negative way. (In fact, he seems to resent the connection with the Marcos regime.) But eventually, even his parents seem benign, which makes me puzzled.

I liked the part about the trans character in itself and agree with your interpretation of it. But I didn't see the possible connection with the main characters until you pointed it out to me. I guess the main characters are also luckier than she is, having more people who are accepting of a possible relationship between them and at least for Benjo, not having to struggle financially.

I think it is a bit better than TGIF though the quality does deteriorate towards TGIF levels after the first few episodes. Some narrative threads with potential are woven into the story only to be left hanging loose, like the tension between Tan and his half brother. I guess you can watch a few more episodes and see if you like the couples enough to bear with the deterioration.

One warning though: you might fall in love with the Tin/Sea couple and end up disappointed. Their story is clearly set up to be romance, but unconvincingly turned into bromance within a few seconds in the last episode, only to be turned into implied romance again suddenly.

Yes, watching from The Lost Tomb 1 helps (though I'm also getting a little confused by all the different elements: many characters, historical references. etc).

Thanks. I decided to watch an episode of The Lost Tomb, and it isn't so confusing, so I guess it would be easier to follow Ultimate Note from the start if we have watched at least one of the earlier series with the same characters.

Is this series meant to be watched after some other series or should I start watching it first?

I'm rather confused by the first episode.

Depending on how much bromance you are looking for and if BL turned into bromance is ok for you, I have watched a few in recent months:

- The Case Solver (not as heavy on it)
- Guardian (BL turned into bromance)
- Insect Detective (the characters turn out to be literally brothers)
- Breaking Dawn (BL turned into bromance)
- Rinsho Hanzai Gakusha Himura Hideo no Suiri

Whatever the "real" world is, I think the bromance is real and not just in their dream because the other characters may well be fake but the doctor and the patient are real at least. Even if the doctor starts off treating Jiang Shuo as a patient (he seems rather detached in the clinic before entering the machine), everything he goes through with Jiang Shuo in the subconscious world has built a bond between them. When Dr. Qin (the doctor conducting the experiment) sees Jiang Shuo killing himself with Liu Zhi, the way he looks at Jiang Shuo is the way Qin Er looks at him, and he takes a huge risk to go deeper into the subconscious to save Jiang Shuo. They are not simply doctor and patient anymore.

I still have doubts that the real world is the world where the experiment in the clinic is conducted though. A a lot of stuff about the ending don't make that much sense, and, if there's a sequel, I won't put it past the writer to turn the supposedly real world hundreds of years later into yet another dream. Elements of reincarnation and time travel can come in (good luck trying to get past the censors though) or perhaps the elements like computers and smartphones will simply be unexplained.

There are some strange things about the supposedly real futuristic world. If it is really hundreds of years after the Republican era, why are people still using 21st-century computers and smartphones?

Also, even if Liu Zhi is the evil personality within the same body, why would Jiang Shuo be able to see the harassment messages in the phone but not the doctor? (How does the other personality create hallucinations in the real world?)

The doctor expresses surprise that the subconscious mind of Jiang Shuo has such a detailed republican-era world (in contrast, the relatively sparse and confined world of the clinic resembles dream spaces more).

When Jiang Shuo re-enters the machine to get into the next level of his subconscious in order to save the doctor, he gets to the point where he is saved by Bu Yan, but the scene differs slightly from what happens in Episode 1, which gives me the idea that Liu Zhi is trying to trap Jiang Shuo in a parallel subconscious world (not the one we see from Ep 1). If we take the Republican-era world from Episodes 1-35 as the real world (let's call it A), then maybe Liu Zhi is trying to trap Jiang Shuo in a fake subconscious A (the people in which he wants to save regardless of whether they are real) plus other layers of false "real worlds" to trap Jiang Shuo. As long as Jiang Shuo takes the fake A or any of these other "realities" to be real, he won't get back to the real A.

If the clinic and experiment is the real world and everyone in the Republican era is made up, then we shouldn't be shown things that Jiang Shuo doesn't even know (like how Mu Qing is in love with Qin Er at first). The writer has a whole lot to answer for regardless of what we take to be the real world.

The part with Jiang Shuo as the patient could itself be a dream, kind of like what happened that time when the characters were sent to the island. Jiang Shuo was given the illusion that he was in prison, but this could be the same trick. So maybe it was a dream that it was all a dream, and the Republican era characters are still real.

(Only problem is: how would anyone giving Jiang Shuo the illusion predict a future with computers, mobile phones and no more Republican China?)

Unfortunately, I watched it unsubbed. Haven't seen a subbed version yet.