This review may contain spoilers
Completely missed its own premise.
Let’s start with the plot, which was an absolute mess. The premise sounded amazing: rivals to lovers. Key word: sounded, because the actual story has almost nothing to do with the setup.
Quickly, we learn that the “rival” is better at everything than the MC, which irritates him to no end. Cue childish competitions, including the MC proudly announcing he’ll get a girlfriend before the rival does.
Meanwhile, in the same episode, their friend suddenly starts dating their female friend, and the MC, who also has feelings for her, decides to jump into a pool after ranting in half Chinese half Japanese. This chaotic spiral leads to the first kiss, which takes place underwater for no logical reason, except that the rival was trying to pull him up so he wouldn’t drown.
From here, the plot stagnates badly.
They get together, but then the rival moves to America for a few months, because his mother is marrying an American. Obviously, it can’t end here because Season 2 (set five years later) exists. The big twist: their communication fades, the MC travels to the U.S. because of his father and suddenly sees his boyfriend with a child and a mysterious woman (whose identity we STILL don’t know).
The whole story feels like random dramatic events thrown together for shock value.
It’s rare for a show to make me feel so much and so little at the same time. Confusion, anger, sadness, emptiness—overall, nothing but everything. Unfortunately, none of it in a good way.
The saving grace of this drama.
The actors were genuinely great and had very natural chemistry. I’d love to see them work together again because they carried the entire show on their backs.
I truly don’t understand the positive reviews that convinced me this would be peak storytelling. It wasn’t. The pacing was awful, the plot was chaotic, and the execution completely wasted a trope that could have been beautiful.
Quickly, we learn that the “rival” is better at everything than the MC, which irritates him to no end. Cue childish competitions, including the MC proudly announcing he’ll get a girlfriend before the rival does.
Meanwhile, in the same episode, their friend suddenly starts dating their female friend, and the MC, who also has feelings for her, decides to jump into a pool after ranting in half Chinese half Japanese. This chaotic spiral leads to the first kiss, which takes place underwater for no logical reason, except that the rival was trying to pull him up so he wouldn’t drown.
From here, the plot stagnates badly.
They get together, but then the rival moves to America for a few months, because his mother is marrying an American. Obviously, it can’t end here because Season 2 (set five years later) exists. The big twist: their communication fades, the MC travels to the U.S. because of his father and suddenly sees his boyfriend with a child and a mysterious woman (whose identity we STILL don’t know).
The whole story feels like random dramatic events thrown together for shock value.
It’s rare for a show to make me feel so much and so little at the same time. Confusion, anger, sadness, emptiness—overall, nothing but everything. Unfortunately, none of it in a good way.
The saving grace of this drama.
The actors were genuinely great and had very natural chemistry. I’d love to see them work together again because they carried the entire show on their backs.
I truly don’t understand the positive reviews that convinced me this would be peak storytelling. It wasn’t. The pacing was awful, the plot was chaotic, and the execution completely wasted a trope that could have been beautiful.
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