Coffee & Vanilla (2019)

Extremely weird and obviously differing with the manga

This show opening starts with a picture from the manga, which clearly portrays people of completely different looks and BEHAVIOR than the cast of this live action. It's a huge contrast. And during the ending credits of each episode, we can see how the scenes were pictured in the manga. Somehow it looks MASSIVELY different. It gives you completely different vibe. So, maybe 'Coffe & Vanilla' was cute & hot as the manga, but it looks somehow lame & creepy with real actors. It happens...

Unfortunatelly, this seems rather extreme case of it, when the mismatched content, mismatched cast and too short a runtime completed the product that's close to a parody in terms of how absurd it all comes across. My detailed experience follows. But I dropped it halfway. Some viewers praised the skinship scenes that kept them going, but problem is... This couple is in bed all the time, but you're not EXCITED.

Okay, manga aside, what we watch in the beginning is: The female lead of this drama is a pretty girl who reject all guys for no reason, and who is shy and insecure in any situation. Despite getting up every morning and dressing up to be a pretty girl, and despite that nothing stops her from gradually gaining experience in whatever, if she only wanted to.

While rejecting one of the guys asking her out, she meets another guy, who "helps" her to get her rid of the first guy, then smoothly asks her out himself. He takes her to a suspiciously expensive restaurant and lets her drink one sip of wine after which she falls unconscious. It looked like she met some kind of a crook, to be honest, LOL. But, she finds out he didn't do anything with her when she wakes up next morning at his place. He just politely asks her to date him, lol. He claims that he fell in love with her at first sight, and they have their fist kiss. It really is a "Fast Paced Romance" to say the least. They are complete strangers. We hear the girl's inner thoughts, excited about finally experiencing love she knows from all the dramas and mangas. We don't hear the guy's thoughts. Goodness gracious.

We move onto bed scene right in episode 1. You know, it's not without fun, to just watch empty-headed people getting it on... I wouldn't exactly call it "romance", but it's certainly not wasting time on bulls**t, lol. Just, when he opened the night with saying: "Let me be your first and your last man.", I briefly wondered whether he planned to kill her, LOL. Maybe, the comparison to 'Twilight' one fellow review here made was not so far fetched? That also had a girl suddenly falling in love with a strange boy desperate-fangirl-style for absolutely no reason, apart from him being "beautiful". But at least there were the ridiculous fantasy elements. There's no one at least having their skin sparkling in the sunlight, here. There's literally nothing here, in the small runtime, but the couple.

Moving onto episode 2... It really does remind me of 'Twilight' now (yeah, cannot get that comparison out of my head, "thank you", other reviews!) with the main guy being all keen to know every single detail about main girl's life and all her little likes and dislikes, despite her being UTTERLY uninteresting. Yet we keep listening to her inner commentary. At one point she wonders: "Can he read minds?" Now, can you tell me NOT to think of 'Twilight':-) Also as soon as episode 2, he gives her a ring. He IS super possessive & jealous since day 1, check. He keeps saying he needs to treasure her. Overall, he acts like she is the only pretty girl he is allowed to date till he dies. Also, other boy shows interest in the main girl, and I would actually prefer him... Yeah, I would prefer the main girl to live normal life, instead of jumping into a weirdly fast relationship with... also weird guy, if you ask me.

Main guy speed-attacks the main girl into dating like in some kind of a women fantasy, but it's weird to watch it happening live action. Nobody acts normally, here. Like, the other boy who also likes the main girl. She introduces him an attractive, rich guy as her boyfriend and tells him that she loves only him. I think this is a situation where person gives up, and it's understandable. His reaction is he that states he still won't give up on her. Who does that? It's like we KNOW we don't watch real people. In the ending credits, we can see how the scenes were pictured in the manga... And it's SO different. Like I mentioned above in my opening paragraph.

Episode 3... The other boy is all over the main girl. Something nasty in me wishes that she'd go for him. Let her cheat on the main guy! I'm bored with him already, LOL. Such a creep. Okay, it's then revealed that ML actually met FL a bit while back, and started liking her BEFORE the 1st episode encounter. It makes things a BIT better, though I still did not warm up to him. FL is thinking: "I can't believe that he loves me this much!" with a happy smile all across her face. I admit I was thinking exactly the same thing, LOL. Just not smiling the same way. Then, another guy is introduced... He is shown smoking a big cirarette and blows the smoke right into FL's innocent face, so that all the viewers know that he is a BAD boy, lolz. It's like in 'Vampire Diaries' (to put yet another vampire reference in:) when Damon gets introduced. Then, after like 30 seconds, his scene is over, LOL. Maybe, this show could pass as a Parody? Then, it IS funny;-) ML then delivers plenty of beautiful clothes and shoes for FL to choose from - a classic cinderella moment, he even calls her "my Cinderella" - so that the women-fantasy line is kept going on, no matter how dated and pathetic it is, then when she's wearing red dress and standing in red light (for it not to be exaggerated:) they share a hot moment which made me think of all the j-drama couples I would enjoy having a scene like this. Just about any other couple but this one, sadly.

Epi 4: ML's weird brother (still, actually less weird than ML himself) managed to kiss FL forcefully, so ML states he needs to make her forget that. So, yet more make-out scenes occur. My, why this was NEVER there with couples I did ship, lol. Put these scenes into any proper j-drama, and I'll say thank you. But do not create some weird 25-minute collage of them with "characters" no one cares about!

Epi 5: ML's brother is all over FL, trying to seduce her. I don't care for him, yet I almost love him for usurping some of the screentime. I do prefer scenes where ML is absent. FL is massively boring. So much that ML's brother's awkward attempts to shake things up are actually an improvement. Whenever there's only a half of the boring/creepy main couple onscreen, it's a plus. So, I'm all for inviting more and more side-characters into this show, so that we won't have to watch the mains all the time. Sadly, ML reappears after 1/3 of the episode runtime or so. Still, BETTER than having him there ALL the time. Then FL is joined by her female friend... she is also interested in ML. Pitty she can't steal ML and drag him somewhere far. I could bear watching FL - despite her empty personality she IS very pretty - with someone else. I've grown to hate ML both inside and out. I cannot withstand watching FL & ML both. Someone, PLEASE split this couple, LOL.

Epi 6: FL's "friend" asks her to allow her one date with ML. FL agrees, unfortunatelly she also goes on the date so we have to watch it. From my point of view, I didn't mind FL's suffering, it was still less boring to watch than if the date was just ML & FL alone. ML obviously agreed because he wanted to teach FL a life lesson, which I agreed she needed, I just didn't care. Soon main couple is in bed again, and he teaches her some stuff there. Best part of which is, he mentions he'a about to go abroad. That got my hopes up. Shall he be absent for some screen time? Perhaps even whole episode or two? That would be great. He then leaves, and FL is surrounded by both the secondary males, her female friend, plus she meets (yet another) psycho. I now realize I'm not interested in this "drama" WHATEVER is happening. So, nothing against the manga, perhaps that's fun but this, I don't need to watch it all.

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How shall I described this sh***
Except wasting time
I think This is the worset version from
Cinderella and four knights

The genre shouldn't be romance at all
It based on lust, Sexeul scence,
and no story at all

Guess what I jumped from ep 04 to the end and I discovered I missed nothing
Literally nothing

The acting was extremely fake and bad
Solid faces with poor performance

The FL was extremely annoying
There is a huuuuuge different between being shy and being naive, annoying , stupid, dump and weak character

I didn't get a point,
how come the ML was obsessed that much with the FL and suddenly every time he Left her and disappear for a whole week without explanation or logical reason ???

This wasn't interested at all :/
And if there is less than 1 for rating
I'll give it ( -100 ) -_-

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Pour passer le temps...

Que dire de ce drama japonais...

10 episodes de 24 minutes, rapide à voir et à compléter.

Par contre, il faut aimer le type de certains mangas japonais qu’on retrouve dans ce drama : Tout est dans le superficiel, que se soit les personnages sou l’histoire. Rien n’est recherché ou développé.

Le lead féminin est à la limite de la niaiserie, dommage pour l’image des femmes.
Le lead masculin est touchant, mais toujours la au bon moment, c’est presque miraculeux.
Quand à leur histoire, c’est parfois presque dérangeant car on n’arrive pas à savoir si le personnage principal féminin est finalement ok ou pas avec ce qu’elle vit??!!

Les rôles secondaires sont tout aussi peu recherchés et développés, et n’ont pas d’histoire vraiment à eux.

Donc facile et rapide à voir, durant les pauses déjeuner au travail, c’est parfait.. Par contre, ça ne va pas plus loin à mon sens.

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i don't know what to say after watching few episodes i found it was romantic drama with obsession syndrome i'm liking it so much obsession in good way not dark plot first half i'll give full marks 10/10 after then it decline from my interest going boring plot at least for me

STORY
it count overall concept so i say worst (starting is nice)

ACTING
actually i'm biased on it i don't know its only me who felt that or may be some others also , i've watch almost every country drama but i felt only Japanese actors are under-confident i doubt their acting skill i've watched some J-Dramas which i'm satisfied with acting but most of them i can't say

SUGGESTION
only epi 1-5 or don't watch it even a single epi if looking for great ending

Leggi di Più

eh

I was curious to see what the drama was about. Honestly, I was disappointed. It had a lot of potentials to be somewhat good but it was just every cliche of a drama stacked and compressed into a drama. I could see this more as a parody but overall it was too fast-paced, The actress, I know from Good Morning Call, but too innocent is too much in my opinion. It's really exaggerated. The fact that they fall in love, do everything, and yet she doesn't even know anything about him in the first episode was low key lame. I understand dramas are like that but that's what we love about dramas, the building of a relationship. I want to give it a chance, maybe one day but for now I am just going to have to put this in my drop list.

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Dropped it after 1st episode and didn't even think twice about it

This is bad. Just as bad as the manga itself. I'm still trying to finish the manga because I hate dropping things but I didn't want to waste my life with this The plot is bad but it's understandable as it is based on a bad plot. The acting is bad. No chemistry, no emotion. The fl is really dull, souless, not sure if she's stupid or naive, or maybe both, but she will not develop for sure even if I keep watching. The male lead is a pure pervert and toxic, and just as dull as the female lead. The whole idea of both the manga and the drama is toxic. This is neither romantic or sexual, it's full of abuse and somehow people are mistaking it for romance. In real life this guy will be the top of the psycho chain. You meet some random dude and after 2 hours he's like "i love u so much i can't help it". Run sis, RUN.

Not sure why but japaneses keep presenting abuse (physical/mental/sexual) as something normal, cool and romantic in both their mangas and their dramas, and I think that this is really wrong and unhealthy especially for the female audience. It's really disappointing.

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I can't do mental gymnastics to make myself like this

I'm fascinated why this has such high ratings but the reviews are so polarizing (loved it or hated it - i'm clearly in the second camp)

Both the female lead and the male lead have the personality of a piece of wet cardboard. Sure there's great chemistry between them, but I can't ignore the entire dumpster fire of a plot bringing them together. I'm all for suspension of belief, and indulging in unrealistic fantasies, but this is so far removed from reality I had to drop it because it was hurting my brain. The female lead has NO agency whatsoever, there's quiet and shy girls and there's this girl whose only personality traits are being a.) jaw-dropping pretty and b.) a pushover. Don't get me started on the male lead - again, there's slightly questionable age-gap relationships and there's this walking predatory red flag. The supporting characters also have no substance to them but to fill cookie-cutter drama roles. Disappointing.

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