Kare ga Boku ni Koishita Ryuu (2020)

2 reasons it's a groundbreaking show

The school bike racks are empty, the lockers are empty, as are the shelves in the teachers' office. It is a sign of the times, pandemic precautions.

There are none to few bystanders in the parking lot, in the cafe, in the street. This is one reason this show is groundbreaking.

Second, although BL genre has long been around, I like how this show is groundbreaking by the way the writers portray the easygoing perspective of most of the supporting characters.

Thank you Tokyo MX. If you are at all open-minded, it is a groundbreaking romantic comedy that will lighten your mood. Please watch it.

Leggi di Più

Charming, Bemusing, and Just Plain Fun

Yes, this production has a lot of problems and the translation into English is not always coherent, but I did not care. This is charming, funny, and so adorable that I fell in love with it. It has an incredibly positive message about love and gay love that is accepting and normal. What a great message to deliver in a fun, human portrayal. They do this in 4 very short episodes. In addition, these actors are astonishingly good looking and totally adorable. There is a beautiful twist to this story in an epilogue that I sort of felt was coming any must watch. Call me silly or gullible, but I do love series that are sort of off the beaten path and perhaps the production is not as tight (this one is obviously on a shoe-string budget), but they tell a good story AND they are not afraid to show growth and physicality in a relationship (unlike the disappointing 'Cherry Magic'). Well done! You can read my full review of this series at ppbongi.medium.com.

Leggi di Più

They forgot to write the love story for this love story

Saw this on Gaga and thought I’d give it a try. It really didn’t work for me for a number of reasons:
- The production values are practically nonexistent
- The acting is quite stilted and awkward
- There are way too many characters despite a short run time and little room for story
- The story, such as it was, felt disjointed and haphazard. It relies on the “insta love” trope where two people meet and are suddenly, inexplicably in love despite any real chemistry, meaningful interaction, or character development. The characters are adults but act like kids and there’s no depth to the relationship whatsoever.

It’s only two hours long but I started watching it at 1.5 speed just to get it over with.

Leggi di Più

Very LGBTQ-positive series

As a low-budget production, there's a lot to criticize: cinematography and lighting, editing, sound design, etc.

And in terms of acting, I still find it jarring to see "overacting" as a comedic tradition. Still, I guess that's more a cultural thing (even other cultures use exaggerated acting when doing comedy).

What's surprising (maybe even groundbreaking?) is how positive most characters are toward a male-to-male relationship. This is something I rarely see in Japanese shows and movies. And in this series, the two male leads are shown kissing one another openly and not "cheating" by angling their heads so that they only appear to be kissing or cutting away before their lips touch. What chutzpah!

Also, can someone tell me the name of the actor playing Sota, the younger brother of Masumi?

Leggi di Più

Cute but superficial

Well, it's a somewhat cute show, but it lacks depth to be memorable and endearing.

Throughout, I felt that this could have been better with more episodes and more time. Pretty much everything is rushed, much is just left to the viewers imagination to fill the gaps. There are so many beginnings of side plots or aspects that would have complimented the main plot that are just left hanging in the air, mentioned once and brushed over. Why is Hikawa popular as a teacher? It does not seem likely from the few scenes we see. How can he not react at all to being kissed without permission? What is that family story and what relevance does it have? What about the relationship of the mother? Who is that blondish student and why does his opinion matter? How can everyone be supportive, shouldnt there be some opposition? Who ist hat assistant of the dad? ... I ended up with more questions than I care for in a series. It's as if we see a compilation of a much more elaborate show.

Personally, I do not care for that comic style with strange comic-sounds and very unnatural scenes and over the top gestures. Acting was so-so, nothing special, not the worst I've seen.

Leggi di Più

A soothing salve on a gloomy day!

This show lightened my heart up. Most of the times while watching it I couldn't stop smiling.
The story would have been the most ordinary kind of romance story had it not been a same sex romance. But that's where it did a good job; portraying a homosexual relationship like it is the most normal thing on the earth.

Honestly the story is like written by an intelligent 8th grader( that age when one start craving for romance and fluffy stuff in life!)if that 8th grader was properly educated on sexuality & acceptance.

The actors have compatible chemistry and are really pleasant to the eyes. The comedies are well placed and actually funny! No angst , no violence, no darkness...a great watch on a lazy evening when you want to watch a feel good boy-love and relax!!

Leggi di Più

They tried

The story was cliche, the plot moved super quick. Nearly all of the characters motives' were unclear. Even the main relationship doesn't feel believable? It all happened too fast but I'm guessing that was all because they didn't have much time to explore that.

Acting was okay. I'm kind of used to seeing Japanese actors act in that kinda cringy way (like the main dude, Akagi does) but the principal and Akagi's mom was really shining in this. I think the others were fairly new actors so I could cut them slack.

The editing was horrible, you couldn't even hear the characters much because of the deafening background music.

The budget probably was my high school lunch money which is ₺0 but I still appreciate them trying to bring something to the table.

Leggi di Più

Un desastre tan malo que me morí de risa... ¿o de cringe?

A ver... ¿Cómo puedo describir esta serie? La razón por la que quería verla es por Yamamoto Yusuke, que es el protagonista de Tumbling, una de mis series preferidas. Yusuke dejó de actuar varios años por unos líos que tuvo y "resurgió" apareciendo como el prota de "Kare ga Boku", pero ahora me pregunto si realmente quería hacer ese rol o fue lo único que consiguió, porque parece un proyecto de universidad hecho con dos pesos mal aprovechados.

Había leído un par de reseñas que hacían notar la baja calidad y el hecho de que se nota que fue filmada en una escuela en época de pandemia, porque se siente un edificio vacío, sin un sólo póster o decoración del fondo que haga saber que en efecto hay un alumnado allí dentro. Otros escenarios recurrentes son el diminuto bar de la casa de Akagi y una sala de estar random con el revoque mal hecho donde a veces los personajes hablan pero nunca me quedó claro dónde estaba . Para la iluminación se notan los reflectores y que no usaron una bendita pantalla o algo para evitar el reflejo de la luz o la saturación de la misma en el lente.

Aunque entre sus géneros figura comedia, este jdrama es una comedia involuntaria constante, por todo lo que ya dije, con sus actuaciones regulares a malas, (Yamamoto le pone onda mientras que Teranishi parecía que todo el tiempo se aguantaba la risa), su ending de cinco minutos que parece hecho con el MMD studio, sus cortes y silencios incómodos entre toma y toma. La historia no da pie a decir mucho, es lo que menos importó cuando no me paraba de reír del resto. En fin, un viaje ver esto.

Leggi di Più

Mediocre

Profe listo llega nuevo a una escuela y conoce a otro profe, más desaliñado. El profe desaliñado de enamora. Entre medio unos alumnos del instituto intentan hacerle chantaje y parece que el profe listo se va a enfadar pero no, se quieren mucho. Y ya. La serie dura 4 capítulos, y he de decir que aún siendo malísima como es, ya que los actores actúan como en una obra de fin de curso y los escenarios se ven pobres, a mi la serie me gustó. El profe desaliñado resulta gracioso y entrañable, el otro no tanto pero bueno, hacen linda pareja, tratan el tema de "no sabia que era gay pero me he enamorado de un tio" y tal...

Pero, ¿Por qué un 4? Porque tras estos 4 capítulos, en la siguiente temporada, se cargan a todo el reparto, se quedan con el profe listo, el cual de repente se hace abogado y lo mandan a una empresa a trabajar (¿?) porque si, sin explicación ninguna, y eso si que no me mola nada. Si hubiera seguido la trama donde lo dejaron, podría haber tenido una nota decente.

¿La recomiendo? Pues si tienes dos horas que perder y estás muuuy aburrido... Pues si, pero antes mírate Cherry Magic que es mejor.

Leggi di Più

it’s a good show.

I literally made an account here to talk about this show.

This show is so funny. It looks like it was made by a phone. I been laughing watching this show. The main character’s facial expressions are so funny, the way the other main character falls a sleep and the cuts from one perspective to the other is just gold!!!

this was most likely filmed during quarantine that’s why there aren’t many supporting characters and the transitions are weird but over all it’s a good drama.

if you are looking for a quick drama that’s funny fir no reason, this is the show. Lol this is my first review ever.

Leggi di Più

why/when did they fall in love???

Overall: I liked the premise of this indie production but there were too many characters and it fell apart for me. Watched on GagaOOLala.

Content Warnings: non con kissing, non con picture taking/blackmail

What I Liked
- the mom and the supportive principal
- support for same sex marriage
- GL rep in episode 4 (though very brief)
- that there were more than a couple of students in a classroom and also more than a couple teachers in the teacher's lounge
- the kisses weren't great but there were more than one

Room For Improvement
- too many characters and as a result the plot/characters were not well developed, I really didn't see why the two leads loved each other so much
- I was bored and did not really care about the characters or their relationship (see previous point about there being too many characters)
- not a fan of the exaggerated acting from Masumi
- just ignore the bonus scene at the end of episode 4, I didn't like them tossing that right at the end (unless they address this in the second season)
- the ending credits were too long (5 minutes out of a 30 minute episode)

Leggi di Più

Genuine and sincere

so this one is not the highest production but hey it's a pandemic time and who knows what effects that had on the production. The story is sincere and honest and genuine it's all the stuff that dreams are made of and all of the happy ever after stories rolled into a 4 episodes. I wish I knew what the title translated into English. That's about my only negative thing I have to say. Who cares the production seemed not sophisticated and not world class....in addition to the story the actors were just to for real. Very believable even when Akagi was acting crazy. It worked. I am very glad they are having a season 2 yet I knew that or I presumed that Honda had a secret like for Hikawa. I hope they keep the same genuine ans sincere approach in season 2. Best to all involved in this wonderful mini series.

Leggi di Più