The source material for this is an OTT whacky comedy-fantasy, but for some reason this was produced as a drama. The Anda analog in the original is so cute it drives everyone crazy, and half the joke is that he's totally useless. For example, his drawing is so awful that people aren't sure if it's the work of a small child or something abstract that they don't understand. Ryo is so blinded by love that he that he thinks it's really good - again, humor. Lala isn't a person, she's a manga character that Anda fantasizes about all the time (not sexually - she has superpowers and fights evil).

Jet is basically Darth Vader and everyone is scared of him (he's still a good person underneath), and it's Ryo that hates Tee, not the other way around (they're both narcissists and Tee always steals his spotlight - it's major to the plot).

Anyway, nobody ever really sticks to the source material in BL, which is usually a good thing, because they're different media. But the problem is that the original Anda isn't a realistic character - he's not really a character at all, he's more of a plot device, like Ryo's marble. It doesn't work in live action to have a character that is terrible at everything, so they just made him mildly bad at some things, and he never really gets to do anything except look petulant. I also wonder if a story with undertones of pedophilia and incest is the best basis for adaptation.

In this series, which suffers from a terminal case of Penultimate Episode Syndrome, the dramatic tension builds up to intense homophobia (a real bummer) and everyone huddling in tears to a montage of happy times together and a sappy ballad. In doesn't fit the tone of the story. not that anything could, because the tone is so schizophrenic. There are outrageous things thrown in, like Bank's cartoonishly evil and gluttonous manager (so both trans and weight shaming), but these don't fit into the dreary seriousness of everything else.

The writing is poor and wanders all over the place, because they deviated so far from the original story that almost all the plot threads were abandoned just so that we could have people crying in Ep 9.

Most of the characters are bland, and the acting is flat, which is directing and writing, not a lack of ability. There are a couple of moments where you can see how talented Kaonah is, but mostly he just looks mildly confused. This is another case where the soft-focus filter is so cranked up that everyone looks wholly photoshopped. There might have been oscar-worthy performances in this, but we'd never know because it's all a blur.

There really isn't much chemistry, largely because Anda both looks and acts like he's 12 - you can only have one of those, not both. But it' also the writing. I will say that both couples seriously committed to the love scenes, and high scores for that - they were really good. Bonus points for giving us lots of scenes with Film in a muscle shirt or no shirt - he's so hot you almost have to look away.

I can't recommend this series - I was excited to see Turbo & Kaonah as a proper couple, but this was a disappointment. I would love to see this cast in a better production.