Reviews

Unreal How Much I liked This

Seeing the overall rating and some of the comments I've read about this had me really worried about this series, but after watching, I'm Ever 9 and Yi-Ping's biggest supporter. Anti-reset was exactly the series I needed to get out of my BL-slump, and now I'm back in (I think, ask me in another 2 days), and I severely love this series.

Let's Dive In.

I desperately needed something new, something that wasn't a bunch of uniforms or office jargon, and this series was just perfect. It's the first in the BL genre (to my knowledge) that takes on the robot/human trope and I ate every single second of this series up. The first episode had me hooked, mostly because Li Feng (Ever 9) was gorgeous in all of his shots, especially the ones with Yi-Ping touching him and seeing how he looked so real but was just a robot. But more importantly, I think the overall feel of the series had me seated and so excited. Before their second kiss, the tension between them is so strong that you yearn for them to do literally anything.

Now the story isn't perfect. I think they could've gone into more depth about how Ever 9 worked in general outside of being a caretaker for Yi-Ping. I think it's interesting that he can eat, but does that mean he can use the restroom? And there were times when his emotions were so human-like that I wondered if he was just some half-human-half-robot person. I think as well they could've made the plot a lot more interesting by having maybe added a couple of twists, like Yi-Ping maybe finding out Ever 9 was a cyborg which is why he loved him, or at the end, they did reset him, and we have to see him rebuild all of these memories again with Ever 9 -- I don't know, something to spice up the plot a bit. Also, they never go into any depth about the weird connection that the series kept making to Ever 9 and Yi-Ping's dog who died. Was his dog's spirit in the robot (weird)? Did Ever 9 remind him of his dog which was like him finally having a companion again? I'm not sure, it wasn't thoroughly looked into, and I think it could've just been scrapped completely cause it was a little suspicious on the moral spectrum (but then again, he is falling in love with a robot so...)

But again, I loved this, the tension, their outings, the small moments of Yi-Ping falling in love with something he knew he shouldn't. When you look a little deeper into it, of course it's weird and a bit creepy to fall for something nonhuman, especially something that's programmed to do just that, And if you think even deeper than that, it's sad that Yi-Ping's uncle had to program a robot for Yi-Ping, and he that he won't ever be able to just make that same connection to a human person. He technically has nobody except something that could shut off on him at any time.

Their intimate scenes were handled really well. Lots of great kissing, and I liked that they focused more on the love part of the NC than the actual NC part. The series didn't have to make the women so insufferable like his assistant who couldn't take a hint or his student. I also hated that they made Ever 9's lips the color of his skin any time he was shutting off or in the lab, it just looked a little funny. Just some nit-picky stuff, but overall, I loved the story.

Ratings

Story: 8.5/10 - Some hiccups, but overall I enjoyed it. I love the lab stuff the most and watching Ever 9's facial expressions as they programmed him. Their domestic life was so cute, it's literally one of my favorite tropes.

Acting: 9/10 - They did excellent! Especially Li Feng. I think they both had some difficulties in being able to cry (in some scenes, not all), but overall everyone did a great job.

Music: 7/10 - I didn't pay much attention to it, but it wasn't distracting.

Recommendation Value: 8/10 - I really think this one is a good one to watch! It's different from the plethora of BLs that we have at our disposals, and it helped me get out of my BL-block, so that's a big reason too (lol).

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Awful show

I could tolerate the poor editing in ep 1 and 2 , and yoo ah-in had enough scenes that I'm not even sure his scenes were cut , but the writing was baaaddd, despite all the noise made about abduction and trafficking of children ,the adults somehow let them always wander off , the younger priest having his faith tested was meant to come off as deep ,but came off as boring , all the talk of the ML being this important person that the bad guys needed , reduced to him having a flash drive with all his work that he gave away willingly.
Did no one think of escaping by ship except the human traffickers. The FL had more chemistry with her female soldier friend than the ML. Despite that , the only thing the show had going for it towards the end was the ML and FL relationship and they butchered that with the stupid ending

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Unreliable review

This is likely an unreliable review as I only managed to get through two episodes. But the two episodes were enough for me personally.

The initial scene was relatively intriguing but the actions of our main made no sense from the get-go. Let's say he slaughtered everyone because he was trying to be completely obedient to what he was asked to do. Yet he makes a scene about his regret, and then manages to leave the organization by doing self harm. If those he assassinated were really that important to him to begin with, couldn't he have just done exactly this to prevent himself from being a part of the murders? He makes another scene about how his self harm is part of his redemption, yet when the pain flares up, he does everything he can to ease the pain. Then the odd transition of wearing some mask to disguise himself so he can just drink his life away and be a bum... is pretty distasteful.

Insert the female who starts a fight with him, after an odd and awkward obsession to communicate with a bum. As if she's a two-year old who has never seen bums before. The fight causes damage to the carts of innocent bystanders, and they just prance off as if they are supposed to be respectable good folks. Insert again, some wealthy kid who also just coincidentally happens to be obsessed with befriending the bum out of nowhere after having met him for two seconds. Only for his family to be slaughtered later and this bum just decides to watch for a while until suddenly trying to step in at the last second to be a savior. Insert yet again, the male companion of the aforementioned female. The fight scene between the two is a dramatized dance rather than an actual fight.

Yea... no matter how good the costuming or background is. There's nothing that can redeem these details in only the first two episodes.

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Good but not stimulating

This series is a bit difficult to describe because the acting and character chemistry were pretty good. The plot (with exception of the ending) flowed relatively well. But for a 29-episode series, it was lacking that "entertaining" factor and the entire series felt like it was playing to a single note. The drama wasn't dramatized enough and the humor wasn't humorous enough. The cases and mysteries that revolve solely around the protagonists were interesting in the beginning but started to falter when they began to poorly insert new characters. And the ending is really where it begins to crack because there wasn't great character development for the aforementioned new characters and some existing ones. They made attempts to do so with some flashbacks but unsuccessfully. However, as with other average series, this one was still entertaining enough to complete with some time skips. Not much actions scenes and no romance (which I usually prefer).

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Average but charming

It's a good series to watch if you aren't looking for anything that can cause lack of sleep due to wanting to get to the next episode. Having recently getting back into the Asian series mode, I was super excited to see a new Wuxia series with high ratings. However, the series has the same flaws as with many others. The acting of the main protagonists are just slightly less than average and the only saving grace is they have some chemistry with each other. It feels like actors these days are chosen based on looks and less on their ability to act and draw the audience in. The actions scenes were below average and it made me miss again the days when actors with some actual martial arts skills were chosen for these types of roles. The plot had potential but the transitions were choppy, keeping it lighthearted throughout.

I did appreciate that the historical costume and makeup weren't as ridiculous as some other series, and nothing was too overly dramatized. And despite it being an overall average, it was still entertaining enough to finish.

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Best drama but underrated

This drama is really fantastic people who was Thai bl this seems bit different to them may be because of not much comedy scenes or kiss scenes but quite romantic and based on past bl this drama contains child hood crush, past memory and straight guy and gay relationship wow drama no much complicated twist simple and clear unfortunately we have very less episodes and if they make more episodes with 1 hr time it would have been good but still they covered all the plots without truncating I loved this drama and Japanese bl always have different vibe the voice of actors and the music story is a kind of silent I enjoyed it and recommend to all bl fans

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Controversial, But Hear Me Out

Well don’t know where to start with this one, but I will say this BL is a little controversial since it can be viewed in different ways depending on the person. I have a very “in the middle” opinion with this show so I will state what I think like if I’m writing an informative essay… kinda lol.

Some may state that this BL is considered incest while others will state otherwise. But as of now let’s focus on the first opinion.

Is this incest?

Well considering they’re not blood related, no it’s not incest but other factors play a major part into why this could be seen as incest. Other people have mentioned how the fact that since Qian raised Yuan since a very young age that he should not have those sorts of feelings towards Yuan. I read a review saying that it’s understandable that Yuan had those feelings considering his rough past and also him being young and taken care of by Qian could possibly confuse him and make him have feelings for Qian. But Qian reciprocating those feelings is just plainly wrong because for one he’s old enough to understand what’s right and wrong. And two he basically saw Yuan grow so you would guess they would only have a family relationship and feelings towards eachother. Now, this is something that I am confused about, though liking an adopted or non-blood-related person is very possible mostly if they’re adopted already while you’re in your teens or so. But if you’re growing up with them since little I would assume you would only see them as a family member. Like this is what I would see it as but if my family adopted someone when I was very young and I grew up with them I would never have such romantic feelings towards them since once again, I grew up with them and will only see them as a sibling. I’ve also never understood how in some shows best friends that grew up together also start having feelings with eachother because to me if we grow up together I will see you more as a family rather than a friend that could possibly turn into something romantic. You know? Now having a best friend that you grew up with since very young and having an adopted person that you grew up with are very different things because, one is adopted lol so that automatically makes you related to them. But it’s still something that seems to play a similar role to me because once again, if we grow up together, you’re family to me and I will see you as such. It’s not the same as meeting someone who was adopted by your family when you’re, let’s say 15 and they’re 15 too, and by the time you’re a bit older you realize you have feelings for that person because once again you met that person at a pretty mature age and didn’t technically grow up together.

Anyway, that’s all I have to say about that opinion. I side with both opinions being stated for this show. Because once again it’s controversial. But let’s talk about the second opinion and come to a conclusion.

Is it not incest?

Morally speaking it is, realistically speaking from DNA and so on. No, it’s not. No matter what anyone thinks they’re not blood related. So is it not incest? Before I keep going let’s search up what incest is. And from a quick search it states “ Incest is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity, and sometimes those related by affinity, adoption, or lineage”. Therefore based on this definition what they did is incest since he’s adopted by Qian. But once again they’re not blood related. Since I can remember the word incest has mainly been used when actual blood related members of a family have a romantic relationship between themselves. Though when someone dates their stepbrother or stepsister it’s a little bit more normalized but by some it’s also considered incest. There’s a lot of shows/movies about stepsiblings catching feelings for eachother, but back to the age thing most of the times this is portrayed, the stepsiblings meet when they’re in their late teens and don’t necessarily grow up together. So it’s not as controversial. Cause it’s like a friend of yours or your crush suddenly becoming your stepsibling cause your parent and their parent decided to be together.

Ok that’s all I can think of to say for both sides, ngl trying to write out about this not being incest was a little hard because the way this BL is portrayed is very much incest coded.

But to conclude, this BL is gonna be seen differently by many different people depending on their own personal views and opinions. I myself will admit that I’m in the middle about this show, although I do see why it’s seen as incest I can also accept why it’s not. Yes, it’s more to the incest side because of different factors such as age gap, the fact Yuan was adopted by Qian, the fact that he was very young when he was adopted by Qian, and the fact that Qian played a father, mother and older brother role for both Lili and Yuan throughout the years, and not only until Yuan confessed his feelings did Qian suddenly start having those feelings for him as well which leads me to think that before Yuan showed signs of liking Qian and also confessed, Qian had no such feelings for Yuan. And that thought makes it a bit weird but also not? Once again, controversial as fuck. Very complex to actually put a label on it as either incest or not incest. At the end of the day, they were both kids when they met eachother, there was an age gap but possibly no bigger than 7 years, but still they were kids when they met. They both had hard lives and tough pasts. A lot of trauma and no therapy or anything that could’ve emotionally helped them. Even Qian would have nightmares about his mother, therefore he isn’t mentally stable to make more mature reasonable decisions such as not dating your adopted brother. Both need therapy and need help mentally, and the fact that they liked eachother isn’t 100% their fault, most likely not their fault at all. For one you can’t control your feelings, and second they’re both not mentally stable to possibly understand how weird it actually is. And the fact that everyone else accepted it so easy didn’t help this case either. Because in reality this probably wouldn’t have been so easily accepted by people mostly coming from a gay relationship. But that’s just how this show turned out to be and we must accept it as it is. Overall I will admit it was a good show, the acting was good, the story was decent, and everything else was good too. It’s just a little controversial but that shouldn’t be something you let ruin your watching experience, mostly when you consider the other factors as to why things turned out the way they were. Was it a little unrealitc in some parts? Yes. But this whole show is a little unrealistic and controversial all over. But also realistic and relatable in certain parts.

Final thoughts

Have an open mind when you watch this show, your opinion is valid whether you think this is incest or not, or both. It’s up to you to let this show be a certain experience for you wether that be a bad, good or both. But let’s not lie, the chemistry was good, and so was the acting, casting, and directing.

Overall: 8.8/10

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A Serious Question of Attraction

We often don’t realize how little we know about a person until we are in constant proximity with them.

Living with Him, an adaptation of Miyata Toworu’s manga of the same name, explores just that: the complexities of friendship and attraction through the shared living arrangements of childhood friends Tanaka Kazuhito (Sato Ryuga) and Natsukawa Ryota (Sakai Sho) upon entering university. Ryota is reserved and accustomed to responsibility, whereas Kazuhito is outgoing and universally liked. Despite Kazuhito’s popularity and striking looks, his inability to sustain relationships confounds Ryota and sparks a journey of self-discovery. As Ryota probes the reasons behind Kazuhito’s fleeting relationships, he confronts his own emotions and insecurities.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/04/27/living-with-him-first-impressions-ep-1-2/

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A Somber Love Story Hinging on Desperation

Shelter.
A place to be.
A roof.
A resting place.
A place to–what?

Shelter. What exactly is it? And why is it so hard to hold onto? Why is it so hard to define? Why is it so hard to understand?

Starring Lee Jae Bin as Lee Yoon Dae and Jang Woo Young as Cha Soo Hyuk, the Korean BL Gray Shelter is all about finding a haven amidst life’s storm, amidst domestic violence and emotional abuse. Yoon Dae is a domestic abuse victim who learned to avoid anger by becoming angry at himself and others, all while fearing being alone. Soo Hyuk is trying desperately to survive while supporting a family whose income is being sucked dry by his gambling-addict father.

And both are looking for the one thing neither has ever truly known.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/04/26/gray-shelter-series-review-ep-3-to-5/

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Could Have Been Better

This is the real thing. Acting that does not look like acting.” – Quote from The Star

There is honestly so much to unpack here in this short series that goes way beyond the plot or story. Reality and fiction merge together to make this series unique. As the abstract states, this series is based on a ‘true story’. Perhaps a more apt description might be closer to a docudrama.

It begins with a hapless and sad young man, ironically named Hope (Night Yodsakon), who sets up his vendor cart selling fried meatballs in front of a BL production company. He looks and acts defeated and forlorn. Yet maintains a sense of optimism outwardly; merely for show. Inwardly, he seems to have given up ‘hope’.

One day he is approached by the owner of the BL production company who asks if he would like to star in a BL series. Indeed, there is something enticing about Hope that draws you to him. His face tells it all and there is something about his demeanor that is raw and organic. If he could learn to act, channel his difficult life experiences into real meaningful and believable enactments, he could evoke a freshness about a series. Hope knows nothing about acting or even what a BL is but is willing to try.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/04/25/the-star-series-review-ep-1-2/

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A Love Story Full of Yearning & Longing

Sometimes beauty is born out of tragedy, out of a broken place that doesn’t seem capable of growing something beautiful.

And yet, even roses have thorns.

The Taiwanese BL Unknown, adapted from the web novel Da Ge by Priest, is a stunning example of a relationship built from a broken place. Starring Chris Chiu (Wei Qian) and Kurt Huang (Wei Zhiyuan), it delves deeply into a story about two boys who don’t belong anywhere but whose hearts seek a home and family in each other’s brokenness.

And it succeeds.

From the moment a young Yuan follows Qian from the darkness surrounding him in the streets to the warmth of Qian’s home, Unknown becomes a story about finding light in a period of darkness. It’s a concept that threads well throughout the series; from youth to adulthood, strangers to brothers to lovers, light and darkness balance each other, intertwine, and then become one. It’s a transformative experience that grips the soul and doesn’t let go.

Read the complete article here-

https://the-bl-xpress.com/2024/04/23/unknown-series-review-ep-3-to-12/

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My Favourite Watch in 2024

Adapted from the web novel “Xi Hua Zhi” (惜花芷) by Kong Liu (空留), “Blossoms in Adversity”, this drama isn’t a one man show. No, rather it chronicles the individual journey of each character. It could be the main leads, Hua Zhi or Gu Yanxi, each of whom had their own struggles; or it could be the female residents of the Hua Family whose sudden fall from grace led them to live a life of misfortune, something they could have never imagined before. Even though they had their disagreements, blood is obviously thicker than water. They argued, fought and yet stood together when the times were worst. How far can a bunch of women hold out when the Emperor of the nation is out for their blood? The story line beautifully weaves a redemptive recourse with a somber romance. Neither overpower each other, they exist in perfect harmony, blending through motions. For now, let’s talk about the main characters and their journeys!

Read the complete article here-

https://kcdramamusings.wordpress.com/2024/04/27/blossoms-in-adversity-series-review/

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In the mood for laughter and love

If there's one thing I appreciate about cdramas it's that, from time to time, they manage to produce a story with characters behaving their age but also showing a pleasantly surprise maturity to their actions. In recent years, youth dramas like Love O2O, Our Secret, You Are Desire or When I Fly Towards You come to mind. Everyone Loves Me falls into this category. We are presented a group of characters who are young enough to make mistakes, but old enough to be aware of their limitations, of their missteps, and learn to grow from them.

I really liked both leads. Particularly Ling's spitfire personality, which is a breath of fresh air and I loved every minute she made Gu Xun sweat. But he didn't lose against her. Gu Xun was charming and overall had a great presence, boy needed to be taken down a notch tho. And thanks to the fact both leads are written as equals through their entire journey together, at the end of the drama it feels like they have come out as better people. I even dare say, it feels like their story it's just beginning.

Lin Yi and Zhou Ye have great chemistry and managed to portray their characters really well. They clearly had a lot of fun working together and with their character's development. I would love to see them work together again in the future.

The rest of the cast was also very good. The supportive characters hace each a function in pushing forward the story at the workplace and the leads's personal lives, which made for some very interesting office tension and hilarious interactions out of it. For example, at the beginning of the story leading man it's arrogant enough to know a good quantity of girls are crushing on him but for someone who claimed to be so popular, he spent a good portion of the story dealing with loves rivals from right to left, up and down. Everyone Loves Me? More like Everyone Loves Her. The results were awesome.

This was a very fun and easy going drama for me, with lots of re-watch potential. Every time I watched a new episode, it put me in a good mood and that's enough for me to recommend it.

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