Jia You Ba Shao Nian (2024)

Walks the line of 'No Hetero Explanation' with a Balancing Pole called Hǎo Péngyǒu (好朋友)

Nice show, the pacing (considering it covered 2 years in 24 eps) is actually great and if you're not expecting some over the top drama fest or action and you're settling in for a fun, funny, easy to watch, high school slice of life, then you'll enjoy this a lot.

THE GOOD:
- The acting flowed. Sometimes there were some highly cheesy friendship and character personality moments reminiscent of early PG13 Japanese animes, but they played out well enough.
- Likeable characters ALL around, shit, even that d*ck Gu Fei turned out to be alright once he got his crazy in check.
- Good humor, it's funny all the way, and cute too.
- Production costs hold up for all scenes, from the school, to their houses to where they hang out.
- The school theme doesn't drown out the characters, even though it's a huge part of the plot, well done.
- Nice OST music, catchy (albeit over used in too many scenes, as many Cn dramas do with their music)
- The actors are not teens but fuck me, I wouldn't have known they were in their twenties if I hadn't looked it up. Good casting.
- Side characters and couples didn't overwhelm the story either.
- A variety of things happen in this, all quite entertaining moment to moment.
- Consistently enjoyable from start to finish.
- The AI subs don't actually suck.
- Dusha is obvs the typical female no-homo buffer between Jinzhan and Yushu, but she's harmless and likeable.
- If someone REALLY wants to ignore the obvious censored BL coded scenes in this show, they can do so by slathering on a nice layer of Hǎo Péngyǒu to appease their no-homo needs. They're teens after all, so that somehow makes Jinzhan and Yushu's 'friendship' completely understandable. (in Asia? I'm not Asian, I don't know if teenage male friends are really like this in Asia, if so, let me know kay?)

Nothing BAD or UGLY.

The HIGHLIGHTS:
- Jinzhan! aka OUDOUDOU! What a great character, such a dilly, sweet kid.
- Jinzhao! Jinzhan's brother is just such a vibe and a mood all at once, the kind of sibling who'd be exhausting and embarrassing but great to grow up with.

9 (because all high school dramas test my attention span on some level)

I recc it for a one time watch for sure, two times if this genre is up your alley!

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Personal side note:

Maybe it's just cause I'm western, but as with other forced bromance Chinese dramas, the way these MLs interact ain't how male best friends behave with each other as far as I have ever known or experienced.
But anyhow, in an ideal BL world, censorship in Cn would finally drop and we'd get sequels to so many forced bromances. This would be one if them, I'd hope, because I'd really enjoy watching a college based series of these two figuring out that they're not just friends.

I do think this series got away with A LOT more physical touch between the ML's than other 'bromances' because firstly, being teens in high school apparently means it's friendship for two boys to be so close and touchy, and secondly, this show isn't well known, hence not drawing too much attention to it which has proven to be a problem with shows like Justice in the Dark (pulled off air), The Spirealm (pulled off air but rebroadcast outside of China) and Blue Canvas of Youthful Days (pulled off air but rebroadcast outside of China) so it didn't garner a lot of attention and over trigger the censors. Thirdly, they obviously DID cut some scenes between the MLs to get this broadcast, it's obvious (and regrettable) and fourthly, they chased every other close moment between the MLs with Hǎo Péngyǒu' and an extra character showing up like their broadcasting rights depended on it...oh wait.

Hehe.

But ya'll, of all the moments in the show, in the end and in my opinion, there is no hetero explanation for ep 24 @ 26.14 to 26.23, as well as how YuShu's looking at Jinzhan at 28.00. No friend I've ever known acted that way around me 😂 and if they had, shit would have been AWKWARD, unless, well, you know, someone's into it.

Ah well, fight me.

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IT'S DEFINITELY MORE THAN BROMANCE!

So I finished watching it and it exceeded my expectations tbh. At first I thought that it would be so-so or like the acting maybe lacking 'cos I never heard of these actors before and thought that they might be new but I never thought that I would fall in love with each one of them, their bond, their friendship heck I even love the antagonists of the story. I definitely recommend this series to those who wants to feel the nostalgia of their high school years or to those who just wants to watch a series about friendship and LOT'S OF BROMANCE (it was definitely more than that i swear) The fact that when his brother got a gf and he was jealous of how lovey dovey they are in front of them so he also did it with his "BESTIE" YES YOU READ THAT RIGHT


SPEAKING OF, Let's jump to the main point of me writing this review. YES, it does have a lot of bromance heck even a sort of jealousy scene with another guy and masking it as taking back their ✨best friend✨. And a lot of hints that their was definitely something more. I even speculated it with that one scene where YS was told by JZ's father that he also had a friend with the same surname and that scene where they were at the couch and JZ showed a pic of him as a child and told YS that his father(YS's) told him that their was supposed to be an arranged marriage with one of his friend's child but it turned out to be a boy so it was cancelled and( yes their fathers are friends).THERE'S A LOT MORE , even the freaking touches and longing eyes that'll make you question HOW THE HECK DID THIS SURPASSED THE CENSORSHIP?! even when all the het ships were all having a romantic moment and YES THEY ALSO HAVE THEIRS.

AND WORRY NOT the girls end up having different partners in the end and the two guys ended up living together even arguing like a married couple after they moved in so I think those crushes or moments at the first part were just for censorship reasons.

TRUST ME AFTER THEY KNOW WHO WAS BEHIND THAT COSTUME JZ CRUSH SUDDENLY VANISHED yes it VANISHED as if it never happened. Tho there was that one scene a little after but it was gone by the next and the girl had another partner who btw is on par with her. And JZ and YS act like they're boyfriends and I'm saying this as someone who has guy friends who also had their guy friends but they never have those lingering hand touches and looks those two have with eo (yes including leg touches and laying on another's lap) . Skinship is normal for us asians but those two are definitely not just bffs like no, I beg to disagree even the girl noticed when the other guy got jealous when the rival "friend" arrived.

Anyways this is getting long but yeah their relationship wtvr it is, oh wait— let's just call it like what they call it, friendship gets stronger the more you're near the last episode. You'll also fall in love with every character and their bond as a group of friends who tackles their journey towards high school and life together.

Though there may be flaws due to a lot of cutscenes (specially the cute ones) which makes you rewind the episode a lot of times making sure you haven't skipped anything but no it just happened because it did and no it can't be seen because it's gone gone, just imagine bro. There are even scenes which are on the opening and ending credits but aren't included in the episode so yeah you're not delusional it just ..happened. Tho it makes me question why a lot was cut when the whole rest of the episodes can't even be explained by any heterosexual means. Well ig if they also cut it then there'll be none left😆. But overall it's really good and it's probably one of the shows that made me stick to the end despite having problems with my attention span these days.

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