Blossom Campus (2024)

Geez...

This is obviously a small production with an even smaller budget, but I was appalled at the actuality of the K-BL. On top of a whole mess of things (production, acting, plot) this series just made... no sense? I feel like I watched everything and nothing at all. Everything that happened felt too coincidental, and I really don't even know where to begin.

Let's Dive In.

So let's start off with this plot that's already extremely wonky. Minjae is a new transfer student who keeps coincidentally bumping into the bubbly Yoonchan, who happens to have no friends and immediately falls for Minjae for no apparent reason. Then they add the most irrelevant thrid-wheeler into this that has zero correlations to the characters and immediately shows signs of having feelings for Minjae, again, for no apparent reason. The ending doesn't even serve this series justice cause they end on a cliffhanger as if I'd be back to watch another season (no!!).

This is obviously a small-budgeted series, but it felt more like a student-made series than an entire company behind it. It's hard not to realize that there is literally nobody besides these few actors on screen. Nobody at the cafe, nobody in the library, no one around the school, and no one also taking taekwondo classes. Some of the conversations ran on for far too long, like any conversation with the singular professor who works at the school, or the only senior that Yoonchan had. This series is already rather short, but then they had these long-drawn-out conversations that I definitely zoned out on more than once.

To make matters worse, there's a scene where Yoonchan is confronted by his senior about his relationship with Minjae, which Minjae overhears, in which he tells him that they're "just friends" because, get this, they are just friends! But Minjae gets butt-hurt about it, mind you, the senior came off as extremely homophobic and they quite literally were only friends. So there's a whole episode where they go around mopping and it's hilarious because it's so bad.

Moving onto the relationship...eh. Honestly, I didn't hate it, and they did extremely well during the kissing scenes, however, I will say that they needed to cut the kissing scenes in half because they went on for far too long. Other than that, I think they were okay, but nothing special.

Ratings:

Story: 4/10 - Just not good at all.

Acting: 8/10 - not bad, a little mediocre, but it's okay.

Music: 5/10 - I don't remember.

Recommendation Value: 1/10 - Not a lot of K-BLs came out this year, so I'm sad to say that you can go ahead and skip this one.

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Still budding

The production is competent for it's low budget, especially compared to other independent low budget series. I don't mind the lack of extras because of the budget, it's a very nitpicking point people take such personal umbrage with. I like the show's creative use of the spaces that doesn't need to utilize more people like the library, which is also an intimate space. Where it needs improvement is definitely the pacing and writing. The actors are okay, but for so much of it the main characters Min Jae and Yoon Chan seemed to be on the opposite mental age spectrum with Yoon Chan who I suppose they wanted to be innocent, but was giving more of a early twenty something with a stunted mind of a 5 year old. He's too old to get away with thinking that friends kiss and flirt like that. Also while it's a good thing the actors are committed in acting kiss scenes, sometimes they go on for way too long in the edit. I did like the professor character being a mentor figure and they actor is good, up until the weird cousin loving story. It's actually pretty harmful and messed up to use that as the parallel to a same sex relationship, it's literally the type of thing bigots use to falsely accuse lgbt people with. I'm pretty disappointed with Strongberry for not clocking that in their script. Despite all the flaws, I'm rooting for them to do better in future shows and in this show if it gets another season to finish out the cliff hanger.

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A cute little slice of life!!! But that ending :(

This drama gave me some feels because I can relate to how the relationship progressed since my first relationship was somewhat similar.

You start off with a transfer student and a goofball that doesn't seem to have many friends. They meet and instantly feel somewhat of a connection that they don't seem to understand as time moves on in the series, they start to fall for each other thru interaction with each other, guidance from others and a love rival that was clearly not a rival.

If you like the slice of life format this series just might click with you, I will say thou if you're not a fan of slow-moving dramas that might be a slight deterrent for you.

Overall, it's a great series that has a slow progression just be wary of the dreaded open ending.

If we never get a 2nd season, I will have to most likely, consider this a loss for me in BL. I understand why some stories have open endings, but I also don't like it. If the series had just closed with them going to the store and CUE THE CREDITS, I would have already rated this higher. Unfortunately to many shorter bls are made to end with a huge cliffhanger and its sad because if season 2 never gets green lit this series will go from pretty cute altogether to ohh that series with the horrible ending yeah that one.

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Nothing Campus

Before anything else, I'll just say I don't want anyone who doesn't tell me that my eyes sparkle like a bus stand. I just won't have it.

Aside from that, there isn't much to say.

I've come to expect a certain quality from Strongberry, and even if it wasn't Strongberry, it all just felt.. very bland? Nothing really happened, they met, they fell in love with nothing else happening. Not saying that that's a bad thing, but here it was done in a very amateurish way that it felt bad. Theoretically, they could have done this story with just the leads, and they almost did because there are only four other characters and all of them had no feasible part to play. A second lead who stood no chance, a professor, a boss and a senior and that's as descriptive as one can get. Every aspect felt low in quality and I'm just not very impressed.

The only real thing to say anything about is the cute moments between the leads that were few amidst unnecessary drama and misunderstandings. It just all felt.. meh.

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Low budget, kinda simple but very cute.

First off, the music choices and sound effects just feel off. The effects are cheesy in a children's cartoon kind of way and the music doesn't necessarily suit the scenes. All in all it can be a bit off-putting.

Setting that aside if you focus on the acting I think they did quite well considering that only Kim MinJae had done any acting in the past. They do feel like genuine people and are portrayed realistically without being stiff or overacting.

The story is very basic and simple, which on one hand is a very good thing because there are only 6 episodes with barely 18-20 minutes run time each. However, they probably could have incorporated a little more if some of the scenes were shorter or if there were fewer flahback/memory scenes that we had *just* watched one episode prior.

My own personal conclusion is that I'm glad I watched it. It was a very cute, sweet show with no plot holes or unaddressed issues. I'm extremely curious about the ending and I hope they eventually continue the story. I do recommend this one, especially since it's such a fast and easy watch. It won't be winning any awards, but when you just want to watch a cute show that doesn't drag then this is a good pick.

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It's Sweet

The title "Blossom Campus" is really interesting, which is really good when releasing films or series.

In my own opinion, I kinda enjoyed the final part of the series. The pacing of the story was too fast for me. The clingyness is okay, but it was really too fast.

I also think that the actors / actresses are too little. The senior of Yoon Chan was kinda unnecessary. If the storyline made the senior have a crush on Yoon Chan, it would be more entertaining.

On the first four episodes, it was not that interesting. I hope there will be a second season.

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If you like awkward and weird shows

I always enjoy when a series can create a character that is weird but the weirdness is endearing, and for me Blossom Campus is one of those. Our first proper introduction to Yoon Chan, he laughs really loudly for no reason in the library and Minjae scolds him. I loved this so much and anyone who is socially awkward like me probably relates to moments like this as well. I enjoy that it just shows how awkward Yoon Chan is without hitting us over the head with it.
I really love the small almost unnoticeable guestures of love early on, and when MinJae holds Yoon Chan's face on the roof, and then drops his hands to his lap and Yoon Chan grabs them... for me this moment is perfect. This just spoke volumes without saying a word and its fantastic. I think this is one of my favourite lead ups to a kiss.
The actual kissing scenes were perfect, and I definitely thought that these two had chemistry. The vibe of being young and in love felt very believable.
However on the flip side, some of the scenes felt like they dragged on for a long time, and there didn't really feel like there was much of a plot. Some scenes also had continuation errors which ruined the emmersion.
Reading the reviews post show, people mentioned the campus felt empty, and for me personally, that only added to the overall awkward vibe in a good way.
I agree the love rival seemed a bit pointless and pushing him in there made me feel like this show would be much more interesting with all of them as a throuple (seriously, why don't we have more throuples?).
They did leave the show on a cliffhanger so I'm unsure if they were planning another season...
To wrap up, I actually enjoyed this one, however I can understand why other people didn't as the weird and awkward indie type of films I enjoy are generally not well rated.

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