Beside You (2024)

Felt Like A Highschool Marketing Project.

I tried to give the show a pass because it's low-budget, but it felt like a waste of time even though it's so short. Three 12 min episodes. It's 10% plot (that's not done well) and 90% product placement and adds. I understand they need sponsors to cover costs, but it didn't feel like a story someone was passionate about telling, which made it feel like the adds were actually the focus all along. There's nothing special about this apart from some pretty faces. That's just not enough for me.

Starting with a relationship that ends was a waste for the first episode. The main character is very unlikable because of how it goes and it takes time away from the development of the relationship between the main character and the cat-turned-human. You could just start with Ep 2, the recap gives you all you need.

There is no development shown for the cat-turned-human. We know the boy loves his cat, but there's no reason why he would start wanting to kiss the human version. There's nothing to explain the transition from platonic love to romantic love.

And the screenplay makes the human-cat seem simple-minded (not very intelligent). Which makes the "romance" feel even weirder; like it's with a child, not an equal.

There aren't even enough cute moments. There are very few cat-like mannerisms. There are no head rubs, ear scratches, kneading hands, snuggling , etc. The cat characteristics are all focused on food and drink product placements.

The actors are rookies and very flat. It doesn't help that the script is poorly written and doesn't give them much of interest to work with either.

Watched on the DFJ Entertainment YouTube channel in the USA Jan 2024. The English subtitles were rough when I watched it, but they are there.

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Just Cat Food Commercial

Yes you heard it right. A very very low budget cat and dog food commercial with here and there small filler of bl story.

As it is just a commercial you should never expect any explanation of what is actually happening and why it is happening. It is story at the bird's view so just fragments of things are thrown in so that you can connect it yourself.

A breaks up with B because B spends lot of time on C aka Cat , B misses A and request god for new boy ( but we dont whether he will neglect the boy again), B gets cat turned into boy and finally they lived happily ever after.

Lessons to be learnt - Take care of your cat more than your boyfriend cause who knows it may turn into human anytime and be your next boyfriend

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basically commercials with some cute moments

Overall: I don't mind product placement, but in this case there was more product placement than plot. Three episodes about 12 minutes each. Aired on DFJ Entertainment's YouTube channel https://youtu.be/16s4HBeSKUE?si=5wguaKQ0sgnG6ocl

What I Liked
- lap sit and walking fingers up his arm
- the cat
- having subtitles in multiple languages

Room For Improvement
- mostly product placement
- think they should have left the boyfriend out of the series, did the main character learned/grown so a future relationship would even be successful?
- ending was disappointing with them cutting away like that

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An ad compilation with a tinge of BL

10/10 for the cat. AS for the rest ....

This is basically a commercial for a whole lot of different products including cat food. But this isn't what makes it bad.

The production quality is quite low overall, and I think a couple of scenes were added after filming ended, which is why the actors appear with different hairstyles (and even clothes) when such changes are not possible within the 'story'. (I guess certain sponsors demanded more screentime for their products.)

All this would have been potentially forgivable if the BL made some sense. First, the main character, Nine, seems to be depressed for no reason. He lives with his boyfriend (Tar), who seems like an at least ok person and understandably feels neglected. Despite having a rather nice boyfriend, Nine someone seems to feel like he lacks a soulmate. They break up, but Nine suddenly starts missing him because, you know, he used to do sweet things like reminding him to consume some supplements from the show's sponsor.

OK, fine, maybe Tar simply isn't the one. And so who's Mr Right for Nine? His cat, of course. And so his cat has to transform into a human. Yet, one wonders how the cat can be his soulmate when the human version doesn't seem to have the emotional complexity of a human but is more like a talking cat in a human body. (He doesn't progress much beyond this.)

The problem with such a "series" is also that once the cat turns into a human, the cat stops being feature. But the cat is the most watchable thing in the series, and everyone knows that. So maybe that's why the cat makes a return: Somehow Tar turns up at Nine's house and sees him with the cat-turned-human, and he leaves but somehow Nine runs after him. Nine then returns home only to find his cat-human missing. While searching for the cat-human, he sees an identical-looking cat.

Look, this is not the way to use BL as an excuse to trick people to watch a gazillion ads. It would be better to just ditch all attempt to have a plot. Get a pair of cute guys to act as a loving couple taking care of their beloved cat for 1 hour. The cute cat can be present almost throughout, adding to the watchability of the ad.

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