It was better than I though, but kind of worse, too.

Just finished it, and it was better than what I expected. 8.5 is a little strong, and maybe it does deserve an 8 or even a 7.5, but this drama IS charming and sweet. And it wasn't boring!

Story :
The drama in 3 parts, to me: the bad one, the transition, and the good one.

The bad one: the first few episodes (the first 2 especially). It was too much, unfortunately. I was disappointed in the visual of the heroine, not about the actress, but the way they made her look. Like her bangs or the way she was filmed.
In the movie, they really tried to make us feel that she was creepy, with her heavy bangs always in front of her eyes and her face looking down. Here, I really don't understand what is so scary about her.
They were so focused on making her pretty, that we are supposed to just watch some normal guys be horrified about a... pretty girl with bangs? It's not that complicated to make her hair fall a little more on her face and make the actress keep her head lower. It's kind of the basics of your job. T^T

I know it's only details, but those details kind of ruined the first few episodes for me. Sawako is, in the beginning, a really nice girl, but also creepy, awkward, and doesn't know what to do with her face. Here, she's just a quiet girl, and people's reactions to her feel over the top (of course, it's over the top in the movie/manga, too, but she IS scary in there).


Then we have the transition, which is when she becomes more confident, it's better, because there are no scenes where she's "supposed" to be creepy, so it works. We just follow the story of a quiet pretty girl and her friends.
That's what saved the drama, for me: Kazehaya, Yano, Chizu, Ryu, Pin, and even Kurumi. They walked out of the manga and were really faithful to the source material. The story was nice, too.
This part is better, though some weakness in acting goes in the way of emotional scenes. But I don't really care as it is a high school drama, and I like watching green actors, too.


Then we have the story that continues where the anime stopped. It's where it gets good. Maybe because there were no adaptations of it to compare to, so it was more easygoing. I really enjoyed it from here!

The acting :

When I first heard about Suzuka Ouji playing Kazehaya, I felt like he didn't suit the role at all. The trailer prove me wrong so I wasn't surprised about the really good job he did here!
Nakamura Riho and Sakurai Kaito were really good, too. She feels less experienced as him (weirdly), but the chemistry was working. :)
At first, Kumada Rinka didn't feel as strong as expected for Yano, but it got better and better through the drama.
Miura Shohei was super charming as Pin, Nothing but good things to say.
Suzuki Jin is... Hmm. Kento is a difficult character 'cause he's too much. I think the actor did what he could. It was a very Suzuki-like acting. I know a lot of people like him, it's unfortunately not my case, but maybe one day!
Kanon as Kurumi was okay. She did a good job as an actress, I just didn't feel the charm of the character through her. But she didn't do a bad job, maybe it's just a problem of chemistry because most of her scenes are with Sawako.
Minami Sara as Sawako was.... disappointing. As I said, the styling wasn't on her side, but the acting wasn't amazing either. I didn't expect a lot. The acting in the drama is VERY green, and it's not amazing, but I don't really care for high school shows, usually. Here it did get to me because I just feel that she wants to look pretty. Pretty tears, pretty smile, pretty when she's supposed to be scary, pretty when she's supposed to make a weird face... I don't know if the director wanted it, her company wanted it, or the actress just do that without thinking.

For me, the fault lies with the director, as he should have told her to do more and to let go of her image. It's a shame because I didn't feel that in the other dramas I saw from her, where she plays stronger characters (from the ones I saw).

The music (and directing?) :

Nothing that especially triggered me, but nothing that I care about either.
Same thing about the directing of the show, which is kind of disappointing because the anime did add something that only anime could. I thought the drama would do that, too, but no.

Rewatch value :
Not really. Maybe some episodes here and there.

Here it is for me! Still an enjoyable show if you go through the first part!

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(spoiler free review)
It's a little complicated to do a review of this movie.

If you asked me to rate this movie before I watched the last 30 minutes, I would have said it deserved a 7 or a 7,5.
The "mystery" wasn't even a mystery, because nobody cared; the characters are one-dimensionnal at best; and I didn't know what the story wanted, and where we were going.

But the "revelation" happens 30 minutes before the end, and everything makes sense. That's why I made my final rating a 8,5.
This is also the reason why I didn't rate higher. Because before the 30 minutes mark, the movie is just way too "mysterious" :
The hints aren't really hints, or makes us think of something entirely different.
Sometimes I wondered if the characters were boring, or if the actors were just bad.
And the heroine was annoying, even though everybody seemed interested in her.

Of course, it all makes sense, now, but I still watched 1h15 of a not bad but not amazing movie. I watched it till the end, because I wanted to know if I was right about the "secret" of the island (I was very wrong, of course, it's impossible to guess).
That's why, it's a little complicated to review. It's a good movie, but you really need to watch till the end to find it good.

Acting wise, I expected good things from Yokohama Ryusei, and wasn't disapointed. He's interesting to watch, and takes you attention away even with a "boring" character. The secondary actors were pretty amazing, especially the boys, Kuroba Mario & Matsuoka Koudai, one making a one dimensionnal character attching, and the other for almost never appearing, but still having all of our attention.

Talking about not appearing, and almost without any lines : Yahagi Honoka.
She's amazing. She's sucking all the attention of the viewer without even talking. Maybe that's why I felt like Iitoyo Marie was kinda lacking. She's not a bad actress at all. But next to a strong casting, she fell flat. Her character was really difficult to act (well, not relly, but it was difficult to make her attaching), so I think a stronger actress hsould have been casted. BECAUSE it's difficult. But it wasn't bad, just not as good as the others

I have ZERO real knowledge about movie music, so I can't really judge. But I'm obsessed with the ending song, so I rated it 9.

Still, the movie was very interesting, the concept is pretty amazing, and well done. I can't wait for people to watch it to discuss about it!

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A basic romance movie done well

It was surprisingly really fun?
I was excepting the basic high school romance movie, with its cute moments, way too dramatic third part, rushed storyline, and nonexistent secondary characters, while still being entertaining enough, but it was not.

It doesn't reinvent the genre or anything, it was just a really good-quality high-school romance. And it's an original story, so it does not feel rushed, and everything/everybody that gets introduced actually gets a spotlight and a conclusion.

The goods :

- Good pacing where everything is wrapped up nicely.
- The characters were nice, and everybody got a lot of spotlights.
- No melodramatic part where the heroine cries for 15 minutes.
- No "villains" or misunderstandings that come from nowhere.
- Lots of cute scenes
- Nice twist
- Not a perfect hero and is portrayed as such. He is too honest and has no tact, which can be good and bad. He has to apologize for it and does.
- Not the usual "shy" heroine. She is portrayed as such at the beginning, but we see her layers during the movie.

The bads :

- The beginning is a little hard to get into. There's a lot of music, that cuts the flow of the movie, and it's doing "too much". But it calm downs after something like 15 minutes? In the same way, the acting is a little weird at the beginning, then it's better.
- There's a character that I couldn't really understand during the movie, and even if their actions are explained thanks to the ending, it doesn't change the fact I didn't understand them during a good part of the movie. Still cute though.
- Not necessarily a bad thing, but it is still a very basic romance movie. It doesn't change the world or anything.

A really nice movie. I didn't get bored even though it was almost 2 hours.

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It could have been so much more... Where is the comedy?

(spoiler-free review)
I'm very disapointed :/
It's kind of weird to expect things for drama of this style, but I was actually waiting for something.
Something funny. Something original. Something over-the-top. Something refreshingly cringe.

It's something j-drama actually does well, and that I enjoy. Like Fake Motion, Bad Boys J, Prince of Legends... It's cringe, it's hilarious but at the end, I fall for them and ends up finding them all super cool in their hilarious ways.
And that's what I wanted but... What is this?

From the first episode, I wondered if they would go for the full-on over-the-top with the crazy concept, or doing it very seriously even though the concept is crazy. Obviously both are different style of comedy, but both work.
Here it was a weird mix of both, where they put not very well done comedy, while being very serious about the concept, and it ended up being flat.

The storyline in itself is fine, it's what I expect from this type of drama, and that is good. The important things are the details : how will they work with the clichés, overthrowing it, making it ridiculous. But no. They just... go with the clichés. The don't adapt it, they don't have a nice twist, nothing.

The serious boy is a serious boy. The handsome boy is a handsome boy. The nice guy is a nice guy. That's all.

Every episode I saw was just : "That's all?"
I was waiting for the joke to fall, the twist to happen, like "haha! Something is coming right? They won't stop here!" but no. They really stop here.

They had such a crazy concept, but don't go crazy at all. Come on! It's a japanese drama! You can do whatever you want, doing stupid things, over-the-top gags! What is this?????

I'm doing this review spoiler-free, since the drama is getting subbed right now, but I'm super disapointed. Still, I don't regret watching it for Miyase Ryubi and Hosoda Kanata, but it could have been so much more !

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(spoiler free review)
It was a good movie. They took an amazing manga, took important scenes here and there, and made a movie. The story is good, nothing to say. The directing is intereting, and suits the atmosphere of the script, and the characters.

The casting is on point, and the actors are AMAZING. For a first role, Hirate Yurina is crazy good, but the other high-schoolers didn't lose anyway, so I was really surprised !
Kitamura Yugira (the TV-writer), Nomaguchi Tohru (the photographer), Yuya Yagira & Oguri Shun were really good.
Especially Kitamura, & Oguri. I was really enjoying their performences. Of course, Yagira is always perfect, but those two, their characters were especially interesting.

The only disapointing point is Kitagawa Keiko. I was really disapointed by her performance. I kow there's a few people that don't really like her acting, but I'm not one of those, so I was surprised, and really disapointed. She was bland, annoying, boring.
I know her character isn't the most interesting, so it's difficult. But it's a problem as an actor if you don't have half the screen presence of actors that appears for a few minutes in the movie when you're one of the main characters, or of actors that have less than a year of acting and you have 15 years of experience.

But let's be honest : they should have made a drama, not a movie. The story is rushed, a lot of important characters were just erased, and they changed the some of the relationships between the main characters .
That's comprehensible, because they didn't have time, but... disapointing anyway, and it wouldn't have happened if they had made a drama.

Finally, I'll just end with : if you liked this movie even a little, please read the manga, you won't be disapointed. Like a lot of people say in this movie "it's a masterpiece"

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You either love it or hate it, I'm both.

I was wondering while reading all of the comments how they could make something people either love to death or hate to death, no inbetween, but now I understand.

It's a weird season.
Half I liked, half bored me to death.

There were so many storylines jampacked into 8 episodes, and half were boring.

The good points :

- Lee Jin Wook is having the fun of his life with his new character, whose storyline I like.
- Song Kang not-bad acting
- Yi Kyung, Ji Soo, and Eun Yoo were as good as in the first season, and I liked their storyline.
- Hyun Soo's story was good, too. I liked they didn't make him go all dark and broody, though he is understandably tired.
- The new soldier (JinYoung), the mad scientist, and the old man are good additions to the cast, nothing bad to say about them, they were fun to watch each for their own reasons.
- The bigger scale of the story.
- The ending (Hyun Soo's monster being all calm, just curious & the brother revival because I love the actor)

The bad points :

- The time spent on characters we had no time nor reasons to care about (the soldiers, and the survivors from the second part of the story). Why do we see them sooooooooooooo much? Yes, you took famous actors to play them, but I had no reason to get attached to them or care, they are all terrible people who take way too much screen time)
- That jump at the middle of the season, what happened? HyunSoo is out of his prison, a makeup town is suddenly here, and the soldiers are all a mess... Wtf?
- JiSu's death, is so random. It's obvious she's going to come back for season 3 as a monster or something but that was so fast and random. She was one of my favs, and I didn't even have time to process her death and didn't feel sad.
- WAY TOO MUCH STORYLINES. WAY TOO MUCH SCREENTIME SPENT ON SECONDARY CHARACTERS.
- The season was a mess visually, as well as in pacing and script writing.
- The way they made the brother come back. I didn't want him to be a monster. I wanted him to keep his humanity but still be able to be better than everybody human and monster. Still keeps his fragility, but always ends up being on top. Now he's just going to be a (smart) killing machine and it's boring.

What I would love to see in season 3:

- More groups being made. I was annoyed everybody wanted to flock together. I understand at the beginning, but when you keep getting betrayed again and again, just take the people you trust and get the hell out. That's what HyunSoo did, by creating his little family of three, I liked it. Now, more of this.
- More screentime for the main characters, there's already a lot, no need to add others.
- Hyun Soo's monster not being all monstrous and sadistic. We already saw that some monsters still have their original self personalities, I would love to see people understand that even the monsters keep their original personalities and that as HyunSoo was a cinnamon roll, his monster isn't very interested in murdering everybody. HyunSoo IS interested in EunYoo, so it's understandable that the first thing the monster does is be curious about her.
- I really don't want to see a Hyun Soo VS Eun Hyuk. I hope they keep their dynamic of hound & owner, that was really fun in season one, ethically and psychologically speaking. i don't want to see them going all alpha males on each other, we already have SangWook VS Hyun Woo for that.

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