Kazuha77
This review may contain spoilers
Don't waste your time on this one and watch the Japanese adaptation instead
Before writing my review, I need to make things clear (which I shouldn’t have to do but fans are so delusional these days that they would argue the tiny bit of things and make you a hater): I love Gemini and Fourth. As an on-screen couple, but also as artists. I don’t consider myself a fan as I’m not really listening to their songs and don’t intend to watch their “straight” series, as I mostly watch BL, but I still love their personalities and follow them on social media. I love their acting (especially Fourth) and their singing (in My School President specifically as I said that I don’t listen to their songs). I should also add that I absolutely love the Japanese adaptation of the manga and have read the manga. But it’s been a few years now and I totally forgot about the manga (not the drama, though, as I watched it several times already).
That being said, I can write my review and, oh boy, this series was bad… Not bad as it hurt my eyes watching it and I forced myself to finish it (*kofkof* My Only Boo! *kofkof*), but bad as I watched it once, it was not good, so I’m not going to watch it again. And don’t get me wrong! I was so happy and excited when they first announced that they were going to make a Thai adaptation with Gemini and Fourth, but maybe it was because I expected too much of them that I now feel very disappointed.
And yet, unlike a lot of people, I actually liked the first episode. I was really happy with this first episode, so when the second episode came out, I was still excited about this series. But this second episode signed the end of my enjoyment for this series and the beginning of my disappointment that would not end (even though, some episodes were better than others). Yes, I’m talking about the infamous episode of the Cinderella… musical… I'm not going to repeat what I've already said in the comment section but this episode was awful with all those unnecessary changes. Atom not dressing up as Cinderella, totally erasing the sacrifice that Aoki makes for one of his classmates. The fact that the two class presidents totally dismissed Mudmee's feelings by forcing her to play the role, even though she clearly stated that she had stage fright. Transforming the play into a freaking musical just for the sake of seeing Gemini and Fourth sing. A musical that is - by the way - made for whom exactly? Because no parents were in the theatre and the room was half filled with students. And I would add that one of the part was less than 4 minutes, which was hilariously ridiculous (and, for once, a lot of people complained about it in the YT comments).
And I'm kind of sick of those people defending those changes based on poor political arguments that are quickly and strongly getting on my nerves. The change of the young teacher's character, for example. I've read a lot of comments praising the fact that it was good that they changed the "homophobic" teacher into a gay one. How is it good exactly? Because you're erasing a very important message and a pretty good character's growth from the story. This arc showed that some people are ignorant about certain things and that with a little bit of communication and understanding, those people can change for the better. But no. Now, we can't see homophobia on screen - it is too much for the viewers who are becoming more and more little fragile snowflakes -, even though it still exists today. And by the way, the teacher was never a homophobe - but a very prejudiced person - as he would probably not have changed opinions that quickly.
Furthermore, a lot of people argued the fact that we don’t like the series just because the manga was adapted for a Thai audience so it will obviously be different from the Japanese original material. But… Cherry Magic was also adapted for a Thai audience and it did really well and most of the people loved this adaptation. So why is it not the same for this adaptation? Can someone dare to explain? Because my explanation is easy: the director of Cherry Magic understood the original story and characters and adapted the story with minor changes (or changes that didn’t damage the original plotline of the story). While this director (even though I loved his previous work as a director) doesn’t understand a thing about the story and even less about the characters… To him, it was just an excuse to do a My School President n°2 without really doing a second season to this series. That’s why we have a musical instead of a play, a lot of musical numbers, endless references about this series and even a cameo of the band Chinzilla… And the worse thing is that people love that just because they love My School President but… This series is NOT My School President! This is My Love Mix-Up! And the two series shouldn’t be made the same way because this is not the same story! Imagine if we had references to previous work that Tay and New did together as a couple in Cherry Magic. It would’ve been ridiculous… Although, I’m pretty sure the fans that absolutely like and defend this series would have also loved those references…
The other thing people bring up when they want to defend this series is that it is following the manga and is going to include the whole story unlike the Japanese drama. However… I may not remember much about the manga but I’m pretty sure the Japanese drama was way more faithful to the manga than this Thai adaptation. Ok, they only did about half of the manga, but at least the first part was very faithful to it (minus a few changes that didn’t change the original plotline of the story – see my comment above). This Thai version has way too many changes and not the best one at that! So what's your excuse for that? I'm just a hater?...
I would also add that there were way too many adverts and they were absolutely not very well included into the story. I'm just going to refer to the final episode (as it is the most recent one) but the cat food advert literally shocked me. The fact that Kongthap blatantly said that the cat hates everybody, even him, but it makes exceptions only for the cat food was ridiculous beyond belief. And I've seen my share of ridiculous product placement...
Anyway, I'm glad that this series have ended and I really really REALLY hope that Ossan's Love is not going to be the same. I've heard it is the same director so I hope he won't destroyed this adaptation as well. At least, we won't have My School President's references as the main leads are Earth and Mix. But I'm afraid he's going to use A Tale of a Thousand Stars as he was an assistant director to this series (hope Aof won't let him do it!).
That being said, I can write my review and, oh boy, this series was bad… Not bad as it hurt my eyes watching it and I forced myself to finish it (*kofkof* My Only Boo! *kofkof*), but bad as I watched it once, it was not good, so I’m not going to watch it again. And don’t get me wrong! I was so happy and excited when they first announced that they were going to make a Thai adaptation with Gemini and Fourth, but maybe it was because I expected too much of them that I now feel very disappointed.
And yet, unlike a lot of people, I actually liked the first episode. I was really happy with this first episode, so when the second episode came out, I was still excited about this series. But this second episode signed the end of my enjoyment for this series and the beginning of my disappointment that would not end (even though, some episodes were better than others). Yes, I’m talking about the infamous episode of the Cinderella… musical… I'm not going to repeat what I've already said in the comment section but this episode was awful with all those unnecessary changes. Atom not dressing up as Cinderella, totally erasing the sacrifice that Aoki makes for one of his classmates. The fact that the two class presidents totally dismissed Mudmee's feelings by forcing her to play the role, even though she clearly stated that she had stage fright. Transforming the play into a freaking musical just for the sake of seeing Gemini and Fourth sing. A musical that is - by the way - made for whom exactly? Because no parents were in the theatre and the room was half filled with students. And I would add that one of the part was less than 4 minutes, which was hilariously ridiculous (and, for once, a lot of people complained about it in the YT comments).
And I'm kind of sick of those people defending those changes based on poor political arguments that are quickly and strongly getting on my nerves. The change of the young teacher's character, for example. I've read a lot of comments praising the fact that it was good that they changed the "homophobic" teacher into a gay one. How is it good exactly? Because you're erasing a very important message and a pretty good character's growth from the story. This arc showed that some people are ignorant about certain things and that with a little bit of communication and understanding, those people can change for the better. But no. Now, we can't see homophobia on screen - it is too much for the viewers who are becoming more and more little fragile snowflakes -, even though it still exists today. And by the way, the teacher was never a homophobe - but a very prejudiced person - as he would probably not have changed opinions that quickly.
Furthermore, a lot of people argued the fact that we don’t like the series just because the manga was adapted for a Thai audience so it will obviously be different from the Japanese original material. But… Cherry Magic was also adapted for a Thai audience and it did really well and most of the people loved this adaptation. So why is it not the same for this adaptation? Can someone dare to explain? Because my explanation is easy: the director of Cherry Magic understood the original story and characters and adapted the story with minor changes (or changes that didn’t damage the original plotline of the story). While this director (even though I loved his previous work as a director) doesn’t understand a thing about the story and even less about the characters… To him, it was just an excuse to do a My School President n°2 without really doing a second season to this series. That’s why we have a musical instead of a play, a lot of musical numbers, endless references about this series and even a cameo of the band Chinzilla… And the worse thing is that people love that just because they love My School President but… This series is NOT My School President! This is My Love Mix-Up! And the two series shouldn’t be made the same way because this is not the same story! Imagine if we had references to previous work that Tay and New did together as a couple in Cherry Magic. It would’ve been ridiculous… Although, I’m pretty sure the fans that absolutely like and defend this series would have also loved those references…
The other thing people bring up when they want to defend this series is that it is following the manga and is going to include the whole story unlike the Japanese drama. However… I may not remember much about the manga but I’m pretty sure the Japanese drama was way more faithful to the manga than this Thai adaptation. Ok, they only did about half of the manga, but at least the first part was very faithful to it (minus a few changes that didn’t change the original plotline of the story – see my comment above). This Thai version has way too many changes and not the best one at that! So what's your excuse for that? I'm just a hater?...
I would also add that there were way too many adverts and they were absolutely not very well included into the story. I'm just going to refer to the final episode (as it is the most recent one) but the cat food advert literally shocked me. The fact that Kongthap blatantly said that the cat hates everybody, even him, but it makes exceptions only for the cat food was ridiculous beyond belief. And I've seen my share of ridiculous product placement...
Anyway, I'm glad that this series have ended and I really really REALLY hope that Ossan's Love is not going to be the same. I've heard it is the same director so I hope he won't destroyed this adaptation as well. At least, we won't have My School President's references as the main leads are Earth and Mix. But I'm afraid he's going to use A Tale of a Thousand Stars as he was an assistant director to this series (hope Aof won't let him do it!).
Was this review helpful to you?
