Has both fun and substance.

I appreciate the range both the writing and acting has from lighthearted humor, sweet love, to nuanced, raw, tragic devastating emotional gut punches. Aside from the very cool stylized use of solid colors to code characters and their inner minds, that the color grading of the other scenes are not afraid of color even while illustrating this world where the characters live in the grey area of morality. The costuming is also very well done. Modern drama costuming looks so deceptively simple, but it's really not. They designed looks that fit naturally without being distracting, as well as reflecting the emotional state of the characters in the scene. All the artistic and technical aspects are done and oversaw with care from the directors/producers, the labor of love from from every cast and crew is felt from the overall quality of the work.

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Vibe killed by overlong episodes and inflated runtime

Bae Seok Ryu and Choi Seung Hyo are played by very pretty people, but attractiveness alone is not enough to keep the sizzle going for these characters. Their lack of romance had been drawn out for decades already up to the point the show starts and continued to drag on for weeks and weeks of the 80 something minute episodes. They don't have the type of relationship with any kind of spice or sweetness to sustain interest for them as potential couple for that long. In the meanwhile, it's the family and family friendship lives that are explored in depth and the emotions of those storylines overshadows and engulfs all the screen time. It's relatable, but still ill balanced to the detriment of what should be the core relationship of the show. I do give the show props for the very believable reason to hide their relationship being their loving, but suffocatingly nosy collective family that will keep them on such a close watch and infantilized that they can't actually function as a couple of consenting adults. The second couple didn't take that long to get together, but they suffer from the very odd decision the show made to introduce them in a weird scene where the hot, amazing, adventurous, confident paramedic Jung Mo Eum grabs a drink from the shop freezer like a normal person only to have it yanked in her hand by the reporter guy who felt entirely entitled to take a drink out of a woman's hand when she already took it first fair and square. It's nonsensical and the show builds him up as a amazing guy that would help divert traffic for the ambulance and raises his niece who is the sole survivor of his entire family dying in an accident, but that kind of rude behavior is just too off putting to over look and I want Mo Eum to just keep going on her adventures rather than to obsess about that weirdo no matter how otherwise virtuous he seems. Let her be free.

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A fun, at times silly and at times a bit spicy harem drama

The fantasy drama consists of bite sized episodes of well worn tropes that doesn't break the mold, but is done in an entertaining way. The main character who has lived over 1000 loops of life has maxed out his skill tree and becomes the ultimate business strategist, suave fighter guy that women of all ages become attracted to despite his physical body still being a teenager. There is a fine line between confident and cool vs arrogant and annoying, and the actor manages to keep the show in the former which makes it a fun watch as he competence porns his way through most of the situations . The show actually manages some actual spicy chemistry moments certain female leads. The story ends very abruptly though like there would be a next episode even though all the listed episodes has been aired. I hope there is another season to continue and finish out the story.

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Light Coming of Age

I love Kieta Hatsukoi, it's one of my top favorite shows ever, but it ends really soon into the story of the main couple. My Love Mix Up gets to explore the relationship in full and with differences that makes it stand out on it's own as an adaptation. This is in reference just to the two shows, not to do with the manga at all. Both Atom and Kongthap learn to grow as people through their relationship with each other. Their mile stones of physical intimacy like holding hands and kissing are so sweet. The parts that I dreaded the most, but turned out to be a very memorable subversions was the classmates doing the play and especially the teacher. In the Japanese version it was a homophobic teacher, but in the Thai version, the teacher turned out to be also gay and both he and his boyfriend become mentor figures. It's so moving to see an elder queer mentors help Atom and Kongthap how to navigate being queer in a world that's definitely not always friendly. The mothers being so supportive and loving to their sons is so heartening as well.

I didn't like Mudmee's storyline. It's the same in both the Japanese and Thai versions. I don't think violence is funny or warranted in the context of any of the situations shown. Her strength is a funny gag, but not when it's to physically assault someone who did not do anything to deserve it.

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Boring Cubed

Normally I would be all for all three characters just dating each other, but both Misaki and Yuki are the blandest people and Shuhei is annoying. There's no romantic spark or tension between the three of them. Misaki shows more spark and happiness with her friends and even her frenemy, until that guy she also has no chemistry with hits on her anyways. The show has a short runtime, but the 10 episodes feels like it drags on forever until they FINALLY divorce and cut to black with Yuki still having zero attraction to Misaki even though she's interested in joining what Yuki wants to do with Shuhei.

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