Thailand dropped the official trailer for their version of Cherry Magic and it was very cute so I decided to watch the original and OMG I was not expecting to love this as much as I did.

This show is SO EFFING CUTE. It's like a basket of puppies wrapped in rainbows, unicorns and sparkle hearts. It's so soft and innocent and yet somehow keeps you on the edge of your seat every single episode. I was literally watching this in bed kicking my feet and squealing.

One of the most impressive things to me is that Adachi and Kurosawa are both fundamentally kind and decent people and that there are no villains or rivals in the story. It's hard to make a story like this dramatically interesting but this production pulled it off.

The casting of the leads is perfect. Akaso Eiji is gifted at physical comedy and I laughed out loud every time Adachi jumped or flailed or just looked panicked when he read Kurosawa's romantic thoughts. But he was also able to pull my heartstrings in the scenes that were sadder and more poignant. Machida Keita was seriously impressive at showing us a man with a perfect facade but who is a pure romantic inside. His performance in the scene where he confesses to Adachi and then covers up his emotions with a pasted on smile was incredible.

The leads had incredible chemistry. I have no idea how two men simply holding hands or sharing a meal made me shriek like a teenager at a concert but they had a chokehold on me.

The writing is excellent and I loved the themes of learning to love yourself, behave authentically and connect with other human beings. The hook of a virgin with mind reading powers could have gone creepy and gross but instead Adachi's pure nature and sincere desire to help other people made it touching and heartwarming.

Fujisaki deserves a special shoutout for being such a lovely and complex character who is secure in herself, doesn't need a relationship and sincerely desires to support her friends. The show briefly teased us with a possible love triangle and then turned it around to something that added a lot of warmth to the story.

I also really enjoyed Rokkaku for being hilariously clueless and I loved his eager puppy energy.

The only thing I disliked was the second couple, who were poorly cast. Tsuge's actor looked older than 30 while Minato's actor looked about 17 years old even though he's in his 20s. They had no chemistry and Tsuge's actor went way way way over the top. It's very interesting to compare his performance with Akaso Eiji who also brought a manga vibe to some of his scenes but for some reason knew exactly how far to go to make you laugh without being off putting.

I was also seriously disappointed we didn't get a kiss between the leads since the second leads got one. I saw a behind the scenes with the actors and they seemed really comfortable with each other so who knows why they opted not to do it. I have to say though that they were able to sell me on the depth of their love for each other even without a kiss and that's impressive.

I'm sure Thailand will do a good job with this story and they will definitely give us a kiss but I doubt it will make me feel as happy and warm as the Japanese version. This is going into my rotation of comfort dramas.