Shaz
London
I love this drama, I love it so much that I recommend this to everyone I meet, you don't really like campus dramas? That's okay you'll still love this one. You prefer action/ thrillers? That's fine you won't even miss it. Dramas aren't really your thing? Well you're on the wrong site then, but you still will probably love this.
The format of the show what with its time skips and non-linear timeline may seem hard to pull off but the show does it beautifully, the attention to detail from hair and costumes, to props and sets to BGM you can not fault the show for staying authentic. It managed to encapsulate the fangirl struggle and make me strangely nostalgic and full of yearning for a time I have never known.
The cast is wonderful, and the exploration of relationships of families, friendship and love is very heartfelt and incredibly sweet. Jung Eun-Ji's (Apink) acting debut is perfectly done she is a hilarious Shi-Won whose ardent love for her Idol 'Oppa' (Tony An of H.O.T) speaks to my inner fangirl with endearing honesty. Seo In-Guk is equally wonderful as the ever cool yet bumbling Yoon-Jae whose gruff and oblivious outer shell gives way to his utterly adorable and selfless inner puppy. Infinite's Hoya is also superb as the level-headed best friend of the ever fighting main duo. He is kind, endearing and the best friend you could want yet he the most mysterious of the group and as such for me the character that stayed with me the longest. There isn't a single character I could bring myself to dislike in the show each one is quirky and a little bit off which makes them all the more relatable to the teenage experience. The various cameos bring a whole load of random characters who you'll remember for no reason barring their random one liners.
Warning: there are constant fakeouts, time skips, overly noble characters and random bouts of mysteries revealed. However this is all part of the reply experience so sit back and enjoy, you won't regret it!
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The plot is sweet enough to abate any fluff cravings but be warned there are not immense scenes of drama or melancholy to be found here. Any moments of contention or conflict are interspersed with comedy and just plain old fluff. That should not deter you, if anything this is a great watch, that won't play with your feelings (too much) but stays firmly in the realm of lighthearted comedy.
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I loved the Mars manga, it's one of my favourites of all time so as an ardent drama lover I was understandably very excited for this adaptation. Immediately the short length of the 10 episode series with each episode little more than 20 minutes long was slightly disappointing (for reference the manga is a 15 volume emotional rollercoaster). Still I held out hope that they would just focus on the first section of the manga and do that justice, and whilst they did follow the plot points of the manga, there were various things that were amended and added for the sake of making the drama more appealing to the teen audience as well as the omission of plot points such as Rei's motorcycling career. This made it a bit of a confusing watch for me at first, but after telling myself an adaptation does not have to be 100% true to its source material I soldiered on.
The main leads of Rei and Kira were interestingly cast, both are complex and playful and make for enjoyable viewing, however they both seem to lack that slight undercurrent of darkness which make their characters so interesting. Masao's creepiness is really played up, maybe even overly done, to the point sometimes I was wondering if I was seeing Masataka Kubota's Light Yagami instead of his Masao at time.
The music was great and a plus for the series, all in all it was a good watch but not a great one. i enjoyed it mostly for the novelty and am glad I saw it but probably won't be rewatching any time soon.
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