I was really excited to with this show for multiple reasons. First of all, I've been a k-pop stan for years now and I've gotten into a few j-pop groups as well (INI being one of them, so the more reasons for me to watch this series), that's why I was really interested in the premise. Second of all, I saw there's a canon aroace-spec character here. It's not common to encounter aroace representation, so when I heard one of the characters is aroace I knew I had to watch it. It was the final push for me.

The thing that kept me from watching this show for so long was the romance, though. When I heard it's about an ex teacher and her ex student, it really bothered me. It just felt wrong in so many ways. That's why I checked multiple times if the romance was a major plot. Most people told me it's not really a major plot and I have nothing to worry about... Well, I feel like I've been kind of lied to. It made me quite uncomfortable a few times, but thankfully it wasn't too over the line so I was able to endure it, I guess. However, the romantic plot was one of the things I disliked in the series. To be honest, I shipped Asuka with two characters and none of which were the male lead she was supposed to end up with. I was not a big fan of Dan throughout the series anyways.

There were many moments when I got tired of the series and wanted to give it up, but I watched it mostly because I loved Takara (he's definitely my favourite character) and I didn't have anything better to do anyways. That's another problem I had with the series - the characters just... didn't get their chance to shine, I guess. Sometimes I felt that something was extremely out of character for someone, but then I realised I didn't even know what kind of character they are. I know we only have ten episodes and at least eight characters who deserve a proper story or at least some... colour? It was hard for me to even remember the names of most of them - which I'm usually good at, by the way. I don't know, I just think the characters deserved to be more distinct? They needed more colour to them? I just couldn't really get attached to most of them. Even if I really loved Takara, I still ended up feeling that the series just did not do him justice.

An aspect of the series I definitely liked was the LGBTQ+ representation, though. Three of the more important characters are LGBTQ+, and I loved how that was introduced to the audience. They just didn't make a big deal out of it, and I think that was really heartwarming. The LGBTQ+ characters were not portrayed differently from the rest, other characters didn't see them any differently than if they were not LGBTQ+. Even if one of the 'comedic relief' characters turned out to be LGBTQ+, they didn't play it off as a joke or make fun of him for not being heterosexual. It was really comforting - and surprising, because it's probably the first time I'm met with an approach like this. I think it should happen more often in new series.

I enjoyed the acting, but it was nothing spectacular. As for the music, I liked all 8LOOM songs. However, sometimes the members sound awkward during the 'live performances' which is definitely a disadvantage. Many of the times 8LOOM just did not feel like a real group to me, but it might be just my personal problem. I still cried at the last episode though, but it's probably because I'm a k-pop and j-pop stan and these kinds of things just make me emotional.

Well, that's it for my review. It's probably my first review ever, so forgive me if it's awkward. I just wanted to express how I felt about the series.