Actually Plotless

I was really bored and didn't know what to watch during a long weekend. While scrolling through the Viki page I came across this and remembered I watched the first episode a while ago but ended up dropping it right after it. I didn't exactly remember what bothered me about it then, so I decided to try to watch it again. Well, maybe I shouldn't have.

Just like I said in the headline, this series is actually plotless. Most of the characters' actions don't even make sense (which we'll get to back in a moment) and it's so ANNOYING to watch sometimes. Most of their issues could be solved if they had ONE proper conversation. JUST ONE. Whenever they have an attempt to talk something out, they still end up not addressing their biggest issues which leads to another problem. And another. Basically this whole series is just made up of miscommunication. Miscommunication IS the plot. It can be a good trope if it's done well. Here? Not even close. There's more miscommunication than actual romance between the main characters. And you know what makes it even worse? The characters do not learn ANYTHING from the conflicts.

Now onto the characters. They're both annoying. Amagi? Ugh. Couldn't stand him most of the time. His backstory was a bit sad and it did hit me a few times, but it wasn't executed well and I think they should've brought it up a bit more for it to work. His actions and behaviour were just so... pointless sometimes. I didn't understand him a lot of the times. As for Takara, most of the time I liked him slightly better than I liked Amagi. I liked his characteristics, but there were still many things about him that just did not work for me. One of the biggest problems I have with his character are his reasons behind why he wants to keep his relationship with Amagi a secret. Like... Really? If I was Amagi, I'd think it's just a really shitty excuse. Again, his actions were so pointless a lot of the time.

Acting was neither good or bad. I can't say much about it to be honest.

If I were to talk about the positive things (there isn't many of them) I definitely have to mention the music. I really like the opening theme as well as the ending. Some music themes were kind of annoying at times, but I could stand them.

Another positive thing - or rather a person - was Amagi's best friend. He's my favourite character in this whole mess. Probably the only person with a braincell in the while show.

In my last words I want to say that despite all of this, the show was oddly entertaining. It doesn't mean I don't dislike it, but at least I got something out of it. But maybe it's just because I was really bored and didn't know what else should I watch.

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Well, that was a rollercoaster

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.

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