Short and thoroughly Innocent

Starts like Gameboys, but ends much more teenagery than young adult. However, for the first 6 episodes or so, Boss did come off as very pushy and more than a little creepy. Somehow the dream sequence where he was extra creepy actually made him less so from then on out.

Boss and all the supporting actors were great. The guy playing Tono, on the other hand, looked like he was about to fall asleep at any moment, even while delivering his lines. Other people seemed to enjoy his portrayal of the character, so I'll chalk this up to personal preference.

I'll agree with the other reviewer that the ending needed a few more episodes. It was incredibly abrupt. Also, very anticlimactic, lol! Otherwise, the pacing was pretty good and the lack of length really cut out a lot of unnecessary drama with which the longer shows usually get bogged down. Very refreshing!

My ratings tend to err on the side of harsh, but a 6.0 falls into the range of "I don't fully regret watching this" and "The elements of what I liked and what I disliked balanced out." I probably won't rewatch. Some others won't agree with that opinion, so give the show a shot! You never know when you'll find your diamond in the rough.

P.S. I rarely register background music, so please disregard the rating for that.

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Failed cash grab?

I just finished a binge of this about 5 minutes ago from writing this sentence. I went in with no information and couldn't believe I had never heard of this because I've done a pretty good job catching up with older Thai BL thus far. This show is so cute and supernatural and light and two kisses by episode 4 and I can't yet tell who is going to end up with whom and— Oh. Oooooh. There it is.

Then I thought, non-con in fiction isn't generally a deal breaker to me because I can compartmentalize, even though this scenario was particularly messed up in the way it felt with the aftermath. The MDL rating that I just looked up must be based on that part alone. The rest will be super cute like the first halfish even though it contains a ton of standard BL illogical nonsense and the mom is beginning to grate on my last nerve (not because of her state of mental health). I'll just skip her scenes as well as the long pauses to get to— What. What the actual...

No happy ending except for the supporting character? Which he fully deserves considering how dirty the writers did him.

I don't consider most of the ending to be that truly open. Runway is heartbroken because the person who looks like Dream isn't actually Dream, so of course Runway will turn to Tanai for comfort, leaving Guide out in the cold. Even Tanai won't get a happy ending. It might seem that way at first, but he's only a stopgap measure for Runway. His love will eventually fade into resentment.

Since Elle is chilling with faux Dream, one can only assume that Elle isn't Elle either. They may even be boyfriends. Regardless, Good will also be left heartbroken. I know he saw a chick who looked like Fairy, but she also wasn't the Fairy that he once knew. Good's romantic options dried up in the blink of an eye.

Also, there's so much singing. There might be more singing than acting. After seeing a comment posted on this page that linked to a YT video of the cast performing, their casting makes so much more sense. The director obviously went for vocal ability over acting ability. Based on that clip, the worst singer of the bunch is, in my opinion, the best actor—none other than supporting character Yim. Besides his harrowing experience, Yim is excellent comedic relief throughout the show. The rest of the actors aren't *that* bad considering this aired in 2018, but certainly pale in comparison to today's available shows.

On top of all of the above, one of the main characters is a former imagining friend who gets frisky with Runway immediately upon reunion with his former playmate. Like the last time Dream saw Runway, Runway was maybe 8 years old? There's no suggestion that Dream has been able to watch over Runway all of this time. So Runway suddenly shows up in the dream world as an adult, and Dream's first instinct is to flirt with his long-lost friend. And subsequently try to de-clothe him the next night. Like we're getting into Twilight territory here.

I probably wouldn't be so salty about this if their entire relationship didn't seem like a giant pointless tease. Honestly, this might be the first BL I've seen where the secondary characters received way more screen time than the main ship.

Also, Dream has this odd habit of calling Runway "my little boy" as well as appearing to him as his deceased father. Maybe I completely misinterpreted these interactions, but I'll blame part of that on the missing audio/subtitles during a good chunk of their scenes.

In conclusion, don't watch this if you need a definitive happy ending in order to feel as if you didn't waste your time. Not sure how people dealt with the excruciatingly tortoise-like development while the show was airing. On the plus side, I now know what Toh from Secret Crush on You/Pan from War of Y would look like with a more attractive haircut. 😍

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Interesting --> zzzzz --> Interesting and Cute

This show gets an extra whole star, from 5.5 to 6.5, due to the last four episodes. COVID messed up a whole lotta plotlines, but for me this ain't one of them. I don't know if the plan was always to re-cast one specific role, but there was significant improvement in acting quality because of this. Also, the focus finally shifted almost completely to the main characters who had detrimentally shared waaay too much screentime with the side characters, imo.

Episode one was interesting for the fantasy setup, while episodes 2 - 8 felt like nothing much really happened. The runtime is bloated by unecessarily long shots of... nothing. Frequently the nothing is in slo-mo.

- Everyone awkwardly hanging out together with long periods of silence
- Characters walking around and/or sadly staring for minutes on end... in slo-mo
- Montage after montage... in slo-mo. So much of the romance was presented in montage format that I didn't even realize the characters had fallen in love until an unexpected exchange of kisses.

A new actor is introduced in episode 9, and (excepting the intimate scenes) he just blew me out of the water. I couldn't believe it was the same guy from Love Area AND this show is predates Love Area. He had more chemistry with the main character just with the look on his face after opening the bathroom door than the original did in all of the previous episodes combined.

The intimate scenes though... yikes. Most of them almost, ALMOST hit Don't Say No-levels of awkwardness. 😁 Also, the last four episodes are similar to the first in that very little happens, but the second part of the show goes nowhere in an adorable fashion. So cute!

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