I don't actually know how to rate this drama. If I went off of my feelings based on the first half and the very end, I would give it a 10. If I went off of my feelings based on the second half minus the very end, I would give it a 5. Like most dramas, it starts off great. It's quirky and charming with (mostly) enjoyable characters, and a story I guarantee you haven't found in any other K drama. But also like most dramas, the story begins to drag halfway through, almost as if they'd reached the wait part of hurrying up to wait, and you start to feel a little tired of carrying it around with you.

There were many beautiful moments sprinkled throughout, and it deals with death and loss with such a deft and gentle hand, so I soldiered on, pushing myself to finish, and this drama clearly did Something right, because I was a sobbing mess the entire final 15 minutes.

That ending Wrecked Me.

I wouldn't put this drama on my list of favorite's. I wouldn't even put it on my list of 'definitely don't wish I could get any of that time spent watching it back.'

But there's something about this drama, even if I can't quite put my finger on it.

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This drama is inevitably going to be compared to Healer. Similar plot setup with the same lead actor playing a character living outside the law, highly trained in the art of fighting and espionage, finding himself wrapped up in a massive conspiracy centered around a traumatized young woman, etc. etc. etc. There’s obviously a lot there to compare.

But the #1 complaint about this drama I heard the most from other viewers was about who the male lead chose to be with. By and large, everyone liked the idea of a passionate (albeit reckless) romance between Jae Ha and Yoo Jin and utterly disdained the pairing of Jae Ha and Anna. They loved how meaty and well-written Yoo Jin is (not to mention the strong chemistry she has with Jae Ha) while they hated Anna passionately, how innocent and helpless she was, how she wasn’t a ‘strong female lead’, how the relationship between Jae Ha and Anna was tame and boring, so on and so forth. The consensus seemed to be pretty unanimous.

But these complaints sounded like quibbles rather than drama-breaking issues to me, so I dismissed them. I don’t consider innocence a character flaw, I don’t automatically consider helplessness a character flaw, and I quite enjoy my sweet and innocent romances, thank you very much. On top of that, I wasn’t seeing any of these critiques going any further and really examining why Anna was supposedly such a poorly written and acted character, just that she didn’t fit everyone else’s personal preferences for a female lead.

I now have to admit that I was wrong to dismiss everyone's critiques so quickly

Having now seen a sizable portion of the drama, I understand the criticisms, and even have to agree with them somewhat. Yoo Jin is simply a much better character. She has personality presence, the actress does an amazing job making her interesting and intriguing and impossible to look away from, and yes, she has crazy good chemistry with Jae Ha.

But she’s also a terrible person, and there's no getting around that.

She's manipulative and selfish, willing to hurt others for what she wants; she uses Anna as a pawn, keeping her separated from her father basically her entire life, more than happy to make her life miserable and allow her to believe she's not loved or wanted, probably even willing to drive Anna to losing her mind. Yoo Jin is a b****. She may be a fascinating, intriguing, mesmerizing b****, but she's still a b****, and I don't stan that sort of romantic relationship.

Unfortunately, Anna is not a good character, and there's very little about her that will make most viewers root for her relationship with Jae Ha. It's not that she's so terribly written. She certainly could have been beefed up a bit more once you really got into the story, but a good actress would have been able to make the character work and even feel sympathetic and interesting to the audience. But, and I'm sorry to crush any biases here, Im Yoon Ah is a terrible actress. She has her moments, but every time she speaks in sentences longer than 2-3 words, it's a cringefest. And that's why everyone wanted Jae Ha with Yoo Jin. Not because Yoo Jin was worthy of his love, but because she's a better character.

For my part, I did still want Jae Ha and Anna together as I quite liked their innocent romance, and I like stories with knights in shining armor, and Jae Ha very much is one. But as you can see by the dropped tag in this review, their romance was obviously not enough to keep me watching, and that's due to the other major complaint people have had about this drama.

The story is all flash and no substance.

The first few episodes provide great set up with a clear trajectory. We’re treated to a number of impressive fight scenes early on that really wet your appetite for more. But that's where the compliments end. The fight scenes become fairly generic 6 or so episodes in, and it quickly becomes obvious that there's very little story to back them up. Yoo Jin's complex character motivations and Jae Ha's innate bad-a**ness and their obvious chemistry become the only things in the drama giving it reason or purpose. Even poor Anna's complicated and sad relationship with her father doesn't inspire you to feel much.

Ultimately, the drama set itself up for success before finding itself floundering in it's own story.

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Someone called this in the comments a silly, low-effort rom-com, and at the time of that comment, they were 100% right. This started off and stayed until halfway through, a very silly but very fun remake. I tried watching Jane the Virgin once but never finished it, as the majority of the characters were constantly doing selfish and destructive things, and I don't find watching people be selfish and destructive entertaining. But Woori had kept all the parts of Jane the Virgin that I had enjoyed in and cut out the stuff I didn't, so I was happy enough. I didn't expect to get to the end of the drama and praise it for superb plot or characters, but I did expect to have a good time until the end.

Expectations can really turn on you, can't they?

What was a silly, low-effort rom-com that brought me laughs quickly turned into an unwatchable mess. Ep 9 and 10 were probably our sign that this was going to happen, as they were both paced at a chaotic, breakneck speed. They weren't unenjoyable episodes, but they were very jarring compared to the rest of the series thus far. But ep 11 was worse. Poor editing, no effort at character or plot development, slowly turning the male leads unlikable. And worst of all, it just wasn't funny. I had actually noted to myself at one point that 14 episodes didn't seem like enough time to tell the full story, and I wondered if they would be able to pull it off, but I hadn't factored in the possibility that they never even planned to tell the full story to begin with, and I find that to be rather disrespectful to the audience. Of course, we will never know what their plans were, but I can only presume that they intended to only tell half of the story and maybe get a second season to tell the rest. Or maybe they planned on ending it the way they did and not doing further seasons, because reasons. I don't know. I also don't care.

What bothers me about this drama is that they waited to let it fall apart until we were already into the second half when many of us had become invested. If this had gone sideways and stupid in episode 3 or 4, for example, I could have noped on out with ease and swiftly forgotten about this drama. But no. They had to wait until ep 11 and 12 to go full stupid, and now I'm on the internet complaining about it, because that's what you do when a drama does you dirty. Glad I didn't finish it, but now I'm wishing I hadn't started it to begin with.

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Updated Review 2021:

Wow. What a difference a few years (or more) of drama viewing make. I originally watched this drama back when I was still a little baby drama newbie, and it definitely shows in my first review (which I've kept at the bottom of this updated review for you to compare the two with each other). I did not understand this drama or what it was trying to do. At all, lol. After a re-watch (only the second drama I've ever attempted to re-watch and the only drama I've Succeeded in fully re-watching), my feelings have fundamentally altered.

This drama is literally genius. Uproariously funny, office politics intrigue that's actually...intriguing, Yoo Bang and Yeo Chi are Damn. Good. Characters., side characters who feel like family, consistent plot, a side character who Really surprises you with their character progression, extremely well-used aspects of the drama's real-life source material, chock-full of traditional Korean sayings. This is basically a Kdrama classic and required viewing for all Kdrama lovers.

And now that I've given it such glowing praise, let me talk about my complaints, lol.

While I love Yoo Bang and Yeo Chi to pieces, Hang Woo and Woo Hee are definitely the most inconsistent characters out of our main four, and my major complaints about the drama are all related to them.

1) Hang Woo has a deep-seeded desire for revenge that plays an important part in the main plotline of the drama but at some point, said revenge disappears and isn’t mentioned or alluded to or plays any part in the story again until about 3 eps out from the end. It fades from the story in a way that feels natural and realistic, but the writers never give an explanation as to Why Hang Woo doesn’t seem to care about exacting his revenge anymore. He just effectively stops trying to get revenge.

2) Once Hang Woo and Woo Hee start down the path of truly falling for each other (not just flirting/driving each other nuts at every turn/Hang Woo being manipulative), there's very little focus on them actually getting to know each other as people. I found myself wanting to actually See them falling in love with each other, not just be told that that's what happened, and I was disappointed that their entire relationship added up to 'they (adorably) (hilariously) drove each other nuts for ages and now they're in love.'

3) The last three to four eps are not as tightly plotted as the rest of the drama and can be a bit draggy in places. This is mostly to do with Hang Woo's character (and tangentially Woo Hee) because of the aforementioned problem with his plans of revenge disappearing with no explanation then suddenly popping back up to become an important part of the plot again.

I'm not going to say this is one of my favorite dramas, but man do I respect it a lot more than I used to. Contrary to what ignorant, naive, little baby drama newbie me thought, this is a very good drama.

I do not recommend Korean drama newbie's watch this drama as their first, second, third, fourth, or even fifth drama though as there's a lot going on here that you probably won't be able to fully appreciate until you've got a few other dramas under your belt, but you should definitely watch it once you know enough about Korean dramas to really appreciate all of the magnificent things Salaryman did with it's story.


Original Review:
Great at humor. Terrible at drama.

And Hang Woo. Make up your damn mind, son!!!

I've contemplated going back and watching that last episode so many times.

Maybe I will someday.

Then again, maybe I'll just get some ice cream instead.

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This movie was frustrating. I hated watching the main character be so rude and controlling and childish towards her younger self. She bulldozed her way through her younger self's life in a way that was decidedly unfunny. I actually got to the end and was cheering on her younger self to make the wrong decision just to spite her older self. I mean, HOW MESSED UP IS THAT?!?!

Of course, the overall outcome never changed even after she traveled back in time, and I guess that was sort of the message of the movie. You can change the events, but the overall story is already written. Unfortunately, the time travel mechanics were so poorly set up, that this message ended up getting completely lost.

I don't even understand why the main character even needed to go back in time when the guy she wanted to work things out with was already right there in front of her clearly still interested in a relationship. Why go back in time to fix things when you can just work them out in the present?

I liked what the movie was trying to say, but I think it did a poor job of saying it.

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Updated Review 2022:

I just finished watching this drama for a second time, and I have to say, it mostly holds up. Just You is very much a fluffy, cotton-candy rom-com in many respects. The female lead is bubbly and determined and ever cheerful, every employee at Gaze is romantically paired off by the end, it has that intentional over-acting acting style that all dramas of its time had, and at one point, even the female leads goldfish gets in on the action with an overly dramatic backstory. But something I didn't expect when I started my re-watch was how adept the writers were at creating meaningful characters and stories amidst it all. Just You frequently surprises you with its depth and multi-dimension.

Don't misunderstand. The drama doesn't lack in silly situations (see goldfish above, lol). It is very much a drama of its time. But with a couple of plot exceptions, it doesn't resort to just plain stupidity or illogicalness. Characters actions and behaviors are very natural, the conflicts they each experience are very real and touch on a number of issues, and even all of the side couples get together in believable ways and have really pleasant dynamics with one another. (I'm an unabashed fan of every single side couple. THEY'RE ALL SO CUTE, I'M GONNA DIE!!!!)

The one thing that holds this drama back is the love triangle/office drama.

First and foremost, I cannot enjoy plotlines that involve past loves coming back in order to get back together with one of the leads, but they never apologize for what they did to the lead in the first place. I don't understand being the sort of person who can break someone's heart and feel no remorse over it, then come back and try to start over where they left off. This is a classic drama trope I'm glad we've mostly done away with.

The love triangle/office drama also just last waaaay too long for no discernible reason other than I assume to fulfill the episode length. The entire investigation is very poorly done and would have taken one person looking at some camera footage to find out the truth and then reporting it to the partner company to resolve. Also, I don't think it was intentional, but dragging the love-triangle/office drama out for so long really gave Qi Yi a bad look. Jia Yu is given so much leeway with her behavior, often by Qi Yi himself, which understandably gives Liang Liang the wrong impression. I get Qi Yi trying to be surreptitious so that the Jia Yu doesn't realize what's he's doing behind the scenes, but there should have been some gosh-darn boundaries put in place.

That being said, I really like the redemption arc for Jia Yu. While we probably should have been given some of her backstory earlier, I think Jia Yu's backstory makes sense and gives some context to her character. And I don't usually feel this way about evil second leads. 9 times out of 10, I'm ready to chuck them in a fire and be done with it. But her backstory works for me here, and I'm really glad they included it.

Of course, the finale is a little drippy (sappy) in places and very tied-together-with-a-bow, but you have to expect that with a drama from this era, and it all fits pretty well with the tone and style of the rest of the story. If you go into this not expecting a perfect happy ending, you picked the wrong drama, lol.

I'm glad I re-watched this. I don't know if I will ever watch it again, but it was nice to go down memory lane with such a fun cast of characters.

Original Review:
Enjoyed it more then I probably should have. The leads are just plain dynamite together.

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I didn't want to drop this. I had every intention of going back and completing it. But after being stuck at ep 11 for literal months, I just couldn't get myself to go back.

The performances are superb. I really like the mythos/world/world-building of the story. It has a great atmospheric feeling during the more fantastical elements. I love both of the main characters and can really empathize with them. I'm not interested in the love triangle between the three secondary leads, but that's not really important enough for me to drop a drama. And I didn't find the rules of the universe confusing at all.

I just couldn't connect with the story. I really wanted to see the female lead more cut up about having to leave her loves ones, because I know I would be an absolute wreck if this sort of thing happened to me. And as much as I liked the romance, I found some of the leads motivations to not be very strong, and some of their choices frustrating.

I don't think this is a completely worthless drama. The right audience would love it. It's not a drama about the role of god or the mysteries of the universe or building an immersive fantasy world (although I think it does mostly succeed on that last point). The fantastical, other-worldly elements are there to serve the romance and the drama's underlying themes: sadness, loneliness, losing hope and then finding someone in the midst of it all. And that's what this drama is really about. Finding someone to be there with you at your lowest points. Which is definitely something a lot of viewers would enjoy.

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I remember getting to somewhere around episode 8 or 10 of this drama and posting in the comments on Dramafever (miss you like a lung, Dramafever), ‘Normally, this would be the point when I'd say we were reaching the really difficult part of the drama, but let's be honest. That happened a while ago, lol.’

And it’s true. We get two or three episodes of real, lighthearted bickering and character development in this drama.

Then everything goes downhill.

I can't speak on the overarching plot, because I don't remember most of it, but the thing that made this drama fail so hard for me was the characters.

Xiao Qian was kickass the first few episodes, testifying against Jerry in court and playing that fabulous prank on him at the hotel. But then she started to have feelings for him, and grandma showed up with her terrible wig and controlling behavior, and suddenly, the only thing Xiao Qian had going for her anymore was she was cute.

Jerry was such an interesting character. He was the ultimate snake oil salesman, and it was honestly amazing just how good he was at making people fall all over themselves for him, and then in the same breath, making himself look like a total twat. His pride and arrogance was a double-edged sword, and I loved watching him fall on it.

Blue Lan also made some of the cutest facial expressions and funny little head tilts that I have ever seen. They looked like totally natural mannerisms that just extended out from his character, and I really loved that.

Sam was a very unusual secondary male lead. He was just as much of an arrogant, self-absorbed prick as our male lead, and in some ways, actually came off far worse then Jerry ever did. Jerry was arrogant and selfish and spoiled, but he was upfront about it. Sam was incredibly shady and underhanded and just way more subtle and sneaky about his arrogance.

He was basically a male lead stuck in a secondary male lead's body, and I wish they had really gone with that concept. But as soon as he developed an interest in Xiao Qian, the character went from spoiled and arrogant to kind and respectful in the span of an episode, and I found myself missing the more sinister version of him.

Amanda was way better as a mother then as a romantic rival. Keeping her son a secret was a terrible idea, but I think the actress did a fantastic job of making her look like a loving, caring, giving mother despite the circumstances. I just can't stand it how the writers forced her character to fall for Jerry. She gave in so easily. And Jerry wasn't even being particularly romantic either. He was more like a flamboyant stalker. Doing a background check on her. (That should have raised some serious red flags.) Showing up to HER birthday party and turning it around so it was all about him. (Seriously! Who shows up to Someone Else's birthday party riding a horse with a clown as an entrance when they aren't getting paid to?!)

Of course, that’s part of what made Jerry such a great character. He was so full of himself that he didn’t even know he was an idiot.

But Xiao Qian’s family was, hands down, my least favorite part of this drama. And grandma was the worst. She needed to go.

Fall off a cliff.

Into the ocean.

Filled with sharks.

I hate her.

In terms of romance, it did some things I liked and a Lot I didn't.

I initially enjoyed the 'two rich, arrogant guys having a face off' bit in the beginning. It was hilarious watching these spoiled, self-absorbed, men fight with each other. But it quickly became boring and repetitive. I wanted one of them (preferably Jerry, seeing as he was the male lead) to grow up and stop acting like a petulant child.

And of course, Jerry had to go and do Everything!!!!! in the romance backwards. Like, how about shutting it down with Amanda before trying to start something with Xiao Qian?

I do like that we didn’t have an epiphany scene where Jerry suddenly realized he liked Xiao Qian. He just came to like her, and there wasn’t any ridiculous fanfare over it. The only problem I have with there not being an epiphany scene is that…I had no idea he liked her until he suddenly started sidling up to her and being all ‘Hey, let’s be more then friends.’ There were glances from him and a couple sexually tense moments, but nothing that made me think ‘He’s definitely fallen for her.’ That build up could have been better.

But what am I saying?

Everything about this drama could have been better.

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I have now seen (though not completed) every version of this story minus the Thai version. The original is the first drama I ever watched and was 100% a crack drama for me, so despite its flaws, it holds a special place in my heart. It also has one of the two best female lead portrayals of the four versions I've seen. Chen Xin Yi gives a deeply affecting performance as our resident post-it girl, moving you with her smiles and her tears. When she cried, You cried. I watched the Korean version next and consider it the best version as well as my favorite. The writers toned down all of the over-the-top and nonsensical bits from the original, grounding the characters and the story, without losing any comedy, and the OTP is definitely a fav. I also immediately adored Jang Na Ra's character with all of her softness and tenderness and fabulous fashion sense and consider her a tie with Chen Xin Yi for best portrayal. Next, I watched the Japanese version which is much shorter, much quicker, and ends exactly in the middle of the story with no likelihood of another season to give the story a conclusion. This version admittedly has poor pacing and very little build up before some of the major events of the story, but I still enjoyed it and will be forever disappointed that we didn't get a season 2. It's the perfect drama for turning off your brain and enjoying the ride.

Now we come to this version, the C-drama. This is the only version I have not finished and barring a future viewing of the Thai version (which I imagine will be every bit as dramatic as the original with probably a LOT of abuse thrown the female leads way based on my impression of what Thai dramas seem to be like), this version (c-drama) is my least favorite.

This version attempts to tell the story straight without much in the way of comedy, which could have been an interesting angle to tell the story from, but the more I watched, the more I found myself wishing the drama had more of a sense of humor. While the comedy of the original was outlandish and over-the-top (even sometimes grating), it still served as a well-deserved break from all of the melodrama. This version certainly is not as melodramatic as the original, but it was maybe something worse. Bland. It took all of the pertinent characters and events of the original, arranged the pieces in a similar fashion, and then did very little of interest with them. There's not much done to flesh out the characters or create compelling motivations, little to make the male lead a little more likable or sympathetic, and there's only light comedy which mostly centers around a few side characters. There's just no real personality with this version, except maybe to be a little more depressing.

They do start to switch things up a bit at one point in the story with the male lead deciding to stay with the female lead and come clean to Anna only for the female lead to start expressing uncertainty and fear at this reversal. I was hopeful that they would really lean into the male lead recognizing his feelings and the female lead panicking and pushing him away. It would have been great to explore the female leads insecurity and create some meaningful backstory for her character. They make an attempt at this, but it's half-hearted at best and is quickly followed by the expected shenanigans with the second female lead and 'the incident,' which cancels out the writers' efforts and leaves you dissatisfied.

Many of the performances are forgettable as well. There are a handful of characters that are well acted, namely the male lead, both leads best friends (who have a far more interesting and enjoyable romance), and the female leads mother, but the story is so uninteresting that their performances are not very meaningful. (Apart from the mother, who seems to always be one of the best characters in this story, with exception to the J-drama.) The female lead is particularly uninspiring. First and foremost, they did very little to make her appear mousy and insecure, which goes a long way to believing a character. But she also had very little range when it came to her facial expressions and tone of voice. She always looked and sounded mildly sad and detached, which didn't benefit the story or her character..

Ultimately, all three other versions I've seen have had something unique to bring to the table, something to make you want to watch. The original is, well, the original, as well as a classic Taiwanese drama, and regardless of how over-the-top and dramatic it is, it has a female lead that pulls at your heartstrings. The Japanese version is weak in terms of pacing, and it ends in the middle of the story, so that's a bummer, but it's a quick and easy watch that won't make you tear your hair out. You can turn your brain off and enjoy it for what it is. And as I've already said, I think the Korean version is the best. It put meat on the bones of the story, elevating it and its characters to something more meaningful and resonant. Sadly, this version can offer nothing but blandness.

I imagine there are plenty of people who really like this version, even love it, and I'm not here to rain on their parade. I quit after episode 21, so maybe I missed where things got good. But from what I saw, I thought it was rather uninspired, and I didn't have any interest in finishing it.

Links to my reviews for the other versions:

https://mydramalist.com/profile/OhSoEnthusiastic/review/22006

https://mydramalist.com/profile/OhSoEnthusiastic/review/22004

https://mydramalist.com/profile/OhSoEnthusiastic/reviews/75009

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I have one reason, and one reason only, for why I dropped this drama.

Cheating. There is a strong case of cheating in this drama, and I cannot abide it.

Yes, many will consider the cheating pseudo-cheating as the male lead's fiancé is an awful person, and their relationship is more for show than out of love, and they both acknowledge that. But all of the things said cheating brings along with it are so glaringly awful, I refuse to put up with them.

There's how it completely distracts the female lead from her goal of disrupting and changing the political landscape of her town. The story is meant to be about tackling government corruption and laziness and just downright ineffectiveness, but instead, it becomes about two people having a secret, untenable relationship that ultimately makes them both miserable, because they're not being honest with themselves.

There's how it ruins the female lead as a character, because instead of fighting for justice, she's mopey and whiney and constantly pining over this secret relationship and ultimately becomes the type of person who's willing to hurt others and sacrifice them for her own personal gain.

There's how it highlights that the male lead is so selfish that instead of breaking off his engagement to a woman he doesn't love so he can be with a woman he does, he would rather go through with the engagement and eventual marriage while stringing the female lead along beside him, never to be first in his life, always to be second.

And then worst of all, the fact that the female lead knows full well that the male lead is engaged and, Believing It To Be A Genuine Relationship, goes along with the cheating anyway. You want to make a case that he's not cheating on anyone because he and his fiancé don't actually love each other, fine. I'll let it slide. But her? She thought his relationship with his fiancé was real, and she was okay with ****ing that over.

Not. Cool.

Now maybe all of this was intentional and later in the drama the writers were going to show the leads just what kind of people they had become, just what they had sacrificed out of their own selfishness. Maybe there was an entire redemption arc planned. But I read spoilers for the later episodes, and that's Definitely not where I saw the story going.

I'm not saying that stories shouldn't talk about and address cheating, that characters are never allowed to cheat in a story, but I sure as hell am saying that a drama that portrays cheating as somehow romantic and not a big deal and easy to gloss over is Not a story I want to watch. In any context.

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I dropped this drama just before episode ten. I'd heard about all of the controversy and how they went totally off script in the second half, so I did a bad thing I always tell myself not to do and then do anyway, and I went and looked up some spoilers. Mainly for the last episode.

And I was just not down for that ending.

I'm giving this a ten, because what I watched was phenomenal, and if there hadn't ended up being such a big controversy, I probably would have finished this drama. Heck, part of me still really wants to go back and finish it, but the other part knows I'll get to the end and just be filled with rage by the ending.

If you know about the controversy and the ending and still want to give this drama a shot, please do. Because it really has a lot to commend itself.

Just prepare yourself for this train to fly fully off the rails and down a canyon halfway through.

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When I watched the original series in 2021, I enjoyed it immensely, but it was also a pretty strange ride. The overarching story is very silly, but the writers really knew how to pull completely unexpected, from left-field, twists while pulling at your heartstrings and making you love these (sometimes odd) characters. It wasn't until watching this special, however, that I realized how much I love the original series.

I just love every character in this universe, and watching them be happy makes me happy.

All I'm asking for is that the writers eventually, someday (preferably within the near future of my life) finally let Akiko and Akira actually get together. It's adorable and hilarious watching Akira chase after her and pine for her and hope, but my heart can only take so much.

And I guess I here I go to see if there is any progress on their relationship in the 2022 special. Here's desperately hoping, lol.

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