I was debating between 8.5 or 9 maybe even 9.5, so let me start with the good first,

High budgeted jdrama historical, I’m not too well experienced in jdrama historicals and the ones I’ve seen are always so, budget friendly to say it nicely, poorly expensed would be more accurate
not saying they weren’t good but yeah it felt like they used pocket money to make the set and outfits

Anyway, this felt nicely expansive, good setting and everything
Ml, tho I only watched one ep of the anime, he wasn’t as cold here, more like reserved out of shyness cuz he never dealt with women and he seemed well social with the guys, so ml just felt cutely naive rather a cold jerk

The bad, too much too little, so many things happened yet it still felt so rushed, not enough setting grounds, suddenly ppl wanted revenge and suddenly a new character with his whole backlog came up
The fl, dang is it a kink? I mean I get the Cinderella effect, but man this chic was a mouse
so self loathing, so much inferiority complex, yeah she had “background reasons” but it’s also the writers weird fetish

tbh I would’ve loved something like queen charlotte, there’s no reason she couldn’t have been smart cuz she studied alone, there was no need for her to be a genius but everything felt like an excuse “I’m not smart enough for you, I’m not pretty enough for you” that’s disgusting

And yeah that’s why my rating kept going down
Like I came from stories like The Awakening by Kelly Armstrong (?), and the whole setup of dumb blondes later realizing they’re the most powerful person ever, I mean we can even say Bella from Twilight. Anyway but this girl I swear I wanted to punch her so bad

And by the time one reads this for there’s no need to mark spoilers but even if she was strong, dang that girl fell so much like she was made of glass
So yeah if there’s a second season I want a drama not a movie, cuz hopefully she “grows up” and atleast becomes a zootopias Jody