Utsukushii Kare

Kazunari Hira (Riku Hagiwara) is in the 3rd grade of high school. He suffers from a stuttering problem and he doesn't have any friends. Without any dreams, his only hobby is to take pictures of daily life around him. On the first day the new semester, he finds himself in an uncomfortable situation. His classmate So Kiyoi (Yusei Yagi) happens to save him from the situation. This causes Kazunari Hira to fall in love with So Kiyoi. His classmate is popular and he purses a dream that nobody knows about. By chance, Kazunari Hira learns about So Kiyoi’s dream. This becomes a secret between the two of them. (asianwiki-2021)

I am happily surprised by this drama because I loved it and may be my favorite Jdrama of 2021. I wasn't planning on watching it, except it got quietly popular and reading some comments I became interested.

This kind of BL is right up to my taste since it is the kind of plot I do love to read in books. More specifically, this drama reminded me a lot of the Straight series, a MM romance series where almost always the leads are so f**ked up and may need therapy but you can't help but root for them because of their intense chemistry and lusty romance. They are flawed characters and I love it; I realized this year that I do like my leads to be imperfect, but still perfect for each other.

Is their relationship toxic? Depends of every person but to me it wasn't. It is not like their dynamic made them unhappy; they do have a miscommunication (they are teenagers after all) but once they lay out all their feelings *coughkiyoionhiracough* they are on the same page. And about the "kimoi" thing... I love it. I love when in my MM romance books the term of endearment is "jackass", "asshole", etc precisely because it is said with love and endearment, not as a way of abuse.  I certainly cringe when the term of endearment is "baby", "honey", etc **cringe** Again, it depends on anyone's taste.

Some people were offended by the gun imagination thing... it made me laugh when I watched it 😅 who doesn't have a violent imagination once in a while? As long as it doesn't get real it's fine, no need to be so prude.

The acting was excellent, both were amazing and had a nice chemistry. So nice I didn't have any 2nd hand embarrassment with scenes like the finger sucking... it was actually pretty hot and kinda sweet. The only time I had 2nd hand embarrassment was at the shower scene in the school yard...it was too long 😅 Even if it were a straight couple I would have felt the same.

I also like the OST, both OP song & ED song.

My only complain? Too short, but on the other hand the drama was mostly about them and very little about others. Just like the Straight book series 😅

My rating: **9.5/10**

The Long Ballad

The year is 626 C.E, and the realm and its political center Chang’an, are shaken to its core by the Xuanwu Gate Incident, a successful palace coup to take charge of the Tang Dynasty. A scheming prince leads the bloody coup and kills the family of Li Chang Ge during the raid, although she manages to escape. Now the prince has placed himself on the Imperial throne, and rules as Emperor Tai Zong.
Li Chang Ge has her mind firmly set on revenge – and musters a powerful army intent on overthrowing the new Emperor.
But her plans are thrown into disarray when she suffers an unexpected defeat against the armies of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate. The victorious General, Ashile Sun, decides to keep her in his service, making her his military strategist as he looks to pursue his own military goals. The duo forms a formidable military partnership. And over time, she finds herself falling for her captor – as he also starts developing feelings for her. (MDL-2021)

Production-wise, it is a very well done drama. Story-telling and characterization... overrated.

I swear to God almost everyone in this show was dumb and the script was trying so hard to sell that they were all smart but it didn't work at all (and it didn't help that I watched this at the same time I watched NiF). In almost every episode someone was saying "you are so smart". Bish, where?? Every "good" character was or either making a wrong decision (Changge, Hao Du, Shuyu) or were acting with hysteria (Mimi, the Crown Prince). The script was horrible; Changge was supposed to be a smart strategist, and all she said was "let's put this group to the right and this to the left" and the other party was "wow Changge, you are so smart, be my right-hand commander".

First episode, Changge is this intelligent, tomboy girl who knows how to fight, physically and mentally. Second episode, Changge swears to take revenge. 40 episodes later and all Changge did was saying this and that and was the smartest; as for the battles, where was the girl so agile who could fight? She was constantly saved by others; the forever damsel in distress.

Yueyan had a better character development; seemed like she was going to be the damsel in distress but she had more adventures and dangerous situations than Changge and even knew how to overcome them ON HER OWN. She may have been timid but she was braver. Except she has another facepalm moment around episode 40-42 where she still thinks she has a chance with Shuyu.... she has a heartbreak in one episode and in the same episode she overcomes it and realizes she loves Hao Du. Character development made wrong.

The only smart character was Sun.... he was honest and knew how to say things straight and also could sense when something was wrong. The others **facepalm** Hao Du was all talks and no action and poor Wei Shuyu was just so dumb.... the sweetest boy but very dumb.

OST is excellent. Performed by the King an Queen of CDramas OST. So of course the songs are good. I did not fall in love with them but I can admit they are powerful songs. And I did like the use of illustrations to show battles and fires and flood.... I was expecting more use of it because it was unique.

This drama was 10 episodes too long; should have ended around 40 at least.

My rating: **5/10**