Aishang Ta de Liyou

Good news for readers of the source material! The ending of this adaptation is different and it's in the extra 10 minute episode, so you might enjoy this.

Anyways, this is a decent romance story. It’s about how the main character and his love interests try to make sense of their crisscrossed desires, all the while with fluttering hearts and fluctuating passions. Throughout the plot, these vicissitudes of love are shown with a playful yet thoughtful tone. We see the characters bantering with one another, enjoying their youthful camaraderie in college and at home. We see the pasts of the characters - some distressing, all sentimental ... - that delve deep into their fears and uncertainties and contextualize their actions. We come to see how personalities shift, but more clearly, how the characters slowly change the way they act and think, often spurred by each other.

I like how the story shows that the development of love is not always linear or straightforward, but more often full of cuts, crevices, and U-turns. In addition, some of the more meaningful scenes are subtle instead of melodramatic, a creative decision that I respect. Not to say that there aren’t overflowing tears or emotional outbursts, but they feel well-placed and not too frequent. In this sense, the treatment of romance is relatively mature, so while I haven’t seen much romance stuff, I think this is a good addition to the genre.

Despite these highlights, the show has some issues. There are some parts that feel tacked on and don’t contribute to the rest of the story much. Perhaps more concerning, one person starts off promising in terms of characterization, but her importance to the story isn’t really established and she ends up becoming a bumbling side observer to the core conflict. Also there are many parts that I personally cringed at but you know what, the story ends fine so I’m just gonna ignore them in my adjusted score.

Adjusted score: 7 / 10. Personal score: 5 / 10.

Not too sweet romance. Somehow it's both a "mature/grown-up" & "coming-of-age" story. The characters are interesting and three-dimensional with things to like, dislike & not fully understand about them. I didn't read the source material & despite my fear of love triangles I really enjoyed the story.

The animation is absolutely beautiful, especially the hair, facial expressions, and body language. The lighting, shading, movement, well really overall everything in my humble opinion it's quite visually striking and smooth.

The soundtrack is limited, but that might count in its favor as one continues to watch the music ques create an ... expected atmosphere. I enjoyed the music in the show. I found the Chinese voice-acting to be really enjoyable. The voices were beautiful & carried the right amount of emotion & nuance.

Even though the story is mainly told from the Male Lead's perspective I'd classify this as a josei. Quite a non-cliché romance story with some light psychological twists and turns. I'd recommend it to watchers who like romance or even slice-of-life. Even if you don't like romance it's a good story about the challenges of starting a new beginning in life.

Warning: No ecchi, no harem, no oppais. It's quite a wholesome show with no erotic references. If you dislike love triangles you might still enjoy this, but be warned many girls like one kind of indecisive unremarkable guy.

I just created this MAL account just for this review. So here are my takeaways:

- OP was hella addicting and all OST's were top notch.
- Story itself was good and the romance was 10/10. Leads too much chemistry. I'm really invested with the story that i have to finish it in one seating since the story is not the "TYPICAL" romance we are seeing in most animes. I felt like it was a sort of k-drama in the anime setting.
- The animation was really captivating tho still need some improvement. I've watch many anime's mostly produced in Japan, but this one is kind of ... different and i like it very much. IDK how to describe it but the characters were well portrayed so kudos to Red Dog Culture House. I became a simp for the FL.
- Hoping for season 2 but for god's sake please don't follow the original ending xD
- It's been a long time since i've watch an anime and this anime is like a breath of fresh air for me. So i'll give it a 10/10.

This series was pretty interesting at first, but the more episodes I watched the more I started to dislike it. I had hoped for getting the typical anime romance feels, but unfortunately I was very disappointed.

The part of the series that I liked was that love isn't straightforward, rather more like a roller coaster that is unpredictable. But it got to a point where I stopped caring about what kind of ending the series would have. The OSTs were literally carrying me through the series, because they were, in my opinion, the best part of every episode.

I have watched a lot of romance anime ... because it is my favourite genre. This has to be the first one that I didn't feel a connection to most of the characters. I was mostly bored or frustrated through the whole series. I took the series very seriously, which is why it's so sad that I am feeling the way I am feeling about this series.

I don't know why this series made such a bad impression for me. Maybe it is because it was the first chinese anime I have watched or just simply that this series is not my taste of romance anime.

My adjusted score: 6/10. My personal score: 5/10 (if not even lower). It's up to you if you want to watch it or not.

I did not expect this to be good, but it turned out to be spectacular. The animation is much better than your typical romance anime, and the excellent sound design really helps you feel the doki doki. The characters feel fleshed out and natural (even the crazy ones), and the story, while feeling melodramatic at times, has enough twists and turns to feel exciting. I appreciate that the characters are adults and they act more mature than the typical romance.

The main conflict is a love triangle between the handsome Juntang (the protagonist), the beautiful idol Shiya, and the studious childhood sweetheart Zhu Zhu. Shiya is ... direct and pushy with her love for Juntang, but Juntang is saving himself for Zhu Zhu, whom he has had a crush on forever.

I think what sets this apart is what it _doesn't_ do. In your typical romance drama, you have conflicts arising from poor communication which creates misunderstandings that triggers certain characters to go batshit insane. Then we yell at the screen 'why would you do that?' and resign to the realization that the characters are not people but plot devices. While a central conflict _is_ caused by Zhu Zhu's lack of communication, it doesn't create unnatural responses.

In this show, both Shiya and Zhu Zhu are developed enough that we can empathize with them. It's not exactly clear who, if any, would win out in the end. Shiya is crazy and stalkerish, but displays enough emotion to be taken seriously. Zhu Zhu is the childhood sweetheart, but is absent for critical time periods. On the other hand, Ruoli is more of an afterthought; she never was in the running to begin with and didn't really need to be there. In fact, she adds a certain amount of cringe which detracts from the show.

From what I heard, the show doesn't adapt the full source material, but this show tells a complete story with a satisfying conclusion.

Highly recommended, at first glance, this Chinese animation captivates with its vibrant and visually stimulating aesthetics, setting it apart from the conventional Japanese animation styles that have, in recent times, remained somewhat conservative. It is my fervent wish that Chinese animation continues to refine its craft and assumes a dominant position in the global animation industry.

The narrative within this animated gem is notably robust, crafting a captivating narrative that skillfully navigates the realms of romance and ecchi elements. However, it is paramount to underline that the storytelling exudes a supremacy that eclipses the more risqué facets. The story itself stands as a veritable paragon of ... uniqueness and deviation from the prevailing trends in Japanese anime today. In sum, this presentation comes enthusiastically commended.

This donghua is an adaptation of the Korean manhwa, Lee Doona!. I did read the manhwa so I will be reviewing this as both a donghua and as an adaptation. I will also use the manhwa translation names as opposed to the Chinese Pinyin names in this review.

Plot Summary: Our MC, Joon, is a new college student, having worked hard to study and test into the college his high school crush is attending. Upon moving into a share house, he meets a weird but strangely familiar looking woman at the the entrance. He soon recognizes her as the recently retired idol, Lee Duna. Once recognized, ... Duna, afraid of having her location revealed, waits outside to request/threaten him not to tell anyone. This wait prompts her to collapse and Joon, as a new dormmate, to help her. And thus the two become closer, beginning Joon's tumultuous "spring" (romanctic life).

Plot
This donghua adaptation is about a new college student Joon, who now attends the college of his crush and whom he wants to get into a relationship with. Since the story is set in a modern college setting (likely Korea, since it is a manhwa), there are drinking parties and many activities stereotypically associated with college. This donghua falls under the romance category, with multiple potential candidates for our MC. The plot progression is not perfectly linear so watching it as single episodes may cause some confusion (usually resolved with the pre-OP scene in next episode); however, this is not much of a problem if you binge watch the show. The show starts off with a "conclusion" of what we can expect in this season, then goes back to tell the story on how it reached that point (this follows the manhwa so I can't exactly fault it). Many people like to skip the OP and ED, so I do warn you to be wary of doing that with this show, as there are rather important plot elements/exposition pre-OP, usually expanding on side character backstories or continuations of previous episode events.

Characters
The characters are all believeable and unique enough to recognize individually. All the characters were great, and I like them all. The internal monologues provided good insight into each characters thoughts at certain times, though if you don't have a sharp ear you may not notice the difference in intonation that differentiates between speech and internal monologues. How the characters evolve/change throughout the season is also great a believeable, helped by all the monologues/character thoughts.

Animation
The animation is 2D, which is a bit different from my usual preferance, but the art style and animation quality is pretty good. The designs are basically pulled directly from the manhwa, and the asthetic is consistant with our modern world (it is set in "today's" world afterall).

Overall/Final
I very much enjoyed this romance donghua. While it is a bit different from my usual preferances, I still think it did a good job presenting the story. I very much enjoyed this romance donghua, though some of the narration about "future events and their conclusion" worry me. The progression of the relationships were reasonable and the characters, especially the MC, was not too dumbed down (like many romantic/harem works). I highly recommend this to anyone who likes the fluttery romance stories. It does have some drama and cringy moments, but overall an enjoyable watch.

Adaptation Review (may contain spoilers):
The adaptation of The Girl Downstairs Manhwa is probably the closest one will ever get to a perfect adaptation. When watching this, there are 2 things that stand out as different from the source. Those 2 differences are:
-Removal of the Fairy: So the fairy in the manhwa was a semi-supernatural author tsukommi self insert which was a bit annoying. The removal, in my opinion, was a good call.
-Severely toned down drinking and smoking: The FMC Lee Duna was a very heavy smoker; this got removed and replaced with "playing with a lighter". In addition, only drinking that is directly relevant to the core story is adapted, some of the less relevant displays of drinking were removed.

There is two big cuts from the manhwa to the adaptation: the Busan trip (got changed), where lots of "degenerate" behavior and irresponsible drinking happened, and the picnic that the group of 6 went out on that led to the subsequent drinking party that led to the group breakup.

There are also some minor changes, like minor changes to where some events take place, but what the scenes portrayed was not modified, so no harm no foul, though it does create minor disconnects.

For presentation, Lee Duna's instability is not as well portrayed. They could have better showed her drastic mood swings.

Overall, this was a very very faithful adaptation of the original story, where there are some changes to presentation, focusing on visual in the donghua vs text/monologues in the manhwa. The differences in atmosphere are so small it is scary how close it is to the original work. In fact, its faithfulness both excites and worries me; I love perfectly faithful adaptations, but the foreshadowing narration and knowing how the original ended scares me (the original ending was very disappointing and unfulfilling). If this adaptation did not cut out those two events, it would have been rated a 9.8 on the faithfulness scale. On a final note, the donghua adapts chapters 1-54 of the manhwa.

Adaptation score(how faithful to source): 9/10

Edit: Of course, right after I finish watching and post this review there is an "extra" episode that gets released. I'm not sure how canon it is, but be sure to find and watch it. I guess it could be considered an ending.

I'm surprised I liked it. Surely one of the underated romance anime on 2023.
Too bad each episode is only 12mins and 22 episodes only. But one season was honestly enough
Even though its chinese dub to be honeset it sounds good and natural. Storywise kinda similar to Golden time but more serious and flirty.

The animation was really nice and smooth. And I really liked the background music good job first chinese anime I really liked.

Characters and story was kinda realistic not gonna lie. those scenes apparently happens irl

I feel like other would like this too but may not appreciate it because of the chinese ... dub which was suprsingly ok and natural.

if you are into a romance with fewer cliches and stuff this is for you, It is a romance unlike any other it actually focuses on their love towards each other although the pacing is quite messy you'll understand it. and it is quite adorable it's not like your typical anime with ecchi stiff sure there are a few but they don't go overboard with fan service.
This is the first Korean anime I watched based on a webtoon and I jumped in blind expecting it to be trash cuz of my hatred towards it but turns out it was okay not the best but it ... was okay I gave it a 7 outta 10 i recommend it!

Português

Um anime de romance excelente, personagens cativantes e carismáticos, com um romance bem satisfatório. A produção também é excelente, a animação é belíssima e as trilhas sonoras deixam os momentos mais românticos, fazendo sentir até aquele "friozinho na barriga".

Talvez algo que possa afastar muitas pessoas é pelo fato de só ter dub chinesa e por que também, em alguns aspectos se assemelha um pouco a dorama. Mas eu particularmente não me incomodei com isso, e a dub não é ruim.

De qualquer forma, recomendo pra quem está em busca de romances que não se assemelham a romances japoneses previsíveis e esticados que só se ... focam em cenas de fanservice gratuita.

English

An excellent romance anime, captivating and charismatic characters, with a very satisfying romance. The production is also excellent, the animation is beautiful and the soundtracks make the moments more romantic, making you feel those "butterflies in your stomach".

Perhaps something that might put many people off is the fact that it only has a Chinese dub and because, in some aspects, it is a bit similar to a drama. But I didn't particularly mind it, and the dub isn't bad.

Anyway, I recommend it to anyone looking for novels that don't resemble predictable and stretched Japanese novels that only focus on scenes of Free fanservice.