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 comedy relief, a 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: 6 / 10.
