#800 words i wrote while listening to back number to honor kurosawa yuichi

[cherimaho]

A refreshing take on the Cherry Magic prologue that unfortunately fell (a ltitle) short in the last few minutes. 

Cherry Magic Thailand chooses the Jdrama route where we first meet Achi without his powers. It was nice to see the difference in culture immediately; from Achi’s living conditions to means of transport. Though I thought having Achi immediately lament on his life choices 2 minutes in was maybeeeee too quick.

It’s very interesting that Rock/Rokkaku here is introduced as Achi’s subordinate and their whole first interaction, with Achi feeling awkward that despite their big age difference he hardly holds a senior position over him, which in turn further proves Achi’s averageness. Plus, having Rock approach and get attached to Achi is going to rationalize an aspect of Karan’s jealousy which I am very excited to see. I liked the flashback montage about how different Karan and Achi’s progress in the workplace was. It gives the viewers a better idea of Achi’s mix of jealousy and admiration towards Karan and it’s also a first look into Achi’s feelings of inferiority that will eventually become an obstacle to his and Karan’s relationship.I also like how in the most recent flashback you can see Karan kind of burnt out, which should be around the time he falls (or has already fallen) for Achi. 

 *BTW Karan here is supposed to have won employee of the year 7 years in a row (from the FIRST year he joined) and honestly I find that less realistic than I found jdrama Kurosawa being in love with Adachi for 7 years 

Besides that, however, I found some other scenes unnecessary and very exposition-y, even for a pilot episode. For example, learning about Achi’s trauma regarding romantic relationships should have come up later imo.

Unlike other adaptations this one didn’t really feel the need to excessively point out Karan’s popularity among women, which is a very vital plot point later on; I am not really big fan of that trope so I found it kind of refreshing; and it will come sooner or later. 

I am VERY interested in Pai and Dujdao. Big fan of adding another relevant female character and one who is nice to Achi, at that! Pai is leaning to Fujisaki’s more extroverted and mischievous side while I think Dujdao has some of Fujisaki’s qualities as well but her role is more equivalent to a nicer Urabe-san or Achi’s very own Asahina-senpai. Side note, the implication that Pai-Dujdao are some kind of cupids that help Karan seduce Achi is a concept I can 100% get behind. It also seems like the boss will be a recurring character so maybe he’s the Asahina?  Anyway, the character department has me invested.

And speaking of characters - Jinta! JInta is…a character who is… not Tsuge. A lot of people are not fans of Tsuge, especially Jdrama Tsuge. But well I don’t know if the solution is to completely change him? He looks and acts way younger which is very contradictory to his role in the manga; Especially to his relationship with Minato. But, I won’t judge too hard yet since they haven’t even interacted on screen. The udon backstory is an AMAZING detail and the GREATEST introduction of the side couple in any version of the story. 

So. Nothing is going to top the jdrama elevator scene and every adaptation is going to have to make peace with that. The lighting work during Kurosawa’s imagination in the office was a work of art and Achi’s (and Rock’s later) reaction was hilarious. The sound effects also got me a few times ngl.

Part 4 however…disappointed me. First off they replace the scarf scene with a way less emotionally charged umbrella scene. To which I ask, do you know how hard it is to make an umbrella scene seem so unromantic? And then we have Karan asking Achi to stay over and BEFORE Achi agrees, he reads Karan’s mind and his wild imagination. And then…agrees? The entire gag of the scene relies on Achi agreeing BEFORE he sees all that stuff and then immediately regretting it. Having him regret it after the fact is … pointless? I also found it very abrupt to jump to domestic life scenarios fantasies from the get-go when in all other version’s Karan is just contend with Achi being at his place (with his designated pyjamas). He’s a horny bastard in general, I am not denying the mole scene earlier but I felt like the domestic fantasies being shown so early on was a bit fanservice-y for the Taynew fans? (As someone who doesn’t gaf about these men outside their roles and as someone who knows Kurosawa personally this is what it felt like to me.)

Karan's smirk was precious though hehe.

TLDR the show has a very promising and compelling beginning but declines in quality in the last minutes. That being said, I still have faith that the next episodes will be better. The next episode clips I’ve seen are promising and since there was a lot of exposition (and scenes from later chapters) in the pilot it will probably help the pace of the later episodes. Personally, the jdrama hooked me with EP3 (the events of which will be in EP2 of the Thai one) so I think (and hope) the show will only get better from here!

#cherry magic #cherry magic th #800 words i wrote while listening to back number to honor kurosawa yuichi