Top 10 Asian Dramas Of 2020

And now last but not least, here's the Top 10 Asian Dramas list that I started two years ago! Again, this list is based on my personal opinions and may contain spoilers. If you'd like to see more, make sure to check out my Weekly Drama Reviews, Favorite YouTube Videos and My Asian OTPs & Ships as well as checking out my Top 10 Asian Dramas Of 2018, and Top 10 Asian Dramas Of 2019 lists!

First up in alphabetic order are my honorable mentions which once again are dramas that I watched this year but aired in previous years!

A Gentleman’s Dignity

First up on my honorable mentions list is a kdrama called A Gentleman's Dignity. Now this drama will definitely not be everyone's cup of tea cause it's basically a show in which middle aged men act raunchy but I think I watched this at the perfect time and I fell in love. It's an ensemble show in which we follow four guy friends as they navigate through the minefield of love. The main male lead and his romance is my favorite of the bunch cause I'm kinda a sucker for the whole playboy falls for a soft woman trope and though I could take or leave the others, I kinda just loved what a great squad they were together. The men had each other's backs through life or death and it was just overall sweet. Click here to see my full review if you're interested!

It’s Okay That’s Love

Next up on my list is a kdrama called It's Okay That's Love. This show has one of the best portrayals of mental health that I've seen in a drama before. It follows a wonderful found family as they live their lives and get through hurdles that each one faces. The main leads are the highlight of this show of course and their chemistry is what allows you to buy what the show is selling but I also want to shout out how mature the whole show feels. It doesn't slide away from talking about sex but it's not an American show level either. This is another case of a playboy falls for a woman who changes his world but there's more to the story that I'm not entirely sure if I should spoil... The end of the drama wasn't exactly my cup of tea but other people enjoyed it so it's possible that it will work for you. Click here to see my full review if you're interested!

Liar Game

My third honorable mention is a kdrama called Liar Game! So this is technically a remake of a jdrama that's an adaptation of a Japanese manga but never having seen any of the Japanese versions, I jumped into the kdrama completely blind and was mesmerized! This show is basically the dramatic version of watching a game show but with the stakes and energy of a death game anime without the death part! It takes a look at what people are at their core and whether someone would lie cheat or steal for money. Personally I'm not the biggest fan of the female lead but I also didn't despise her like others did so take of that what you will. Click here to see my full review if you're interested!

Mary Stayed Out All Night / Marry Me Mary

Next up is a kdrama called Mary Stayed Out All Night/Marry Me Mary. This show is a mixed bag cause while the concept for this show was something that was right up my alley and I would seriously die for how cute the main couple was, the writing really took me out of it. The thing you've got to know going into this show is that the main writer switched halfway through so honestly you could only watch the first half and be perfectly content to skip out on the mess that was the second half. The story follows a female lead who's father basically sells her into marriage with a rich man's son to pay his debt so the female lead turns to a friend and pretends that she's already married. The music is pretty great here and I do like the friend group our leads have but the parents are truly despicable in fun new ways each time. Click here to see my full review if you're interested!

Nine: Nine Times Time Travel

My last honorable mention is a kdrama called Nine: Nine Times Time Travel. This drama actually might be the most underrated on my list cause while I've at least seen people talk about the others on this list, I feel like no one has seen this time travel drama and that's such a shame. Honestly it's probs cause this show is definitely not a rom com (which seems to be the interest for most viewers) but I'm a sucker for romance thrillers! This show doesn't exactly have a new and fresh take on time travel but one thing it does exceptionally well is that it actually shows you the consequences of changing things without knowing all the facts. The main couple is totally angsty and lovely and I really loved the ending for this show despite everything. Click here to see my full review if you're interested!

Now let's get into my Top 10 list ranked from 10 to 1 with number 1 being my favorite drama of the year!

Go Ahead

Coming in at number 10 is a cdrama called Go Ahead! Now honestly modern cdramas are a mixed bag for me cause while I tend to find most of them too superficial or tropey, once in a while I find a diamond in the rough and that's exactly what this show was. This show is definitely the first cdrama I've watched that feels more like a family drama than anything else and it's what grabbed me from the start. It follows a group of five people who become a family due to circumstances and we get to watch them grow from children to teens to adults. It really does feel like we're popping in and out of different moments in these people's lives. We see them struggle with really realistic problems like abandonment, insecurity, and anxiety while trying to answer the question: Does blood or love make a family? There's a wonderful romance in this show but the story is more focused on platonic love than anything else.

Someday Or One Day

At number 9 is a twdrama called Someday Or One Day! I don't usually watch that many twdramas but when one catches my attention, I really fall in love. This one was really unique cause I don't know if I've experienced a show trying to fit so many different genres into one and succeeding. If I had to condense it down I'd say it's a time travel body swap high school romance thriller and if that doesn't peak your interest, you've got to be crazy! But seriously the time travel in this show is interesting in how it plays with the idea of closed loops and I think it's super creative that this show starts out feeling like it's going to be a rom com only to take a right turn when murders start taking place and our heroes have their backs to the wall. The main romance is absolutely adorable and I love the way everything that goes around comes back around. Click here to see my full review if you're interested!

Find Me In Your Memory

Coming in at number 8 is a kdrama called Find Me In Your Memory! I didn't have that high expectations for this show when I first started it only to straight up fall in love not only due to the amazing chemistry that our leads had but also because it fed me all the tropes I adore. Fake dating? Check. Grumpy guy meets sunshine girl? Check. Star-crossed lovers? Check. No but seriously this show follows a reporter who ends up having to pretend to date an actress due to reasons and they stumble upon a mystery in which they have to hunt down her stalker and fall in love along the way realizing that they're connected in the past in ways they didn't know before. The second couple in this show is pretty cute too and there are two wonderful friendships that make this show as well.

Stove League

At number 7 is a kdrama called Stove League! So if you know me then you know I'm a giant sucker for romance so usually I tend to enjoy shows that have romance in them whether that's the main point of the show or if it's sprinkled in but this show was super unique in that it has no romance whatsoever and yet as you can see it still ended up on my top 10 list. This show follows the management crew of a professional baseball team as we try to take the worst baseball team in the league and make them champions while also trying to prevent the team from being sold by the owner. I do have to explain though that this show is more of an office drama than a sports one cause we barely ever get to see the team play. There is a lot of politics but the fun of this show is how competent our main leads are and watching them outsmart their opponents.

365: Repeat The Year

Coming in at number 6 is a kdrama called 365: Repeat The Year! I feel like as I go down this top 10 list, you can start seeing a trend cause this is the third time travel drama on my list! This one is a little different though cause it's more of a murder mystery thriller than a romance. It follows a group of people who are sent back in time one year in order to fix the regrets they had and while at first everything seems perfect eventually they start noticing that they're being killed one-by-one. There are so many twists and turns to the story but everything is so well paced and well written. The main leads can be read as friends or lovers but the thing that works the most with them is how much they care for one another and how competent both are. The female lead is never a damsel and she's always right there in the thick of things solving puzzles unlike in most dramas where the male lead does all the work and hides things. The only complaint that I would have is that the means for time travel was never really explained but I can let that go cause the time travel wasn't the focus as much as the mystery was!

It’s Okay To Not Be Okay / Psycho But It's Okay

At number 5 is a kdrama called It's Okay To Not Be Okay/Psycho But It's Okay! This show was interesting cause it might have been one of the only Netflix dramas this year that lived up to it's hype. The show was absolutely beautifully filmed, the themes were perfectly on point, the acting was top notch as was the writing and the chemistry between our leads sizzled to the point that when the leads finally kissed, we were all screaming. The story mainly follows 3 leads: the female lead who struggles with anti-social personality disorder and the male lead who has spent so much of his life taking care of his brother that he's severely emotionally repressed and the male lead's brother who's autistic. It kinda feels like a dark take on a fairytale which is one of many things that makes it feel so unique. I do have to say that the twist at the end about the female lead's parents was a little lame but it doesn't take away from the overall story in my opinion.

My Unfamiliar Family

Coming in at number 4 is a kdrama called My Unfamiliar Family! If you've ever been of the mind that you want to try a family drama but are scared by the large episode count, then look no further than this drama right here! This show streamlines the normal craziness and soap opera elements of a 50 episode family drama into a 16 episode one while also removing all storylines that aren't related to our main family to keep the show condensed. I do adore the friends to lovers loveline in this show between the second daughter and her best friend but the highlight of this show is the relationship between the main family. It makes you look at the idea that though family are supposed to be the ones that know you best sometimes they're the ones who know you the least. And if that isn't all enough, there is also a wonderful LGBTQ storyline in this show too that blew me away with how carefully it was done. 

Alice In Borderland

Coming in at number 3 is a jdrama called Alice In Borderland! This is a surprise last minute addition to my top 10 list cause it literally just came out in December and I binged it in a weekend. Remember how I said earlier that Liar Game felt like a death game anime without the death part? Well scratch that out! This show is literally a death game anime in live action with how it takes all our main characters from the real world into this parallel world in which they have to solve puzzles and win games in order to survive. If you lose, you die. The characters in this show are excellently written and acted whether they're heroes, villains or in between, the games are exciting to watch, and the mystery of where we are is compelling. I love the way it breaks your heart at every turn and how there's even a transgender character in the mix that isn't treated any differently than any other. Click here for my full review!

The Romance Of Tiger And Rose

Coming in at number 2 is a cdrama called The Romance Of Tiger And Rose! If you haven't actually seen this drama yet then you're definitely missing out cause when this show aired everyone including people who don't usually enjoy historical/fantasy cdramas adored this show and I'm here to say it's definitely everything the hype promises and more! It follows a female lead who accidentally ends up inside the book she's writing but instead of being the female lead, she ends up becoming the second female lead and falls in love with the male lead. It's one of the funniest cdramas I've ever watched and the female lead is the perfect balance of being silly but not being a complete child while the male lead starts out thinking that he's this badass dark traitorous man who turns into a puppy following the female lead around with heart eyes. The final third of this show isn't as strong as the rest and the male lead does do something that might be a trigger warning but all in all I had a blast with this show and I've definitely rewatched more than once this year already!

Do You Like Brahms?

And finally my number 1 drama of 2020 is a kdrama called Do You Like Brahms!! Did this show start out super cavity inducing and adorable? Yes. Did it turn into an angst fest by the second half? Also yes. Did I mind? Not even for a second. I know I'm in the minority with this opinion but I truly thought that every moment of this show was perfection whether our leads were happy and cute together or sad and depressed separately. The story takes place in the music world where we basically see two love triangles in which the remaining triangle legs fall for each other instead. The male lead is a famous pianist who's forgotten why he ever loved music while the female lead is a struggling violinist who loves music but finds that maybe music doesn't love her back. Both the male and female lead are super introverts so a lot of the story is told through expression and behind closed doors rather than through direct confrontations and there's something just so magical about that in a world of dramas with extroverts! When a character makes a decision it's more impactful cause you know how much thinking was involved. I do have to admit that other than our male and female lead and maybe one or two other characters, every person in this show is super flawed and sometimes monsters but it just adds to the reason why the leads find a quiet shelter in each other.

And with that I have officially wrapped up all my Top 10 lists of 2020! I hope you all have a wonderful New Year and I'll see you all in 2021!!

xoxo Allie

Top 10 TV Shows Of 2020

Hi everyone! As promised, I'm back with my Top 10 Favorite TV Shows of 2020! Again, this list is based on my personal opinions and may have spoilers. I'm going to start with some honorable mentions which are some shows that I binged this year but that aren't on air anymore followed by my actual Top 10 list! If you want a refresher, check out my Top 10 TV Shows Of 2013, Top 10 TV Shows Of 2014, Top 10 TV Shows Of 2015, Top 10 TV Shows Of 2016, Top 10 TV Shows Of 2017, Top 10 TV Shows Of 2018 and Top 10 TV Shows Of 2019 as well as my Favorite YouTube Videos and My TV Show OTPs & Ships lists!! Fair warning, there may be spoilers below so keep that in mind!

Up first are my honorable mentions: shows that did not make my list of favorites for the year but still shows that I enjoyed watching!

Leverage

My first honorable mention is Leverage! So if you know me at all, you know that I'm OBSSESSED with con artist shows/movies and heist films cause there's just something so fun about watching people outsmart their targets and I think all of us find a thrill in the idea of being a Robin Hood. I actually was shocked I had never heard of this show until this year and that no one in my life would have recommended it knowing what I'm like so it wasn't until I watched the kdrama adaptation of this show (which I enjoyed fairly well) that this show got on my radar and man oh man where has this been all my life?? In the matter of one season Leverage shot up into my top 5 shows of all time! The story follows an ex-insurance investigator that puts together a team of criminals and thieves in order to help people who have exhausted all legal means of fixing their problems. Though most of this show is procedural, there are some storylines that stretch over episodes or build up in the background only to come out later and the arcs that characters go through actually stick. Every episode is creative and fun and I never once got bored of a con!

Criminal Minds

My next honorable mention is Criminal Minds! Ever since quarantine started I had been looking for a long running show that I could slowly binge but that was low stakes enough that I could watch an episode or two here and there without losing the plot so I picked this procedural. True to it's name it follows a group of FBI agents that work as criminal profilers. They fly to a random city every episode and help the local police solve their scariest cases. I was actually surprised when I finished this show how much I ended up missing having episodes to watch cause being such a long running show it did end up dragging every once in a while cause it was the same old detective story every episode with different and unique settings or overarching stories happening occasionally. Another byproduct of the fact that this show was so longrunning was the fact that so much of the cast rotated in and out but it was also so much fun to see the characters that did end up staying grow from these babies to mature adults. It was also so interesting to see how the quality of the show increased as the years went by and to see the technology on screen update too!

West Wing

And my final honorable mention is West Wing! So technically this might be cheating cause in all actuality I've watched The West Wing years ago and I've subsequently rewatched it multiple times. So why is it in my honorable mentions this year? Well that's where the cheating comes in since I think that cause this show decided to release a reunion special this fall in which all of the actors reprise their roles and act out an episode of The West Wing, it counts as a show I watched this year! No but seriously of course if you haven't watched West Wing by now, get on it! This show despite being filmed back in the early 2000s still holds true today with it's messages and themes. As the name of this show suggests, it follows the Democratic senior staff that work for the President Of The United States though I would say that it's more of an office drama than a political one. The dialogue is snappy, the acting is incredible, and I think it's worth every minute of time you spend on it.

Now onto the Top 10 list which goes from 10 to 1 with number 1 being my favorite tv show of the year!

The Flash

Coming in at number 10 is The Flash! It feels like it's been a thousand years since I last watched or even thought about this show cause while it normally should have been airing the first part of season 7 in the fall, cause of circumstances beyond their control, season 6 came to an end in the spring. I actually ended up enjoying the second half of season 6 a lot more than the first half because once Crisis happened and we didn't have to constantly talk about Barry dying when we all knew he was fine, it felt like the show got a new burst of fresh air to it. Suddenly the show fleshed out Iris's character and gave her a whole storyline and did what I had been begging the show to do since season 1! She and Team Citizen went out to investigate and suddenly the Big Bad that Barry was chasing was connected. It did suck that Cisco and Caitlin were so underutilized but I did love everything with Ralph which is why everything that came out about the actor was so unfortunate. We didn't actually get to wrap up the season in the end but I thought where we stopped was a pretty good cliffhanger so I can't wait for more! The 7th season will start on February 23rd.

Riverdale

At number 9 is Riverdale! This show was another that wasn't able to air it's full season before production shut down but what we got was all pretty great in terms of the fact that the mystery of the season actually ended up impressing me for the first time since season 1! Every thread that was dangled in the case of Stonewall Prep was tied together in a nice bow but the case with the video tapes and Mr Honey was less well done. Maybe it's cause I'm old now but high key I was on Mr Honey's side whenever the kids fought him and I was sitting here like you cannot be trying to tell me that he's the monster when he's actually the only adult in this show that's actually treating these kids as kids. I wasn't super into the whole thing where the show started to hint at Archie and Betty again cause you know I'm a Bughead shipper but after we found out that Lili and Cole broke up, it only makes sense that the show would break up the onscreen pair too which is why I'm usually super against on screen couples getting together off screen though from what I've seen Lili and Cole didn't seem to have that bad of a breakup. The rumors have it that next season will contain a time skip in which we'll return to Riverdale after our whole cast has graduated college and honestly that feels like the right thing to do and I'm sure we'll return with everything different like Pretty Little Liars did after their time skip. The 5th season will air on January 20th.

Brooklyn Nine Nine

Coming in at number 8 is Brooklyn Nine Nine! I absolutely adore this show cause I find it to be a perfect mix of comedy and seriousness. Every single character in this show well written and well rounded cause while they start out feeling like they'll be tropey in a few minutes you see that there's so much more to them. This season was so intense cause the main overarching storyline was with Jake and Amy trying to get pregnant. I constantly think that Jake and Amy are one of the most well written couples on tv cause they never really did the seesaw thing that shows love their couples to do. Once they got together, they were together and because of that it feels like we've grown up with them from these petty rivals to parents. One of my favorite episodes of this whole show was the one where they tried to get pregnant and couldn't. It was absolutely heartbreaking and absolutely beautiful to watch. We don't actually know when the next season will be coming out but I promise that whenever it will, I'll definitely be watching!

Lucifer

At number 7 is Lucifer! This show is so funny to me cause I really never loved it until it moved to Netflix so I struggle with whether I want to recommend it to others or not cause I can't exactly say oh just get through 3 seasons and then you'll have fun! The reason for this rise in my affection for this show is hands down because once it got to Netflix, the show cut out all the filler episodes and doubled down on the supernatural part of the show which is what I was interested in! This season was really exciting cause it was the season where Lucifer and Chloe finally got together. Lucifer returned from hell and we met his twin brother but it was the cliffhanger that really shook me with the appearance of God. I had been wondering for a while if the show would ever bring God into it or if they would leave it kinda vague so that we could pull our own conclusions out of it but I think ultimately I'm glad. I don't know if I loved everything was Maze though and I was totally sad that Eve didn't come back but here's hoping that whenever the second half of season 5 arrives that she will too!

The Magicians

Coming in at number 6 is The Magicians! Look okay we're all hella bitter that this show killed off Quentin and yes I did think the show's synergy shifted once he did but I still watched the whole final season of the show cause no other show goes as absolutely bat shit crazy like this one does. I still don't know if I liked how much time and energy was spent having our character mourn Quentin or if I would have preferred the show stick to theirs guns with his death and move forward but some of the mourning scenes were the best of the show and I liked that it allowed characters who don't normally spend time together like Eliot and Alice to actually connect. We played around with time travel this season and I actually really enjoyed every single second of it! The villain was also fun cause he was neither good nor bad for so long of the season and I actually liked where everyone ended up minus Penny who's entire teaching at Brakebills storyline was so boring. Speaking of the whole open ending didn't bother me either cause I like the idea that these people's lives will never be normal and once we leave it's not that they'll never have another adventure again but that we won't be seeing it.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

At number 5 is The Clone Wars! I have always been a original trilogy kind of girl but it wasn't until I watched Clone Wars that I started to form an appreciation towards the prequel trilogy as well. This year we got the final season for this show that had been planned and it actually took us all the way up and through Revenge Of The Sith which was absolutely fascinating. We got to see what Ashoka did during the end of the Clone Wars and how she struggled to figure out who she was after she left the Jedi Order. She had spent her entire life there and losing it really tore her up. I didn't particularly need more Darth Maul (who the adoration for makes as much sense to me as the love for Boba Fett) but I liked the way he was brought back in and more Bo Katan is never a bad thing. I even enjoyed meeting the Bad Batch which I'm sure was an opinion shared by all cause now they're getting their own show. 

The Witcher

Coming in at number 4 is The Witcher! So technically this might be cheating cause the actual first season of The Witcher aired in December of 2019 but I only watched in January of 2020 so personally I think it should count not to mention the fact that if it had aired like normal tv then it totally would have ended in 2020! I have actually never read the books or played the game which this show is based on but I went in cause I saw Henry Cavill's beautiful face playing the lead and found myself falling in love with the characters, storytelling, and the world. I was really fascinated with the way the show played around with multiple timelines so that at first you only really got hints towards the fact that we weren't watching things concurrently. Ciri was a little boring to follow but I was super into everything we got with Geralt and Yennefer including their romance which not going to lie I was all about. The war at the end of the first season was so much fun to watch and though the cliffhanger of Geralt and Ciri finally meeting had me screaming in frustration cause I wanted more, it did leave us in the perfect place. The second season is supposedly coming out in 2021 and if I had to guess it'd be in December again.

Agents Of SHIELD

At number 3 is Agents Of SHIELD! I was truly heartbroken that this year marked the final season for this beloved show of mine. As you know, I have been watching SHIELD religiously from the first episode that aired to the last without dropping it once and this final season was really a love letter to the fans. I mean yes I was bitter as hell that Fitz wasn't in this season until the end cause he's been my favorite character since the beginning but I can't exactly blame the writers for a decision that an actor made to step away from a show so instead we can focus on the positives. I loved that this entire season was about time travel and that we traveled around and saw so many fan favorites though at new points in their lives and that so many Easter Eggs were left around for the hardcore fans to find. I gained a new appreciation for Daniel Sousa who became a regular in this season and ended up with Daisy and though the ending didn't really work for me cause it feels a little too much like tv writing to end the series with all our characters separated (unlike The Magicians who's open ending I praised) but I was still happy with how happy our characters were. This show will forever have a place in my heart.

Vikings

Coming in at number 2 is The Vikings! It's honestly kinda crazy that I ended up placing this season so high on my list cause I've always felt that Vikings may have peaked in their first season in so much that I've always liked watching this show and I have watched every episode that aired as it airs but I've always thought that the best episodes were in season 1. It's especially interesting that season ranks so high cause if you know me you know that Lagertha was my favorite character on this show and this season we actually see her die but I have to say that of all the characters who died in this show, Lagertha hands down had the best goodbye including Ragnar himself! This season made me cry and cry and cry and I swear that even to this day when I watch Lagertha's funeral scene, I cry all over again as if it's my first time. I am really excited for the next season and how it plays around with Rus but I'm worried that after we lose Bjorn (who's possible death was the cliffhanger for the first half of this final season) we'll actually be watching the fall of the Vikings. I mean it would give us a nice rounded show in which we saw the rise and fall of the Vikings but my heart cries for the fact that we spent so many seasons loving these characters that I just want them to be happy!

Legends Of Tomorrow

And finally at number 1 is Legends Of Tomorrow! Honestly was this a surprise to anyone who's been keeping up with my blog?? I never not have a blast with this show and this season might have been up there with my favorites! Though this show is an ensemble, I have to say that in my mind it was Zari and Behrad that stood out most despite this season being the one to flesh out Charlie. Zari 1.0 had always been a favorite of mine so I was worried when she came back as Zari 2.0 but luckily enough I ended up liking the new version just as much though I think a large reason for it was her sibling relationship with Behrad. He showed up this season and cause he was always supposed to be around it really did feel like we had known him forever. I was also hardcore shocked to find myself on board with Zari 2.0 and Constantine when the season past I was so on board with Zari 1.0 and Nate! Somehow Tala Ashe made it so Zari 2.0 didn't actually have chemistry with Nate when it's the same actors. I also did end up liking the whole Fates storyline cause I'm a sucker for Greek mythology and in the end it looks like we lost Charlie but maybe gained Astra as a season regular and I seriously can't wait until the next season where we're in space! Maybe we'll run into the Hawks again cause they are Thanagarian??

So that concludes my Top 10 TV Shows Of 2020 list and I'll see you all tomorrow for my list of Top 10 Asian Dramas Of 2020!

xoxo Allie

Top 9 Movies Of 2020

Hello all my lovelies! What an absolute crazy year this has been! I hope you've all been safe and healthy and well and that you had a great holiday season no matter how different it may have been this year. It's that time of year again where I list my favorite movies, tv shows, and asian dramas of the year! I've been doing these for about seven years now so you should know the drill but if you don't, I'm going to be listing my Top 10 Movies of 2020 from 10 to 1 with number 1 being my favorite movie of the year! If you're interested, I also have Top 10 Movies of 2013, Top 10 Movies of 2014, Top 10 Movies of 2015, Top 10 Movies of 2016, and Top 10 Movies of 2017, Top 10 Movies Of 2018 and Top 10 Movies Of 2019 as well as my Favorite YouTube Videos and My Movie OTPs & Ships lists! With this year be slightly different as it turns out, I wasn't able to watch 10 new movies this year so my list actually only has 9!

Onward

Coming in at number 9 is Onward! This Disney Pixar movie came out so long ago that honestly it feels like another year. It follows two brothers as they go on a quest in order to bring their father back to life and honestly it's everything a D&D/fantasy nerd would want. And I don't mean this in a subtle way cause the older brother is a diehard roleplaying fan so everything the brothers do has some mention with how it would be like in a D&D session which is hilarious. Of course being a Disney Pixar movie there is plenty of heart to this movie too and I absolutely cried buckets of tears at the end of this movie when the younger brother realized that he never had to search for his father cause his older brother had always been there for him. 

Mulan

At number 8 is Mulan! I'm going to be honest here. I really didn't like this adaptation of Mulan and in a normal movie year maybe it wouldn't have even ended up on a Top 10 list but here we are. Look okay I'm not one of those people who automatically hate every live action Disney movie just cause it's an adaptation cause if you know me you know that I've adored Cinderella and Aladdin so much while Beauty And The Beast and Lion King were meh. I was actually really excited to check out Mulan at first cause it's actually my third favorite Disney movie (after Aladdin and Tangled) and I liked the idea of all the changes but after I watched the opening scene to this movie all that changed. In all honesty the whole movie felt like it was missing something. It was absolutely lovely to look at but the magic of the animated movie was gone. It felt like moments were just happening cause they did in the original. And seriously don't even get me started on the addition of chi to the whole thing. The main reason that we all fell in love with Mulan originally was because she wasn't special! She worked hard for everything she got and she did it all out of love for her father and wanting to protect him. This Mulan already had this special chi in her and it felt like the villain got more character development than her! The lack of music and Mushu weren't that terrible but I also wasn't a fan of rewriting Shang for some random guy.

#Alive

Coming in at number 7 is #Alive! Maybe this is cheating cause technically this is a Korean movie and I already have a separate Top 10 asian dramas list (keep an eye out for that coming soon) but seriously guys I watched so few movies this year that I decided that this one should count given that it's a movie and not a drama! I'm not usually the biggest fan of zombie movies but this one was led by two Korean actors I adore and I wondered if it could live up to my enjoyment of Train To Busan which had a similar premise about a zombie outbreak. I did think this movie was super creative cause it took the idea of a zombie outbreak and added in what it would be like to be too scared to leave your house and the struggle to survive with what you had. I really liked the way the leads bonded and that there was no romance cause seriously there was no time for that!

Soul

At number 6 is Soul! This movie follows the a middle school music teacher who has always wanted to do nothing more than play music only to die right after getting his big shot. He then ends up meeting a new soul in the Great Beyond and due to a set of circumstances ends back on Earth only his soul is in a cat and the new soul is in his body. The highlight of this movie is definitely the way it acts as a love letter to jazz music and it warms my soul every time Joe gets into how music moves him. I do kind of wish that the plot of the movie wasn't so focused on the whole afterlife thing cause it reminds me a little of Inside Out and this movie wanting to be that one but I did love the lessons Joe and 22 learned throughout the movie about what makes life worth living and how not to take your life for granted which is a wonderful message.

A Whisker Away

Coming in at number 5 is A Whisker Away! This movie is actually a Netflix anime movie that I watched and I absolutely adored. I am always super down for cute rom com anime films but I tend to find that I disconnect with most anime films. Like they're all so beautifully animated but most of them like to do the Nolan thing and make you think about philosophical questions and wonder if what you're watching is even real rather than giving us a good plot to sink our teeth into which is why when I started this show and found a fantastic story, I was all in! The story follows the girl of divorced parents who struggles with the changes in her life and ends up wishing that she were a cat. While she's a cat she falls in love with a boy who's kind to her and shenanigans ensue. The story is much more complex and heartwarming than it first sounds and I definitely cried at least once by the end!

To All The Boys I Loved Before: PS I Still Love You

At number 4 is To All The Boys I Loved Before: PS I Still Love You! So this movie is a sequel to To All The Boys I Love Before and I might be in the minority here but I really adored it. The major plot of this movie follows the fact that Lara Jean ends up feeling like Peter doesn't love her the way she does and so she ends up finding a friend in John Ambrose and a love triangle is formed. In the end she chooses Peter cause she loves him and this is where everyone who watched this movie fell off the wagon. Personally since I've read the books these movies were based on, I shipped Lara Jean and Peter so what actually ended up bothering me was the way this movie made Lara Jean so wishy-washy. Lara Jean kept leading John Ambrose on and treated Peter truly horrifically while in the books Lara Jean broke up with Peter for a good reason. Having said that I still enjoyed this movie a ton and of course I'm looking forward to the next one!

Birds Of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn)

Coming in at number 3 is Birds Of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn!) This movie is an absolute gem and I will truly never understand why it didn't hit it big in the box office. It's everything you could want from a Harley Quinn movie. It follows Harley after she breaks up with Joker and teams up with the Birds Of Prey in order to protect a girl who's being hunted by the Black Mask. It manages to balance humor and complete madness with a current of sadness and seriousness. Ewan McGregor is practically unrecognizable with how into this role he gets and Margot Robbie shines of course. I loved every single moment of this movie and I think it deserves more love than it gets.

Hamilton

At number 2 is Hamilton! Once again I'm not entirely sure if placing this on my list is cheating cause it's technically just a filmed broadcast of the Broadway musical but I think that the fact that this film originally was meant to be shown in theaters counts! Unless you've been living under a rock then you probably know about Hamilton and the way it swept through the world. Tickets were killer to get which is why when I found out that this movie was being released on Disney Plus I was thrilled. I actually had heard the soundtrack multiple times before but I was stunned to see how much the acting and staging of the show added to my pleasure. Of course the lyrics are so well written and the cast is extremely talented but I also think the stagehands and direction of the musical really added to the whole experience too. I've definitely rewatched this more than once!

Wonder Woman 1984

And finally my number 1 movie of 2020 is Wonder Woman 1984! I mean could this spot have gone to any other movie this year?? Wonder Woman 1984 has had a hell of a time releasing with how it's been pushed back so many times and was screwed back in the Summer when the pandemic forced it to be pulled from theaters. I know a lot of people including Patty Jenkins herself weren't happy with the movie coming out on HBO Max but I personally was thrilled cause I would get to see this movie earlier. Wonder Woman while I did like it didn't strike me as much as it did for others so unlike most people who ended up thinking this sequel wasn't as good, I found myself thinking that this movie hit me better. It had the opposite problem as the prequel in my opinion because while Wonder Woman was excellent for the first 2/3 of the movie, Wonder Woman 1984 was excellent for it's final 2/3 of the movie! I loved the way the movie played with Steve and Diana and for once I actually fell in love with them. I adored Cheetah and Max Lord as villains and Pedro Pascal really brought so much magic to this movie. The ending was perfect in my opinion too cause I am always proud when superhero movies like to have their final fight be different than a punching match so the fact that Wonder Woman who is all about love and justice and truth won the day by winning the hearts of the people was everything! 

I'll see you all tomorrow for my Top 10 TV Shows of 2020!

xoxo Allie

Fall 2020 Anime Awards

Hey guys! So this week was the last week of the Fall 2020 Anime Season so I thought it would be fun to shout out some of the my superlatives for the season!

Anime Of The Season

Haikyuu! To The Top Season 2 is definitely my anime of the season which is really funny to me cause I really didn't expect to love this show as much as I did when I first started it. I'm not usually a huge sports anime fan and I especially don't love anime in which every main character is male or every main character is female but I was convinced that I should check this show out so I did and I'm so thankful for it. This show is pretty much one of the best modern shounen stories out there and while at first you don't think about this anime being a shounen given that we don't fight monsters or play with magic, in the end it's an underdog story in which we follow our protagonists as they fight to reach their goal of being the best volleyball team in the country. Every character is fully rounded including every antagonist we meet, the animation is incredible, and the hype is real. 

Runner Up - Irregular At Magic High School: Visitor Arc

Hidden Gem 

Sleepless Princess is my pick for hidden gem of the season and I really was tossing it back and forth between this one and my runner up but in the end I went with Sleepless Princess cause while Akadama Drive was slept on by the vast majority, at least a few people I saw were watching it so if anything's a hidden gem, it's Sleepless Princess. I think the lack of interest in this show has to do with the fact that there's no real plot to this show or any real goals we need to reach. Instead we kind of get a slice-of-life comedy in which the Princess basically destroys the Demon Castle every week in order to invent new and exciting ways of sleeping better while also inadvertently worming her way into every demon's heart. The humor is spot on in this show and there were definitely moments when my heart was tugged on. I think if you're looking for something soft and happy-making, this show should definitely be checked out.

Runner Up - Akadama Drive

Best Sequel 

Haikyuu! To The Top Season 2 is the best sequel of this season cause it's the one show that I looked forward to every week. It's totally interesting cause at the start of this season I expected the runner up to win just based on the fact that we hadn't got new Irregular episodes for years but in the end while Irregular was a nice jump back into nostalgia, Haikyuu was the show that got me excited week-to-week. The fact that since we had so much airtime devoted to one match alone let every single Karasuno member have a moment to shine and remind us why we adore them them all. Several volleys were absolutely out of this world and that's not even mentioning Hinata's power up! Like Suga we all cried thinking of how far Hinata grew from this little kid who just wanted to play to this beast who could catch receives like no other! I even loved the small break we took in order to catch up with Nekoma and unlike what a lot of people thought, it didn't feel like filler to me cause Nekoma is Karasuno's main rival team so of course when we can flesh them out, it's a good thing!

Runner Up - Irregular At Magic High School: Visitor Arc

Greatest Animation/Character Design

Akudama Drive had the best animation this season and there really was no competition here. I loved the way every character was drawn, the transitions between scenes were creative, and I've never seen exposition/world building done the way it was here with propaganda videos being shown. Even the world itself was beautiful to look at cause it was both post-apocalyptic and yet futuristic. I loved that the colors were so saturated except when they needed to prove a point (like seeing the world through Cutthroat's eyes.)

Runner Up - Moriarty The Patriot

Best OP 

Steal by SPARK!!SOUND!!SHOW!! from Akudama Drive is definitely my favorite OP of the season. The show gets you pumped while also exciting your senses. I love the way the characters flash between normal light and UV light to show the blood that they have on their hands. 

Runner Up - Howling by ASCA from Irregular At Magic High School: Visitor Arc

Protagonist Of The Season

William James Moriarty from Moriarty The Patriot is my protagonist of the season and maybe this is a cop out cause in all technicality James Moriarty should be the antagonist to Sherlock's protagonist but in this show we're following James and seeing the world through his eyes so I would definitely say he counts! I love how deep and complex James is as a lead cause I'm always so fascinated with leads that are not good people and the question of morality. Technically James has not killed a single person throughout this entire show though I suppose you could say he was an accomplice or like Sherlock that he is the mastermind (is that murder by proxy?) Another important question is whether or not it is really so horrible when the people who die are barely human themselves? James is fascinating cause he's leagues smarter than every other person in this show with maybe Sherlock being the only one at his level though the fact that he falls to vices doesn't make him as sharp. I adore the Moriarty crew and how loyal they are to each other and the idea of making a better London.

Runner Up - Tatsuya Shiba from Irregular At Magic High School: Visitor Arc

Antagonist Of The Season

Nana from Talentless Nana is my antagonist of the season and really could it have been anyone else? Nana is an interesting character cause while part of me feels bad for her cause the girl is clearly being used by her bosses in order to murder people who they're afraid is stronger than them but at the same time I can't help but hate her for killing so many people only to be left with the thought that most of these people weren't the innocents we thought they were so in the end is she really so bad? I did get tired at points throughout this show about how strong Nana's plot armor was and just how stupid the other Talented kids were but I can't exactly blame Nana and her characterization for that. She had a horrific childhood and was used to become the assassin she is now and yet part of her is constantly looking to be proven wrong. She hopes at times that the people she's about to kill aren't all bad and she's clearly won over by Mirchiru and without her intelligence and wit this show wouldn't be what it was.

Runner Up - The Executioners from Akudama Drive

Ship Of The Season

Tsukasa and Nasa from Tonikawa: Over The Moon For You are hands down my ship of the season and really they had no competition cause they were actually the only romantic ship of the season. I really loved just how good both Tsukasa and Nasa were. In most romance animes the male leads are kind of pervy (like in Rent-A-Girlfriend) or suave (hello Usui from Kaichou wa Maid Sama) but Nasa fell into neither of these categories. He was just plain good and everything that he got back was cause of the good he did for others. I loved the way the two slowly fell in love and that they had no problem hugging or kissing as their affection grew. 

Runner Up - Miyuki and Tatsuya from Irregular At Magic High School: Visitor Arc

And with that I'll see you all in the Winter 2021 Season!

xoxo Allie

What Shows Am I Watching This Week?

Hello everyone and welcome back! I hope you all had a lovely holiday season and let's dive into what I watched this week, shall we?

FINISHED Bridgerton

So I was really very excited to check this show out cause you know I absolutely adore period dramas which is funny cause I know most people were interested in the fact that this show was produced by Shonda Rhimes but honestly her shows are a toss-up for me (Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder were fun until they weren't and For The People left us too soon.) What caught my attention right away was the sort of tongue-in-cheek tone of the show with how it balanced the plight of a woman back in the day when all she was good for was marriage with the humor looking back on it does now but I loved that the show never actually poked fun at it in a condescending way. A lot of period shows are written to have a lead who's "not like other girls" and hates societal conventions which are fun in their own way but it's so much more rare to find a lead who's the typical feminine character without having derision forced on her cause nowadays we like to believe that women have to be more masculine to be strong. Daphne is dutiful and kind but has her own backbone (and reminds me a lot of the House Tully motto) while Simon is riddled with a torturous past that he hides by acting like a scoundrel only to be one of the kindest men in this show. Those two made this show with their chemistry and you know I'm a sucker for enemies to lovers and watching a man who hates love fall head over heels. I also liked that a lot of Daphne's siblings had their own storylines though perhaps a bit more screen time for each of them would have been nice and I kind of wish the show had focused a bit more on the siblings being together but I have to say Daphne's mom was the best side character in this show alongside Simon's aunt which is why of course the two played matchmaker to have the kids together. I even liked that the show decided not to end after Daphne and Simon got married (cause there's more to a happily ever after than marriage) though I probably could have done without all the marriage angst and I especially didn't love the extreme focus on Simon not wanting children which I feel was poorly done cause I sincerely believe that children aren't the end all be all and I couldn't get why Daphne couldn't give Simon a second to breathe over it! Of course in the end they got their son and the two reconciled so happy endings all around? We also found out that the lady behind the gossip column ended up being Penny herself which was actually kind of unexpected cause I totally threw my vote for the tailoress!

I do wonder if there will be a season 2 for this show cause none has been announced but I know based on research that this show is based on the first book in a series of novels so it's possible that like this season focused on Daphne that future seasons might focus on other siblings? After all this show was called Bridgerton and not The Duke And I like the book it was adapted from but maybe that's all just wishful thinking cause I do think the story came to a pretty good end here!

FINISHED The Irregular At Magic High School Season 2 Episode 12 & 13

So because of the holidays and having to push back my weekly posts, I ended up having watched both the penultimate and finale episodes of the season before this review came up so I decided to combine them. We spent these two episodes continuing on with the introduction of Minami which I think was the purpose of these last 3 episodes after Lina went back to America. Minami is clearly going to be a main character from now on but I can't help but wish that the movie hadn't spoiled the fact that she dies cause it takes a little bit of the bite out of the apple! It does make me happy that she's here though cause she was sent by Maya to protect the others from a terrorist group was going to set up shop there. We also did learn that the girl we kept seeing over and over in this season was actually part of a branch family of the Yotsuba who are in charge of intelligence gathering. The more I see of the Yotsuba, the more I think they're so cool and I wish that we could spend more time there. Like Miyuki is supposed to be the new head right so why doesn't she spend more time learning about the Yotsuba and how it works. I mean I understand that since the show focuses so hard on the high school that we focus on Tatsuya's friends but it's also interesting how this second season also dialed back so much of Tatsuya's time with the military and in the end they were even a hindrance for him. I'm guessing that since he's a Yotsuba and has a vow to protect Miyuki that in the end everything else is just a means to an end. We were able to stop the terrorist attack but it really wasn't all that difficult and I didn't exactly worry either cause after everything a bunch of small-time magicians couldn't pose a threat. 

We haven't gotten a confirmation about whether there will be a season 3 but I really really hope there is one cause we're barely scraping the surface of this world and this story so here's hoping another season doesn't take years again!

xoxo Allie 

What Dramas Am I Watching This Week?

I hope you all had a lovely holiday season and here's what I'm watching this week! Of course the list is split by country and the amount of episodes I've seen so far are written below! There will be spoilers from now on so if you aren't caught to the episode number on list, you might want to go watch that episode and then come back! If you're interested in previous reviews, click here and if you want to see a list of my Favorite Asian OTPs and Ships, click here!

KDRAMA

Awaken (8/16): About a series of mysterious incidents that are connected to an incident that took place in a village 28 years ago. Do Jung Woo is a capable and legendary team leader of a special task force at the National Police Agency. He has messy hair, a constant slouch, and sucks on a lollipop all day like a kid, but he has a mysterious secret behind his sly exterior. Gong Hye Won is a passionate police officer who does not let anything get in her way. Behind her pretty face is a hot temper that won’t cool down unless she says what she needs to say. She is one of the strongest and best fighters on her team, and can drink the others under the table, but she also has a surprisingly clumsy side. Jamie is a detective on loan from the FBI. She was adopted as a child with almost no memories of her life before, but she returns to Korea to solve the serial killer case that is related to those lost memories from 28 years ago.

We're officially halfway through this drama now and I'm starting to feel a little iffy about this show which sucks cause even as far back as last week I was so into this show. Honestly I still think the writing for the mystery aspect of this show is super tight and everything that Jung Woo does is super interesting but I'm starting to get disappointed in the other characters and I can't help but lose interest every time we cut away from Jung Woo. Jamie is like an emotionless robot who can only follow rules and sees things in black and white. She's straight up more interested in Hye Won's love life than figuring out her connection to White Night and it's especially weird that the other cops are like not shocked at all to find that out about her. Hye Won on the other hand is the kind of female lead I usually don't like cause she's all emotion and all violence and no brains. I'm also really disappointed in the fact that the show drew us a line to the endgame couple this week and it's Hye Won and Jung Woo because I wanted him with Jamie. They even have the whole childhood connection trope that dramas love so why not?? In other more important news it turns out that Jae Woong is actually the one behind the lucid dreams though I think he's got DID so it's actually another personality that's doing it while Jae Woong is unconscious or asleep. Jung Woo was somehow figuring out who Jae Woong's targets were and sending clues to the reporter but he clearly is uninterested in stopping the deaths cause he's busy trying to hunt out White Night and stop more experiments.

Hush (4/16): “Hush” is an office drama about newspaper reporters and their everyday struggles, problems, and ethical dilemmas. Han Jun Hyeok is a veteran reporter for a newspaper. He first became a reporter to pursue justice, but he is now conflicted between idealism and pragmatism. Han Jun Hyeok must also deal with personal issues as a husband and father. Lee Ji Soo is a bold intern reporter who isn’t afraid to say what needs to be said, even during a job interview. When she meets Han Jun Hyeok as her mentor, she begins to dream of becoming a true journalist.

Last week I was seriously impressed with the premiere for this show but now that we're done with week 2, I'm a little torn. The show still gives off the vibe that it's something special but I'm starting to see the cracks. We did see that what happened 6 years ago was that Jun Hyeok wrote a good article about Ji Soo's father and his protests but the current Chief who was the Desk Editor at the time edited it before it was uploaded and so that's why it was changed into being a negative article and why Ji Soo blames Jun Hyeok for her father's death. Jun Hyeok and his fellow reporters have now decided to take a stand but the thing is I'm not entirely sure what they've decided to fight for. Is it solving the case that the junior reporter brought in or is it Soo Yeon's death? Or even further is it just a belief that from now on they'll become the bright eyed bushy tail reporters they were when they first started out? Either way I'm super down. The one other thing that's bothering me about this show is Ji Soo herself. She's honestly so passive aggressive that it's hard to watch her. Like what does she want? We found out that a correction to the article that killed her dad was reported 2 years ago so exposing Jun Hyeok as a liar isn't an option and like it should be clear to her even having been an intern for like 3 months that Daily Korea is corrupt to the core and that junior/senior reporters don't really have a say with what's going on. I also don't know why she doesn't just tell Jun Hyeok that she's the daughter of the man he looked up to but I wonder if the show is going to eventually show her growing into being a reporter like in Pinocchio.

Handmade Love (4/8): A romance fantasy that deals with Woven who has come down to the human world to heal human sorrows with clothes.

So remember back when I said that I don't normally like web dramas cause they always leave me wanting more? Well guess who kept seeing images of this show that made it look mystical and magical and now has egg on her face cause she'll never learn?? This girl!! I'm serious. I've always low key had a thing for Lee Soo Hyuk and his fairy-like features and then to my surprise I found out that Lee Soo Ji was the female lead in this show who I adored in Idolm@ster KR and so the deal was sealed. I do wonder if this show was passed from being a full drama to a web drama cause the concept is one that we've seen in Hotel de Luna and Mystic Pop Up Bar. The Woven was a God but was sent to the human world to repent by working in a tailor shop and healing human hearts. The first case we see is Sa Rang's and after it was solved, she ended up working in the shop and I think eventually she and the Woven will end up together cause they've got chemistry! The thing is I don't actually know if there will be romance between our main leads cause that would mean a lot of plot has to be moved through in a 2 hour session but then again that's the normal pace of a movie and I'd like to stay positive cause the synopsis for this show does say it's a romantic fantasy. 

Homemade Love Story (56/100): Three families live under one roof at a boarding house called Samgwang Villa. Sun Jeong's family lives a pure and simple life and doesn't have a lot of money. Jung Hoo's family is rich but is far from peaceful. Jung Won's family looks perfect from the outside but is actually quite rocky. Others join these families at Samgwang Villa, each with their own stories. What is the meaning of family in this day and age, with so many single-person households and people choosing not to get married? Let's meet the people who open their hearts to one another to live and love as a family in Homemade Love Story.

Are you proud of my binging ability?? I'm officially caught up to the currently airing episodes and it's going to be totally sucky to have to wait for 4 episodes a week cause it's not enough!! Why oh why did I do this to myself??? Okay but seriously I have a lot of thoughts about this week and they're a mixed bag. Let's start with my favorite part of this show and that's Chae Woon and Jae Hee as a couple. I adore that not only are they super relaxed when touching each other but they're also so open about their worries and their feelings. I'm constantly looking for misunderstandings to pop up cause that's the way I've been conditioned to react but instead they literally tell each other everything whether it's good bad or ugly. I do wish that they weren't so fumbly about trying to get the answers Chae Woon seeks and I think a big problem is that they're just too empathetic. Chae Woon constantly feels guilty about stealing Jae Hee away from Seo Ah but it's seriously all in Seo Ah's head and I hate that everyone keeps trying to guilt trip Jae Hee about how he made Seo Ah cry. He never once led her on and so it's her own problem if she fell in love! I do have a feeling that soon enough we'll see Chae Woon do the noble idiot thing and break up with him so he's no longer in the middle and I can't wait for that angst. I just hope it doesn't last too long cause I like my babies together! I also wish that people would stop lying to one another. Like Seo Jung should have exposed Chae Woon's grandma ages ago cause that woman isn't all the way in America but literally right here all the time so that the others know to look out. Chae Woon and Jae Hee also should have told the family that Na Ro was playing games cause he's super sketchy too!

FINISHED Kairos (16/16): Living a precarious life as a part-timer at a convenience store, Ae Ri strives to support her mother who is on a waiting list for a heart transplant. Unfortunately, her mother’s worsened physical condition leads her to forgo the long-awaited opportunity for the transplant, and just like that her mother disappears. Things were already chaotic enough for Ae Ri when she receives a phone call from a strange man claiming to be from the same world but 31 days in the future. Ironically, he desperately asks Ae Ri for help. Seo Jin, a father and a husband of a close-knit family, has been living a successful life as the youngest person to become a director at a construction company. One day, it all crumbles down with the kidnapping of his daughter and his wife’s suicide. On the verge of breaking down, he is given an opportunity to restore everything that was lost under one condition, help from a strange woman. To bring his daughter and wife back to life, he makes a phone call as the clock strikes 10:33.

So the finale for this show aired this week and it was actually really amazing. This show from start to finish was so tightly written and that always makes me happy even if I didn't end up connecting to this drama like I did to something like Awaken or 365: Repeat The Year which are two other dramas with extremely tight writing. I was wrong last week in guessing that present Seo Jin got all his memories the day of cause as it turns out he only got the memories of that day from the future which was important cause the same thing happened to Do Gyun and Ae Ri's mom. Do Gyun used his time to kill Hyun Chae's biological dad while the others worked on getting rid of Chairman Yoo once at for all. They managed to trick Yoo into confessing which was a nice parallel to when his father first recorded Chairman Yoo confessing. In the end we were able to able to catch Chairman Yoo and put him in jail but at the cost of future Seo Jin who died sending the recording to Ae Ri. I do have to say that their plan was absolutely killer and I loved watching the pieces fall into place one by one. Yoo was such a psychopath honestly especially when he tried to defend his reasoning for blowing the building up making it worse than if he had just said I wanted more money. I actually liked the way the show ended with Seo Jin getting custody of Da Bin and becoming a family alongside Ae Ri and her crew. Overall I think this show deserves a 7 / 10.

Live On (6/8): Baek Ho Rang is the most popular girl in high school. Everybody wants to be her friend, and all of the boys dream of winning her heart. Although she is famously aloof, she is also a star on social media – with the whole school seemingly following her every post. But when a mysterious individual arrives online, she is caught off-guard.This person seems to know all of Baek Ho Rang’s deepest secrets, and is seemingly armed with all sorts of information about her that she’d rather was kept a secret forever! Desperate for answers, she seeks out the help of Go Eun Taek, the meticulous, right-minded head of the school’s broadcasting club. However, in order to gain his assistance, she discovers that she will have to become a regular club member – a fact that eventually brings her together with a group of students she never thought she’d consider friends. Can she solve the mystery of the online poster? And could joining the club eventually lead to romance?

This week I'm starting to wonder if the disconnect between the way Ho Rang is feeling and the way I feel about her bullying is a cultural thing cause I'm sitting here so confused as to why people would give a single shit about her having been bullied in middle school. Would people really suddenly be like Ho Rang is too relatable now so I no longer can look up to her as an influencer? Aren't celebrities and idols and the like more popular when they're more human?? Soo Hyun was the first to figure out who Ho Rang's bully was cause she saw Jin Hui mess with Ho Rang's USB so she confronted her and we finally got Jin Hui's motives for this. It connects back to my cultural disconnect cause she apparently was pissed as all hell that Ho Rang who was bullied and on the same social level as her is now popular and on the top of the social chain. Yeah seriously guys Jin Hui needs some mental help cause the girl is not sane. What kind of nonsense motive is that?? Ho Rang eventually figured it out too and when she tried to confront Jin Hui about it, Soo Hyun showed up so things got a little derailed and one of the saddest moments of this series occurred when Ho Rang was embarrassed and angry that Soo Hyun found out and Soo Hyun was just crying about how she loves Ho Rang and why can't the two be friends again. In terms of romance Jae Yi and Woo Jae got back together and though I actually thought their breakup made sense, I though their kiss this week was super cute too so I'm back on the ship!

Lovestruck In The City (1/17): Lovestruck in the City is a realistic portrayal of young people who pursue romance and happiness while struggling to get by in a busy, competitive urban environment. Park Jae Won is an honest man, a passionate architect and a lover of city alleyways. His hobby is collecting more hobbies. A romantic at heart, he cannot forget a certain woman. This thief of his heart and his camera had disappeared like a fleeting midsummer night’s dream. Lee Eun Oh is an ordinary woman who temporarily reinvents herself as the spontaneous and free spirited Yun Seon Ah. She takes off to a remote place on an impulse and falls in love with Jae-won under this new identity.

I pretty much just wanted to check this drama out cause of Kim Ji Won after Ji Chang Wook really fell off of my list of actors I adore after his last two horrible drama picks so cause of that I really didn't know what I was going to get with this show but a documentary style of story wasn't it! Now don't get me wrong, I'm not at all upset about this cause it feels like a totally creative way of telling a story but I am a little worried that by doing so, we won't be as omnipresent as we usually are in a drama. I do think it helps that the show is also adding in scenes that show what the characters are describing like when we spent this whole first episode seeing how Eun Oh and Jae Won first met rather than just hearing it from them. It does look like we'll be following 3 different relationships: Eun Oh and Jae Won, Rin Yi and Gyung Joon, and by process of elimination Sun Young and Kang Gun. Jae Won met Eun Oh on vacation and they fell in love but then something happened to break them up. Meanwhile Jae Won's cousin Gyung Joon has been dating Seo Rin for a while but I really hope the story they are meant to show us isn't one of falling out of love or cheating. The reason I think this is cause I wonder if this show is trying to show us three different couples at three different stages of love: Sun Young and Kang Gun would be in the fresh new throes of love, Eun Oh and Jae Won would be in the reconnecting phase, and Seo Rin and Gyung Joon would be drifting apart. 

Mr Queen/Queen Cheorin (4/20): A male chef has risen up the ranks to find a job cooking for the country’s top politicians in the South Korean presidential residences, the Blue House. He is something of a dreamer – but one day finds himself in the body of a young queen from Korea’s past, Kim So Yong. Kim So Yong’s husband is the reigning monarch, King Cheol Jong. However, he is only king in name – the late King Sunjo’s Queen, Sun Won, has taken advantage of Cheol Jong’s better nature, and is ruling the realm in his name. Queen Sun Won’s brother Kim Jwa Guen also has designs on power. However, Kim So Yong soon discovers that King Cheol Jong harbors secrets, and is not as gentle and meek as he seems…

I still don't know what's going on but I'm still having a blast. My favorite thing about this show is how So Yong literally has no idea about anything that's going on in terms of politics and yet everyone and their mother is trying to put him inside a box. He's out here to cook yummy food, get drunk, look at pretty women, and try to get back home. I do highly doubt that jumping back into the lake will send him back but I guess we can only drop this storyline when he tries. I do wonder if the original So Yong will ever come back like in Eternal Love where the two souls switch back and forth at odd times but I have a feeling that Bong Hwan will stay until the end. I have to say though that Cheol Jong must really be an idiot to look at what So Yong is doing all day every day and be like she's scheming to hurt me when it's like he's the one who's trying to hurt her. Does he really think that she has this much power in the Kim clan? It's obvious to me that just like he's a puppet king, so is she but then again maybe the original So Yong was more diabolical and that's what Cheol Jong is thinking of. I do wonder if So Yong really did try to kill herself back then cause all the hints seem to point towards her being depressed and she told Byung In that she was scared which is probs cause she found out that Cheol Jong loves Hwa Jin. I'm not really worried about So Yong stepping in since she could always lie to the Queen Dowager and be like I'm trying to get in on Cheol Jong's affections by saving Hwa Jin while telling Cheol Jong that she's not a monster trying to frame innocents.

Please Don't Date Him (6/10): Seo Ji-Sung is a programmer on the A.I. Development Team at Smart Home Appliances. While working on a refrigerator, she accidentally inserts a chip belonging to the National Intelligence Service. Instead of a program that will rate the freshness of vegetables, it will root out the undesirables from a dating pool, potentially saving people heartache. Ji-Sung herself wants to fall in love, but with the right man. Despair sets in when her program determines that her oh-so-perfect fiancé, Jung-Han, is not her Prince Charming after all! Jung Gook-Hee is a firefighter who spends little time on social media, leaving Ji-Sung with little data to analyze. She meets firefighter Gook-Hee, who has no social media presence. This leaves Ji-Sung without a shred of data for her program to analyze. She can't help but be skeptical, not knowing a thing about Gook-Hee's past. Should Ji-Sung take a leap of faith with him, even if it could mean another heartbreak for her?

For some reason we've randomly gone from a rom com to a spy thriller and I'm not entirely sure if I'm mad about it yet! The weird woman in Ji Sung's office ended up being a member of the Counterterrorism group that was disbanded due to a JSS chip being abused. The chip then somehow made its way into the smart fridge that Ji Sung was working on so now Hwang thinks that Ji Sung is a spy too but more importantly as it turns out Gi Hyun's husband was a part of the counterterrorism group too. Meanwhile back in our regularly scheduled program, Ji Sung and Gook Hee were all ready to go out on a date but Ji Sung started to worry that Gook Hee might be a player based on how close he was to one of the girls that worked in Ji Sung's office. Eventually she found out that Ha Ri already had a boyfriend so she let it go but I still think she should casually ask Gook Hee how he knows her cause who knows maybe she's a family friend or a relative based on how awkwardly Ha Ri explained why his bike was at her house. We also got a little more about Gook Hee's past and it looks like that reporter wrote an article about how Gook Hee was the reason for someone dying which makes me think that he accidentally started the fire but that's so ridiculous cause Gook Hee was a child! Also apparently the reason that Yoo Jin said that he was trash was cause he disappears anytime something doesn't go his way and I'm just sitting here like Ye Seul run. It's okay to date a weirdo like that but once things get serious, it would be obnoxious.

Run On (4/16): Ki Sun Gyeom is a sports agent who was once a popular sprinter on the national team but was forced to quit due to legal issues. Oh Mi Joo writes translated subtitles for movies. She was thrilled to see her name listed among the credits when she first started. Ki Sun Gyeom had just quit sprinting when he encountered Oh Mi Joo, who felt that destiny most certainly brought them together. Seo Dan Ah is the CEO of a sports agency and rightful successor to the Seomyung Group. Despite this, she is held back from advancing in the company due to her gender. She fiercely wishes to reclaim what is rightfully hers and lives her life accordingly. Lee Young Hwa is a university art major who enjoys movies and drawing will soon enter his life. Could romance be in the cards for these two couples?

So I actually straight up might be the only person who isn't in love with Mi Joo and Sun Gyeom which sucks cause they're the main characters and so like 80% of the episode is spent on them! I knew this was going to happen though cause from almost episode 1 I was like Dan Ah is my spirit animal and I want to be her so I'm pretty much spending these episodes counting down to when she appears. I also know this is a romance but I was so much more interested in seeing what happened to Woo Shik and the reporters after Sun Gyeom confessed to assaulting someone rather than watching Mi Joo and Sun Gyeom flirt. I really expected Woo Shik to be used by the track and field team to screw Sun Gyeom but my girl Dan Ah was too smart for them and grabbed Woo Shik before the others could. I am intersted in the fact that no articles about Woo Shik confessing the truth came out cause I can't imagine that anyone would have the power to make those articles disappear when the negative ones about Sun Gyeom being a monster are still around but there's gotta be a reason that they haven't been uploaded. Maybe the foreign papers are like who cares about some random Korean track and field runner? In other news I was totally fascinated in the fact that we saw more of Young Hwa this week and he's honestly a perfect match for Dan Ah cause he's an ass too. As a sidebar I'm high key into Dan Ah's brother as a character too cause he's so all about Dan Ah and I'm fascinated with what's his deal too.

The Goddess Of Revenge (9/16): In the world of the rich and powerful, one wrong move can destroy everything; a sad lesson Kang Hae Ra soon learns. Once a reporter working hard to support the family she had been forced to care for at a very young age, Hae Ra found her way into the limelight after marrying one of the country’s most famous celebrities. Now the center of everyone’s attention, Hae Ra has become one of the nation’s hottest influencers. But when she finds herself wrapped up in an unfounded scandal, Hae Ra’s reputation plummets. Hitting rock bottom, Hae Ra wants revenge, but she’s not the only one desperately searching for a way to bring down those who have hurt her. A talented lawyer with a one hundred percent success rate and a heart of ice, Cha Min Joon is not a man to be trifled with. But when those who wish to bring him low throw his family into ruin, he turns his full attention towards exacting his revenge. While Hae Ra and Min Joon focus on revenge, the sole heir to the FB Group, Kim Tae On, is on a mission of her own, to secure her position as the company’s new head. But going up against her father isn’t easy, as one simple mistake could ruin everything. Meanwhile, the tenacious detective Ku Eun Hye takes on a case that could either make or break her. As each individual begins their respective journey towards success and revenge, their paths soon cross. Realizing there’s much more going on than any of them first believed, each delves deeper but what they find shakes them to their core. Now on a mission to fight against those who seek to destroy them, Hae Ra and Min Joon will stop at nothing to have their revenge. But can they succeed against such powerful foes?

I have to say I'm a little upset that we only got one episode this week just when things actually started happening! Min Joon found out that Hae Ra's son Ga On was actually the son of his sister and Chairman Kim but I don't actually know if that will warm him or harden him further towards Hae Ra. You would think that this would push him to liking Hae Ra more than he does already cause dude she took care of his nephew for years but I have a feeling he'll assume that she kidnapped him out of insanity after losing her actual child. On that same note I'm starting to feel embarrassed on his behalf cause he thinks he's winning this game that he's playing with the FB Group but in fact he's actually being played hardcore by Tae On. She's the one who forced his sister to run and she's the one who caused this car accident in order to target Hae Ra and force Min Joon to double down on his attack against Chairman Kim. I'm hoping that now that Hae Ra saw that Min Joon went and brought her son (the one person she didn't want dragged into everything) into the game that she'll realize that Min Joon's not who she thought he was and maybe if she starts yelling at him then he'll be able to actually learn what happened back then. It's ridiculous that he won't come out and ask her cause I bet she knows if not the whole story then at least 90%! 

The Uncanny Counter (8/16): Tells the story of demon hunters called Counters who come to earth under the guise of being employees at a noodle restaurant in order to capture evil spirits that have returned to earth in pursuit of eternal life. So Mun is the youngest of the Counters. After suffering from a mysterious car accident as a child, he eventually becomes a central figure among the Counters. Do Ha Na has the ability to sense the locations of evil spirits, even those that are hundreds of kilometers away. She can also read memories of others through touch and works with So Mun to do away with evil spirits. Ga Mo Tak is a Counter with incredible strength. He’s a former police officer who lost his memory seven years ago after an accident and is unable to stand idle in the face of injustice. Ga Mo Tak is also So Mun’s mentor. Chu Mae Ok is a Counter with healing abilities. Outwardly, she’s the chef of the noodle restaurant, but among the Counters, she is the emotional pillar of the group. Choi Jang Mool is the oldest Counter. He’s in charge of all of the Counters’ expenses, and he is a living legend among the Counters in Korea.

We're halfway through this drama now and this is definitely my favorite thing airing right now! Our Counters have put together the puzzle pieces and the story was pretty much what I guessed last week. The only difference was that originally Mun's dad was actually looking into a groundwater contamination case and he just so happened to find a video of the car that Mo Tak was looking for and that's when the investigation became one. As if the humans weren't bad enough we also find out that they've been contaminating the water supply of the city and that's another reason why so many evil spirits are attracted to the area but it also explains why all our bad guys are so tightly knit. If one screws up, they all get exposed. I should be more upset at the fact that Mo Tak being alive was exposed to the bad guys but I can't even gather an ounce of worry since the real enemy of our Counters is Chung Shin who's getting more and more powerful though now he's also on the police radar though I'm sure that they'll just be killed like flies. Maybe what we need to do is push Chung Shin towards our bad guys cause the Counters can't kill but he sure can wink wink nudge nudge. No but seriously I'm sure that at some point in this season the Counters will lose their abilities cause they're too involved in the human world and it'll be the one moment that we're screwed by the bad guys. I do have to say that Mun's entire memorial scene had me on the edge of my seat cause I was so worried that Chung Shin would show up and murder either his grandparents or his best friends.

True Beauty (6/16): True Beauty is a romantic comedy about a high school girl Lim Joo Gyung, who rises to pretty girl fame after she masters the art of make-up from YouTube. She turns into a goddess because of her makeup skills, but would rather die than reveal her bare face to anyone. It tells her love story with the only boy that saw her without makeup, Lee Su Ho. Lee is an attractive and handsome boy who appears cold because of his dark past but is actually very caring. They grow when they meet each other sharing their secrets and finding love with each other, but can Su Ho make Joo Gyung find her true beauty?

Part of me wants to be annoyed with the bait-and-switch we got this week with Joo Gyung and Su Ho but I can't entirely be all that mad cause it would have been waaaaay too early for the two to get together cause we're not even halfway through! Part of me felt like Joo Gyung falling for Su Ho happened out of nowhere cause last week she thought he was blackmailing her but I bet that when he apologized and bandaged her leg she started to see him in a different light and when he all but confessed she got excited cause this was the first time that someone liked her. When you're young that's all it takes and I'm sure that the more she sees him, the more she'll see the good in him and a crush will become actual love. Seo Jun low key turned a corner though in my eyes cause while I still think the actor is mega hot, he crossed the line when he threatened Su Ho with telling Joo Gyung about their friend if he didn't leave Joo Gyung. I want her to find out at some point and rip him a new one cause what a complete ass. It's why I feel no pity for the fact that he's fallen hard for her now (before it was all a game to mess with Su Ho cause he liked Joo Gyung) but Joo Gyung only has eyes for Su Ho. I did like that Joo Gyung realized that Su Ho was the guy who saved her on the rooftop in the premiere but I also liked that she got some of the picture with what's tearing Su Ho up though she doesn't know that's why he won't date her. I also want to shout out the fact that we saw a little more about Soo Jin's homelife and it turns out she's living in one of those abusive homes where her dad will beat her for coming in second rather than first which is truly horrible. I know that she's the second female lead in this show and clearly has a crush on Su Ho but I kinda hope she ends up with someone cause she deserves to be happy. In other news Jun Woo and Hee Gyung are the cutest cause they basically switched the male/female gender roles and I adore it.

CDRAMA

FINISHED Fate (40/40): Five years ago, Xia Ran Ran was an ugly duckling futilely tailing behind Lin Xiang An whereas Su Mo was the white lotus on Lin Xiang An's heart. Five years gone, Xia Ran Ran became Shao Ming Zhe's fiancée in name, but Su Mo is the ex-girlfriend he keeps in his heart. Xia Ran Ran never expect to meet Lin Xiang An again. Time has passed, yet her memory still seems to be rooted in the past. Can she wipe him away from the bottom of her heart? Her relationship with Shao Ming Zhe is due to the alliance between their families. They've always accompanied each other, but they've never loved each other. Will his gentleness and love be a drug she cannot quit? Love is like poppy, breathtakingly beautiful yet fatal. Chen Luo is her father's right-hand man; he's tried to approach her, only for her to step away again and again. However, no matter how iron-hearted she is, will she be able to escape from the web of love he cast? Who will be the leading man in her life and her partner in this unending romance play?

So the finale for this drama aired this week and it was pretty solid in terms of how it gelled with the rest of the show. Like I said last week I was a little disappointed in the second half cause the writing was a complete mess which was just unfortunate cause of how strongly it started. Of course the only reason I even bothered to stick around is due to the chemistry between the leads cause even when I was rolling my eyes or screaming at the screen about plot point A or storyline B, whenever the leads were together, I smiled in contentment. These final chunk of episodes were high key the worst of the whole bunch. Ranran in her infinite wisdom decided to once again attack before thinking and so she basically outed her mom and Mingzhe's dad as lovers during her engagement ceremony and Mingzhe's mom overheard which made her decide that Ranran was no longer fit to marry Mingzhe. His grandfather then found out about Peng Ning and Kai so he also decided that Ranran was no longer an option for Mingzhe. Meanwhile Mingzhe was trying his damn best to keep Ranran by his side but eventually she did the noble sacrifice thing and broke up with him only for the two to end up getting married in England where they first met which was romantic and everything only all I could think about was what about their families and the mess they had back home?? I mean I've always been of the mind that they should just cut anchor and run but that's not what they wanted so.... Also I'm skipping over all the Su Mo stuff cause she was in the this show too much and I really didn't care for her redemption either. Like gag me with a spoon. I do think the second half and this finale really soured me on the rest of this show so I would have to give it a 5 / 10.

JDRAMA

Neechan no Koibito (8/9): When Momoko Adachi was in high school, her parents died in an accident. She was left with her 3 younger siblings. To support her family, Momoko Adachi gave up on going to a university and picked up a job at a hardware store. 9 years later, she is now 27-years-old. Her 3 younger siblings are 20, 17, and 14-years-old. Momoko Adachi places her sibling's happiness before anything else. One day, she meets Yoshioka-san at work. She is attracted to Yoshioka-san, who smiles all the time, but he has a secret.

I absolutely adore our leads together! They're the cutest little beans and I love how emotionally mature they are on top of everything. When Manato ran into his ex, I was expecting a bit more drama but he's honestly such a good person that he pretty much has been able to forgive when I think that I might end up having hated her for ruining my life. Momoki was with them the whole time and I was actually really surprised that she also didn't say anything even though she knew what a toll Manato's life has placed on him and even though she say the way he was wringing his hands in anxiety. I was glad though that she didn't end up seeming jealous or accusing him of overhyping their relationship to make his ex feel bad and that she just teased him for his ex being pretty as if she was like I see your type boy cause it calmed him down. The ending broke my heart a little cause it paralleled what happened to Manato back then but unlike his ex, Momoki stayed by his side and Manato rather than beating the thugs just protected his girl like the sweetheart he is. I wonder if they'll go to Manato's parole officer and tell him about it so they can catch those thugs or if they'll really just pretend nothing happened. 

Shanai Marriage Honey (4/7): A young couple got married almost immediately after meeting each other through a dating app and did not realized that they were working for the same company. They decided to keep their marriage a secret from their company and friends. At first, both parties thought it's okay to get married without love but they gradually got attracted to each other.

Ah okay so it looks like everything I was worried about last week isn't true! Miura isn't hiding some big secret and it doesn't look like he was interested in Ami before they got married though I think that it's possible that this little nugget is being saved for later. Ami was struggling this week cause she felt like Miura was keeping secrets and I was honestly so proud of her for going straight to him and asking rather than doing the passive aggressive thing and looking for the answer on her own by talking to his friends and everything. Speaking of friends I actually was surprised that the friend that Ami met in the last episode really was close with Miura cause I expected something more sinister. Honestly it's probs just cause this show doesn't have enough time to spend on something like that since we've only got 3 episodes left. I do wonder if Ami will end up meeting Miura's mom soon and I still wish that the show would have told me what's the deal with Ami's parents. On a more sexier note, I still think the chemistry between our leads is fire and I will forever be amused at how Itagaki Mizuki is one of the most mature looking jdrama leads. He's only 20 and yet he looks like he's in his late 20s and he's buff as hell rather than the usual skinny toothpick male leads that jdramas prefer!

TWDRAMA

Wacko At Law (4/15): Mai Daqi is a genius in the legal profession, but because of his dissatisfaction with the profitism of the law firm, he shelved his lawyer's license. It wasn't until an air crash that suddenly took the lives of his parents and his fiancee four years ago. In order to get justice for his family, Daqi regained his legal profession and overthrew American Airlines' first-class lawyers.

We wrapped up the Wan Ting case this week and it was pretty interesting though not as exciting as a lot of cases I've seen in kdramas and like maybe that makes it more accurate to life but honestly of all the things to keep real to life this is where the show draws the line?? So as it turns out the CEO of the entertainment company that Wan Ting was suing was actually a victim herself and instead of standing up for herself back then she decided to take the bribe and become the CEO instead. It was also nice that the third place winner who we thought was on the CEO's side actually ended up playing the CEO in order to get evidence and it was all in line with Daqi. As I mentioned last week Daqi's arrogance is a touch irritating and I seriously wish that if this show was planning to set up a romance it would be with Xiao Ke cause he's more interesting! I'm already not liking the hints towards a love triangle between Wan Ting, Yu Xin, and Daqi (a triangle in which he probs won't be all that interested cause he's still in love with his ex) since Wan Ting and Yu Xin being sisters is the cutest part of this show! We also set up the scenario for our next case and it involves Xiao Ke. One of his biker friends who we met earlier is being looked at as a suspect for the murder of his father and the fact that we're going to be taking on this case definitely makes me feel that Xiao You will be innocent though I'm not sure who the opponent will be cause it doesn't look he was set up or framed. Maybe the sister did it and her boyfriend was there and that's why they basically pointed out Xiao You?  

xoxo Allie