BTS: PTD in Seoul

Selfie image of (from left) Jung Hoseok, Kim Namjoon, Kim Taehyung, Jeon Jungkook, Min Yoongi, Park Jimin, and Kim Seokjin. Copyright goes to BTS, their social media, and HYBE Entertainment.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I wasn’t sure I was going to write about this but, with the addition of their new Vlive and some recent news, I couldn’t not. I watched two nights of this one, though it was all virtual. Considering that they locked down this concert so only people with South Korean phone numbers could attend, there was no way possible for international fans to go. Which is a move I seriously agree with. There were a lot of international fans talking about how much they would like to go to this concert when it was first announced, but this concert really should have only been for Seoul residents. Partly because of how much more strict Seoul is with Covid precautions than any place in the states. And these restrictions definitely affected the concerts in several ways. I know that one of the nights of this concert was widely released in theaters, and though I didn’t watch this night I definitely want to talk about this too. Because more and more ARMYs are talking about their positive and negative experiences having watched it in theaters. So, with all of this I’m just going to get into it!

Jin:

I think the first thing I want to address is the fact that Jin severely injured his finger recently. Which may mean that Jin will be in a cast for several concerts coming up. We don’t know how exactly this may impact the performances, but the most important part is that he recovers quickly and gets plenty of rest. I really hope he gets well soon!

Day 1 Online Streaming:

One of the biggest shocks of this night was that Namjoon’s hair is now blonde! It’s very common for at least one of them to have colored hair, but it usually isn’t Namjoon who ends up with it. So seeing him make this change was pretty surprising and it’s always a look he pulls off well! From there though, there were only a few changes to the setlist. One of them being the addition of ‘Wings’, which was one of the song performances that most people speculated they would add on. Most of the set changes people were expecting, however, didn’t actually happen in any of the days of this concert. I know many ARMY were hoping for ‘Louder Than Bombs’. And it was widely speculated that they would perform it on one of the days, especially after a clip with edited audio went pretty viral making it seem as though they were practicing it in the venue. Other speculations included ‘Pied Piper’ and ‘Sea’ because of promotional billboards that had lyrics from these songs on them. But it became pretty clear why the set list remained the way it was for the most part, especially after it felt as though they were speaking to the audience less and their ending ments were significantly shorter than in LA. While the show was pretty similar, each night had a shorter run time than what we saw in LA because of Covid precautions. The stage itself had much more room for background sets, though. I loved the greenery in the background during ‘Black Swan’ and the giant sculpted hands for ‘Fake Love’ especially.

Day 2 Online Streaming (Theater Viewing):

This is all going to be based off of experiences that I’ve heard from other ARMY and some clips and photos that were leaked. This day was particularly bad for performance because it actually started pouring rain. The boys were completely soaked through in some of their costumes and the floor became slippery, causing Yoongi to slip and fall on one occasion and Jimin to slip and fall on two occasions. None of them really got hurt, but it was clear that performing in those conditions wasn’t the best. Still, they all made the most of it and still seemed to have fun doing it! The biggest concern for this day, was actually what many ARMY were reporting happened at the theaters. I was very glad to hear that ARMY were cheering as if it was an actual concert, but many were reporting that some of the boys were receiving less cheers than others. A couple people said that people weren’t at all cheering for Namjoon or Hobi at their showings. We talk a lot about how each of the boys should be getting your equal support. It’s ok to have a bias, but don’t only cheer for your bias! It’s been pretty clear that as new fans join, there’s a lot more popularity with the maknae members or with Yoongi than with the other hyungs. Your bias is based off of your personal preference, so that’s fine! And Jin, Hobi, and Namjoon still have plenty of fans! But you need to also give them love too. I personally can’t wait to go to my next BTS concert in all Namjoon merch!

Day 3 Online Streaming:

There were two events in particular that stood out to me this day. One was Jungkook’s button, which is now being widely talked about. Including by Jungkook himself. Jungkook through part of the concert wears a black jacket with no shirt underneath. This is the same look as in LA. But this time, Jungkook’s button couldn’t quite keep it together anymore. He might as well have been shirtless, which of course is one of the most talked about bits of the concert. The other was that Namjoon was fairly tired from having had insomnia the night before, mostly involving some anxiety over what he was going to say for his ending ment for the last Seoul concert. This caused him to start yawning uncontrollably during the ending ments, which Jin called him out for. Jin and Tae then made Namjoon stand up with his arms over his head until he stopped yawning or until it was at least his turn for his ending ment. I laughed so hard during this bit!

Ending Thoughts:

I absolutely loved these concerts and I love that they were able to play in Seoul for only the people who live there who have been waiting for them! But, you could tell that they were frustrated with the lack of cheering. Namjoon even noted in the recent Vlive that they actually couldn’t hear the fan clappers when they had their in-ears in. Which made it even more frustrating for them. Though these concerts were amazing, I do hope they are able to perform in Seoul again soon without having the fans have to use clappers. They deserve to hear cheering in their home country! Hopefully cases continue to go down. I also prefer the longer concerts because they talk to us so much more casually and it really feels like there’s a connection between the boys and ARMY. Hopefully longer concerts will also be in the cards for them soon in Seoul! But nevertheless, these concerts were just as well performed and I loved seeing them! Even if I did have to stay up to ungodly hours to watch them, which for BTS is always more than worth it.

I’m still holding out the smallest hope that I will possibly be able to go to the Vegas concert, but whether or not I’ll be able to go, I’ll at least continue to watch the online streams! I always love them, there are always adorable moments, and there’s always a good excuse to watch BTS do anything! But these concerts really had the warmth and love from so many people having waited for them for so long.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Marvel: ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Spoiler Review

Behind the scenes image of Tom Holland, Andrew Garfield, and Tobey Maguire from ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’. Copyright goes to Marvel Studios, Sony Pictures, and Walt Disney Studios.

Hey! Hallie here!

As you can already tell, I’m not pulling any punches when it comes to spoilers in this review. That’s because I’m firmly convinced that I’m one of the last people on the planet to have watched this movie. And no, I did not manage to stay away from spoilers for all that time I was waiting for this to come out on digital. So, to those very few who have stumbled on this post and have also managed to avoid every single spoiler for the last few months, I give you my sincerest apologies. But I feel that’s enough warning. This movie wasn’t an instant win for me in the same way it was for many Spider-Man fans before it was released. I didn’t grow up on Spider-Man movies, I’ve watched the past Spider-Man films (animated and non) but I’ve found them as a whole to be hit or miss, and I didn’t much enjoy ‘Far From Home’ despite my love of Holland’s first outing as Peter Parker. Also, I’m a massive multiverse storyline skeptic. So this movie could have gone either way for me. And it did win me over! But not nearly as much as I expected it to and not in any of the ways I expected it to either. I’ll explain myself as this review goes on, so let’s get into it!

What I Liked:

Doctor Strange: I’m starting off this review with a controversial opinion so I’m going to try to explain my reasoning here. Stephen Strange is very obviously irresponsible with his magic. This is an issue he’s had in every single movie he’s appeared in, and it’s one he will seemingly see consequences for in ‘Multiverse of Madness’. It’s hard to argue that this isn’t a major character flaw given the fact that Wong has warned him against half of the things he does, including the spell he does in this movie. But he is not responsible for the multiverse breaking or for the spell going wrong. That fault falls to Peter Parker, who admits he’s at fault. In the film, Stephen Strange wants to help Peter because he feels Peter has been through a lot. He uses a spell he’s used successfully before in order to do this, though it’s still a dangerous spell. And Stephen recognizes its danger, becoming frustrated at Peter for changing the spell as he’s casting it and shutting it down once it gets out of control. He rightfully becomes more angry when he discovers that Peter came to him before attempting to solve his problems on his own first, and makes Peter clean up his mess as a result. And after all this happens, Stephen impresses on Peter the urgency at which they need to clean up this mess at the cost of the multiverse possibly splitting apart, which is a fair concern and one that Peter is very clearly not concerned with. What I’m saying here is, Stephen can be pinned as irresponsible, but I feel the majority of his actions are justified in this movie. And despite it all, he still makes clear to Peter that he cares about him and tries his best to help him out in the finale. I honestly loved Stephen’s wit and charm throughout the movie, and I enjoyed having a reasonable voice to rise against Peter’s here.

Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Electro: The main highlight of the first two Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies is far and away the villains. Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin is campy, but intriguing, frightening, and very well-acted. Meanwhile, Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock is my favorite villain Spider-Man has ever faced on screen for being both intimidating and heart-wrenchingly conflicted. These two were treated with the care and love they deserve. Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin was made a little less campy, which fits the MCU’s tone better, but no less fun. The way Norman Osborn could be so meek and sweet, to the point of luring Aunt May and the entire audience into a sense of comfort, is a testament to Willem Dafoe’s acting. Because we all know that Norman Osborn can’t be trusted, and yet it was still heart-stopping to see the Goblin reveal himself. Doc Ock was also very dangerous feeling. But he never felt truly evil. Even before he was cured his intelligence frequently won out, allowing him to provide the most helpful information of the villains. And his harsh opinion of being cured was always at war with his reluctance to harm anyone. Once he was cured, he played a major role in curing Electro and helping fend off the other villains. All of it felt true to the character and his capacity to be good. Electro, on the other hand, was nothing like he was in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’. That’s a very good thing. Everything from the ridiculous personality to the horrible blue design was reimagined here for the better, and they even address it in the movie. Electro fights against Spider-Man because he likes who he’s become after coming through to the MCU universe and he doesn’t want to go back. I wouldn’t either if I were him. He’s much easier to understand here and much more likable besides. (Edit: I do want to point out here that I can’t really see a way to avoid Doc Ock having to sacrifice himself to destroy the reactor at the end of ‘Spider-Man 2’, even after getting the cure for his chip. Something worth noting.)

Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire: This was a movie where I felt like a voice of reason was needed. A more mature party who could see Peter’s empathy and balance it with some emotional maturity and logic. That was exactly what Garfield’s Peter and Maguire’s Peter brought to the film. Andrew Garfields Peter Parker definitely brought the most charm, whether that be bantering back and forth with MJ and Ned, or comforting Electro after they cured him. He also brought a good level of emotion as a result of the death of Gwen Stacy, leaving me crying at multiple points in this movie. Andrew Garfield is my favorite live-action Spider-Man, and his presence only reminded me of why. Tobey Maguire came in with a wisdom expected of the oldest Spider-Man. He was funny and sometimes awkward in the cute way his Peter was in his own films, but he was also a voice of comfort to Andrew and Tom at different points of the film. He even ended the film wounded in order to help Holland’s Peter reject the idea of revenge. Most importantly, I loved that in both of these versions of Peter, we finally saw Spider-Man as the mature superhero we haven’t seen in most Spider-Man movies. It’s not that they were gritty or world-weary, it was that they finally didn’t have the “he’s just a kid” storyline hanging over their heads. I don’t have anything against those storylines, but after years of seeing it used over and over again, even within the same franchise, it was refreshing to see that Peter had finally grown past it.

What I Didn’t Like:

Peter Parker: Here I’m talking about our main MCU Peter Parker. I didn’t hate him in this movie, but it’s safe to say he frustrated me to the point that I found him less enjoyable than I have in the past. I was yelling at my screen the entire time he was adding things to Stephen’s spell. The fact that most of the events of this movie could have been prevented if he had called MIT is very frustrating. I was also screaming at my screen during the long sequence where he let a group of villains he knew to be dangerous roam around an apartment with no defense. Well, no defense except for Aunt May who has no superpowers, and we all know how that worked out. I did really love how his empathy won out against Stephen Strange’s warnings to send the villains back as fast as possible. His empathy is one of the most important parts of his character. But I also feel like Peter wasn’t at all concerned about the multiverse until it started poking through at the end of the film. His entire reasoning for sending the villains back during the points in the movie where he became discouraged was simply the “it’s not my problem” reasoning, which is clearly bad reasoning and doesn’t even begin to touch what Stephen Strange was worried about. Throughout the movie I just couldn’t understand him in the way I usually can and it didn’t sit well with me.

Lizard and Sandman: These characters might as well have not been in the film. Lizard wasn’t in most of the major scenes. In fact, he was locked up in a van for a decent portion of the film. When Andrew Garfield was connecting with a villain, it was Electro, not Lizard. I didn’t see the point of him at all. Sandman was interesting in that he brought a voice of empathy to the villains that Peter came in contact with. Except he was often silenced in favor of other villains, and instead of fighting alongside the Spider-Men at the end of the film, he fought against them because he just wanted to be sent home. Why? No idea. It might have been interesting to explore an anti-cure position that came from a less self-serving point of view, but the movie didn’t care enough about Sandman to actually do that. So he was just confusing, and once again, not a villain Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man was really focused on amongst the villains from his films.

The Endings: When I say the endings, it’s because I’m talking about the ending of ‘Far From Home’ too. There isn’t much that I dislike more than a movie deciding to go for a shocking ending by completely changing an important piece of a character. This is true of the ‘Far From Home’ ending, which removed Peter’s secret identity despite the importance it plays in the ‘Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’ narrative. Because I disliked this move, it made the entire beginning of ‘No Way Home’ rough for me. So I was happy that this movie decided to undo that decision. I wasn’t happy, though, that it undid it by changing Ned and MJ in the process. Let’s be honest, wiping their memories of Peter undoes a large portion of each of their character development. And I very much dislike that. I get they were going for the sad ending, but that didn’t make me more ok with an ending that comes at the expense of the characters.

I realize that my opinion of this movie doesn’t align with most MCU fans. I went into this movie hearing only glowing reviews and I came out of it entertained but not completely in love. I do think that I’ll return to this movie for Doc Ock, Andrew Garfield, and the general fun in this film. But it didn’t make me any less of a multiverse skeptic, nor did it strengthen my love of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man. It seemed as though the end of this movie was setting up to get back on track with Peter protecting New York on a more intimate scale, and I look forward to that, but I’m not sure I love how we got there. Ultimately, I really liked this movie and also was really frustrated by it. I wish I could have liked it more. I’m 100% up for a third Andrew Garfield Spider-Man film, though!

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Comfort Entertainment: ‘Turning Red’ and Life as a Young Woman

Screenshot from ‘Turning Red’. Copyright goes to Pixar.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I wasn’t really planning on watching ‘Turning Red’, and I definitely wasn’t expecting it to be good necessarily. I was optimistic when I heard about how many people behind the scenes were Asian and women, but Disney has been a bit formulaic recently and especially controversial. I don’t even want to talk about what happened in Florida. But several things made me change my mind in wanting to see this film. For one, I found out that a boy group was written into this film respectfully. And that intrigued me because of my absolute love of K-Pop. And I started hearing an outpouring of positivity over this movie, especially over its portrayal of young women. So, I had to relent and support this movie as much as I possibly could. And I’m so glad that I did. Not only is this one of my favorite movies to come out of the Disney company in a long time, but it was also so relatable in so many ways. I will absolutely admit to crying during this film. And I want to review this amazing movie as well as talk about some of the important points that it brought up. WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!!! Seriously, go watch this movie if you haven’t! The amazing women who created this film deserve your support!

The Good:

Mei- We need to start out with the main character, because this is one of the most excellent movies I’ve seen that addresses character flaws and makes them completely understandable. One of the main themes in this movie is generational trauma, which is something that I don’t have much experience in, but is something that is common in cultures that promote filial piety over most anything else. In several cultures there is often little more important than obeying your parents and making them proud. And this movie completely tackles how that can result sometimes in suppressing who children are and lead to a lot of confusion. There’s a moment in this movie where Mei throws her friends under the bus for something that she did because she is scared of losing her mother’s pride for her and faith in her. And in the moment you are just as angry at Mei as her friends, but you can also understand why she does it. It’s obviously not right, but it’s something she does out of fear. And fear as well as heightened emotions is what she learns to deal with for most of this movie. I’m used to movies turning characters into animals over mental issues and then finding a cure at the end. This was not what this movie was. In fact, Mei chooses to fully embrace the red panda and keep it as part of her. Mei is an adorable and quirky character that teaches young girls to embrace their weirdness and that having emotions is ok. I love how this character was created with the mind of showing others that they aren’t alone.

Mei’s Parents- It is definitely worth mentioning both Ming and Jin. Ming is Mei’s mother and one of the more antagonistic characters in the film, though she isn’t a villain. Ming expects Mei to be the perfect child and often reveres her for being so. Including blaming everyone and everything else for Mei’s mistakes instead of Mei herself. This makes Mei uncomfortable being around her and revealing aspects of her true self to her. While Jin remembers what Ming was like when she was more like Mei, and tries to be the softer support for both women as they go about realizing who the other actually is. I also loved Jin’s after credits scene where it reveals he’s a Jesse bias. While I don’t have the experience to fully appreciate these portrayals, I loved each of these characters for their development and their roles. And for what they represent to people who are victims of generational trauma. They represent those who are taught, through experiences with their own parents, to teach their children in a way that isn’t always the most empathetic. This movie breaks this down in a way that’s understandable for all and covers this topic that is becoming more and more of something talked about around the world.

Mei’s Friends- Miriam, Priya, and Abby were characters that I loved more than I originally thought I was going to. They are definitely side characters and are treated as such, but they all have unique personality traits. And they are all unfailingly there for Mei. Miriam is the more structured member of the group and the one that is constantly trying to keep them all together. Priya doesn’t talk much and has different interests, but often works as the protector. And Abby is just crazy in this absolutely endearing way. I fell in love with each and every one of them and especially the relationship they had as a group. I was one of those people who didn’t have many friends in school, but I had my group. I’m kind of still like that. And this reflects that perfectly. The way they geek out about 4Town reminds me of the way I geek out about K-Pop groups with my friends. Speaking of which…

4Town- This is the first time I’ve seen a decent depiction of any group that may be considered a boy group in any movie ever. They aren’t revealed to be awful people. The girls aren’t shamed for liking them or for having crushes on the members. In fact, the movie makes a point of showing that adults like the group too. The director made this group off of her own love for K-Pop groups and 90s boy bands. There is no shame in this portrayal. And the songs they created for them are catchy! (Thanks Billie Eilish and Finneas!) I also like how one of the main male characters at their school ended up also liking them and how this allowed for the director to showcase fans of all five of the members without leaving any out. There’s always talk about members of a group being left out (recently fans who saw ‘Permission to Dance Live’ in theaters complained about hearing less cheers for Namjoon and J-Hope), so I’m glad that she took so much care with this group. I loved that they helped with the final battle, though I do admit to laughing a little bit at their wing debacle. Also, Jordan Fisher’s voice is heavenly.

Red Pandas- I loved that all of the women in the family had the ability to turn into them, and I loved the ending of this movie. Seeing all of the women in the family help Mei in solidarity for all the generational family problems was amazing. And it was badass seeing all of the red pandas jump out at once.

The Bad:

More Time- I genuinely can’t think of much of anything other than I would have liked to see more of the friends and Mei’s father, Jin. But I think that the movie gave them all of the screen time that they could for what they had. It would be nice to see a smaller series following Mei, Miriam, Abby, and Priya though.

The Teenage Girl Argument:

One of my very first topics that I covered on this blog was this. I have an entire post about it! Teenage girls and young women in general are constantly held up to impossible societal standards and nothing they ever do is considered to be correct. Whether they are dating or not dating. (Ex. You’re too pretty to not date! You’re too young to be dating already!) Whether they spend their weekends at home or out. (Ex. Why didn’t you stay home and study? Why don’t you put yourself out there more?) Everything can be taken as the wrong decision by everyone. And things that young women like are generally dismissed as not being likable for “sane” people. Such as boy groups or certain books or movies. Women are considered crazy for traveling halfway across the country for seeing BTS. But men are considered perfectly reasonable for traveling to see their favorite sports team. Even if women don’t resort to violence over things like BTS not getting the Grammy, while men who like sports have been known for destroying property after their sports team loses. There’s this image that society sets up of this perfect girl. Someone who’s feminine and laughs at all the right times and looks just the right amount of graceful and likes all the correct things. And I think that falling into that image sometimes and trying to figure out who you are despite all of that is a difficulty that most women face at one point or another in their lives. I would highly recommend watching the behind the scenes for this movie as well, because the stories of all of these women were so relatable, that I cried again while watching it. The women who wrote and directed and worked on this film wanted to make a movie that was actually about what women have gone through and continue to go through. Watching their stories and relating to them made me love the movie even more.

I love this movie so much, if it wasn’t obvious. It was heartfelt, adorable, and so relatable. It was absolutely the type of movie that I’ve always wanted to see. It made me feel seen now and would have absolutely made a younger me feel seen too. I would automatically show this to any child, for both its amazing message as well as how entertaining it was. Go watch it immediately if you haven’t! I also want to apologize for not covering the PTD concert in Seoul. We did watch both streamed days, though not the theater one, and I think neither of us are still sure if we are going to post about it. Just because we’ve both made several posts for seeing the concert in LA and rewatching it, and there wasn’t much different to talk about. Especially because the concerts in Seoul were actually shorter than LA. But they were still amazing so don’t be surprised if you eventually see a post! Just don’t be surprised if you don’t.

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Netflix Shows: ‘The Adam Project’ Review

Screenshot of Ryan Reynolds as Older Adam and Walker Scobell as Young Adam. Copyright goes to Netflix.

Hey! Hallie here!

You’ll likely be seeing a few movie reviews from us in the near future given how many movies are dropping on streaming services right now. First on the list is a Netflix film called ‘The Adam Project’, which is the latest in the Ryan Reynolds block busters and the same actor-director combo as the surprise hit ‘Free Guy’. I liked ‘Free Guy’, but I didn’t love it as much as many others did. The brand of comedy didn’t always work for me and I found the characters outside of the game more interesting than the characters inside it. That said, ‘The Adam Project’ has a really interesting sci-fi premise I felt myself getting excited about from the first trailer. That, plus its incredible cast and the undeniable charm that radiates from Ryan Reynolds, made watching this movie a no brainer for me. So did it live up to my expectations and hit the spot ‘Free Guy’ failed to hit? Yes! It very much did! I’m going into depth on this so SPOILERS ahead! But if you haven’t watched it yet, I do recommend you go and do that now.

What I Liked

The Cast: I knew this cast was going to be amazing when I saw the lineup for the first time, but there were definitely some surprises here. Ryan Reynolds plays a bit of a grittier character in this film than he has in recent films. Many people found this decision to be an odd one given the success of the more mischievous and upbeat personas he’s taken on recently, but I thought that it was a satisfyingly refreshing choice. And Reynolds pulls it off extremely well. There’s still plenty of moments of comedy for his character, but there are also more serious character moments where Adam wrestles with self loathing and both were portrayed equally well. His interactions with his main co-star, Walker Scobell, were perfectly heartfelt and amusing as well. Which leads me into newcomer Walker Scobell. What an intro into film. This kid ran away with the whole movie. He was starring in a movie with RYAN REYNOLDS and he managed to steal the show. He’s hilariously sharp and witty, his comedic timing is perfect, and the way that he matches Ryan Reynold’s cadence made it very easy to picture him as the younger version of Ryan’s Adam. From his first scene, where he’s getting bullied while simultaneously insulting the boys terrorizing him, you can’t help but like him. And even during the quieter moments, where young Adam demonstrates his emotional intelligence, he brings emotion to these scenes in a way that makes it difficult to focus on anyone else. Mark Ruffalo isn’t in this film as much as I anticipated given the promotional material, but he makes a large impact. He plays the role of an uncertain father well. So well that you as the audience member don’t really know how to feel about him at first. But some of his final scenes in the movie genuinely had me in tears. Mark Ruffalo is very good at playing comforting characters, and he has his fair share of genuinely hilarious jokes here too. I also loved seeing Zoe Saldana kick ass and Jennifer Garner is always a joy to watch onscreen. But I’ll get back to these two in a bit.

The Story: This story isn’t on as large of a scale as I thought it would be, but I wound up liking that about the movie. Of course, it’s an action/adventure/sci-fi film. So don’t expect something entirely simple. But the movie focuses mostly on the emotional journey of Adam. The film starts by centering twelve-year-old Adam, who’s just lost his father and is lashing out because of that. But it isn’t until a forty-something Adam from the future shows up to find his wife that we start to see the core of the movie. It doesn’t take long for young Adam to accept this newcomer as the older version of himself, but it takes much longer for older Adam to accept any help from his younger self. This is because older Adam has faced multiple tragedies in his life that have convinced him that he’s an awful person who’s been detestable since he was young. As the film goes on, older Adam is able to actually face his younger self and realize that he was much more intelligent and understandable at that age than he remembered, and that his younger self still plays a positive part in who he became. The second emotional core of the movie surrounds grief, which the latter half of the movie tackles by taking both Adams back to 2018 to stop the creation of time travel so it can’t be misused. This is where Adam comes face-to-face with his father. Here it’s revealed that Adam’s grief over his father’s death has turned into rage, fueled by the idea that his father never loved him, so that he doesn’t have to process it. The movie does an excellent job of deconstructing that as well, having young Adam contradict the harsh lies older Adam convinced himself of to remind him of how much his father did care. And it all ends with his father holding his face in his hands and firmly telling him that he’s proud of him and that he loves him until he breaks down in tears. The way this movie tackles both grief and self-love is so incredibly well done.

The Bad

The Villains: There are a few villains that pop up every once in a while to chase around Ryan Reynolds and present the major issue that the time-travel plot is needed to resolve. But are they good villains? No. Most of them are generic trigger-happy guys whose lines amount to light taunts before they die quick deaths in the finale. The main villain is the business partner of Adam’s dad. She’s quickly revealed to be the first time-traveler to have messed up the universe because she traveled back in time to give her younger self information that made her rich and successful. But she’s nothing more than a generic villain. The film attempts to give young Adam conflicting feelings about her because he remembers her as a nice person, but she doesn’t really play into the nice persona for long before all her scenes become “dastardly scheming” scenes. And none of the characters, not even Adam’s father who’s supposed to be close with her, seem to care about her death. In fact, her death scene comes off as fairly comical. So don’t watch this movie for the villains.

The Women’s Screen Time: I don’t think the women in this film are portrayed badly, but they don’t get a lot of screen time. Adam’s mother gets a nice moment where older Adam anonymously talks to her as a result of the regret he feels for the way he treated her when he was young Adam’s age. But after this she becomes mostly irrelevant to the plot. Which I understand given the story they were trying to tell, but I feel like they could have at least shown more of her attempting to connect with her son towards the beginning of the film. Instead, we get only a few scenes where she gets in an argument with young Adam and then disappears for a while. Zoe Saldana was absolutely the most wasted potential in the film, though. She kicks ass for a while, but after a few action sequences she has a makeout scene with Ryan Reynolds, convinces the Adams to let her sacrifice herself so they can wipe out the current timeline in favor of a better one, and then she dies. She comes back towards the end of the film in the post-2018 rewritten timeline so older Adam can have a happy ending, but it isn’t enough.

Overall I really enjoyed ‘The Adam Project’. It’s probably my favorite of Ryan Reynold’s recent projects. It has an emotional core that felt far stronger than anything else I’ve seen from films like this, and it has humor that’s well placed while never upsetting the emotional moments. I couldn’t have imagined how much I would relate to the subjects this movie tackled, and I definitely couldn’t have imagined how emotionally invested I would become as a result. I can’t recommend this movie enough, even with the few faults I found. If you like Ryan Reynolds, this is an absolute must watch!

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

International Dramas: ‘My ID is Gangnam Beauty’ Review

Screenshot of (left) Cha Eunwoo and (right) Im Soohyang. Copyright goes to JTBC.

Hi! It’s Annie!

Here we go with the other K-Drama review that I promised! I have wanted to watch one of the two popular K-Dramas based off of web toons for a while, and when this popped up on Netflix I finally had the chance! I’ve heard nothing but good things about the separate web toons ‘My ID is Gangnam Beauty’ and ‘True Beauty’ as well as their respective dramas. And both of them star Cha Eunwoo of ‘Astro’! Though I’m not as familiar with his group, I did very much enjoy him in some of his other dramas, so either one that came to Netflix first was going to be a win for me. Or at least I hoped it would. I have to say, this had a lot of good and some not so great. I mostly came out of this drama liking it, but I did have some issues that I felt didn’t work so well. Despite those, I really want to talk about this drama because the messages in it and portrayals of the way women are often treated, are some of the best that I’ve seen. So, I’m just going to get right into it! WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Synopsis: Mirae is just starting college having made a massive change in her life. After a childhood of being teased for her looks she made the decision to get extensive plastic surgery in order to look closer to general beauty standards. Her beauty automatically garners interest and now she must balance the new popularity and her handsome stoic classmate that she’s pretty sure knows her secret.

The Good:

Male Lead- It was really odd to see Eunwoo play a stoic character, this was definitely a first for me, and I am now convinced that he can definitely pull off any character type that he tries. But the best part of Kyungseok was by far the way he was so obviously written by a woman. Kyungseok is the type of a guy who will establish clear boundaries and not care about what someone looks like. The type of guy who tells off another guy for feeling like he deserves something from a girl. Every time one of the male characters expressed a very toxic masculine thought, he was the first one to bluntly tell them that they were being stupid. I also really liked how the messages for the show bounced off of his character. While many of the characters wanted beauty or used their beauty as a weapon, he purposely kept away from everyone else and also viewed beauty as what it was. Just another thing that people make often unfounded judgements about you for. He helps the main character realize that whether or not she is pretty, it will never be all she is. I always love a boyfriend willing to fight toxic masculinity at every turn.

Attacking Sexism- This show had several moments where they challenged sexism and behavior that is usually seen as normal. In one episode, the men in the department chose the prettiest women to work as waitresses for their school stand at the festival. In doing this they also decided on outfits for them to wear which were pretty scandalous all things considered. When all of these women are humiliated at the festival and leave, the men then try and convince the remaining women to take up waitressing instead while complaining about how they look far less superior to the women who had just left. This, understandably, causes all of the remaining women to leave in anger. The next day, all of the women in the department make a pact that none of them should help the men with the continuing school festival and, when asked by the boys what they could possibly do instead, buy all of the men t-shirts with fake abs. When the men then complain that most men don’t have bodies that look like that, a woman that many of the men tease for not being skinny enough, pointedly tells them that this is often how they make her and other women feel. Even better, when higher ups see the picture of the women in the outfits, the men in the department actually get punished for it. Which is more than what usually happens at most colleges. The fact that this drama tackles that as well as everything else was amazing.

Attacking Beauty Standards- This entire drama is about how beauty comes from the inside, and it demonstrates that in several ways. Such as the fact that the main character must accept what it’s like to be conventionally attractive and how that also warrants unwanted attention. Almost just as much as not being conventionally attractive does. The point is to not worry about what other people think or have to say about you. Mirae wonders why Kyungseok pushes people away and he reveals that his handsomeness makes people just as presumptive about him as she felt they were about her before her surgery. The show also tackles a society that makes, especially women, feel like they have to get surgery in order to fit in to begin with. And then that same society attacks them for having gotten the surgery. What I really liked was that this director never showed what Mirae looked like before. He only ever shows shots of the back of her head or major close ups on her eyes. Because what she looked like before isn’t the point; the point is that she was made to feel like she was ugly and that is enough. I thought this choice was pretty genius.

The Bad:

Female Lead- Once again. I always feel so bad putting female leads here, but this has become a staple of romance shows. The main female lead who is nothing except for relatable. Literally nothing. She has no personality traits, she’s mainly just a blank slate for the assumed woman watching to project onto. Except Mirae also spends more of her time stuttering than getting much of a sentence out because they were intent on making her seem as anxious as possible. There were a couple of great moments where she stood up for herself, but they were far too few and far between. I wish there was more I could say about her, but anxiety does not usually mean not being able to speak at all or show much of any emotion other than awkwardness. I hoped every episode that she would get better and become more confident, but unfortunately most of the time her standing up for herself was very short lived. Instead of character development, she kind of just reverts back to the moment before she said anything progressive for her character.

Side Characters- This show definitely didn’t focus on side characters. That was mostly for good reason. They were focusing more on the main characters and social issues. But that still didn’t mean that the other characters being fairly one dimensional wasn’t noticeable. I can’t remember the names of most of the side characters and it feels like many of them only had a few scenes dedicated to them. The best way to describe the male side characters is that they are all pretty awful human beings and the best way to describe the female side characters is that they’re characters you think are pretty cool. But not much beyond that.

Second Lead- I haven’t brought him up yet and I wish I could bring him up in the good. This actor was one of my favorite characters in ‘Vincenzo’! But this character felt inconsistent. He was nice, but there wasn’t much behind the niceness. It was proved that his outward nice appearance had no substance because he also had no substance. He told the main character that he only liked her for her looks, even though she expressed her discomfort with his answer and gave him about four times to amend what he said. All over the course of one conversation. I facepalmed so hard watching him. But he never was really shown to grow completely from that except for the possibility that he might like the main character’s best friend. Which doesn’t necessarily mean he’s improved.

Sua- The main antagonist; a master manipulator with the hopes of making sure that every man only has his eye on her. Eventually redeemed with no actual redeeming. And complete with me feeling like her storyline may have been needless. Once again, I think the social topics they were trying to tackle should have taken more screen time. I know with her they were trying to show that not every beautiful person is beautiful on the inside, but I think this was also covered in other instances. Such as the entire reason behind the main character learning to accept her new face but also learning that it didn’t affect what was most important; her personality. And at the end things got pretty convoluted with her. I was glad that the male lead never fell for her tricks, but I think the screen time could have been better used elsewhere.

I wish I had more good things to say here, but the things I loved about this series I really truly loved. The way this series tackled so many societal issues was amazing and I can absolutely see why it got so many awards. I just wish I had felt more connected with the characters. I’m going to say something similar to what I said about ‘Rookie Historian’. The antagonist storyline wasn’t needed; the society as an antagonist would have been enough for me. And it would have given some of the side characters and maybe even the main character more screen time to really explore who they were as people. But it was at least nice to see scenes that presented the female experience so realistically and a great boyfriend who automatically dismissed toxic masculinity in other men and didn’t put up with it. I think we often see men, much like the other men in this drama, feel like it’s too much to tell off their guy friends when they’re acting awfully towards women. The main male character in this absolutely shows that they have no excuse. Now, I have to continue to recover from the BTS concert in Seoul at two in the morning my time. Definitely, worth it! We will hopefully have a review up for both online streaming days soon, so look forward to that!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

BTS: Happy Birthday Yoongi!

Professional image of Min Yoongi (Suga) with his legendary mint hair. Copyright goes do BTS and Hybe Entertainment.

Hey! Hallie here!

It’s Yoongi’s birthday! Well, it was technically his birthday yesterday in South Korea, but in the US we celebrate it on both days! I haven’t had the best day, but Yoongi always has a way of cheering me up. We’ve talked on this blog about all the things we love about him, but today I want to talk about quotes from him that have impacted me most. Because some days you just need to hear all the thoughtful views and encouragements he’s given to ARMY. Let’s get into how amazing he is!

“Life is tough, and things don’t always work out well, but we should be brave and go on with our lives.”

This quote can apply to so many different areas of life. It can apply to personal relationships, career goals, and even when you’re generally feeling down. Life isn’t always fair. Yoongi knows this very well as someone who had misunderstandings with his parents growing up, worked multiple jobs while going to school, got run over by a car, and has struggled with his mental health for much of his life. But when things don’t work out, that doesn’t make you a broken person. Regardless of what happens, you never lose the capability to pick yourself up and keep moving. Just as life has downs, it’s sure to have ups that will surprise you if you just keep moving forward. Look at Yoongi. He’s now internationally known and has seven brothers and millions of fans there supporting him. The bravery needed to keep going can be hard to find sometimes, but it’s always worth it in the end.

“I think there’s a lot of different kinds of love: not just between a boyfriend and girlfriend, but love with your family, love with the people around you. I think that’s really important and, I think, would really be a good thing for the world and make a better world for everybody.”

We talk a lot about different kinds of love all the time, especially in the LGBTQ+ community. Of course romantic love can come in many forms, but there are different kinds of love that are expressed both in the LGBTQ+ community and outside of it. Platonic relationships are just as important and can form just as large of a bond. Familial bonds are always important, whether we’re talking about biological family or people in your life who have become like family to you. But even beyond those things, there’s the love you can spread to all of those around you. There’s love that can turn into understanding of people who are different from you. All of those kinds of love are so important. BTS is one of the leaders in spreading that message, using lyrics to encourage others to love themselves and to love one another. It’s a message that makes sense coming from Yoongi, and is very much appreciated.

“If you want to aim high, aim high. Don’t let that studying consume you. Just live life.”

Yoongi is a well known advocate for two things. One is putting in hard work without overworking yourself. This is always important. If you want to accomplish anything in life, know that hard work is always involved. But also know that you are a person with limits and those limits should always be honored. It’s important to take care of yourself. The other major thing Yoongi advocates for is not agonizing too much over how you do in school. His opinions on school are important, especially coming from a man that lives in South Korea. South Korea is notorious for pressuring students and causing huge amounts of stress. It’s important for there to be someone to tell those students that bad grades aren’t the end of the world and that there is more to life. And it isn’t just students in Korea that need to hear that, school can be stressful for any student in any area, all of whom could use encouragement and a reminder of life outside of school. Yoongi had to multitask many things while he was in school, and he’s not apologetic about how school wasn’t always the most important thing for him. Sometimes life has to take precedent over school or work.

“Emotions are so different in every situation and every moment, so I think to agonize every moment is what life is.”

This quote covers two different ideas. One is the more positive, which is the idea that your emotions are always valid. Whether you’re right or wrong, happy or sad, you’re allowed to feel and have emotional needs. It’s an essential part of life to embrace. The more negative is tied to the fact that Yoongi mentioned this when speaking about his anxiety. This idea is more that anxiety and mental issues can creep up at any time and those moments are equally a part of life. But this more negative connotation isn’t wrong or bad. It’s true. We all struggle with mental health at some points and we all have moments where we overthink things. But that just means that none of us are alone or crazy for feeling those things. As someone who struggles with anxiety, I always appreciate when Yoongi discusses his own and I know that many other ARMYs feel the same.

Those are all the quotes I’m going over today, but I seriously recommend seeking out some of Yoongi’s interviews. He’s said so many important things that mean so much to myself and to millions of ARMYs. On difficult days I often turn to him for guidance and comfort. I can’t express how thankful I am for him, but I really hope that he had an amazing birthday and that he has many amazing days following it.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

International Dramas: N.Flying Web Dramas

Promotional image of (from left) Lee Seunghyub, Yuna, Kim Jaehyun, Choi Jungwoo, and Kim Doori from ‘Big Picture House’. Copyright goes to Naver TV Cast.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I’ve been watching some K-Dramas again, but because I wanted to make an N.Flying post, these are the ones that took top priority for me. For those of you who don’t know N.Flying, my sister made an entire post about them recently. I would highly recommend checking out N.Flying; they have very quickly become one of my favorite groups of all time. I listen to their music on repeat. They also don’t have very many fans in comparison to other groups, so they definitely need and deserve all the support! Anyways, my bias is Jaehyun, the drummer, and it didn’t take me long to figure out that he is also an actor. He’s most known for acting in a Japanese zombie drama, but he has done some K-Drama projects. And so has the lead singer Seunghyub. In fact, I figured out that both of them had been on two different short web-drama projects together! The mix of me loving KDramas and loving N.Flying was just too perfect, so I had to check out both of these dramas. Because they are both so short, I’m going to review both of them here. I do have a longer KDrama review coming up, so stay tuned for that as well! Anyways, I’m just going to get into these two web-dramas, because they were both amazing in different ways. WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

‘All-Boys High’:

Summary- This is a set of ten episodes, each about four minutes long, that consist of clips of the lives of two students at an all boys high school. Jaehyun and Seunghyub play two opposite personalities who sit at the same desk together and navigate hilarious happenings while attempting to figure out their future.

Review- Rather than a good and bad section for this drama, I’m just going to give it a general review. Especially because it’s more of a series of comedy clips and much less of an actual full length story. I don’t think I could pick out something that I disliked about this, because I really loved it for what it was. An amalgamation of hilarious clips and relatable scenes of high schoolers just trying to figure out what they want. There’s a pretty meaningful storyline where Seunghyub’s character reveals to his teacher that he wants to become a singer, only for a more senior teacher to laugh at him. This results in his teacher defending him and making a great point about not diminishing the dreams of students. But mostly this is comedy such as, Jaehyun’s character getting caught pretending to be a ‘One Piece’ character or being asked to stand up when he’s only wearing boxers because he took his pants off since it was so hot. Usually this is highlighted by Seunghyub’s character being stoically embarrassed or awkwardly trying to support him. There’s a nice arc throughout the stories where the two characters become close friends, but expect more big reactions and comedy than anything else. It’s hilarious for the most part and each episode ends with ‘Rooftop’ playing in the credits. It’s a very short watch that I highly recommend for any fan of N.Flying.

‘Big Picture House’:

Summary- A series consisting of twelve episodes in between ten and fifteen minutes long. This series follows five college age students who are all struggling with having dedicated their childhoods to the possibility of becoming an idol, only for it to not pan out. It specifically follows Gayoung, a young woman who, after being kicked out of her company, needs to find a new place to stay and find a musician share house. A house created by a kind benefactor for aspiring musicians. The series addresses how we often take careers too seriously and how failure in one avenue doesn’t mean all the doors are closed.

The Good:

Gayoung- I really really liked her as a main character of this drama. She really had a personality all her own, and it didn’t feel like she was a blank slate. She had her own ambitions and dreams, and she also made mistakes that the drama was excellent in explaining and pointing out. For example, she initially rubs some of the people she shares a house with the wrong way, specifically Sungwoo, for talking down about idols. Over the phone, he overhears her calling idols pathetic and without any real musical talent. It turns out that she is talking to her father, and she is attempting to convince him not to worry by trying to convince him that she never really wanted the job anyways. Over the course of the story, she learns to be much more observant of the people around her. She also learns that having someone who has everything in common with you, doesn’t necessarily make for your perfect boyfriend.

Hyunmin- He’s the second lead in this drama, which is hilarious considering Jaehyun plays the first lead. He has already been taken out of the running for being an idol when we meet him, but he still holds out hope that he will one day debut. In the meantime, he is working as a vocal coach for the company he was hired under. He invites Gayoung to the share house after she is sent away from the company they were both apart of, mostly because he has a crush on her and likes that they have everything in common. His character is amiable and kind, and you can see why Gayoung would choose him at first. Though his main function is to be rejected, especially in such a short drama, he feels like a character with depth all the same.

Sungwoo- I know I’m biased (literally), but he was by far my favorite character in this drama. He at first appears pretty stoic and standoffish ( a far cry from Jaehyun’s other roles), somewhat because of overhearing Gayoung’s conversation with her dad. After he realizes her situation, he makes up for it by placing some chocolate milk anonymously at her door. Which is sadly mistaken for having been placed there by Hyunmin. Because really, he’s just a very adorable and caring character. He works multiple part time jobs at night and is still training to be an idol during the day, but he’s being phased out because of his age. He’s often looked down on by his former colleagues and suddenly finds himself feeling very lost. Gayoung is a light in his life, until he mistakes her for having accepted Hyunmin. Will I ever forgive Jaehyun for making me cry because of his couple of heartfelt sobbing scenes in this show? Maybe not. Sungwoo was the most adorable and the most heartfelt character in the entire show.

Chohee- She was one of the characters it was hardest for me to understand, but I liked her because her actions were never supposed to be rational. She was a character who also felt lost after losing her place in an idol group and is honest to herself that what she wanted the most was the attention and recognition. So, she instead tries to become a famous YouTuber, but she makes content that she feels everyone else will want to see rather than what she wants. Her insecurities involving the way other people see her are giant, and it’s always portrayed as a flaw. Her relationship even suffers from it. She makes so many bad decisions, but you understand where she’s coming from.

Jaejin- A sweet character who’s main function is to attempt to be there for his girlfriend during one of the hardest times of her life. This includes her seeing his occasional anger as signs that he hates her and her becoming jealous of him for getting more attention when she convinced him to make a couples video. He is an excellent boyfriend and does nothing but support her. Does he deserve the way she treats him? Definitely not. But he tries to understand where she’s coming from every time nonetheless. An overall wholesome character.

The Main Romance- Watching Gayoung and Sungwoo fall in love was one of my favorite parts of this drama. From the moment he gifted her chocolate milk, to the moment she realized it was actually him who had been taking care of her all that time. The moment when she realizes that she misses him and that she actually wants to be with him is such a tender moment despite this drama altogether only really being a short movie length. And when he surprises her at the end because she wanted him to come back, I almost cried again. This drama was so good at story building with the short amount of time that it had. Jaehyun’s smiles and hugs are also almost too cute to watch.

The Side Romance- I’m not putting this here because I think this is a cute portrayal of a romance. This is entirely a couple who’s going through a rough patch because one of them is trying to find themself. I like this because it’s so realistic and because it gives you the hope that they’ll come back together. She learns at the end that she never really communicated with him enough. It never portrays the relationship as being healthy; instead she learns that her insecurity made it unhealthy and wants to fix it. It’s more of a learning experience for the couple than an initial romance or breakup, and I really appreciated that.

The Message- None of the characters end up as idols by the end; but they aren’t supposed to! Hyunmin gets married to a different girl and becomes famous for his coaching abilities. Sungwoo starts getting a foothold in theatre. Chohee starts making content that she likes and is slowly getting recognition for being herself. Jaejin becomes a composer. Gayoung is the closest to not really following this trend, because she becomes a solo artist instead of debuting in a group. But for the most part, this is about a bunch of people finding jobs that they’re passionate about, even if it wasn’t the one they imagined. Which is such an amazing message for young people, especially right now. The drama feels like a giant hug for every young person who feels lost right now. And I know there are a lot of us. It doesn’t diminish you, instead it tells you that you aren’t alone.

Bad:

Length- The only thing I can really think to put here is that it’s too short. I would have easily watched and loved a full length drama with all of these stories expanded. Sometimes it felt like the stories were rushed, but that was only because they were attempting to fit within the length of a mini drama. So I can’t fault it for that. And the storytelling was well rounded! I just wish I had more of it to watch! I feel like I left Sungwoo far too soon.

Overall, I highly recommend both of these dramas. But especially ‘Big Picture House’. This has to be one of my favorite drama pieces that I’ve seen in a while and it was so short! But I think so many people need to hear the message from this drama. So many older people forget what it’s like to feel young and lost, and many young people need to know that not ending up in your initial view of your career is not going to be an overwhelming failure in your life. I really like the message of finding something you’re passionate about, even if it wasn’t what you pictured before. That’s actually how I’m currently sorting out my own career. And the characters and main romance are so wholesome and cute! I also recommend ‘All-Boys High’ for if you need to laugh for a little while. That one isn’t as profound, but I loved it as well. Let’s all give the boys from N.Flying some love, because they deserve all the love and recognition in the world!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

Video Games: ‘Persona 5 Royal’ Review

Poster of Joker for ‘Persona 5 Royal’. Copyright goes to Atlus.

Hey! Hallie here!

‘Persona 5 Royal’ has been out for a while now but, to be honest, I was really on the fence about purchasing it. I love ‘Persona 5’, it’s one of my favorite games, but a lot of companies re-release games with only a couple added perks at full price as a cash grab. I see these re-releases as both a huge waste of money and a really transparent and frustrating effort to make the most money for the least amount of effort. That said, ‘Persona 5 Royal’ advertised itself as something completely different. It promised two completely new characters with gameplay attached to them, a deeper connection than was previously available with Akechi, and an entirely new palace that would provide hours more of gameplay. All of that on top of getting rid of some of the more frustrating gimmicks in ‘Persona 5’ and overall upgrading the original experience. Still, even that couldn’t fully convince many fans to pay full price for the new version of the game. I still wasn’t sure about it myself. But recently I decided that I should just try it out and see what everyone was talking about. Did it exceed my expectations or let me down? A little of both, but mostly, I very much recommend it if you’re a ‘Persona 5’ fan! Let’s get into all of it. SPOILERS ahead!

Gameplay: There’s a few major gameplay changes throughout ‘Persona 5 Royal’. The one I noticed right off the bat is the upgrade to the guns. Instead of only getting so many bullets to use before you have to rest to replenish them, ‘Persona 5 Royal’ replenishes your stash each battle. So guns are actually useful now! Staying with in-battle changes, you can now unlock showtime attacks as the game progresses. These are tag-team attacks between two characters that each have fun animations and deal tons of damage. I loved almost every showtime attack, but the Akechi and Joker attack specifically blew me away. Also, baton passes are now available right off the bat, which is really nice considering it’s one of your most useful skills. And, of course, there are new personas to discover if you so choose. Moving on to palaces, every single palace has been reworked. In some palaces, more annoying or frustrating segments have been cut down. I really appreciated that Okumura’s palace spent less time having me solve the “which robot has the keycard” puzzle. Palaces also have new enemies or fight segments, such as the new second part to Madarame’s boss fight. There’s also a grappling hook function in palaces that takes you to new locations. Usually this is used to help you find will seeds, another new addition to palaces that you can collect to get a strong item or ability.

Moving on from palaces, let’s talk about the day-to-day gameplay. Firstly, Morgana makes you go to bed less and the game gives you more time overall to work on your confidants and stats. I was able to max out all my stats and complete most of my confidant rankings by the end of my play through this time around. There’s also new locations to explore and take your friends to, such as Kichijoji with it’s new jazz bar and darts/billiards hangout spot. And if you’re feeling overwhelmed, there are more options to increase your stats, there are more interactions via post-hangout calls to help with your confidants, and there are even specific functions that will give you suggestions. Two other major changes belong to the Velvet Room and Mementos. Mementos is larger and now has a shop where you can alter Mementos for more XP, items, and the like. Meanwhile, the Velvet Room will go on high alert so the player can create more powerful but at times more randomized and risky combinations. If all of this wasn’t enough, they also rebalanced confidant abilities and persona abilities as well. There’s a whole lot of new going on here, but keep in mind, the base game is still the same. All of these new additions simply make everything more player-friendly. You won’t find any major changes to the story or the palaces until later in the game, where Maruki’s palace comes into play. Maruki’s palace is probably my favorite one. It’s hospital-like design is interesting and the new music in this section has some of my favorite pieces in the entire game. Plus, this palace has my favorite puzzles. I loved finding each new video room to watch more of Maruki’s backstory, I loved guessing which survey answer Maruki would want me to pick, and I even enjoyed the color puzzles. This palace is well worth exploring.

Characters:

There are two new characters, but in this section I want to talk about three of the characters. These characters are Maruki, Sumire, and Akechi. Firstly, if you want to play any of the new content, you should immediately start working to max out the confidants of these three. To be fair, you’ll only be able to max out their confidants to level 9, 5, and 8 respectively. Maruki and Akechi’s confidants will finish as the story progresses, and Sumire (Kasumi)’s will reopen for you to continue once the story progresses. While possibly frustrating, this only proves how important these three are, so let’s look into them. First, let’s talk Maruki. As a confidant, I loved him. He was awkward in an endearing way, clearly cared about all of the students, and fit the type of comforting teacher character I love to see in school settings. Before Maruki, it seemed like the game was trying to get you to embrace Kawakami as the “cool” teacher. But, let’s be real, the entire relationship with Kawakami is creepy and she has never actually seemed to care about any of the students. Maruki solves that problem. But his transition to villain is rocky. I really like the idea of Maruki using the information from his sessions to try to make everyone happier, only to become corrupted in the process. But once Maruki revealed that he had been the one to make Sumire think she was Kasumi, I liked it less. I mean, most therapists reaction to “I hate myself and I want to be someone else” wouldn’t be “Yeah, that’s probably for the best”. He used absolutely none of his training as a mental health professional in order to create his reality. He just took everyone at their word on what they felt would make them happiest and moved on. Not to mention how many times he pulled me back into a fight after I beat his boss. Sore loser much?

Sumire is next. I really didn’t like this character. Both my sister and I have listed our grievances with her on this blog before, so I’ll make this quick. Sumire, in trying to live her life as Kasumi, is a horrible twin trope. She perpetuates the idea that twins are so similar that one could plausibly replace the other. I did like that the game highlighted some differences between Sumire and Kasumi, but having Sumire continue to pursue her sister’s dream by the end instead of embracing her different ideas and interests seemed to undo all of the good. Plus, she didn’t have much of a personality. She reminded me of Haru in the way that she was nice, reasonable, and not much else. They gave her plenty of scenes, but not enough development in the actual plot. Finally, let’s talk Akechi. Akechi’s confidant really helps you get to know the guy. When it comes to the original game, I didn’t really get the hype behind Akechi. I love his English voice actor, Robbie Daymond, so I always had a soft spot for him. But he only ever seemed like either an egotistical rich kid or a psychopathic murderer. His confidant gives us more of Akechi trying to fit in with his generation as well as trying to battle with his feelings of liking the protagonist, but being so jealous of him that he hates him simultaneously. The new depth is interesting, and it lends itself well to his appearance in Maruki’s reality. Here he finally does away with the pleasantries and is his regular vain, blunt, slightly unhinged self. And it’s refreshing. You get to see his selfless acts justified by the selfish view that Akechi must protect others because they’re too stupid to protect themselves. His second death, where it’s discovered that he was brought back by Maruki and therefore won’t exist when Maruki is defeated, is heartbreaking. Especially because of how adamant he is that the protagonist shouldn’t care about his death because Akechi wouldn’t want to live in Maruki’s reality anyways. I loved Akechi, I loved his sass, and I will miss him. (Can we also talk about how Maruki brought Akechi back for the protagonist? Why isn’t he a romance option again?)

That’s it! So what are my final thoughts? I liked the new additions. I liked the helpful new features, the new music, and I really enjoyed the new palace. As for the new characters, or additions to the characters, my opinions are mostly positive. Though I don’t like Sumire, she doesn’t make me want to tear my hair out or anything. And I could appreciate Maruki despite his faults. Plus, this game gave me a whole new love of Akechi. I don’t think I could go back to playing the original game after this. But I also think that, had I never experienced this game, I would still be very content with the original. After all, ‘Persona 5 Royal’ is the same game just with added bonuses. So while it’s easy to get hooked on these bonuses, if you’re content with the original game, I wouldn’t say that you’re completely missing out if you skip over this one. Just, in the very least, look up the new Akechi content. And if you aren’t a ‘Persona 5’ fan, it’s not like this game is different enough to change your mind. All that aside, I did really enjoy ‘Persona 5 Royal’ and I would really recommend it!

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie

Comfort Entertainment: Pastels and Character Inspo

Screenshot of (left) Wang Zi Xuan and (right) Wang Yibo in ‘Gank Your Heart’. Copyright goes to Mango TV.

Hi! It’s Annie!

I’m going to take a slight break from all the K-Pop posts, mainly because I’m slightly getting over not getting BTS tickets (I did go to the LA one, so I’m honestly fine!) and I’m currently stuck in the music world of N.Flying. I swear I’ll find something else to discuss about them soon because I love their music so much! But right now, I’ve kind of been sitting on this idea for a while and I wanted to get it out there. I’ve mentioned very briefly in some of my past posts that I have an absolute love for pastel colors. In fact, a lot of my fashion style revolves around my love for pastel colors. This has been a more recent development over the past three or four years as I’ve started figuring out what I really like. And, as a giant geek, a lot of my style inspiration has actually come from fictional characters and the media that I consume. So, in this post I’m going to go over some fictional characters and one real person, who have influenced me and my love of pastels over the years by watching media that features them. Maybe it’ll even give you some inspiration!

Kat Hillard (and other Pink Rangers)- Power Rangers:

I think this is one of the most obvious ones from when I was a kid and it definitely still influences me. When I was a kid, I dressed a lot more tomboyish. But I wanted to dress more like the pink Power Rangers that I absolutely loved. And some of them definitely still inspire me. Some more than others, especially because I’m a lot more into softer pinks than redder pinks. Kat Hllard probably dressed the most in soft pinks (before Zeo), so she’s my primary example. She also dressed a bit less trendy and a bit more casually compared to Kimberly. But I think one of my favorite things about the Power Rangers in general is that all of their outfits change to heavily feature their ranger color. Tommy even makes a joke about having to buy more black in ‘Dino Thunder”. (How do you need to buy more black??) So, I definitely do enjoy constantly going around in pink and feeling a bit like I’m an actual Power Ranger in civilian clothing. Katherine alternated a lot between pants and skirts as well, which is something that I do. And her occasional headbands and scrunchies is something I have definitely adopted. I think if my ten year old self could see me now she would be overwhelmingly happy. When talking about pastels, it’s difficult to not mention an actual Pink Ranger.

Ann Takamaki- Persona 5:

Ann’s character is one of my favorites and there’s a lot that I love here aesthetically. Especially with her persona, Carmen. Ann dresses in a lot of reds and pinks, but what I like here is that Ann definitely has a comfy style to her. While Katherine is a lot more of a nice-casual, which is what I usually wear out, Ann is very realistic in her hoodie game. I just like that Ann is depicted in quite a few oversized comfy sweaters, because those are some of my absolute favorite things to wear. Ann’s casual looks do lean more towards the side of reds than pinks, and I honestly don’t wear a lot of red, but her hoodie and skirt style is something I wear a lot these days. Especially since we’re all still inside a lot. And the red and pink hearts and roses that adorn much of Ann’s aesthetic have definitely affected some of the patterns I look for on my pastel sweaters or hoodies. Either way, Ann is one of those characters I have picked up some inspiration for in my search for more and more pastels.

Seraphine- K/DA and League of Legends:

I have to mention the new Queen of pastels. Though I haven’t been a fan of her long, she has already become fictional fashion inspo for me. In fact, that’s partially how I picked her out as my favorite avatar in K/DA. Her hair alternates between pastel pink and pastel blue. What more could I ask for? The exact colors that they used are really soft so they are right up my alley, and she’s shown in a variety of styles because they try to use her as an idol. So she has home photos and idol photos. Her idol outfits are more bright and glamorous, with chokers and mini skirts, which I have definitely looked to for concert fits. But the photos that they release for her social media are a lot more oversized sweaters with cute dresses. Though she is fairly new and I am fairly new to her, it is very difficult for me to not mention this character when talking about pastels. Her entire aesthetic is pastels.

Ariel- The Little Mermaid:

I have to talk about another childhood style inspiration because this one goes with more of a beachy style that I adopt during the summer. Ariel also has a soft pink dress that I could definitely point to, but there’s also more to discuss here. Like the mermaid vibes and the more fantastical vibes. I love wearing flower crowns and bows every once in a while, and the princess vibes from Ariel covers that. But I live in California and I do tend to embrace the lighter sweaters and light blue sailer shorts that usually go along with something that feels more beach casual. Ariel is this very aesthetically pleasing mermaid and princess combo, and I go to that a lot. Though Ariel herself probably affects my hair inspiration more than anything else.

Qiu Ying- Gank Your Heart:

It’s kind of odd for me to mention this character because I wasn’t very fond of her in this C-Drama. Her character was kind of flighty and often blamed the male lead for things that were entirely and very clearly not his fault. But that’s besides the point. I owned a few pastel pieces before quarantine began, but I accumulated most of what I now regularly wear over quarantine. I wasn’t really into buying clothing for myself until I actually discovered that I had a sense of style that I felt really comfortable in. I knew that I liked pastels before, but I didn’t really know exactly what I liked. And part of me coming to realize that softer looks with pastels was part of my personal style was the entirety of Qiu Ying’s wardrobe in this drama. She constantly wore pastel pinks and blues and went for a much softer style. The oversized sweaters and cute smaller skirts that I’ve been talking about. Between her plain pastel hoodie, her oversized sweater covered in hearts, her soft pink leather jacket, and her pink and blue skater skirts; I had so much that I wanted to try. And I have more or less accumulated all of the items that I just mentioned. Am I ashamed of this? Not really. Honestly, this entire drama is part of the reason why my aesthetic is the way it is now. One of the main hang out spots in this drama is at this pastel pink shop that the characters were constantly ordering strawberry milkshakes from. And Qiu Ying’s apartment was just as pastel as her wardrobe was. Thank you Wang Yibo for introducing me to one of the most aesthetically pleasing shows I’ve ever seen in my life.

Farina Jo- YouTube Channel:

The channel is just her name if you were curious. This is a channel that I randomly found while looking up BTS concert videos and I’ve been following it ever since. It’s run by a German model named Farina and her boyfriend Dongin who is Korean but from Germany. Farina’s hair is usually dyed this very nice pastel pink. She also has amazing game when it comes to buying pastel oversized sweaters. Some of my favorite pieces I’ve seen her wear are this amazing cloud sweater, all of her fluffy pink ones as well, and she of course repped the strawberry dress that was flying across the internet for a while. The sweaters have to be my favorite though, they are definitely the cutest! I would also recommend checking out this channel because Farina and Dongin are nothing but adorable and sweet. It’s some really good wholesome entertainment.

So, if you’re also looking into getting into pastel fashion, I hope I’ve given you some places to start. I know I definitely needed some help to figure out exactly what kind of pieces I wanted and what I would rather pass up. I really do find that looking for pastels specifically can push you in some very specific directions. Pastel goth is one of the main things I’ve felt pushed onto me because of the lack of options, but that’s not exactly what I was personally going for. I find that having ideas to go off of really helps you get more specific so that you don’t feel you have to get a specific piece if you want to dress in pastel colors. Hopefully these inspirations will help you just as much as they helped me. Or maybe I just gave you a new aesthetic to be into! Either way, finding what you feel comfortable in can be tough. But having fictional characters and other media to help you find what you do like, is one of the main things that helped me find out more about myself!

See you across the pond!

Sincerely, Annie

K-Pop: N.Flying

Photo of Seo Dongsung, Kim Jaehyun, Lee Seunghyub, Yoo Hoeseung (Hweseung), and Cha Hoon (Hun) from N.Flying. Copyright goes to FNC Entertainment.

Hey! Hallie here!

The k-pop section of this blog is taken up by BTS more than anyone else, partly because BTS monopolizes most k-pop news and partly because we adore them way too much to complain. But I do love to spotlight other groups I love, so thanks to a friend of mine, I’m talking about the k-rock group N.Flying today! N.Flying is definitely one of the least well known of the groups we’ve covered, but last year their cover of the intro to ‘Demon Slayer’ got them some well deserved attention. Meanwhile, their song “Moonshot” has become my newest obsession. I can’t stop listening to this song and whenever I’m not listening to it, it’s playing on repeat in my brain. So, as usual, I’m going to highlight each of the members and all of the things that will make you fall in love with them just as fast as I fell in love with them! Note here that I won’t be talking about the controversy with former member Kwangjin because I don’t know enough about it to write a fully formed opinion. Let’s go!

Lee Seunghyub:

Seunghyub is the leader of N.Flying as well as one of the two lead singers and the sole rapper. As the leader he’s one of the more responsible members of the group, though he isn’t one of the most talkative in interviews. He does very obviously try to keep conversations going between members though, and he’s very good at checking in on the Maknae. This is probably because the Maknae of the group has changed multiple times, and the two last Maknae’s of the group have been members that were added on after debut. But I’ll get to that in later member’s sections. As for his performance as part of the group, he’s the lead singer with the slightly deeper and more husky voice. His voice isn’t incredibly deep, but it does give him a unique sound and lends itself well to his rapping, which he is very passionate about and it shows. For him I would highlight the song “Lupin”, as that song gives you a good mix of his faster-paced rapping as well as his amazing vocals.

Cha Hoon (Hun):

Hun is the lead guitarist and one of the backup vocalists. Additionally, he’s rightfully known across k-pop circles for his good looks. He’s probably the quietest member, though he’s not as quiet as you might expect in interviews. The other members describe him as cat-like in that he’s sometimes cute, sometimes very serious, and values his privacy at times. But don’t let his intimidating persona fool you. He’s best friends with the goofiest member of the group, Jaehyun, and the two have a YouTube channel called 2IDIOTS where their chaos is there for all fans to see. He’s also one of the biggest rock aficionados in the group because of how many lead guitarists he looks up to. He especially loves the group Guns N’ Roses, which makes my eighties rock-loving heart very happy. On stage he’s very calm and cool, which suits his badass persona. The song I would highlight for Hun is “Video Therapy” just because of the more unique and crazy things he does with his electric guitar in the song.

Kim Jaehyun:

Jaehyun is the drummer of the group as well as an occasional backup vocalist and my sister’s bias! He’s also the most popular member because of the sheer amount of charm radiating off of this man. He’s the biggest goofball you could find. Offstage he’s the most talkative member in interviews. He’s always the first to pick up a conversation and invite others to join in. He’s also the first to start cracking jokes. I’ve died laughing at an interview segment where he mimicked Voldemort from the ‘Harry Potter’ movies. He’s also up to do most crazy things, including spontaneous choreography. It’s clear why the other members refer to him as the energizer. It’s hard to imagine anyone creating as much chaos with Hun as Jaehyun. On-stage, Jaehyun is eye-catching. He approaches drumming with childlike glee, and his cute smiles and flirty winks assert his stage presence extremely effectively. For Jaehyun, I’d recommend the song ‘Hot Potato’ because the drums are fast paced and fun in this song.

Yoo Hoeseung (Hweseung):

Hweseung is the other of the two lead vocalists and my bias. He’s also a former Maknae of this group. The Maknae situation in N.Flying is complicated. The first Maknae was Jaehyun, but in 2017 FNC decided to change some things up by bringing in another lead vocalist to compliment their first one. This was Hweseung, who’s voice is one of the most incredible voices you’ll ever hear in your life. At that point he became the new Maknae, but the newest member of the group has sent that position into chaos once again. But back to Hweseung. Hweseung is incredibly sweet. He isn’t as vocal as Jaehyun, but most interviewers have found him easy to talk to and he always has something very nice to say to the fans. His humor is also very quick, which has caught me off guard multiple times. As for his stage presence, he’s extremely energetic and, as I said before, his voice is unmatched. He’s gone on Korea’s ‘King of Masked Singer’ and blown the judges away, and he also does musical theatre. Which makes sense once you hear his crazy belt and range. The song I recommend for Hweseung is “Moonshot” because of how addictive his vocals are throughout it.

Seo Dongsung:

Dongsung is the bassist, background vocalist, and new Maknae. He only joined at the beginning of 2020, which has been rough on him due to the slow year and the daunting task of catching up to the other member’s popularity. But he’s taken it all in stride with a stunning smile and a very cute personality. Dongsung is quiet, but his kindness always shines through. All the members have also rightfully expressed how adorable he is. His politeness betrays how professional he is as well, since he came into this group after another group he was part of, ‘HONEYST’, disbanded after only two years. In that group he was the oldest and the leader, which he felt fit for him since he’s the oldest child in his family. However, he enjoys being the youngest for once now that he’s part of the group. I think he’s an excellent fit and it’s always a joy to see him jamming out on his bass. For Dongsung, I’d recommend the song ‘Oh Really’ both because of the bass and because of how much fun he has playing it.

That’s N.Flying! I hope this post gave you a good idea of who each member is as well as some song recommendations you can get addicted to! I love this group and I’m still learning more about them, so I can guarantee you that there will be more content to come about the band here on our blog! For now, I’m going to keep making my way through their discography and downloading all of it onto my phone.

Don’t do anything fun until I get back!

Hallie