272. Attention, Love 稍息立正我愛你 (2017) Taiwanese

Joanne Tseng, Prince Chiu, Kuo Shu Yao, Riley Wang

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A+

I both loved and hated this one, because it was cute and fun, and it also drove me nuts.  How many excuses can they give to make a couple clearly in love not be together?  That is basically the plot of the show, a twist on Mischievous Kiss, really.  Two kids who were basically betrothed at birth meet again in high school and fall in love, then anything that could possibly keep them apart keeps them apart.  Like he's running away from his feelings the whole time because it was hard enough for him to just accept her as his best friend and family, so taking it to the next level was too much.  Then everything getting in the way in between, it was pretty unreal.  But most of the characters were so lovable that it was fine wading through all the frustrating "you like each other, why aren't you together yet?" if you just sat back and enjoyed the ride.  Mind you, for me that was difficult to do, but it made it easier.  It also had a trolling habit of making you think things were going to be much more extreme.  Like everything will be ruined next week, or they're going to finally get together, or he's going to be even more of a psychopath, etc.  None of it ever really happened, which was part good and part frustrating.

With a Side of Second Male Lead Syndrome

As Love Myself or You comes to an end, I felt I just had to pay homage to one of my favorite second male leads of all time, Hao Wei.  There was a time (for like 2 seconds) that I hated him and wanted him to go away, because let's be honest I really want Kai Qi and Ah Jie to be together like 100%.  I love Ah Jie so much that there is no way I would want him to lose... but then Hao Wei just made me love him so much!  I really just want him for myself.  He's like the perfect man!  Hot and nerdy, just how I like them.  And the nicest guy on the planet... yep.

There are so many second male leads that are the same.  Usually I am not voting for them to get the girl necessarily (because I am usually on the side of the male lead in that respect) but I do end up loving the second male lead so much that I wish I could date him in real life.

We all know this is called second male lead syndrome, so in honor of Hao Wei, I have created my list of second male leads who need to be my boyfriend like right now.

84. It Started with a Kiss 惡作劇之吻 (2006) Taiwanese

Joe Cheng, Ariel Lin, Jiro Wang

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: B

Oh the shows I watch for Aaron Yan.  Yep, I watched this one for Aaron Yan who was in it for like 5 scenes and never got a close up.  However, I did get to appreciate his band mate Jiro Wang, who was seriously the best part of this show... as the other guy.  This is the Taiwanese version of Playful Kiss and way better than the Korean version (which was even based somewhat on this one).  As much as I wasn't a super big fan of Joe Cheng, at least he can act.  It was so obvious that he like her that I wondered why she never got that.  He was always in her face teasing her though, which was weird because he was literally in her face, like get out of her bubble dude.  Jiro Wang was so cute, and did a good job of being the silly other guy without being too over the top.  The worst part was the ending.  It was like "wut?"  One of the Taiwanese dramas faults is sacrificing too much for the sake of humor, and the ending of this with the cross dressing wedding was literally too much.  However, it was a lot closer to the manga, and I found Ariel to be a much more sympathetic and understandable main girl.  I thought she was fun and not annoying.  Much more realistic and not as annoying.  Still the newest Japanese version is the best (Mischievous Kiss: Love in Tokyo) and this takes second place in the Mischievous Kiss drama versions.