180. Love Cells 1&2 연애세포 (2014 & 2015) Korean

Kim Yoo Jung, Park Sun Ho, Nam Ji Hyun, Baek Sung Hyun, Im Seul Ong, Jo Bo Ah, Park Eun Ji, Choi Young Min

Drama Rating: 7(4)/10     Neck Score: A

I was bored one day, so I decided to watch Love Cells 2.  Don't ask me why I watched the second season before watching the first, I was probably just too late to search for the first one while the second one was right there in my suggestions feed.  It might be a good thing because it was so much inferior to the first season that had I watched the first I might have been doubly disappointed.  It was just boring.  The only thing good about it was Kim Yoo Jung and Im Seul Ong fighting and him distracting her with a laser pointer.  The rest was just over-the-top and not in a good way.  Then I watched the first one and I finally realize why everyone loved it so much.  It's hilarious and full of interesting plot twists.  It also made so much more sense with her having magic tools (awesomely advertised by Park Joon Hyung) to help him and there being the awesome Kim Woo Bin cameo as the King of Romance/Love Cell Hunter.  Also, Jang Hyuk cameo.  That man is amazing.  So much good acting with no lines.  It was over-the-top and in a good way.  It was hilarious.  It also left us surprised and in a good way.  Not so predictable.  So I highly recommend the first season and not the second one.  Unless you really loved the first and want more Navi.  Just know, it's highly inferior.

173. She Was Pretty 그녀는 예뻤다 (2015) Korean

Hwang Jung Eum, Park Seo Joon, Go Joon Hee, Choi Siwon

Drama Rating: 7/10     Neck Score: A

This drama was just fun.  I had a lot of fun watching it, even if there were gaping holes at times.  Like, it bothered me at first that they had Seo Joon come off as such a jerk-faced butt head at first.  That seemed to be way out of character for him.  Even with stress and misunderstandings as an excuse.  But they made up for it in a big way.  By the end, they were one of my favorite couples of all time.  What a cute OTP.  I really had second lead syndrome for Siwon, especially when he was making all those amazing faces.  So much fun!  I also loved the friendship between Hye Jin (Hwang Jung Eum) and Ha Ri (Go Joon Hee).  We see so many bromances that it was refreshing to see a... what is the word for that?  Womance?  Yeah, something like that.  I shipped that friendship.  As frustrating as it was, I liked that they had the relationship grow before he knew who she was.  That made it more real and feely when he finally found out.  Then I could ship the OTP like crazy.  I liked how they showed the level of understanding between our main couple that made them perfect for each other and helped us (well me anyway) get over Siwon.  I loved Siwon to the end, but I knew that he was just friends material, because there was that level of knowing and understanding that was missing.  That might be why I loved it so much.  There was no bitca and no evil second male lead.  I loved everyone in the whole show.  When Ha Ri started falling for Seong Joon, I was worried for her because she was going to get hurt, and the guilt she was feeling, yeah no bitca there, just her being stupid.  And Siwon was like the nicest (and goofiest) guy on the planet who saw her beauty from the start.  Cute!  Although, I did think that his part was too drawn out and mopey at the end.  That was a bit boring.  I even cared about the silly side romance between Gold Digger and Happy Boy.  Anyway, no, it's not perfect, but it's fun.  And I have to give it major props for avoiding some of the major tropes, such as prolonged noble idiocy, bitcas, one year time jumps (with long distance relationships that magically last even when they lose contact), and makeovers that last forever.  They touched on all of them, but twisted them for the better.  Bravo!

172. Sassy, Go Go 발칙하게 고고 (2015) Korean

Jung Eun Ji, Lee Won Keun, Cha Hak Yeon, Ji Soo, Cha Hak Yeon (N), Kim Ji Suk

Drama Rating: 6/10     Neck Score: A++

I don't normally like high school dramas.  I think cheer leading is stupid.  I liked this drama.  Why?  Because it wasn't really about cheer leading and it wasn't the typical angsty high school drama.  It was about being friends, working together, and for realsies high school issues.  Yes, it was still ridiculous and over the top a lot, but it managed to stay cute and fun thr whole way through.  This was probably because the bulk of the cast was dynamite.  I mean, Sissy Cute Neck (Lee Won Keun) was adorable.  We've appreciated him since his Phantom days, and he was literally the only good thing about Hyde Jekyll Me, so it was good to see him finally rocking a lead.  Eun Ji was just great.  A lead girl we could actually get behind, even when she was being way too nice.  Ji Soo, oh my freak.  He can even make bad writing and cheese crap good.  That boy is amazing.  I loved the bromance between Ji Soo and Sissy Cute Neck.  Best bromance ever, which lead to the best resolution of a love triangle ever.  I also really loved the childhood besties that were Eun Ji and N.  Even though N is not amazing yet, he wasn't the worst idol newly turned actor ever, and it worked for his character.  I heart Kim Ji Suk.  Can I just marry him now?  The teachers in high school dramas really get shafted a lot, but he really made his role awesome, but then I am also highly biased.  The worst part of this show was the ridiculous ways they neatly wrapped everything up in the end.  I like that they tied up all the loose ends and hinted at all the ships that we had (like the teachers), but it was admittedly cheesy.  So it was a good drama, but not like amazing.  I think the Ji Soo shippers might have had a harder time with it than I did.  I consistently liked it (except when they were smacking on my Kim Ji Suk, then I was angry).

VIXX's Leo Wins a High Spot on the Top 10 Sexy Necks List

VIXX is making a comeback.  I'm getting excited.  I've actually been meaning to add Leo to my Top 10 Sexy Necks list since Beautiful Liar, but I've been busy.  But really, my obsession with him isn't going to stop anytime soon, so I had better just put him where he belongs on that list and have done with it.  Because that man is beautiful, and his neck is glorious.

That's not the only thing that's glorious.  Pretty much everything about him is awesome.  He's like 100% swoon worthy.  I could just fill this post with pictures of him, and be done.  Actually, that's probably what this is going to be.  I mean, I already took up half my post about sultry songs just on Beautiful Liar, so.... Yeah.

168. Yong Pal 용팔이 (2015) Korean

Joo Won, Kim Tae Hee, Jo Hyun Jae, Chae Jung Ah, Jung Woong In, Stephanie Lee

Drama Rating: 3/10     Neck Score: A-

Hmm, what can I say about this drama.  It's nonsense.  There was a time in the middle where I was at least enjoying the crazy mess of revenge.  People were being killed right and left, and the main girl was bat shiz crazy.  That was kind of fun to watch.  But the rest was a little boring.  Then it was extended.  Two whole episodes of nothing.  Absolutely boring and lame, and the whole time I was just hoping that she would die, only I knew she wouldn't, because I had heard it had a "happy" ending.  Well, it did have Stephanie Lee coming back, playing the deus ex machina to force a "happy" ending down our throats.  There are some very interesting dynamics that kept this show from just being a series of painfully obvious tropes strung together with a whole lot of crazy.  Joo Won's character really doesn't do anything but cry the whole second half of the show.  Basically he is a male "Candy" while Kim Tae Hee is the evil chaebol.  He does about as much as Candy and has zero power the entire time.  He rarely gets to act and have it be meaningful, he's just acted on and being pushed around (but he was one of the only actors who could act, there is at least that).  The role reversal was a bit interesting.  The amount of moral ambiguity and justification is ridiculous.  Literally everyone gets away with murder.  Is anyone actually punished in this show?  Not that we see.  Revenge is taken, people are killed, that's about all the justice that is served and there is no justice there.  I loved that the girl went bad guy and killed everyone (except the evil brother's death was lame).  It was so ridiculous how literally everyone died halfway through the show.  But then redeeming her?  No.  Forgiving her?  No.  Him going back to her?  No, no, no, no.  What lame sauce crap was that?  All I wanted was for her to die and him to move on and get together with Stephanie Lee like a year later.  Instead we got two episodes of boring and a lame-a ending.  What utter nonsense.  Boo!

The Final Installment of My Adventures in Japanese Candyland!

Everyone, this is probably my last time reviewing the items of Japan Crate for you.  My free 3 month subscription is now up, and I am too poor to actually buy one for myself, as much as I want to.  It was super fun to do though, and maybe someday I will treat myself to something like this again.  It's totally worth it.

This month seemed to have a lot of chip type deals, and a lot of savory options, which is pretty good.  There was also some of the weirdest shiz that I have eaten to date.  WEIRDNESS!  At least I went out with a bang.  My last free Japan Crate. Sniff. I was looking forward to everything but that raisin flavored candy. Ew.  But that wasn't the worst of it.  The worst was much more.

Marlubs and Lizabreff (and Dongsaeng)'s Adventures: We MADE it to Vegas and saw BIGBANG!

Here it is, more than two weeks after that glorious weekend, and I am finally writing about it.  It all makes sense when I tell you how much work I had to put into being able to leave in the first place (like bribing coworkers) and how much catch up I did when I got back.  That is what grad school plus work will do to you.  Especially when I still wanted to play with my sister before she left.

But this was really a dream trip for us all.  Lizabreff and I went to the 2012 Alive Galaxy Tour in LA, so this was like part 2 of our BIGBANG adventures, but this was my Donsaeng's first Kpop concert, so it was like my first time all over again watching her be super excited and taking her fan girling to the next level.  Also, it was perfect because we all have our biases that we are obsessed with, so that gives me a good coverage of the concert from at least 3 bias views: G-Dragon, T.O.P and Daesung.

And yes, we went to ridiculous lengths to protect... our identities?  I guess that's what we're doing... Lizabreff wanted to (blame everything on her for the ridiculous stickers and photoshop that I didn't try to make look good at all... haha).  And these bias expressions are pretty much the same as our actual expressions anyway.