#you can't do morally ambiguous crime drama AND psychic ghost possession AND nonconsensual rainbow magic

[accidentalrabbit]

CHERRY MAGIC

(series + bonus ep. "Valentine's Day / Rokkaku")

Japan 2020

RANK: A

A-pairing: Adachi x Kurosawa

B-pairing: eh, we’ll get to this one

Other character(s) i enjoyed: Fujisaki, Rokkaku

Overall review:

"What if turning thirty years old without having sex gave you the power to read minds?" I'm hooked. Please tell me more.

Cherry Magic is a chaste (ha!) little series with solid production value and a fun story that doesn't take itself too seriously but does try its best to be earnest and consistent, and if nothing else, i respect a show that does a good job being exactly what it is. The mind-reading virgin premise adds a unique supernatural element to the narrative without wasting screentime trying to explain itself. Sometimes weird things are just weird! The series also gets points for being an office rom-com without a boss-employee tryst or anyone getting fired because of a relationship, two of my LEAST favorite office romance tropes. Instead, Cherry Magic takes the popular kid/wallflower nerd high school dynamic, ages it up a decade and a half, and captures something magical about the banalities of adulthood and the timeless feeling of falling in love.

From the moment Kurosawa's hand first brushes Adachi's cheek, revealing his crush, i was riveted, and my enjoyment of their relationship only escalated from there. Wallflower nerd virgin Adachi and popular kid adult taxpayer Kurosawa are an excellent lead pairing, and the conceit of Adachi having to touch people to read their minds introduces an incredible amount of homoerotic tension between them despite the low levels of conventional heat. The fact that Adachi and (especially) Kurosawa both want badly to touch and be touched is played against Adachi's attempts not to take advantage of his new power, to great effect. I like the way both of them try to respect each other's boundaries but struggle deeply with their own repressed desires, which is far more effective and thematically resonant in this story than an external conflict.

Kurosawa's outer confidence and popular appeal belie his deep-seated self-doubt, and his actor gives an excellent performance full of half-hesitations and dazzling smiles whenever Adachi validates him. Adachi is a ball of self-deprecating neurosis who clings to routine for comfort. He doesn't realize his greatest strengths lie outside of his new powers, and it's nice to watch how his kindness to Kurosawa and his other coworkers ultimately forces his character to grow. They take care of each other, they listen to each other, they encourage each other, they remember each other's food preferences, they have wacky but temporary misunderstandings. Their domestic scenes are especially good, and i would pay real money to watch two hours of Kurosawa doing nothing but cooking for Adachi throughout the day.

The side characters of Fujisaki and Rokkaku are fun to have around. Fujisaki gets a whole subplot about how she wishes she didn't face so much familial pressure for being single, and the way Adachi handles discovering this information really rounds out both of their characters. It's nice when less prominent characters get thoughtful treatment in service of interesting themes. Rokkaku, who is hard-working and productive, but not always very perceptive, is a nice little comic relief character and helps advance or connect plot threads between our lead couples. Speaking of whom: Tsuge and Minato also exist. We'll get there soon. Both Fujisaki and Rokkaku come in clutch in the finale to make Kurosawa's Christmas fireworks date come true after some last-minute angst, and i love an ally moment.

Overall the writing for the show is fairly tight, and none of the characters end up feeling totally extraneous to its plot or themes. And there are a few interesting messages to look at. First, communication is key. (Adachi can read minds so it would be hard to avoid this takeaway, but it also gets a little spin when Adachi realizes he has to confess his power to Kurosawa.) Second, having a gift is not the same as knowing what to do with it. There are monents when Adachi thinks his power is an unfair advantage, but ultimately it's his strengths as a ~*natural empath*~ that inform his character, compared to Tsuge who is much less graceful with the same ability. Adachi chooses to use his power for compassion in a hundred tiny ways for several other characters, which ties into a third major theme: Never underestimate the impact your actions will have on others. Kurosawa loved Adachi because of a few moments of thoughtless kindness long before the events of the main timeline, and throughout the series small gestures of love or carelessness create opportunities for relationships to grow and strain.

Finally, Cherry Magic cares a lot about the idea that a person's thoughts and desires should only ever be their own. Fujisaki unpacks her desire to be partnered and rejects the notion that she has to find a relationship to please her family. Kurosawa has a massive crush on Adachi but never pressures him into going further, keeping his thoughts to himself (he thinks). Minato really likes to dance. And Adachi is terrified beyond reason that somehow he has abused his power to manipulate Kurosawa into a relationship in a massive breach of trust. (Which it kind of is, but he's fine with it.) So communication is important, but so are self-reflection, and boundaries, and trust, and kindness.

I had a good time, but:

The B-couple, but specifically Tsuge? Hands down the least pleasant part of my viewing experience. I understand how Japanese comedic acting can be very over-the-top, but this guy is doing way too much for the show he's in, and it's very grating. He never looks like anything other than a middle-aged man yelling in his 'funny' scenes, and his character is fairly demure otherwise so it tonally doesn't mesh with the rest of the series. Minato, who is inexplicably attracted to this behavior, has a bulletpoint of a personality that never really comes through, and an arc about following his dreams as a freestyle dancer that falls flat. His actor, and i'm trying to be charitable, never demonstrates any of this character's talent for dance, and the wig(? i hope) they put him in is a trip.

Unfortunately, you have been chopped: Bonus Episode "Tsuge & Minato."

Hope this wasn't too much of a shock! This episode is short and benign enough that i'm actually on the fence about axing it entirely, but it's just a whole episode of B-plot. I watched it specifically as filler between episodes 11 and 12 to build anticipation for the resolution between the characters i, uh, cared about. If you like Tsuge and Minato, this is probably fun and don't let the haters get you down. If you're in a time crunch because there are 50 other shows you're trying to watch and you need to cut corners somewhere, this corner is very cuttable.

Character(s) entitled to financial compensation: N/A. I think everyone here does just fine.

Conclusion: Cherry Magic is a sweet little series that is, with the exception of its second couple, difficult not to enjoy. The central conceit is unique and its impact on the world of the story is written well without being overthought. It's fun to get inside the lead characters' heads and watch them develop, and the minor characters nudge the plot in interesting ways every now and then. This is a show that finds magic in a sea of adult drudgery, wearing its heart firmly on its sleeve. I love it very much. (Also there's a sequel coming. Might be fun?)

In the next installment, hear me gush effusively about possibly my favorite BL i've seen so far, the INIMITABLE, the GOAT, Gaya Sa Pelikula (2020).

#cherry magic #A tier #japanese drama #mine #reviews #30-sai made dotei da to mahotsukai ni nareru rashii #cherry magic! thirty years of virginity can make you a wizard?! #adachi x kurosawa #i love when a show does something wild and runs with it #especially when they don't try to make it gritty or hyperreal #give me that magical realism baby #this is also where c*l*r rush flopped imo #you can't do morally ambiguous crime drama AND psychic ghost possession AND nonconsensual rainbow magic #or you can but it's def not for me #something's gotta give #and it should probably be the impulse to over-explain the mechanics of your universe #cherry magic was just like. turn thirty and read minds when you touch people. and they ran with it