Finally, I finished The Romance of Tiger and Rose after 9 months and a lot of grumbling about having to finish it.
My rating: 4-6/10
(4 because I didn’t enjoy it at all but 6 for a less biased rating, probably)
Pros:
– Gorgeous cast with good to passable acting (except for Su Zi Ying’s actor whose terrible acting negatively stands out even among the young/rookie cast)
– Ding Yu Xi and Zhao Lu Si made a cute OTP
– Cute opening song
Cons:
Everything else
Best way to sum it up that this is a romcom(?) that should be a brainless watch but I unfortunately could not turn my brain off while watching it.
Don’t read if you love The Romance of Tiger and Rose!
SPOILERS
It’s a hard watch when you sympathize with a second female lead who eventually loses any humanity to become a plot device to move the script-story along, a suspenseless rivalry against a heroine who has too much plot armor, and a drama that pretends to switch gender roles but you realize it’s all for show and nothing really changes as the skill-less heroines gets saved over and over again by the male lead and other characters, and the only irredeemable character is the second female lead in a romcom where everyone else becomes good (second female leads can never catch a break even in gender-switch scenarios, unfortunately).
Despite the story making Chen Chu Chu an unforgiveable character, the only character I hate with a passion is the City Master, the mother. And I started off liking her! Maybe she is supposed to come across as a neutral character with growth to become good (acceptance of Han Shuo and undying love for Qian Qian), but for me she is the most hypocritical and to the end she never realizes her hand in Chu Chu’s downward spiral. She talks about being fair and wanting to give everything to Chu Chu but looking back from DAY 1 she actually gives everything to Qian Qian instead and never Chu Chu, unless Chu Chu actually works for it and even then the mother might withhold special privileges that she’d easily hand over to her youngest who just asks for it. She even gave Han Shuo to Qian Qian to wed, despite him initially wanting to wed Chu Chu, all because her most beloved daughter wanted him. And because Qian Qian survived and exists, the spoiling of Qian Qian just never stops. The mother is the biggest contributor to Qian Qian’s plot armor and having everything handed to her eventually. Being fair to all three daughters? You can say and believe it, but it never happened. Chu Chu’s complaints are valid.
Last episode, I could not help being exasperated when Qian Qian confronted Chu Chu in prison, and Qian Qian berated Chu Chu on losing everything because of her heart and attitude. Nope–actually Qian Qian, the only reason you got everything instead of Chu Chu is because you became heroine and so everything magically worked out for you as she got bumped down to side character. Any efforts she made would never beat your heroine plot armor, and her realization of her fruitless endeavors and the empty promises just completely broke her character (even though you made silly plans to put her in the forefront, second leads never win). Chu Chu was such an interesting heroine in the original script, talented and hardworking and very ambitious in this gender-switch world where she shouldn’t be judged for it, and eventually she even fought back against her beloved Han Shuo who betrayed her, and she won against him and moved on to succeed. Not coincidentally, it’s the real-world male star who has a problem with this original script where the ambitious heroine shines, and the excuse is love. Yet while the script-story changed to accommodate Qian Qian, Chu Chu’s strong qualities didn’t change but she always lost to an unskilled silly heroine. Apt for a love story, but a sad outcome for a premise set in a gender-switch world.
Ultimately, I’ve seen many generic isekai anime with an OverPowered MC who has a harem, and Tiger and Rose is just a shoujo isekai with a reverse harem (Qian Qian may be lacking in overpowered skills, but her MC power is the many coincidences that line up so neatly for her benefit). For the record, I wasn’t a fan of Miaka in Fushigi Yuugi and always sympathized with Yui better even through her misguided mistakes and selfishness.
Another ultimately, I recognize that my low enjoyment of this drama is myself and my problem as this isn’t the story I wanted to see versus the story this drama wanted to tell, which was much more straightforward and simple. That is–despite the script-story changing to accommodate Qian Qian’s heroine status, the bottom line is that nothing she does in the script-story will ever change the ending, and the twists to get to that ending is what should be interesting and engaging to viewers. By this process, I do understand how they laid out the path to get to that fatal battle between Chu Chu and Han Shuo. Chu Chu’s original heroine status switched to Han Shuo’s original villainous role to make the ending happen. A white to gray character became insensible and unbudgingly evil to the end (and honestly, this everlasting dark side doesn’t make too much sense thinking back to how much she doted on Qian Qian in the beginning). Unfortunately, I became too invested in Chu Chu’s character that couldn’t end strongly because any character development that could’ve happened in the several last episodes (after secrets revealed, fake deaths, etc.) was sacrificed for this bottom line. Each genre should be rated within its genre, objectives, and limitations, but I couldn’t do that here. I ended up wanting more out of the story and writing.
My biggest takeaway from this drama is that the actress who plays Chu Chu is beautiful and charismatic and I like her acting, and Zhao Lu Si shows her prowess as a rookie actress and is very cute–despite not liking her character, I like this actress.
The happy ending between the OTP is cute so at least I ended this drama on happier emotions.
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kx
April 17, 2022 at 12:24 AM
Finally, I finished The Romance of Tiger and Rose after 9 months and a lot of grumbling about having to finish it.
My rating: 4-6/10
(4 because I didn’t enjoy it at all but 6 for a less biased rating, probably)
Pros:
– Gorgeous cast with good to passable acting (except for Su Zi Ying’s actor whose terrible acting negatively stands out even among the young/rookie cast)
– Ding Yu Xi and Zhao Lu Si made a cute OTP
– Cute opening song
Cons:
Everything else
Best way to sum it up that this is a romcom(?) that should be a brainless watch but I unfortunately could not turn my brain off while watching it.
More thoughts and opinions in comments.
kx
April 17, 2022 at 12:26 AM
Don’t read if you love The Romance of Tiger and Rose!
SPOILERS
It’s a hard watch when you sympathize with a second female lead who eventually loses any humanity to become a plot device to move the script-story along, a suspenseless rivalry against a heroine who has too much plot armor, and a drama that pretends to switch gender roles but you realize it’s all for show and nothing really changes as the skill-less heroines gets saved over and over again by the male lead and other characters, and the only irredeemable character is the second female lead in a romcom where everyone else becomes good (second female leads can never catch a break even in gender-switch scenarios, unfortunately).
Despite the story making Chen Chu Chu an unforgiveable character, the only character I hate with a passion is the City Master, the mother. And I started off liking her! Maybe she is supposed to come across as a neutral character with growth to become good (acceptance of Han Shuo and undying love for Qian Qian), but for me she is the most hypocritical and to the end she never realizes her hand in Chu Chu’s downward spiral. She talks about being fair and wanting to give everything to Chu Chu but looking back from DAY 1 she actually gives everything to Qian Qian instead and never Chu Chu, unless Chu Chu actually works for it and even then the mother might withhold special privileges that she’d easily hand over to her youngest who just asks for it. She even gave Han Shuo to Qian Qian to wed, despite him initially wanting to wed Chu Chu, all because her most beloved daughter wanted him. And because Qian Qian survived and exists, the spoiling of Qian Qian just never stops. The mother is the biggest contributor to Qian Qian’s plot armor and having everything handed to her eventually. Being fair to all three daughters? You can say and believe it, but it never happened. Chu Chu’s complaints are valid.
kx
April 17, 2022 at 12:26 AM
Last episode, I could not help being exasperated when Qian Qian confronted Chu Chu in prison, and Qian Qian berated Chu Chu on losing everything because of her heart and attitude. Nope–actually Qian Qian, the only reason you got everything instead of Chu Chu is because you became heroine and so everything magically worked out for you as she got bumped down to side character. Any efforts she made would never beat your heroine plot armor, and her realization of her fruitless endeavors and the empty promises just completely broke her character (even though you made silly plans to put her in the forefront, second leads never win). Chu Chu was such an interesting heroine in the original script, talented and hardworking and very ambitious in this gender-switch world where she shouldn’t be judged for it, and eventually she even fought back against her beloved Han Shuo who betrayed her, and she won against him and moved on to succeed. Not coincidentally, it’s the real-world male star who has a problem with this original script where the ambitious heroine shines, and the excuse is love. Yet while the script-story changed to accommodate Qian Qian, Chu Chu’s strong qualities didn’t change but she always lost to an unskilled silly heroine. Apt for a love story, but a sad outcome for a premise set in a gender-switch world.
Ultimately, I’ve seen many generic isekai anime with an OverPowered MC who has a harem, and Tiger and Rose is just a shoujo isekai with a reverse harem (Qian Qian may be lacking in overpowered skills, but her MC power is the many coincidences that line up so neatly for her benefit). For the record, I wasn’t a fan of Miaka in Fushigi Yuugi and always sympathized with Yui better even through her misguided mistakes and selfishness.
kx
April 17, 2022 at 12:26 AM
Another ultimately, I recognize that my low enjoyment of this drama is myself and my problem as this isn’t the story I wanted to see versus the story this drama wanted to tell, which was much more straightforward and simple. That is–despite the script-story changing to accommodate Qian Qian’s heroine status, the bottom line is that nothing she does in the script-story will ever change the ending, and the twists to get to that ending is what should be interesting and engaging to viewers. By this process, I do understand how they laid out the path to get to that fatal battle between Chu Chu and Han Shuo. Chu Chu’s original heroine status switched to Han Shuo’s original villainous role to make the ending happen. A white to gray character became insensible and unbudgingly evil to the end (and honestly, this everlasting dark side doesn’t make too much sense thinking back to how much she doted on Qian Qian in the beginning). Unfortunately, I became too invested in Chu Chu’s character that couldn’t end strongly because any character development that could’ve happened in the several last episodes (after secrets revealed, fake deaths, etc.) was sacrificed for this bottom line. Each genre should be rated within its genre, objectives, and limitations, but I couldn’t do that here. I ended up wanting more out of the story and writing.
My biggest takeaway from this drama is that the actress who plays Chu Chu is beautiful and charismatic and I like her acting, and Zhao Lu Si shows her prowess as a rookie actress and is very cute–despite not liking her character, I like this actress.
The happy ending between the OTP is cute so at least I ended this drama on happier emotions.