I'm not a fan of gender benders and I never thought of watching Hana Kimi despite the fact that I like the cast a lot. It was only until recently I saw a clip that showed a snippet of Hana Kimi and I thought, "woah, that looks cute, I should probably watch it" before deciding to watch this. Another gender-bender, nothing really special. There were loopholes and slightly unbelievable plots but it's completely acceptable since it happens in the land of drama. The side stories are interesting, nothing too serious or heavy, and pretty comical and cute too. Great pick-me-up drama, I was just laughing myself silly watching this drama. There were some draggy-ish parts but those only took up 3-5 minutes each episode so it's fine. I was surprised at how easy this drama was marathoned. I planned to only watch 1 or 2 episodes the first night but I ended up all the way to episode 6 before I could force myself to go to bed. The characters are well written too. I felt that there was a pretty large cast, with the classmates and whatnot but most of the roles were played well. However, I thought that the way that the characters thought were a bit off though. They seem to be a little too open for a typical asian high school. Nevertheless, I loved the characters. I like the fact that Zuo Yi Quan knew Rui Xi was a girl and established his feelings for her pretty early in the drama. I hate it when I wait and wait and wait and half the drama is over but nothing's established yet. Wu Zun was so cute in his cool/shy role. Ella is just plain comical and lovable. Her reactions are a bit exaggerated, but with this kind of 'impossible' storyline to begin with, I don't think it's surprising. Jiro as Xiu Yi was plain hilarious, the way he think, the way he acts.. Jiro pulled it off really well. The clique of friends were a great addition to the drama too, except for the fact that I missed how did they actually became close. Nevertheless, I could totally understand why Rui Xi did not want to leave Ying Kai (other than not wanting to leave Quan). The other school mates such as students from the other dorm also value added to the drama. They brought pleasant surprises (like how the Taekwando dorm wasn't actually all bullies and actually had good morals). Supporting characters that I really liked were Ryan Tang (Mei Tian, the school doctor), Ethan Ruan (Shen Le) and Xie He Xian (Da Shu). Da Shu was a character I hoped they developed more. It was really fun looking at him trying to join the clique's conversations but end up scaring them instead. I absolutely love the 'bag' he carries (a cloth wrap thingy used way back in the past) and how he always lag behind the group and look upwards, waving and smiling to 'his friends', regardless of 'his friends' being mentioned in that scene or not. Mei Tian was a wonderful character! I think it's great that there is someone in the school that knows of Rui Xi's real identity and is able to be a pillar of strength for Ruixi, being there to help her or console her along the way. Even though he acts like he cannot be bothered, he is very concerned about RuiXi. Being an intelligent character, he has also helped to solve many of RuiXi's troubles without her knowing. When Shen Le first appeared, I thought, "oh dear, how I can like Ethan Ruan here knowing he's a bad guy". After a while, it is obvious that Shen Le wants to help Quan go back to high-jumping more than anyone else. He genuinely cares for Quan and Ruixi, even though he's not all mushy like Xiu Yi. Shen Le interactions with the main roles were all very entertaining and Shen Le's sister is a sweetheart. I love how Shen Le's sister and Xiu Yi became fast friends and was sad when they separated. I delayed watching the last episode for two days cause I read all the complains about the ending but it turned out I wasn't too upset about the open ending because it kinds of represent what this whole drama is trying to show - that love can be of all kinds, you don't need to be a couple to be in love. Even though personally, I felt that it was cowardly of the characters for not daring to try because they were afraid. Still, people always say "the best part of love between 2 people is when everything is ambiguous". I thought that this open ending could mean a season 2 but since it's 8 years (woah! I didn't realise) since the drama aired, it's probably not going to happen. What I do not like about the ending is that... they missed out showing me so many of the characters I grew to love! Also, towards the end, there wasn't much attention placed on Quan's high jumping. Shen Le and his sister never appeared after the summer holidays. I was hoping to see more of them. My favourite Mei Tian also didn't appear in the last episode(?!), much less to say his sister, who was a dear to Rui Xi. Even Yangyang, who could be considered part of the clique, did not appear. That was pretty disappointing. I do like the fact that the drama gods at least matched Xiu Yi to someone. He's too cute and funny to be left alone crying over the fact that Rui Xi will never fall in love with him. Overall, it's a cute drama that will bring you loads of laughter. Watch it when you need a pick-me-up! Also helps that it's a pretty short drama so there won't be much trouble trying to finish it. TLDR: WATCH THIS DRAMA :-)