Ameiro Paradox is one of those few dramas that I have to give two ratings, the core one and the emotional one. The core one is the 7.0. That's the rating that gets into the story, the character development, acting, etc. The emotional rating gets an 8.5. That is purely based on the impression it left me with, the emotions, how it made me feel, etc. I wouldn't say this is a good drama. It lacks a lot of backstory and information that would be helpful in developing it and its characters. However, it is a very enjoyable one and I was not disappointed in the slightest.

One of the things I have come to expect, not like, but expect, is a lack of depth with most Japanese and Korean BLs. Their run time tends to be much shorter than Thai BL's, typically between 20 and 30 minutes and somewhere between 6 and 10 episodes. That is not a whole lot of time to fit in a fully developed story. So with that in mind, they do a pretty decent job here with Ameiro Paradox. It's inevitable that things feel rushed, the pacing of the romance is a bit all over the place, but I don't hate it. This is one though that I wish was a bit longer because more information would have been helpful particularly regarding the backgrounds of both Onoe and Kaburagi. More information as to why Kaburagi is just so jaded when he is initially paired with Onoe and likewise why Onoe is that odd combination of naïve and smart. Onoe especially though. He's been a journalist for a while but he really is just so naïve with some things, I wanted to delve into his character a bit more with that. Since they were journalists, I would have liked to see it serve as a little more of a focal point. We had a lot of them sitting around waiting to take pictures and I would have liked to see other aspects featured as well, researching topics, doing more interviews like the one with the porn actress who came forward, that kind of thing. However, one thing that I did appreciate was the portrayal that there are consequences and it's not an easy job, on both sides. Particularly that first case with the commercial actress, knowing that she had done what she did to care for her mother and knowing that exposing her was going to affect that. It was one of those little things that was very thought provoking. And it was the same with each of the other cases.

They did well with keeping the cast to the bare minimum and making the cast they did have meaningful. Obviously we had our two leads. Onoe and Kaburagi start off appearing to be a study in opposites. Onoe is innocent, in more ways than one, he doesn't lie, he's open and friendly. And then there's Kaburagi, flirtatious, devious, seemingly willing to do anything to get a story whether paying for it with money or his own body. He claims to be numb to the job, but as Onoe spends more time with him, he comes to realize that's not the case at all, that it's all a façade and Kaburagi is, in fact, a gentle and kind soul. The biggest issue with these two, like in most BLs, is their lack of communication. Onoe is better about trying to communicate although his fear sometimes gets in the way, which is certainly valid, but it's hard to say what exactly is keeping Kaburagi silent. This is not a BL where the characters' sexuality is discussed. Is he struggling with coming to terms that he might actually just like one person and that one person is a man and he's not ready to put that into words? We don't know and that's something else that would have been nice to explore. Their misunderstanding at the end is again due to a miscommunication, mostly on Kaburagi's part since Onoe does try to talk to him and Kaburagi just gives him the cold shoulder. I know the Editor-in-Chief comments that Kaburagi has trust issues, but I would really love to have learned more about that because there has to be more to it. They do finally talk things out and hopefully end up with a little bit of a better understanding of each other going forward. Masayan, Onoe's friend, was a good combination of some of the friends typically seen in BLs: the comic and the advisor. He served his purpose as a bit of comic relief while also acting as a sounding board for Onoe when he was trying to piece together his thoughts and feelings. The nice thing here though was that he actually gave solid well thought out advice and what he didn't know, he firmly stated that he didn't know. There are so many dramas where you have friends who give terrible advice, not maliciously, they just have no idea what they're talking about. I also liked the Editor in Chief and the way he quietly observed his people and stepped in when it became necessary, but not in an obtrusive way. He saw that Kaburagi needed a perspective adjustment and he took the initiative to help him see that. He also saw that Onoe and Kaburagi would be a good pair together and be beneficial to each other.

The acting was okay. Both Kimura and Yamanaka are fairly young and I don't think either have a ton of acting experience. I think they have a lot of promise and with more experience will get better. Yamanaka struggled with his facial expressions. He alternated between appearing wooden and tense. He looked like he needed to just relax, think less and sink into the character more. Kimura did better but needs to work on a bit more variation with his expressions. Their chemistry was understated, but I do still think it was there. It just wasn't as flamboyant as other actors'.

I did have a few things that stood out to me as bigger issues. The biggest being Kaburagi's actions after Onoe was assaulted by the tax guy. That was not the time or place to come onto him and it was just uncomfortable to watch. I don't know how he could have possibly thought that was in any way appropriate. Onoe was the absolute worst tailer. It was almost physically painful watching him. Did Kaburagi not show him how to do that? I don't know but it was really bad. And I'm sure it was there for comedic purposes, but it just didn't work for me. Along those same lines, Onoe filming the guy for the phone scam was so painfully obvious. There was nothing discreet about it and how the other guy didn't notice his phone there is beyond me.

I found this drama to be simple and sweet. It's not deep or particularly thought provoking, although it does have its moments, but its heartwarming and I found myself really enjoying. It's short enough that it's an easy binge watch and it is one that I absolutely recommend.