Split Screen: Let’s Settle This on the Rink

Thanks for tuning in to Split Screen! Your intro host Madelyn here, welcoming you into the crazy world that is our off-topic Boys Over Flowers/My Hero Academia reaction blog. These shows just get more addictive with every passing week! It’s a special edition of Split Screen this week, because Emma and I were together at home to watch on a full-size TV! Will our commentary be super-sized? Find out below!

(New to Split Screen? Catch all the hilarious and bizarre action here.)

Boys Over Flowers (from minute 32)

M: You said this after we finished the episode, but while last week’s Boys Over Flowers was impeccably plotted and paced, this week’s was just a gigantic hot mess extravaganza.

E: I felt like I fell asleep and dreamed an episode of Boys Over Flowers.

M: This was full season’s worth of content for any other show, in twenty-seven minutes.

E: And I have no idea why most of it happened.

M: Let’s break it down from the top.

E: Hockey fight.

M: We’ve got Jun-pyo throwing his darts, as usual, and his wingmen continuing to mock his deep pain over his first ever break-up, which was confusing. Then Ji-hoo summons them to the ice rink, as real gentlemen do.

E: You know what real gentlemen don’t do though? Say really awful and cruel things about the girl they went on a date with.

M: I wasn’t even sure I understood all his comments and how they were insults, but that made it much worse. He transformed into a comic book villain.

E: He did look like the Joker a bit though, once Jun-pyo punched him and he started bleeding from the mouth. I don’t think the Joker is quite what I was thinking of, but I can’t think of what exactly it was reminding me of.

M: The hair really helps with the Joker comparison.

E: But the Joker has green hair. Like I was thinking that pale, red hair, red mouth was some comic villain but I can’t think of what I’m thinking of.

M: Here’s what I got from a quick Google search: a lot of anime, the guy from the Incredibles, Poison Ivy.

E: Maybe it was Poison Ivy. But less sexy, obviously.

M: Obviously. The real take away from that scene is that there’s a real possibility we’ve been getting Woo-bin’s name wrong this whole time.

E: Oh, maybe Chucky! Maybe that’s what I was thinking of?

Sorry, yeah, the hockey jersey said U. B. Song not W. B. Song. Maybe the alphabet is actually different, and it’s only romanticized as Woo-bin?

M: Maybe he’s not who he says he is.

E: Deep lore in the hockey jersey.

M: As if it wasn’t crazy enough, and I just want to say that I called this in advance, next up we have the classic, prank-your-ex-girlfriend-with-a-fake-coma stunt.

E: You know, the moment she walked in to Woo-bin crying and sobbing over Jun-pyo’s unconscious body, I was like “no way, this isn’t Woo-bin’s defining character moment.”

M: I was really hoping it would be! He’s just really emotional!

E: Madelyn made me rewind so she could see it again.

M: I just couldn’t believe it the first time! I was impressed by Jan-di’s actress here. She was suitably teary-eyed without veering too much into the ridiculous. I just wish we hadn’t interspersed that with cuts to Ji-hoo sulking in the corner.

E: I wish they hadn’t done the Looney Tunes sound effects again.

M: Boinggggg!

E: Against all odds, the coma prank wins Jan-di over! I can’t think of anything more romantic than a prank coma.

M: They have a weird relationship, okay? Speaking of, do you actually believe that Ji-hoo planned this whole love triangle nonsense as an elaborate test of Jun-pyo’s love?

E: No, I think he did at least think he liked Jan-di. I feel like this is him trying to deal with that in his own incredibly weird, messed-up way.

M: See, I think I feel even more strongly than that. He’s just covering up for the fact that she doesn’t like him. What a bizarre display of toxic masculinity: a hockey duel.

E: Yeah. No, yeah, that’s what I mean.

M: I hope this doesn’t immediately go back to the exact same love triangle, because I’m done with the blonde monster.

E: Well, defying both of our primary predictions-

M: But not my secondary one!

E: Yes, I was getting there. Don’t worry, perfectionist.

M: I want the credit!

E: -they are now kind of together following the aforementioned coma jokes. They have a supremely awkward first date where they eat tuna, she gets harassed for taking leftovers, and they hardly talk at all.

M: And they play golf. And it starts with a kidnapping.

E: I don’t believe that these security men hired by like the richest family in Korea are so incredibly terrible at their jobs. I could tail somebody better than that.

M: Agreed. Regardless, these dates are just excuses for the cast to play whatever sport and eat whatever food they’re in the mood for on set that day.

E: Honestly, maybe we should be giving the scriptwriters more credit for stringing together the actors’ various whimsies into something that, maybe, one day, could be coherent.

M: It has to balance out, right? There was a lot of falling on the ice this episode for these semi-famous actors/k-pop people, so it’s probably in the rider. One fancy date scene per bizarre moment of unnecessary physical risk.

E: What fun contracts these must be to read.

M: I really dug the inner monologues while Jun-pyo and Jan-di were watching the drive-in movie.

E: I liked it, but it also felt very high school one-act play to me. Like something that would be put on at our high school Sketchfest.

M: Throwback to the year Emma was champion of Sketchfest, no hate from us.

E: I was champion of Sketchfest. I had to act. It was traumatizing.

M: I was so glad we got to hear both of them. I was afraid it was just going to be Jan-di, which would have been lame enough for story reasons, but I really liked the way Jun-pyo’s actor did the voiceover. It was a different sound from his normal performance, which was cool.

E: Yeah, I think it helped a bit too, because whatever direction they’re giving him in the physical scene is a little creepy and predatory. So hearing the inner monologue at least like assured us that he was also feeling nervous.

M: It was fine until he went in for the kiss, and was only a problem because it happened way too slowly. It needed to happen fifty percent faster. And Jan-di needed to look fifty percent less grossed out.

E: Yes. She looked supremely unenthusiastic.

M: I’m not sure if it was supposed to read that negative or not.

E: I think she was supposed to be nervous and uncertain, but not uncomfortable. At least, not uncomfortable in the way I was reading it. Although, maybe the lean in didn’t help me in interpreting her facial expression, since I personally was a little unnerved.

M: I didn’t enjoy watching Jan-di avoid him. Did she even answer his texts after he sent her whole family a sushi feast? He was even super cute about being like “don’t be mad. You aren’t even allowed to have any.” He’s finally starting to understand how she operates.

E: That was pretty cute. I get the avoiding thing a little though. That’s an embarrassing sort of situation, an awkward date.

M: Well, it would have been less awkward if Kang-san hadn’t called and summoned her away to a family sushi emergency.

E: Goshdarnit Kang-san.

M: Just another of the embarrassing family moments that have me convinced this is a Pride and Prejudice adaptation. They have become so hard to watch. At first, it was kind of funny and now I just can’t do it.

E: What, the Pride and Prejudice-ness?

M: No, just the Geum family. The Bennet family is not actually that embarrassing in Pride and Prejudice. Well, maybe they are, but it’s less obvious because it’s two hundred years later so many of the social niceties are lost on me.

E: Oh, you mean the family. Yeah, I don’t find them as embarrassing as you seem to? They’re kind of inherently ridiculous. Like, they’re so unaware of how much they are, that it doesn’t fall into cringe for me. And believe me, if it did, I would be right there with you. I hate cringe comedy.

M: Thank goodness you can handle the cringe here, because for the finale of the episode we get yet another bizarre plot twist: a seemingly deathly-ill Jun-pyo showing up on Jan-di’s doorstep.

E: And then he’s fine. But he wants to stay the night and also calls her parents Father and Mother. Which is a step too far.

M: It’s got to be a bad translation, right? He must just be using some kind of honorific?

E: No, I’m pretty sure it’s Father and Mother. I wonder if we’re losing some cultural context though? Like maybe that’s just what you call your significant other’s parents, regardless.

M: Maybe it’s a head of household word? Or most likely, it’s just a great ploy on his part to make the Geums like him even more.

E: As if he needed to do anything beyond exist and have an inheritance to make them like him.

M: “It is a truth universally acknowledged” and all that. Serious discussion here: Jan-di has her own room, right? Why the indoor camping trip?

E: Yeah. I don’t know what was up with that. But it was funny. So I’ll excuse it.

M: We’ve seen her in bed before, haven’t we?

E: I figure her parents forced her into the weird futon family arrangement. For reasons. I don’t know.

M: I don’t believe for a second that her mom isn’t awake and eavesdropping on their entire conversation in the family futon.

E: I enjoyed that conversation though. Most of it was Jun-pyo kind of making fun of Jan-di’s house, but there was the one line where he said something to the effect of: “sleeping together under one blanket makes it feel like a family.” Which, since I imagine the next arc will have to do with his mother, is a nice table setting line of sorts.

M: I like that he calls her ‘dry cleaner’ now, if only because it sets up a stellar unconscious dad moment.

E: That was great. Also, I loved that Kang-san was just like clinging. Like squid.

M: And on that note: Romance Tracker? Is this segment going to become obsolete?

E: Maybe. Although Ga-eul seems to have found a date of sorts. So, maybe this will have to do with the B-romance plot from now on.

M: I’m so ready for them to take center stage. How many episodes until Jan-di and Jun-pyo are fully, comfortably together?

E: Um, I think three. And then there will be still complications from their differing classes after that. But it seems like a midseason sort of development. So three or four.

M: Yeah, you’re right, Valentine’s Day episode for sure. Non-romantic predictions?

E: Well, we got no next on, so I’m feeling kinda crippled on this here.

M: What was that garbage montage?

E: There was one scene of Jun-pyo’s mother looking for him. But everything else was from this half of the episode.

M: Okay, give me your best prediction. This is the real test.

E: Well, okay, we do at least know from next episode’s preview photo that Ga-eul and date go with Jan-di and Jun-pyo to some sort of festival thing. So I predict that we get a long montage of Jun-pyo failing at festival games. Like at least a minute and a half long.

M: Another fun outing for the cast, incidentally. My prediction is that Woo-bin is going to become the crazy-rich-people liaison and keep the mean girls in line, using whatever thing/talent/lineage that makes him special that I’ve forgotten about by now.

E: Yeah, okay. Sure.

My Hero Academia S2E4: Strategy, Strategy, Strategy

M: I still think the stretching montage is dumb.

E: Well, that’s cause you’re a pleb.

M: Todoroki would never in his life do yoga.

E: Hey, you don’t know Todoroki yet. He could do yoga. You never know.

M: Fine, fine. Once the five minutes and three commercial breaks of “previously on” are over, it’s time to pick teams for a bizarre take on Fortnite: the cavalry race.

E: Midnight even called it a battle royale, so I can’t even argue with you. I think My Hero Academia could write a copyright lawsuit this week in the real world.

M: Save that for Lawsuit Watch. It’s like if you combined high school capture the flag with Fortnite with Organization XIII as the players. I guarantee there is a fan-fiction about exactly that.

E: I would not be surprised- but if there so happens to not be one yet, I’m assigning one of our readers to get on that this instant. Go away. Write.

M: I’m still shocked that Ochaco was dumb enough to work with Deku. She’s got a family to feed. This seems like an unnecessary risk for her.

E: Well, she said her reason for it was that it’s better to work with people you like, and there’s some logic to that, right? Like, group projects with people you know are reliable are better than being randomly absorbed into a group where you don’t like people or don’t know them.

M: I have two objections to that. Number one: doing group projects with your friends ruins those friendships. Number two: even if I had reliable friends I felt confident I had a 60-40 chance of growing to hate, I wouldn’t work with the friend who can create one really spectacular PowerPoint slide and then has to lay down.

E: Hey, give Deku some credit, he got all the way through the obstacle course without breaking anything. He’s making some progress.

M: Even putting that aside, I’m still surprised none of Class 1-A took my strategy suggestion from last week of putting together a defensive Deku team.

E: Yeah, everybody seemed to flock to Bakugo instead.

M: Dumb move, because his power is not useful in this situation.

E: He can fly.

M: He’s the rider, so it’s no good that he can fly.

E: He literally flew in this episode and it was allowed. Tape Man came in clutch and caught him. Shout out to our favorite hero Tape Man btw.

M: Nobody was sure that flying was allowed, so it’s not like that was planned.

E: You know, I do wonder if they asked beforehand and just chose not to tell anybody else. That seems like a reasonably smart move.

M: But still, surprised that nobody–

E: Kirishima.

M: You said it, not me. I was continuing the sentence, not referring to Alternate Axel.

E: We were talking about Bakugo’s team, so it was reasonable jump for me to make.

M: I was just surprised that only support course girl, who really seems to view pairing up with Deku as a product placement opportunity rather a winning strategy, was the only one who thought this team might be a good call.

E: I also like that Tokoyami was apparently just like standing there waiting for somebody to ask him to be in their group. I mean, that’s me during group assignments in class, but it’s maybe not the best strategy when you’re trying to win something.

M: Your theory was that he’s too intimidating. I think that’s spot-on.

E: Yeah. I mean, he has a bird head, but human teeth. And a shadow monster inside of him. That’s pretty metal.

M: So, strong team for Deku. From there on out, the episode mostly proceeded as I expected. A lot of jumping in the air, Bakugo doing something dumb, Mineta being just, too many balls on all levels.

E: Hey, you know, I don’t like Mineta, but that’s a solid team and a solid strategy.

M: I hate that he and Tsui are friends. I hate that.

E: I think she’s just the only one who can ignore it. Which, you know, maybe she shouldn’t ignore it and instead tell Mineta why he’s kinda gross, but she seems pretty zen about things.

M: Fair enough. I am a little surprised that Nerd King Deku doesn’t have a full notebook on Class 1-B.

E: I guess he’s just no opportunity to observe them. I don’t know if he would go out of his way in the first few months of school to stalk another class when he can take so many notes on his own classmates. Give him another few months, and he would have probably started a notebook on them. Plus the villain attack might have been distracting.

M: Class 1-B is the B-list though. I won’t be fooled. I don’t want to spoil my predictions here, but I’ve got ‘em, and Class 1-B does not come out looking so good.

E: Hmmmmmm…..

M: Classic cliff-hanger ending, right? Not quite as dramatic as Kang-san clinging to Jun-pyo as the credits roll, but close. Halftime. Saw that one coming.

E: We did get an in-person glimpse of Fire Lord Ozai. They really tipped the hand on his face early in this adaptation.

M: This episode is less Avatar and more Pokemon anime. It was basically an exercise in assembling balanced Pokemon teams.

E: Is the rider the trainer and the horses the Pokemon?

M: No, the rider is the Pokemon you have out, and the others are the ones on the bench.

E: Using that metaphor, Todoroki has yet to learn any fire moves. Answering a few of your questions from various episodes about why he didn’t just blast people with fire.

M: I knew all the wholesome parents were too good to be true.

E: Hey, there’s still a lot of them. And they are very wholesome.

M: Alright, Lawsuit Watch?

E: Well, we already talked the real world lawsuit that could spring from this. Otherwise, I don’t know. Nobody really got hurt or anything this week.

M: I still think this Hunger Games child dog-fighting ring is not…like UA had better have a rock-solid insurance policy here.

E: Yeah, I always imagine that they have to sign something. Which might do away with a lot of liability unless something goes really wrong.

M: That would have to be one heck of a waiver.

E: Well, you’re bribing them with the idea that it’ll help their future career path. Which is apparently overcrowded and backstabby so, have fun with that future heroes.

M: It’s theatre school all over again.

E: Okay, do you want the episode title for next time?

M: You know it.

E: It’s a real doozy. Do you think you’re ready?

M: Is the title “A Real Doozy?”

E: No it’s, surprisingly, “Cavalry Battle Finale”

M: You’re kidding me.

E: Nope.

M: That’s trash.

E: At least you know it won’t go on for another episode?

M: Okay so prediction one, and this one is going to be shocking, but the cavalry battle will end.

E:

M: Prediction two: Deku, like the idiot hero he is, is going to try to help the rest of Class 1-A advance to the next round.

E:

M: If he could cut up his headband and give a piece to each of them, he would. Also, velcro? Really? They don’t have anything better than that?

E: Are they velcro?

M: That’s what they said, velcro.

E: They kind of look like they’re tied in a knot though

M: The proof is in the overly sexualized descriptive pudding.

E:

M: Number three: Bakugo is going to get disqualified for knocking someone off their horse deliberately.

E:

M: And last, but certainly not least: Deku won’t win, that seems obvious to me. Probably what’s going to happen is Deku will collect enough of the lower scoring headbands to advance, but at the last second throw his own headband to someone else, like probably friggin’ Bakugo in the penalty box. Or he’ll throw it to Todoroki, but T-dog will throw it to the ground because he’s too proud and nobody will have the 10 million headband at the end.

E: Deku should have just come to Todoroki’s super exciting Facebook event to Beat Up Bad Guy Grunts.

M: Where’s your teacher friend now, Deku? That will be a direct quote from the next episode.

E: “Where’s your teacher friend now, Deku?” Yes, my favorite quote from top-tier character T-dog.

M: T-dawg.

E:

–

Hello everybody! E-dawg here. Thanks, as always, for tuning in to Split Screen! If you’d like to watch along, we’re using Netflix for Boys Over Flowers and Hulu for the My Hero Academia dub (it’s also free on Funimation).

Next week! There will likely be some dating shenanigans on Boys Over Flowers but, since there was no next on, I don’t really know. Curse whoever took my ridiculous next ons away from me! Curse them! Meanwhile, in My Hero Academia, I wish Madelyn’s predictions came true, but I guess what we get is pretty good too.

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