Categories: K-dramas

Casa Koala Misses Ji Pyeong in the First Weekend without tvN Drama Start-Up

Starting from Friday, all I heard were wails of “Sniffles, tomorrow/today/forever there is no more Start-Up!” I didn’t realize that the non-K-drama experienced denizens of Casa Koala would be ill-equipped to handle the end of their favorite drama, so this weekend I had to soothe sadness with platitudes of “It’s okay, everyone got their happy ending!” It didn’t help that Mr. Koala and the Koala Teens never watched the first episode, they got into the drama after episode 3, so this weekend they watched the first episode and became even more diehard Ji Pyeong fans. Mr. Koala thought the writing was wasted on pointless side plots when In Jae and Ji Pyeong could have been developed more, Koala Teen Boy loves Ji Pyeong so much he randomly would yell “Ji Pyeong!” during the day around the house, and Koala Teen Girl says “Ji Pyeong is such a great character, I don’t hate Do San but he’s comparatively not as interesting or well developed.” Plus Koala Teen Boy doesn’t even like Dal Mi, he thinks In Jae is way cooler. So there you have it, post-script from Casa Koala on our family watch of Start-Up. Apparently only Koala is an OTP shipper heh!

ockoala

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  • Lol... you are not alone. I'm Dodal shipper from the moment DS strode into the networking party with his too short pants and socks that can't be seen.

    How JP is more well developed compared to DS is beyond me since he is his tsundere critical and petty self until the last 1.5 episode where he had a almost 180 deg. turnaround. While DS grew from dorky and lacking in confidence, though always determined when it comes to love, to being the spoony self-assured man who remain steadfast in his love but professional and visionary even though he thought he lost Dalmi to JP.

  • OTP from day 1! Dodal FTW!

    But similarly, also crying tears that my weekends have no more start up. Sniffle, will just comfort myself by rewatching the episodes and BTS

  • This is such a sweet post!

    I cried my heart out for JP... he was a wonderful character and i truly appreciated him. Kim Seon Ho has done something magical on screen for us, what a great actor!

    But, I equally loved Do San. He had this generosity of spirits that was unparalleled. My favourite scene was when he decided to give away his gold medal to his runner-up peer. I cried when he said that because of that one question he cheated on the exam, he forgot about the 9 others questions he studied so hard for.
    While Do San was no doubt awkward in love, he had this grand courage in his heart when it came to it as well. He was bravely in love and he fought for LOVE and for his love, Dal Mi. He believed in her more than anyone else and I was really moved by his endless kind gestures. A true rare kind heart he was. As you age, you realise it gets tougher and tougher to be so courageously in love.

  • My first weekend after Start Up, I started watching Light in Your Eyes. While there were some boring parts in the beginning, the drama became more engrossing towards the end, and left me feeling deeply touched and impressed.

    I must say, Nam Joo Hyuk's choice of roles and projects deserve respect. Most actors his age, and has the good looking image like him tend to take cool roles but he on the other hand chose such unique, grey, imperfect, relatable characters. I look forward to Josee next! He is on the right way to becoming a great actor

  • I didn't really care about the love story. For the characters, Han Ji-Pyeong was my favourite. I knew nothing about Start-Up and I really liked the theme and HJP was the one who gave me the informations and the contexte. Do-San was interesting too but like I wasn't interesting by the love story and a lot of his character was his love for Dal-Mi...

    The female characters were sadly not interesting. The writer missed the oppoturnity to make a great sisterhood story... Dal-Mi wasn't convincing as a CEO and In-jae was more a supporting role than a second one...

  • Hi Ms Koala, i'm soooo tickled by your koala teen boy's "randomly yelling 'Ji-Pyeong!' during the day around the house" ... So hilarious! this is the first time i hear of such deep attachment to a male character by a teen boy.

    • Koala Teen Boy is emo and sweet and snarky. He's 15 and 5'10" and looks like an aspiring boy bander in looks and heights, but super emo and tells me "all my friends come to me for advice, because I'm good at giving advice, but all their problems are on relationships!" Ahahaha, he's my little Prince all grown up and it's sweet that his first K-drama was Start-Up because he just LOVES Ji Pyeong. He spent today randomly yelling "Ji Pyeong!" still. XD

  • Haha...your family is cute.

    Felt the same on wasted character and plot. Kind of sad for Jipyeong not becos he did not get dalmi, whose character i did not like (i like injie), think he deserves better treatment for his character and injie too.

    Good thing there are video interviews on Seon Ho, who answered interesting questions off the cuff with sincerity and modesty. And watching him on 2 days 1 night, his hilarious warm pure personality helps to heal. He is a good son making his parents proud -even half asleep in the morning, he will bow to greet production team (parents want him to be polite). I am just so impressed by him on screen and off screen.

    Hope there will be good nice projects for Seon Ho.

    Have a great weekends and stay safe.

  • I don't really understand the fan wars around the male leads. It was very obvious from the start that Do San is the OTP aas Dal Mi has never shown any romantic interests in JP.

    I also wished that there are more development for JP and In Jae. But I think the drama has so many side characters and side plots, it couldn't develop all of them fully. Remember that the drama also has to allocate much screen time to show us a realistic start-up process.

    • That's true. I started watching Start Up out of curiosity of the fan war. At first I thought that I would get 2nd lead syndrome as usual, but not this time. The OTP is very obvious from the beginning and Dal Mi didn't waver even when she found out the truth. So I kind of confused to why this fan war happen ?.

  • HJP is such a memorable role and turn for KSH. I hope he chooses wisely, and becomes an amazing award winning actor in the future. Fingers crossed!

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