공부의 신 (God of Study / Lord of Studying / Master of Study)

* 16 episodes
* Genres: comedy, school, romance

Main Characters
Kim Soo Ro as Kang Suk Ho
Bae Doo Na as Han Soo Jung
Oh Yoon Ah as Jang Ma Ri
Yoo Seung Ho as Hwang Baek Hyun
Ji Yeon as Na Hyun Jung
Go Ah Sung as Gil Pul Ip
Lee Hyun Woo as Hong Chan Doo
Lee Chan Ho as Oh Bong Goo
(from DramaWiki)


Summary
Kang Suk Ho, a lawyer, goes to work at a local school, which is known for having notoriously bad students. The townspeople wishes to close down the school, but Suk Ho promises that he will prepare a special class to apply successfully for "Chun-Ha-Dae University". If not, the school would be sold to a company. All of the teachers are skeptical, but the principal agrees to the idea.

Five students decided to give it a try, and thus begins the journey of intense study methods with the most unique teachers to aim to get into the prestigious university.

The Japanese version which came out first is called Dragon Zakura.

Review

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the whole series, episode by episode. (Though, it was kind of ironic for me to watch it when I should really be studying myself...) At the end of each episode, the cast members would give out tips for studying.

In terms of the plot development, the episodes moved seamlessly and smoothly, with the occasional sudden problems which arise and must be solved in order for the plot to move on.

For the love plots, it slowly fades away towards the end of the last few episodes, making room for the full development of the actual main plot. I would have wanted to see how they would have wrapped the pairings, but they never really did. Hyun Jung just gives up in the middle of the plot, so her character sort of dies off.

It was refreshing to see some full character developments in some characters, but I felt that others could have been better, even though they were part of the main characters.

I would recommend to watch Dragon Zakura first and God of Study at a different time. Even though they were based off of a manga, they both had their strengths in different aspects, and the plots are a little different.

Overall
Plot Line: 9/10
Subplots: 8/10
Character Development: 9/10
Special Effects: 6/10

Total: 32/40

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