So I Married My Anti-Fan (2021) User Reviews

Kind of disappointing...

[ninchenbienchen · 6/10 · 27 June 2021]

I really looked forward to this show and was excited to watch it. While the concept of enemies being in a fake relationship together isn't new at all, I liked the creativeness of it being a popstar who symbolically marries his anti-fan for a reality show.

While the first few episodes were quite good and made me fall in love with the female lead, my excitement quickly died down.

Because this show turned out to be very cliché and superficial. One minute the leads still hate each other - with the male lead being still hung up on his first love - and the next, they start liking each other?? Like, don't get me wrong, we all anticipated it, but I felt like there were missing a few steps to better describe the slow transition from hate to love.

Another no no thing was the second leads. I've never seen such unnecessary, boring and annoying second lead characters as the ones in this drama. All they did was cause trouble and act super selfish and immature - and all of it with quite the amount of screen time.

Last but not least, the final episodes really overdid it with including clichés. I mean, they really had to play the "I'm sorry, I have to get my life back on track and make things right again so please wait for me and I'll come to you when I'm ready"- card. But that's not all: while Joon's career seemed to be going down the drain, the reason he literally leaves his still recovering friends and his newly found love who had to deal with a lot of shit because of him is to just to go and produce a song and come back a popstar again??? Dafuq?? After one of the central messages of this show is that being a celeb isn't as shiny as one might think and Joon himself pulled the brakes on his career because he finally came to the conclusion that keeping his career isn't worth hurting and/or losing his loved ones??

But oh, let me just come back to you after months and propose to you although we've never even openly dated and have been separated more than we've dated each other. Yep, makes sense.

Sorry for my rant.

ANYWAYS, story-wise this show was quite disappointing. But that doesn't apply to the actors and actresses who all did an amazing job. Also, there ARE quite a few adorable scenes between the main couple, plus I loved Geunyeoung's best friends and Joon's manager.

Boring

[bellehregina · 6/10 · 7 September 2021]

I was bored most of the time, the characters aren't very likeable.

Good Binge Watch

[trando5 · 6/10 · 20 July 2021]

"So I married my Anti-fan" is based on a novel of the same name that was adapted to a webtoon (two different versions) and a Chinese movie. Each adaptation I've read or seen is slightly different, though they all start the same way. The webtoon is the best adaptation (though I have not read the book), while this show comes in second. I would have given it a higher rating had there been fewer toxic tropes and if the ending was closer to the webtoon.

Geun Young's relationships (besides Roy) with her friends and family were sweet, loving, and solid. Her friends would help her if they did not want to or even when it was hard for them. Soo Hwan was not romantically interested in either of the girls, which was nice because that is never the case in Kdramas. Geun Young's relationship with her parents was supportive, sweet, and protective (which should be all parents). It was good to see that her parents were not pushing her towards Hoo Joon because of his looks or financial standing in society, another cliché in Kdramas. Her parents stood up for her and gave Hoo Joon a hard time because of Geun Young's treatment in the media. This was great to see, especially since Geun Young's mom comes off harsh at the beginning. More interactions between her, her parents, and her friends would have made her character more dimensional.

In contrast, Hoo Joon seems to have no one but Seo Ji Hyang (his manager), Bae Young Seok (CEO of Shooting Star), JJ, and In Hyung. It was a nice contrast between the two characters; How Geun Young has so many people she can trust and depend on, while he has no one. This lets you make allowances for him and his bad behavior, which starts early. I was shipping the two but thought they should have done more to make Hoo Joon sympathetic and develop his character. The webtoon did a better job of gaining your sympathy. Misunderstandings were left unexplained, and he never really apologizes properly for it either. But he does enough cute and sweet things towards the middle and end that you forget about it.

The relationship between In Hyung and JJ was horrible. They should never have been together. The show figured out how to make both of these characters as toxic and unsympathetic as they could. You never feel bad for either of the characters. In Hyung uses Hoo Joon to try and further her career while also trying to get back into a relationship with him even though she initiated the breakup. For some reason, the show pretends that this is not the case. She emotionally abuses everyone around her and plays the victim. The worst part is she is a victim of physical and emotional abuse. Though JJ is warranted in his weariness and suspicion of the relationship between Hoo Joon and In Hyung he goes too far when he physically and emotionally abuses In Hyung and is just a horrible and jealous person. Though the ending wasn't the worst, giving In Hyung and JJ a redemption arc when neither of them did anything to deserve it was just so unsatisfying. Having them stay together was not only a horrible choice to make but a horrible message to send to young girls. Just all bad things here.

The show kept all the essential parts the same (except the ending), and most of the changes were good. It kept you guessing because it changed things up enough to make it appear new. Most of the time, I hate when adaptations deviate from the source material, but in this case, I feel like they made it work. The last three episodes would work better if combined into half an episode. Instead, they could have focused on Hoo Joon's character development in the earlier episodes and shown us more scenes with Geun Young's family and friends. This would cut the slow plot development at the end and give us more insight into the two characters. The cast and production team did a great job with the show. My two favorite characters from this show were Seo Ji Hyang and Go Soo Hwan. These two were my absolute favorites, especially Ji-Hyang silently laughing at Hoo Joon and Geun Young. He was just so sweet.

A balanced mix of romance with comedy and friendship

[pranayjalvi · 7/10 · 11 September 2021]

So I Married An Anti-Fan is a rom-com that's sweet, cheesy and sometimes emotional as well. A simple story of a journalist's life changing moment when she gets involved with a popular star.

The cast were good, especially Choi Soo Young who played here mischievous yet understanding character pretty well. While the character development of the lead pairing was palpable, it did not reach a point where you feel like the supporting cast was not part of the picture at all.

With a breath-taking mix of comedy, romance, friendship, bromance, jealousy, and a lot more, the journey of Geun-young and Hoo Joon in this drama was satisfactory

My Rating : 7.5/10.

I love it and it is like an escape from all the thrillers going right now

[hisubo · 10/10 · 9 May 2021]

I am binging episode 4 now and i love the drama so far. Hope they keep up the good work and hope for the best.

This part is added right after finishing the whole drama.

I still stand on my opinion . It was wrapped up really nicely and the story was healing and soothing in a unique way. Even the cliche romantic scenes were beautiful . Support the drama because it does worth that much.

Not so bad

[apranto · 7/10 · 20 March 2022]

I think this drama came with a really good concept. But chemistry Between main character was totally disappointed. Just sudden kiss can't start a love story,they need to know. I don't know why they ended this drama just like one side love. Even at the last moment of this drama,main actress was still confuse is she really love him or not or is she really his girlfriend. And i personally didn't like her facial expression after their real love story begin.

It's a simple rom-com drama.

[bbbbarnali · 10/10 · 23 May 2021]

I read the webtoon already. So, I already know the storyline. Still, I am eagerly waiting for every episode. This means, even if it is a cliché rom com k drama, it still has the ability to capture your attention. It is a light drama; you need not to think much while watching it.

Currently, most of the ongoing k-drama are of thriller genre. "So I married an anti-Fan" is a sweet escape from such dramas.

I finished Vincenzo a while ago, although I liked that drama but just like Cha Young, it was hard to endure all those murder scenes.

Also, at this moment, we are facing pandemic, second wave is more dangerous, we are already living in a harsh reality. I did not want to create more stress on my mind by watching more stressful k-dramas.

In the meantime, "So I married an anti-Fan" came to me as a blessing and I am enjoying it very much. I will highly recommend it.

Writers made me feel toward characters what characters did. Annoyed.

[melhans-65125 · 6/10 · 22 March 2024]

Honestly, K dramas don't have to do much to entertain me. It's about comforting cliches. But I hand it to the writers in this one.

After a misunderstanding at an event, I found the FL/Reporter's rush to judgement and reluctance to accept any responsibility for her behavior or its consequences infuriating, much as the ML/K-pop idol did after he was subjected to vomit and shoe-chucking. And I found the artificial saintliness the K-pop idol presents to his fans in public utterly cloying and disingenuous, just as she did. So I believed their reactions to one another because I had the same reactions myself. I was annoyed by them both.

So there's that.

I have no idea if the kpop industrial complex actually cranks out highly disciplined homogenized pop stars the way it's presented here, but it may be trainees do put up with a lot of 'handling' and reinvention on their way up. Additional characters include two friends and trainees who failed. One is the mandatory mopey pop wannabe ex-girlfriend who's with the other frenemy, a rich washed up K-pop wannabe now running his own talent agency. He's the jealous antagonist who seeks every chance to attack his former friend now major star.

Shoechucker gets fired after pressure from K-pop idol's people and so she goes on a social media rant to slag him off. This creates a backlash against her which inspires fan retaliation, a smarmy rescue by K-pop idol and a TV show "So I married my Anti-Fan." It's a fake 'reality' show putting enemies under one roof to see what happens.

Well, enemies let down their guards, learn about each other and fall in lurvvvvv, which causes all kinds of trouble for kpop idol, whose fans hate her.

As I say, not Dostoyevsky but a cozy K-romcom.

A Fresh Take

[dreamlikediana · 9/10 · 17 June 2021]

I'm not going to sit here and say this Asian drama is perfect. Honestly, I'd probably give it an 8.5 stars if I could, but I'll be nice and round it up.

I watch a lot of Asian dramas, like many others, and a lot of them I eventually stop watching and never finish the ending because it's so cliche. I get so tired and bored of the typical Asian dramas so this was refreshing. I do read the webtoon, and that's what made me interested in the drama.

I binged it. I have not binged and lost sleep on a drama in a LONG time. Very long. Even though there's some cringey moments and cliche scenes, I overly did enjoy this.

I find that most dramas SooYoung acts in are pretty good, but the main actors have really good chemistry together and it made it feel so much better.

Chemistry was missing!!

[nupsharma · 6/10 · 9 March 2022]

I've been watching Kdramas from last 10 years and have watched so many good dramas, I watched trailer of this drama and liked it so decided to watch it. The plot was not up to mark and lack a lot in the middle, it was unnecessarily stretched a lot. Other supporting casts have done good work, but I am being asked to told about the lead casts, the Chemistry was missing completely.

The female lead was acting good in scenes of being annoyed but when it comes to romance, you don't feel anything after watching them together, specially the female lead she was helpless in some scenes.

And the plot is old same and not very interesting, yeah there were few scenes when I laughed. But in some scenes I don't understand is it something I should laugh unless the background music doesn't tell you so.

I would say the male lead is still a little better in his acting than the other. Didn't enjoyed much!

Absolutely Adorable

[PalmBeachG · 10/10 · 16 June 2022]

So I Married My Anti-Fan is an absolutely adorable romantic comedy. Choi Tae Jun is a real cutie and plays the handsome Superstar celebrity Hoo Joon perfectly! I saw on a live fan Episode that he hasn't done a series for approx 2 years so this was really impressive. The series will make you smile and is definitely worth watching as hardships of making it in the celebrity world come to light along with hiding relationships, love triangles, loneliness, growing up as a celebrity and falling in love. The only thing is that the title could have been a little less subtle as it is easy to guess how the ending is going to go.

A warm sweater on a cold day

[rickyou-62181 · 7/10 · 27 November 2023]

When I watch Kdramas I have certain expectations. I expect the leads to start off hating or at least disliking each other, but by the end get together. The fun part is the journey, not the destination. That pretty much sums up Antifan. Nothing to be sad about, like the ending of Mr. Sunshine (a more compelling drama, by the way). No insanity, like the Red Sleeve, where the leads die, but happily get together after death (also excellent). Instead, you curl up with a basic plot line, enjoy the interactions, knowing this will end in some manner like Strong Woman Do Bong Soon. Now the so-so. I felt the second male lead's performance was over the top; it should have been toned down. The second female lead was passive. I don't know if that reflected limited acting skill or very good acting, but it worked for me. The two main leads did nicely, but nothing extraordinary. On the other hand, the female lead's father and mother cracked me up. They could support their own show, and they had relatively limited roles. The "high school" girl should have figured more into the plot. Her views on the male lead's fibs, and later, his return, deserved screen time to help the audience better feel the supposed public reaction. I did not like the female lead's first employer, which was probably intended, so I found her rehabilitation at the end just plain wrong.

If you want to curl up with the equivalent of warm cocoa, enjoy it. If you are hoping for something unique, exhilarating or terrific fun, go watch Vincenzo. In fact, watch it anyway.

Really wanted to like this one

[hello-99343 · 4/10 · 25 May 2021]

I really wanted to like this drama, after having learned that it had been filmed and shelved since 2018, and that it had old-school Kdrama fluffy romance that is a breath of fresh air from all the dark dramas we've seen recently.

8 episodes in, or 1/2 way through the drama, I can't say this is true.

Am I the only one who finds this really cringey and hard to watch?

I personally haven't seen Sooyoung in a drama, and I can't say I'm overly much of a fan after seeing this performance. I could attest that a lot of this is due to the way the story is written, but she hasn't really won me over with her performance either. Geun Young doesn't call for much from her acting abilities. Choi Taejoon is rather bipolar in his character as Who Joon too, he's nice to Geun Young in some scenes, and then rude to her in others.

It's the classic enemies-to-lovers plot, but I can't say I'm following it at all. It all feels jarring and quite choppy.

The way the Anti-fan TV show crew treat Geun Young is atrocious too, and I won't even comment on Chansung and Han Ji Ah's second leads. I find them both utterly annoying. Particularly Chansung. He's got a inferior complex, steals Who Joon's girlfriend, and still isn't happy when he has his own company, and the girl, and is still trying to start stuff. Honestly, I skip his scenes now. Han Ji Ah's character is annoying too. She leaves Who Joon to try make it, and seems quite pathetic to stay in a relationship that doesn't serve her anymore, but does it for security (of trying to make it in the industry) while still having feelings for Who Joon.

I personally think Who Joon and Geun Young lack consistency in their chemistry. I mean, you can slowly see Who Joon warm up to Geun Young, helping celebrate a surprise birthday, finding her in Japan, but he was still crying over Han Ji Ah's character a few episodes before. Is her over her or not?

Also, the skinship or "slips" and "accidents" are pretty typical in Kdramas but I find them overly manufactured and super cringe-worthy. Usually I would swoon, but not in this instance. I think it has to do with partly the way this drama is written, but also the lack of chemistry between the OTP.

Sadly, I am dropping this half way.

Everyone wants to protect something

[alaningle7 · 7/10 · 7 October 2023]

A journalist played by Choi Soo-young gets into a misunderstanding with a successful singer played by Choi Tae-joon, and ends up flinging a shoe at him which is captured on film hitting him. This altercation leads them both to appear on a tv series called "So I married an anti fan" where they are expected to behave like a couple. Behind the scenes there are people trying to hurt both their careers and the initial frostiness between them melts as they begin to care about each other and want to shield the other from harm. It is a predictable script and the story seems to fizzle out at the end but the romance is sweet and there are some amusing moments.

Worth it.

[thejassivakumar · 8/10 · 21 September 2021]

It's a simple story but it satisfies me. Even though there was cliche scenes it was enjoyable. I started watching this show without much expectations but it turned out to be good. There isn't any lag in the story and you can binge watch it without getting bored.

I had High Expectations...

[Chaokage · 7/10 · 17 August 2021]

I came with some excitement when I started watching this series. The theme, the actors and the story felt just like what I needed. Unfortunately, I found myself waiting whole 8 episodes for the series to start providing actual development. The ending of this series itself was not that something even though it was a happy ending. If you are willing to wait, starting from episode 9, you'll start getting some action and from there on things will keep getting better as the plot opens wide and starts to develop as it is supposed to be.

Highly recommended

[swagatamaliktcs · 10/10 · 26 June 2021]

This series is really awsm , I just fell in love with this series.

Great drama with balanced comedy and romance

[dopamineshot · 10/10 · 10 November 2021]

In my opinion, it's a really enjoyable drama. The comedy part is really great, as Soo Young really portrays Geun-Yeong character. The romantic part is also very cute, as I could feel my heart pounding hard whenever the romantic scene between Tae Joon (Who-Joon) and Geun-Yeong come. The plot itself is not bad itself and not heavy at all so this is the type of drama that I would enjoy after spending a long hours at work.

Relaxing & Superb drama

[aninditasayan · 10/10 · 30 May 2021]

Its a light hearted drama....njoying their superb chemistry. I am at episode 10 and eagerly waiting for next. Its beautifully scripted with right time of comedy and at the same time little bit spark of romance. Its a total package where you will be eager to watch them together for every eposode.

Light drama with a plot that is neither here nor there

[11ovz11 · 3/10 · 21 June 2021]

The drama started with so much potential. Up until episode 6, it is well paced, had good chemistry between leads, and had a cute plotline. However, as the drama progressed so many story lines were introduced into the drama that either didn't get picked up to create anything tangible out of it or the storyline fell short of expected.

From the start to the end of the drama, I still do not realise the point of the 5th main casted actor (the photographer). He seems so insignificant that I thought he was a cameo. Only to realise he's one of the mains.

This felt like such a waste of time. There are so many things I want to write in this review, but I can't even bring myself to waste more than 2 mins on this since I already wasted 3 days binging this drama.

MY NEW FAVE ROM. COM. KDRAMA

[miyukilikesubiatch · 10/10 · 25 May 2021]

I didn't know that this series is from a webtoon, I just saw a clip from tiktok and immediately watch it. It is such a good rom. Com movie, some scenes are cliche but i dont know why if love this series so much and i'm looking forward to the upcoming episode.

CANT WAIT FOR FRIDAY!!!!!!

A great twist on love story between fame and "normal" person

[leahcubed · 9/10 · 14 July 2021]

9.5/10 is my rating. This is a 2021 South Korean romantic comedy with 16, 60 minute episodes

Reporter Lee Geun-young (Choi Soo-young) does not realize just how bad her night can get when she sets out to get a story on a top star. After meeting her boyfriend for what was supposed to be a romantic evening but turns out to be a birds eye view of his cheating romance with a man, a series of events leads her to getting on the bad side of top star, Hoo Joon (Choi Tae-joon). Forgetting how powerful and influential his opinion can be, Hoo Joon gets Geun-young fired. With a lot of time on her hands Geun-young sets out to let everyone know this not so charming side of Hoo Joon and proclaims herself his anti fan. A reality show finds the animosity of the two intriguing and a show is developed around this anti fan marrying the top star and the two living together. During filming both pretend to get along but when they think the cameras are off - the true hilarity begins. Can two people who got off to such a rough start learn the true nature of the other and will this anti-van become a convert?

*spoiler alert. I wondered how this could be depicted in a believable way that they would be in contact enough that they would get married. As I watched it and discovered how and why she became his anti-fan and that they were not really married but that was the premise of the reality show - it made a lot more sense. The romance that developed between the two was perfectly paced and very believable. The "side couples" those romances were not very interesting. The show editor/producers alluded to a connection they had before and that they were reunited in the making of the reality show. So they seemed to "fall into" a romance rather quickly and, since we did not see it develop, I had little interest in their connection. Those relationships could have been left out and would not have been missed. I think she had a talent for acting so it would have been nice to see her product after the reality show ended. I wanted to see her succeed. I enjoyed this start to finish and highly recommend it.

so i married the anti-fan

[sardiyanti · 10/10 · 27 June 2021]

I like this drama. I have also finished watching this drama. The story of this drama is very interesting.

A recommendation if u wanna watch romance, humor.

[nongthombampriyanka · 10/10 · 7 June 2021]

Both the Lead actors naturally brings out the bickering, humorous moments, and the romance among them and make it feels so natural about their acting.

Their individual role really suits all the actors and actresses. I really like it👍

It was cute but a bit over the top

[owlo-12956 · 5/10 · 5 July 2021]

I liked the female lead but she could be a brat. The male lead was very pretty but underwhelming. The story was kind of nutty but ... oh, well. It was good to watch to close out the day, but not nearly as good as so many other KDramas. There were endearing parts, cute scenes, but mostly a lot of riding in cars and misunderstandings, which is really annoying.