#Kimi to

[ineffable-opinions]

Top 20 BL Live-action of 2024

20. Love Is a Poison - This series made my wish to see Hama Shogo in a BL come true. I loved his character in Koisenu Futari (2022) and wanted more of his character’s interaction with Takahashi Issei’s character. Also, the series leaned into the surreal with the squealing, sparkling succulents. While the legal drama part of the series was light, it was the first time I was invested in the character’s careers since Beloved Enemy (2017) [which is going to have a Thai remake/adaptation]. I absolutely enjoyed the dynamics of a neo-super-darling seme paired with a devoted, kuudere uke. But, I wish there were fewer flashback/compilation scenes.

19. Unknown - I never thought Priest’s Da Ge will become something like this. I am impressed by the meticulous cultivation that source material underwent. That little carp really crossed the gate to become a dragon. The Unknown managed to tone down the golden finger bits and keep things realistic to an extent, fit the whole business venture arc neatly into Taiwan’s SME-heavy capitalism. It fleshed out Le ge, and his relationship with both his underlings and his junior and made him interesting. It gave me one of my favorite mob characters in a BL – an ex-gangster with his blacked-out tattoos running a street food stall. In line with Taiwanese tradition, this series not only employed high BL literacy but also dedicated time to educate. (more on it here)

18. Cosmetic Playlover - I was hesitant to watch this show since I had enjoyed the first few volumes of manga and lost interest in later volumes. I knew they were going to censor the hell out of the first volume. While I am still bitter about that fact, I still enjoyed the series.

17. Love is Better the Second Time Around - this had some of my favorite moments from a BL - two-faced seme employing all sorts of methods to seduce and ensnare the uke, return of the alone-at-the-railway-station trope, seme using helpless, feverish face and acting coquettish (some seriously charming gap moe), teasing a seme's seme (this one did it better than At 25:00 in Akasaka which fumbled it by choice) and kishōtenketsu - 4 part traditional East Asian narrative structure (which appeared in many series this year and the last) with family negotiation aiming at adoption reversal. (I wanted seme to recommend uke in his place to his native household - that way they can also get married, if and when it gets legalized.)

16. Living with Him – The reason why this series is on this list is pretty unique. I never understood Japanese focus and fetish of nape (the way navel is in south India) before this series. The camera managed to capture the uke's neck, especially when he had his head bent slightly, in a stunning manner. Overall, the camera language was very intimate without being bawdy, perfectly suitable for the domestic setting of this BL. I loved the series more than I did the manga.

15. Century of Love - Gave me Hindi serial style BL complete with a red cloth enveloping the main couple during their fated encounter. It is a lakorn, so that's to be expected. I felt that the pair's romance progressed at an uncharacteristically fast pace given the initial resistance. (In other words, I wanted their romance to progress slowly, like over 400 episodes.) I thoroughly enjoyed the characters including the villains.

14. Healing Thingyan – this BL from Myanmar is no longer available at SKY Production’s YouTube channel. I had a good time watching this BL set in a village in the context of New Year where friends become lovers after much hesitation and an interrupted confession from the year before. My heart was pounding when the couple poured water over the left side because that's where their hearts are at. Also, the religious restriction (I am a little weak to this trope) to physical intimacy as a tactic to skip kiss scene - I would have been irked if it wasn't for the execution - the couple standing under arching bamboo, wearing sarong and acting all sweet. It is set in 2019. Later, I came to know that allegedly (I would appreciate if someone can help me gain more clarity on this matter), SKY production could be a proxy of 7th Sense Creation, an entertainment company cofounded by Kin Thiri Thet, daughter of Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (Commander-in-Chief of Myanmar’s armed forces and Acting President against whom the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has filed an application for an arrest warrant, alleging his involvement in crimes against humanity targeting the Rohingya population. (source))

13. The Time of Fever - I'm not very sure if this one can be considered a complete story in itself but even if not, it is immensely satisfying. Age-blind casting shouldn't have worked so well but it did. 

12. Gray Shelter - this one made me feel as though I read a nice short story or a novel. It was viscous like honey, the way such types of Korean BL novels (like Picked Up In Winter) tend to be. It had a very masculine vibe with underlying unease of depending and being depended on. 

11. Hitochigai kara Hajimaru Koi mo Aru aka Love Can Sometimes Start with the Wrong Person [fansubs available at Drama Otaku] - substitute lover trope but this time the substitute is two-faced. Everyone has their own agenda but this love is a zero-sum game. (I wanted 3p ending though – not possible since one actor is playing both the twins). I loved all the scheming and all those little lies. This one had explicit use of BL terms like seme and uke by a main character.

10. Perfect Propose - workplace that brings workers to tears, corporate slave uke who decides to quit (without starting a job hunt 😔) and an untethered seme who grows hydroponics tomatoes in their balcony. It is adapted from a single volume manga and not a novel, yet it uses every minute it's got to make you feel ALL THAT. 

9. High School Return of a Gangster - I was sad that they meant it as a bromance and worried for the future of BL creation in South Korea since it was Number Three Pictures, the company that created popular BL Unintentional Love Story and The Time of Fever, by its own admission struggling financially with limited recovery of production costs (more on this here). When I started watching, I couldn't care any less about their intentions. It was an absolute delight. I was still immersed in the exhilaration of Aavesham (2024) and had wished to see such things in the context of a BL. And this one delivered. I was shipping the underboss with his main lackey (they have history between them and reminded me of the relationship between Ranga and Ambaan) at one point and the next moment, shipping him with his foxy classmate. The series toned down the bully-loves-bullied aspect in the novel, and humanized and contextualized the main bully with his life in the underbelly of the economy, so much so that I felt bad when the bullies were prosecuted (what will happen to Hong Jae-min's sister😟) while gangsters and the rich who hire them went scot-free in the live action. The face-slapping part left a bitter taste in my mouth with the secretary facing the brunt (and the misogyny embedded in the socio-economic fabric that breeds such hatred) while the father isn't retaliated against enough. I read and enjoyed the novel, but face-slapping was even more makjang. It is tough to get accepted in live action form as it is, in South Korea, since the gangster is middle-aged and it is only towards the end of the novel that the characters are finally out of high school, unlike in Mr. Mitsuya's Planned Feeding [fansubs by @isaksbestpillow] with a significant age gap but both are adults and are in a Japanese BL. Gong (공, Korean for seme) (a suspected psychopath, raised under constant surveillance by his father) consciously falls in love with the middle-aged su (수, Korean for uke) inhabiting the body of a high schooler, going as far as visiting his previous residence and pursuing him as one would an old person. 

8. My Damn Business - From the first episode, this one had me hooked. Week after week, I was eagerly waiting for those 8 minute long episodes. It acknowledged the manhwa side of BL and hinted at their iconic smut pages (in a way New Employee live action couldn't). It executed stalking horse trope, with Park Min-jae (R. I. P) playing the stalking horse, in a manner that had me giddy with excitement. I also appreciate GND STUDIO for casting darker-skinned actors – in this one and in Fake Buddies. GND studio also has decent BL literacy as is evident from the above-mentioned series. In the third episode, Fake Buddies used the East Asian tradition of representing gay and lesbian relationships through rose (from barazoku (薔薇族)) and lily (from yurizoku (百合族)) respectively to hint at the BL and GL couple.

7. Boku to Boku ga Sukina Kare to, Kimi to aka Me, Him, and You [fansubs available at Drama Otaku]- Honestly, I didn't expect to be this impressed by this one going in. I had such low expectations. I absolutely love the pairing between Higashi Keisuke and Hiroki Iijima, much more than Higashi Keisuke and Nakajima Sota in Ossan no Pants ga Nandatte Ii Janai ka! [fansubs by @isaksbestpillow] and Hiroki Iijima and Inukai Atsuhiro in Our Dining Table. The series played with my heartstrings a lot. I fondly remember several of the scenes and all the emotions they evoked in me. At the end, there was a longing for something, maybe some more time with those characters, especially the model and his uncle. 

6. Pit Babe (2023) - omegaverse with enigma - Japan has like 1 manga but through PitBabe I discovered that enigma has become a popular secondary gender in Thai BL space. I love buff uke and I got one paired with a two-faced, loyal loser seme in this one. Super pretty villain, Tony, had me wishing for him to be an omega (I love megalomaniac omegas). I also enjoyed reading the book – every time it rained, that silent phone call, Babe's jealousy towards omegas, the suspense and the pregnancy scare.

5. Love Sea - MAME lifted me out of a BL slump with this one. I also enjoyed the GL pair a lot - there is nothing I like more than performative cuteness/winsomeness (കൊഞ്ചൽ konjal, aegyo, sajiao, kawaii) and benevolent sexism weaponized and employed for emotional manipulation. High EQ manipulators are so rare, my favourite type of yandere (especially when paired perfectly with someone who gets swept up in the moment easily, like Techno). I wonder why MAME doesn't write Janus-faced men that way too. And the men who perform winsomeness such as Tongrak, Kengkla and Tharn, when they do so, have motivations that aren’t Machiavellian enough.

4. Heavens x Candy - OP Pictures is bringing to screens BL that are otherwise tough to get made. This one explored otaku culture, loneliness, family and love through fan pilgrimages, cute and horrifying family dynamics, adult entertainment avenues and love hotels with those transparent walls of bathrooms. It healed my heart after the blow dealt by I Became the Main Role of a BL Drama. 

3. Love Syndrome: The Beginning – I didn't expect this but I'm glad to have received it. I want more but now that the director, F Nontapat Sriwichai, has passed away, I don't expect anything anymore. If only his legacy would inspire someone with the ability and mettle. I prefer meriba endings over happy endings. So, when Love Syndrome III was the first to get an adaptation, I was drawn into Yeonim’s universe. The movie focuses on Gear and Night’s relationship and spends relatively less time on Day and Itt. Yet, it is not hesitant to portray the beginning of their relationships, especially the eroticized violence and the morbid conditioning (調教), showcasing exceptional BL literacy.

2. Kubi (2023) – [Fan-subs] I must praise the excellent production quality before anything else. It is about multiple legendary figures in Japanese history such as Oda Nobunaga, Araki Murashige, Akechi Mitsuhide, Mori Ranmaru and Yasuke. The movie has historically accurate ending with specifics changed to fit the narrative. It is based on Honno-ji Incident and Battle of Yamazaki. Those who died then, dies in the movie too but who killed who and why are fictional. (meta here)

1. Takumi-kun Series 6: Nagai Nagai Monogatari no Hajimari no Asa (2023) – this one and Kubi came out last year but I got the chance to watch them only this year. Thanks to fan subs by @furritsubs. I read and re-read those chapters from the novel and I'm still basking in the magic of Shinobu Gotoh's storytelling. First time since Unni R's story and screenplay for Charlie (2015), I got immersed in a love story where the couple barely even interact and the romance unfolds in a thriller-like fashion. While a lot of character motivation gets lost on the way in this live action, most important of them were impossible to miss when snow fluttered around in a bottle, when a delirious Takumi sought Gii in a crowded stairway landing and when Yoshizawa jumped out to stop Takabayashi from hurting. (ongoing meta series here)

-

Here are the top 20 of 2024: live-action BL that I watched and enjoyed this year. I haven't watched everything that came out this year (I'm saving up some for the upcoming year) and did revisit a lot of older stuff (not listed) when there was nothing enjoyable to watch. This year, I realized that I am able to tolerate, if not enjoy, when I'm not too familiar with the content it is adapted from with some exceptions. I don't treat BL like fables or life lessons. I don't bother with moral validation from the choice of media I consume either. But there are certain real-world killjoys in media that may affect my enjoyment, like what happened with The Sign. Please feel free to ask for content warnings.

[ctrl58]

pinterest chan!

[lunariery]

[foudreika]

F1 Rainbow Illustrations

All the rainbow illustrations I did between last year and this year! :D Always super satisfying to put them all together lol

[44nymeria33]

They took his child from him😭

[thelittlestspider]

free movies

nowhere

the living end

the doom generation

mysterious skin

chopping mall

black christmas

beneath the skin

possibly in michigan

hellraiser 1

hellraiser 2

kill bill 1

kill bill 2

leave her to heaven

it's a wonderful life

bram stoker's dracula

evil dead 1

evil dead 2

army of darkness

hell house llc 1

hell house llc 2

hell house llc 3

aliens

vampire hunter d (1985)

vampire hunter d: bloodlust

mikey and nicky

perfect blue

ganja and hess

nosferatu (1922)

carnival of souls

stepford wives

texas chainsaw massacre (1974)

gentlemen prefer blondes

fight club

carrie (1976)

the thing (1982)

the lost boys

butch cassidy and the sundance kid

phantom of the paradise

velvet goldmine

the devils (1971)

possession (1981)

crash (1996)

get out

paris is burning

the watermelon woman

eraserhead

an american werewolf in london

whatever happened to baby jane?

all about eve

southern comfort

[ilustrali]

max and his ducklings rookies 🦆🐤✨

[bloodraven55]

this scene is still raw as hell like goddamn

[valyrfia]

predictions for the f1 2025 car launch in london:

someone forgets to send out the dress code. george russell turns up in an immaculately pressed suit, lando norris turns up in black sweatpants.

the british drivers are raised onto the stage like they’re in the eras tour

the non-british drivers have to come in through the crowd entrance and buy their own tickets

christian horner still hasn’t decided who’s filling that second red bull seat. as a result max is accompanied on stage by what seems to be three untrained rookies in a trenchcoat

speaking of max, he doesn’t speak a word the entire night preferring instead to communicate short answers in sign language.

the hosts keep trying to awkwardly fill time à la eurovision song contest

there are at least two fistfights

and one dogfight (leo and roscoe)

pierre and esteban stand next to each other at first before they have to awkwardly be reminded that they’re not teammates anymore

someone makes a thinly veiled reference to the mclaren 2024 rear wing

kimi antonelli gets booed (british crowd) and about half the grid has to be physically restrained from jumping on the audience

toto wolff tries to seduce max yet again.

max audibly laughs at him. this is the only time we hear his voice all night.

oscar piastri gets visibly teary at the sight of drs since it’s the last time it’ll be used in f1

fred vasseur makes an insane prediction on how many races ferrari will win. everyone laughs at him.

he ends up being absolutely right

fernando turns up in another team’s colours

it’s later revealed that one team paid the sound engineers to play thunderous applause when their car was revealed

one livery will merit audible laughter

it will be alpine’s.

[kimi-karma]

I lost a bet and as a result I had to draw Mithrun in that one pineapple shirt

[squidpedias-fanart]

Somewhat expecting next alnst friday post to glaze over whatever lore is happening right now with it being unclear if till is fully dead or not and for them to just go ✨✨tee-hee✨✨ here’s them as kids silly moment!!✨✨ nothing is wrong!!✨✨ don’t worry about it!!

[formulaheart]

something about george russell being hyperaware and vocal about track safety for himself and other drivers even if it slows him down, something about fernando giving franco colapinto advice his first week in, the mclaren boys continuing to be happy with each other even when the team screws them over, hamilton reminding motorsports spectators and competitors alike that kimi antonelli is still just a kid after all and has a long way to go, max and charles congratulating each other after almost every race even when one of them gets a win and the other gets something like their worst drive of the season, alex and oscar defending logan sargeant as having so much untapped potential even if hes no longer racing, pierre and seb going out of their way every year to honor drivers who have passed, esteban ocon going out of his way to welcome new drivers to the grid, kmag fighting tooth and nail to get nico hulkenberg one point, nico rosberg shredding team principals with poor team treatment on live television

f1 is gonna be okay

[pucksandpower]

The Kinktober 2024 Masterlist

→ Formula 1 after dark 💋

Day 1 → Cockwarming 💋 Toto Wolff

Day 2 → Chastity 💋 Max Verstappen

Day 3 → Oral Fixation 💋 Charles Leclerc

Day 4 → Bruise Marking 💋 Lando Norris

Day 5 → Size Difference 💋 Oscar Piastri

Day 6 → Daddy Kink 💋 Carlos Sainz

Day 7 → Virginity Loss 💋 Toto Wolff

Day 8 → Breeding Kink 💋 Max Verstappen

Day 9 → Overstimulation 💋 Charles Leclerc

Day 10 → Exhibitionism 💋 Kimi Räikkönen

Day 11 → Sex Pollen 💋 Max Verstappen

Day 12 → Mirror Sex 💋 Oscar Piastri

Day 13 → Temperature Play 💋 Charles Leclerc

Day 14 → Innocence Play 💋 Lewis Hamilton

Day 15 → Thigh Riding 💋 Max Verstappen

Day 16 → Remote-Controlled Vibrator 💋 Jenson Button

Day 17 → Lactation Kink 💋 Lando Norris

Day 18 → Praise Kink 💋 Charles Leclerc

Day 19 → Spreader Bar 💋 Toto Wolff

Day 20 → Menthol Cream 💋 Oscar Piastri

Day 21 → Anal 💋 Lando Norris

Day 22 → Bedding Ceremony 💋 Charles Leclerc

Day 23 → Consensual Non-Consent 💋 Max Verstappen

Day 24 → Piercing 💋 Toto Wolff

Day 25 → Monsterfucking 💋 Carlos Sainz

Day 26 → Cum Marking 💋 Charles Leclerc

Day 27 → Hunter/Prey 💋 Max Verstappen

Day 28 → A/B/O 💋 Oscar Piastri

Day 29 → BDSM 💋 Toto Wolff

Day 30 → Innocence Kink 💋 Lando Norris

Day 31 → Mind Break 💋 Charles Leclerc

Tumblr won’t let me link the final five fics for some reason but they have been published!

[mywritersmind]

LITTLE SISTERS ARE UNKNOWINGLY GREAT MATCH MAKERS - KA12

summary : Girlhood is meeting a younger girl in a bathroom and giving her a friendship bracelet. You happen to get lucky when that little girls introduces you to the youngest driver on the grid.

listen up : no warnings!

words : 1212 (wow that’s crazy)

⋆｡‧˚⋆

“I like your dress.” A little girl says, her voice confident and clearly italian. I smile at her in the mirror before pulling my hands away from the sink and grabbing a towel.

I turn fully to her, her eyes big and brown, looking up at me in awe, “Thank you!” I throw the towel away as she smiles softly, “I like your headphones.” She's in white pants and a black jacket, the bright pink headphones around her neck.

She looks down when I say it, “Bit stupid.”

I shake my head as she backs away from the sink, “Never!” I reach into my purse and pull out my little earplugs that are in a clear case. She smiles at this.

I turn back to the mirror again, fixing my hair and applying my lipgloss. My eyes wander to the small girl who still resides next to me, looking at herself in the mirror and swiping on chapstick.

“You’re a mercedes fan?” I say.

She nods eagerly, pushing her lip balm into her pocket and touching her hat. “It’s my brother's team!” I smile at her enthusiasm, “Are you?”

“Not particularly…” As in George Rusell makes me uneasy and Kimi Antonelli is making me feel unaccomplished since we’re the same age. “I root for Mclaren.”

She seems a bit sad at this, but nods nonetheless. “Do you want a friendship bracelet?” I ask just before she goes to leave. She’s absolutely adorable and definitely a new friend (one i’ll probably never see again) but still, I take one of the beaded bracelets off my wrist and hand it to her.

It says, VROOM, with a tiny beaded F1 car that took me a whole hour to figure out how to make. “Wow!”

I stand up straighter, “I’m Y/n!”

“Maggie.” She says her name quick, her eyes unmoving from her wrist, the bracelet a tad too big. She finally looks up at me again when we both go to leave, “Thank you!”

We walk into the public area, the paddock not crowded for the first time all day, “I’m glad you like it.” I’m too focused on her little eyes lighting up to notice that a guy is staring at us. He pushes off the wall, walking towards us in a far too familiar way. Holy shit.

Maggie says something in italian.

She says something in italian directed to the guy.

The guy who also happens to be Kimi Antonelli.

Kimi smiles at the girl as it all dawns on me. Oh fuck. When she said, ‘it’s my brother's team’ she didn’t just mean that he supports them. She meant he drives for them!

He tugs at her hat so it goes over her eyes as she groans and elbows him, “No wonder you took so long, making friends?”

Maggie nods, saying something in Italian and raising her wrist so Kimi can see her bracelet. He nods, probably not interested but he smiles at her.

Then he smiles at me.

“Did you make it yourself?” His accent is smooth yet his demeanor is still boyish.

I laugh awkwardly, “Uh yeah, sorry I didn’t make any Mercedes ones.” He shrugs it off.

“Black and teal gets boring!” Maggie cuts in, still admiring her bracelet under Kimi’s arm, “I like pink!” Kimi and I look at eachother, smiling at the younger girls' excitement. She clearly gets distracted when she sees an older woman, promptly running away and yelling, “Mama!”

Kimi laughs, not making a move to leave, “I think this is the most interesting thing that’s happened to her all weekend.” He slips his hands into his pockets, smiling at me. Christ he’s cute.

“Honestly she’s made my weekend.” I swipe a piece of hair from my face, “I’m sure she was more excited about her brother’s big F1 debut than a bracelet.” I scoff as he laughs.

“I don’t know…” He looks at Maggie, her hair bobbing up and down as she shows their mom her new jewelry. “Show her pink and she sort of gravitates…”

I smile, “Is she an Alpine fan then?”

He shakes his head, still smiling shyly, “I won’t let that happen.” When I don’t say anything, he sways, “Are you? An Alpine fan, I mean…”

I shake my head, looking down at my light pink dress, “Nah… just hate wearing bright orange.”

He nods, “Oh! I’m Kimi, by the way.”

I hold back a grin, “I know… I’m Y/n.”

“Nice to meet you, Y/n.” I think my heart skips a beat when he says my name, “Thanks for being so nice to my sister.”

“No problem, she’s adorable!”

Maggie comes up to us again, “Could you teach me how to make one?”

Kimi raises a brow, “I’m pretty sure she doesn’t just carry beads with her, Mag.”

I blush, “Actually… I do, and I can totally try!”

She runs off again, leaving Kimi and I, “She’s really sweet, though she might not want my help with the beads… I made one and gave up like two hours in.”

He laughs, “She referred to you as ‘pretty girl’ when she told me you gave her a bracelet, so I'm pretty sure she already loves you no matter if you can recreate it or not.” I laugh a bit when he says this, my cheeks are probably already red.

“I remember being like that with every older girl I encountered.” It’s true, every little girl I see I just want to cry because of how much I loved being that young.

“Yeah well she’s got good instincts.” his tongue runs over his bottom lip, “How old are you?”

“Eighteen… you know, my mom found out you were driving this year and made me get a job!” He’s laughing harder now.

“Shit… I'm sorry. What were you forced into?”

“Well, it’s not bad.” I shrug, “I intern at McLaren actually. My mom’s a driver manager.” His eyebrows go up, nodding at my words.

“So you get to travel with the drivers?” He looks almost… hopeful.

I nod, “Basically. I want to work in F1 media so it’s hopefully getting me used to my future.”

“That’s really cool.” Honestly if it were any other teenage boy saying that, I wouldn’t believe him. But something about Kimi Antonelli tells me that he doesn’t half ass anything, even his words.

“Yeah…” I bite my lip, swaying on my feet.

“Hey! Um before you go…” He pulls out his phone, “Can I get your number?” I raise a brow instinctively, “For Maggie!” I try not to frown, taking the phone and typing in my number and name, “And maybe… for dinner sometime? I fly to China right after this.”

I bite back a smile, “That’d be fun, I go straight there after the race.”

I think he’s… blushing? “Right. Well uh… maybe I can convince you that black and teal are right for you.”

“If you take me out and try to convert me from papaya, I will never let you forget it!” I threaten as he starts walking away backwards.

“Yeah I'm planning on that, pretty.” He bites his lip, nodding and leaving. I roll my eyes and walk away, my cheeks pink and my smile wide.

[isacksteban]