#bl 2022 round up

[absolutebl]

BL trope du jour 

lying with his head in his lap 2022 

Pictured above: To My Star 2, Choco Milk Shake, Cherry Blossoms After Winter, DNA Says Love You (2x), Plus and Minus, Want to See You, The Eclipse, KinnPorsche.

This is one that is increasingly popular even outside of Thailand. The source BL for this one is Takumi-Kun, one of the first to put it on screen in a highly iconic moment of yaoi genius. 

I’m a fan it’s very sweet and domestic

Here’s more!

Cupid’s Last Wish 

La Cuisine 

Triage

Vice Versa (switches!) 

Coffee Melody 

Enchante 

Meow Ears Up

Secret Crush On You

Star in My Mind

Unforgotten Night

Work From Heart 

And the Kpop edition

OnlyOneOfCourse 

NCT Dream 

[halliescomut]

2022 BL opinions

Now...I suppose I'm decently new to BLs, not the general concept, but I've only been super actively engaged in watching eastern BLs for about a year...I think I started around February, but I can't be sure. I can be sure that I started with Gameboys, and I still adore that show. Anyway....someone here (if I can find the post I'll tag it in edits) shared a chart for you to put your opinions on...and I love to share my fully subjective opinions....so this is a scatter graph of all of the eastern BLs I watched in 2022. This is NOT limited to ones that came out in 2022. It includes anything I fully finished before posting this, so Remember Me is included even though it's last few eps were in 2023. So here you go...

I know everything is super tiny, sorry about that...so I've also included my excel sheet:

Now, for some caveats! When marking technical quality, 90 % of that grade is behind the camera, it's writing, it's sets/ production design, costumes, storyline/plot, all of that. Actor skill can improve quality...good actors can elevate a poor script, so it may add points, but 'poor acting' doesn't take them away for me. Anything that I found to be just mid as far as production value started at one, then points were added or deducted based on good plots, quality writing, costuming, etc.

I am honestly super easy to please as far as enjoyment, there's very few things I just flat out dislike, and if I did...I didn't finish the show, so it won't be here. I tried to be kind of harsh here, because if I wasn't then almost everything was going to be 7 or above. Mid for me is 0, if it's positive I liked it, if it went into the negatives that's something I don't necessarily regret watching, but I definitely won't be recommending. If it got above a 5, that's something that's going to get recommended, and it's also something likely to get a re-watch.

In terms of shows that are known to be problematic as far as themes...I'm generally not here to yuck someone's yum, these shows get made because there's an audience. If it had story elements that reduced my enjoyment that obviously does deduct points. But I'm also not going to find some things as disagreeable as someone else might. I also try my best to be cognizant that these shows have a long history in their respective cultures and there are tropes or common story points that either are problematic, or can be problematic. So when I'm watching I'm trying to take these shows as they are, not viewing them solely through a western lens. That being said there are some tropes that I have no issues with that many other BL fans absolutely despise.

[waitmyturtles]

Wandee Goodday: I'm caught up and I love this show and here are my thoughts AND! (aka, In Which I Partly Ruminate On Golf Tanwarin's Thematic Overlaps Between Wandee Goodday and The Eclipse)

(Thanks to the homegirls @lurkingshan and @neuroticbookworm for catching me up on @bengiyo's wonderful meta round-up here!)

Through @bengiyo's round-up linked above, I *think* I'm caught up on what was going around the Wandee Goodday fandom last week; I myself, because of LIFE. EVENTS. fell behind two episodes, and only caught up with this generally fabulous show last night, and I wanna bust a couple words on it.

I surprised myself a couple weeks ago by having a touch of Wandee brainrot at week TWO, which is generally absurd, but I'm still stuck on the theme of medical observation and how that theme has permeated this show so far. More on this in a second.

Out of transparency, I also want to note that I'm coming off a close rewatch of Golf Tanwarin's The Eclipse for my Old GMMTV Challenge project, and not just because of LIFE. EVENTS., but also because of some deep thoughtfulness that has surprised and delayed me in my review of The Eclipse, I can't help but recognize that there's some thematic overlap between The Eclipse and Wandee that Golf's getting into -- a coincidence that I'm absolutely loving and screaming internally over.

(As an aside, I've been working forever on my Eclipse piece because I'm struggling with the meaning of having a huge debut branded ship in FirstKhao helming that show, and what that meant for GMMTV in 2022 and its BL future. I'm not feeling that same branded ship pressure here in Wandee, especially as Inn Sarin and Great Sapol were both separately established actors who joined GMMTV for this project, and the future of this ship is unknown at the moment. That's a part of the reason why I love Wandee -- I don't feel fandom pressure about the ship, per se, at this moment, but I might be missing hype on the tag.)

While the stories between The Eclipse and Wandee are clearly different -- the ways in which Golf offers commentary about internal and external homophobia, ESPECIALLY vis à vis macro-level interactions of micro-level humans in systems like boarding schools and hospitals/medical systems, is deeply thrilling for me. I admire Golf as a former politician, Thailand's first transgender member of parliament who was unceremoniously kicked out for economic concerns (and likely their affiliation with the Future Forward/Move Forward parties). As someone who's been around the way with smart politicians, I'm not surprised that this is a space in which Golf lives -- the space in which they explore how homophobia is expressed at macrosystemic and micro-emotional levels.

In The Eclipse, Golf explores:

social pressures to conform to hetero-social standards

the internal destruction that those pressures cause to individuals

how that internal destruction impacts the ways in which young high-school men interact with each other, and develop social and/or romantic bonds, and

how that internal destruction also impacts general social group dynamics, and how individuals police themselves and each other into conforming to the hetero-social standards dictated by the environment around them.

There are many, many issues with The Eclipse, but generally speaking, Golf weaves between the internal and external, the micro and the macro, in that show, cyclically, to depict very messed-up young men fumbling through their experiences of social conformity and love.

As I've been writing my Eclipse piece for my OGMMTVC, I have referred often to @bengiyo's FABULOUS post from the Our Skyy 2 x The Eclipse days, about how some of The Eclipse fandom was concerned for the stability of AkkAyan vis à vis their romance in OS2. As Ben writes, these fictional boys were messed TF up. It was natural, in OS2, to witness their continued fumbles as they still confirmed their love for each other. The conflation for "real" affection between First and Khao aside, this demand for clean-cut romance dominated the fandom discourse at the time of OS2, and it wasn't aligned with what I think Golf's messaging about the emotional states of the boys actually were.

We're certainly NOT THERE (YET) in Wandee Goodday by way of romance. We're squarely in the midst of Wandee's, Yak's, and Ter's very clear emotional and competitive fumbles. We're only at episode 4, and what we've gotten is just a tremendous amount of information about the internal and external struggles these very messed-up dudes have (and to confirm here, we know Ter is Satan/Dr. 666 Devil, we are literally told that, and I'm so thrilled for Podd to finally get the role he deserves, amirite @lurkingshan).

We are seeing similar social conformity pressures from The Eclipse to Wandee by way of the hospital setting -- long a globally misogynistic and highly pressurized environment that humans have played destructively in. Ter being an absolute ROACH with Dee's feelings is so apropos. (Oh, and Ter clearly not being committed to Kwan? That girl's gonna go AWF, I swear.)

We're seeing the same pressure by way of boxer Yak going public with his bisexuality, and taking an ENORRRRRMOUS risk in faking a relationship with Wandee, in front of titchy hospital staff who will likely narc Yak out to the media.

[I think this is a slip of the show, by the way. I don't think Yak is dumb enough to not recognize this risk despite his empathy to Dee, and I really wish the show would spend more time on the risks that Yak takes in showing public affection to Dee at the hospital. I think the show can actually take some time to explore the risk that Yak is taking, because it would simply illuminate the continued themes of homophobia and its ever-presence in the sports AND medical settings that Golf is exploring. (And separately, the meaning of having Yei and Cher helm the boxing gym means so much to me -- literally as a sports fan!)]

@bengiyo's meta round-up also nicely covers the meta out there about Dee and his very conflicted and hypocritical behavior. It's no duh that Dee only has one friend. The guy is a fucking ant. A very cute and sympathetic ant! But he's cute (and hawt), sympathetic, an ant, AND a jerk, someone who is driven to "win," both against Ter and Yak. Dee might be an ant BECAUSE of the impact of what was likely an intense and complicated medical education, as many a former medical resident around the world may relate to! That's a macro-level systemic reference that I wouldn't be surprised Golf would be making intentionally.

Both Wandee and Yak could and should be more accountable to themselves and to each other vis à vis their feelings and the very complicated pressures they both operate under.

They haven't gotten there in their intimacy yet because -- like Akk, Ayan, Kan, and Thua, they're fucking messed-up dudes dealing with homophobia at internal and external emotional levels due to the pressures of their homophobic macrosystemic environments in which they operate!

The social conformity pressures of the worlds in which Dee and Yak live are messing them up so fucking much that they're both acting like bumbling dillholes.

Is it DELIGHTFUL TO WATCH? OMG, YES! I'm obsessed! I LOVE THEM, YER HONOR.

I LOVE WATCHING COMPLICATED HUMAN BEINGS BE COMPLICATED. THIS SHIT IS COMPLICATED!!!!!

Fucking Dee stringing Yak along? YAK GOING ALONG WITH IT? Kickass Taem sees the necklace around Dee's clavicle and KNOWS what Yak's heart is actually doing/saying. Yak may even be "making up" this whole Situation with Taem to jealously win Dee over, maybe?, but we also know Yak actually is attracted to Taem, and so, fuck, THAT'S MESSY AND COMPLICATED, and also, oh so real! Fuck Dee, man! We've ALL BEEN STRUNG ALONG, hello song break, Dee, get it together, you jackass m'fer:

In other words, ha! People act like jerks when their micro- and macro-levels, their internals and externals, are out of sync and whack, and they don't have the emotional toolboxes to deal with it. There is so much mess-mess-MESSY-mess-mess, escalandos, poopy-woopy-shit all over the place in this show, and at least for right now, it's just delightful to watch it happen and unwind (as opposed to The Eclipse, when Akk's repeated stalking of Ayan just got a little tired after episodes 4 and 5, it was like, dude, Akk, if you're saying you don't like him, just stay the fuck away, on GOD. ANYWAY).

Who has the emotional tools to deal with this complicated-ness? Dr. Kao, Drakey-poo, Drizzy!

Dr. Kao, our OBSERVATIONAL asexual BFFFFFFFF, is shown, literally, helping dyads through their issues. He's addressing binaries on binaries -- a couple coming at sex from two different perspectives, and creating compromise between them.

I love, love, love this inclusion of this observational commentary. Kao is depicted at creating communication and compromise against a topic (sex) that he himself has a complicated relationship with. He is shown, professionally, keeping his shit out of the needs of his patients in order to help them with their medical goals.

Kao is practicing, in essence, a transcendence of sorts -- transcending his micro-personal issues with sex in his practice to help his patients achieve at least happiness, if not at least compromise and satisfaction, in their lives.

I appreciated seeing that the client couple in the show wasn't necessarily trying to "win" against each other. They just had different issues about sex that they were working on -- TOGETHER.

The competitive triad of Dee, Yak, and Ter is certainly not there yet. 666 Devil Ter will likely shake up any delicate balance that Dee and Yak MIGHT achieve. But Dee and Yak, a hopeful binary dyad that we are cheering for, are caught in all of their personal and professional competitions themselves, and are nowhere near transcendence at this moment.

The mess, right now, is making sense, within the script. Things can certainly go awry via the script, as my elder friend @bengiyo has warned me regarding Thai BLs these days. But as of right now, I'm finding this mess delightful, because it's VERY real, to me, against a standard of people acting like bumbling, intentional, and unintentional assholes, and living in worlds of emotional complications that are very difficult, in real life, to unwind from by way of macro-social pressures -- except with time, grace, patience, and eventual maturity.

[twig-tea]

2023 BL/GL/QL Round-Up Post

I thought for posterity I'd post a reflection on everything I watched that completed in 2023. For me, that means anything that started in 2022 but the last episode was in 2023 is on this list, but anything that will still be airing after 31 December 2023 11:59 my time (EST) is not on this list, even if the bulk of the show did air in 2023.

A few stats:

110 discrete pieces of content (series/films)

clocking in at est. 600 hours of NEW BL/GL content only

from 9 different countries (Cambodia [1], Philippines [3], Hong Kong [1], Japan [18], Korea [19], Myanmar [1], Taiwan [6], Thailand [56], Vietnam [7])

~50% of the content I watched on this list is from Thailand

~85% of my content was on YouTube [40%], GaGaOoLaLa [23%] and iQIYI [21%].

[Note that this year a lot of older GMMTV shows moved off of YouTube and onto Viki so if you're looking at these stats to decide what to pay for, this won't account for that.]

This doesn't include re-watches or catching up on old shows [e.g. I re-watched Love Sick, My Ride the Series, Semantic Error, ITSAY/IPYTM, Our Dating Sim at least 3 times lol, and anything with a s2 I re-watched s1 to prep, among others, watched Fujoshi Ukkari Gei no Kokuru (2019) for the first time] or non-QL [e.g. Heartstopper s2, Our Flag Means Death s2, Taskmaster s. 15 & 16, Uncanny Counter s2, One Piece s1, etc.] but does include films as well as shows, though I don't count special episodes separately (so Wedding Plan counts once, though I watched both the show and the special).

I hope you all appreciate that with this much content, and with my general brand of being unable to make decisions, I really struggled to narrow down a top 10 list. What follows is the best I could do lol

Top 20 Shows I'd Recommend From This Year:

Moonlight Chicken

Our Dating Sim

Bed Friend

The Eighth Sense

La Pluie

Sing My Crush

Tokyo in April Is...

Wedding Plan

Laws of Attraction

I Cannot Reach You

I Feel You Linger in the Air

What Did You Eat Yesterday S2

I Became the Lead in a BL Drama

If It's With You

Love in Translation

Our Dining Table

My Personal Weatherman

My Beautiful Man: Eternal

My School President

Be My Favorite

+10 I liked but I would only recommend with caveats:

Love Class 2

The New Employee [for the Rainbow Rice Cakes]

Let's Eat Together Aki and Haru

Never Let Me Go

Kiseki: Dear to Me

Unintentional Love Story

The Day I Loved You

End of the World with You

A Breeze of Love

Jack O'Frost

Bonus: Not a BL but worth calling out:

One Room Angel

Midnight Museum

Grand Guignol

The Warp Effect

Sadly, of the GLs that aired this year, I wouldn't recommend any of them. The best one was Show Me Love, which was not actually good but had very gorgeous women and a LOT of flirting.

The other huge thing that happened this year was that I stopped lurking! Thanks specifically to @lurkingshan and @bengiyo demanding everyone start talking about La Pluie, because they got me to post my first meta post. And because I started actually talking to people, I started making actual friends, and participated in organizing things like the Be My Favorite clown checkpoint for ep 11. I also disappeared a month because of life, and am still catching up on everything I intended to write this year. But it's been really rewarding finding this corner of tumblr with likeminded people who like good shows, like to think about these shows, and who are interested in talking about them in a way that's insightful and respectful.

It's been a long time since I felt comfortable enough participating actively in a fandom, and I just want to say to everyone I've interacted with this year: Thank you!

Full list under the cut for anyone curious! [Mostly in order it aired but may be slightly off].

Love Bill

Director Who Buys Me Dinner, The

Star Always Follow You, The

Cutie Pie 2 You

Between Us the Series (Hemp Rope)

Reason Why He Fell in Love with Me Special & S2 [international release]

New Employee, The

I Will Hit You/I Will Knock You

Individual Circumstances

609 Bedtime Story

GAPYuri / GAP the series

My School President

HitBiteLove the Series

Never Let Me Go

Moonlight Chicken

History 5: Love in the Future

Oh My God (ToDo) the Series

Warp Effect, The

End of the World, With You

My Blessing the Series

Our Winter (miniseries)

All the Liquors

Once in Memory: Let Me Be Yours

Shoulder to Cry On, A

Jack O'Frost

Our Dating Sim

Midnight Museum

Me, My Husband, and My Husband's Boyfriend

My Colleague at BL Shop might be My Meant-to-Be

Unintentional Love Story

Chains of Heart

Bed Friend the series

Bad Brother the Series

Stormy Honeymoon

Eighth Sense, the

Bad Brother the Series

Future Series

Tin Tam Jai the series

Crush on You

House of Stars the Series

Happy Merry Ending

Boss and a Babe, A

Pastsenger the Series

Love Mate

Love Syndrome the Series

Promise the Series, The

Day I Loved You, The

Our Dining Table (Bokura no Shokutaku)

Our Skyy 2

My Story the Series

Starstruck

Love Tractor

Naked Dining

Luminous Solution, The

Omai Series / Is My Roommate A Foreigner

Stupid Genius

Step By Step

La Pluie the series

Tie the Not

Sing My Crush / Follow the Wind

Tokyo in April Is .../ Shigatsu no Tokyo wa

Senior Love Me?

Be My Favorite

Show Me Love

Dinosaur Love

Low Frequency

Stay Still

Stay By My Side

Jun & Jun

Wedding Plan the Series

Laws of Attraction, the

Love Class s2

Minato's Laundromat S2

Hidden Agenda

Bon Appetit

Why RU the Series [Korean adaptation]

Be Mine Superstar

Star, The Season 2

Love In Translation

My Beautiful Man: Eternal

My Personal Weatherman

Bump Up Business

Naughty Babe Series

Only Friends

Grand Guignol

Dangerous Romance

If It's With You / Kimi to Nara Koi wo Shite Mite Mo

Y Journey: Stay Like a Local

I Feel You Linger in the Air

Venus in the Sky

Kiseki: Dear to Me

I Cannot Reach You

You Are Mine

Breeze of Love / Weather Forecast of Love

Mr. Cinderella 2

Let's Eat Together Aki and Haru

One Room Angel

Marry My Dead Body

Lucky My Love the Series

Pure Vanilla: Recipe for Romance

Absolute Zero

Memories, The

My Dear Gangster Oppa

Shadow

What Did You Eat Yesterday? S2

Middleman Love

Beyond the Star

Bake Me Please

You and My Stars

I Became the Lead in a BL Drama

[ql-of-all-time-bracket]

QL of All Time - Round 3: I Became the Lead in a BL Drama: Crank up Edition (2023-2024) vs The Eclipse (2022)

[lurkingteapot]

2023 post round-up/summary

Lovely @twig-tea tagged me here, so I'll try my hand.

I'd abandoned tumblr for about 4? 5? years 2016ish through 2020, had a short stint with it again in 2020, took peeks and vehemently disagreed with much of what I saw in 2021-2022, and grudgingly settled back in in 2023. I wasn't going to interact. I wasn't.

Jan-April: *crickets* I was being strong!

Then, I saw people moaning about how they'd learn Thai if only it was on Duolingo, and you know how spite can be funnelled into positivity? I did that! Result:

May

Popular: Free Thai Language Learning Resources, most popular by a landslide. This pleases me greatly, as I put a lot of work into it and always hope more people start picking up this language.

Favourite: maybe my thoughts on Ming, piggybacking off @kenmakaashi's post?

June

Popular: my musings on translation and how it relates to fannish reception of media, which was my most popular post of the year and 'broke containment', if only in a very small way. Some of the additions in the tags and reblogs are fantastic, do go have a look if you like!

Favourite: toss-up between my attempt at showing a parallel between a silly moment in Our Skyy 2 x BBS and a scrapped shot from BBS proper and this rant about Romanisations of Thai and why G**gle translate is the devil (that bit is in the conversation downthread), which let me meet @plantsarepeopletoo.

July

Popular: Summary of James Welker's 2006 essay "Beautiful, Borrowed, and Bent: “Boys’ Love” as Girls’ Love in Shōjo Manga"

Favourite: the offerings are slim here … let's go with the one in which I once more was salty about the way folks talk about BL

August

Popular: Only Friends' Ray isn't just The Drunkard, but also The One Who's basically Given Up On Himself, as per his title card (this one was so popular it got stolen and reposted – without credit or permission – to twitter 🙃)

Favourite: Thinking about Drama, the Romance genre, and tropes, and how those relate to our perception of BL (good additions from various folks in the notes; conversation with @visualtaehyun in reblogs and @twig-tea in the replies).

September

Popular: IFYLITA Ep 6 poem context notes

Favourite: toss-up between complaining about badly machine translated content in Love in Translation and musing on the name of Khun Yai's favourite bar

October

Popular: my long-winded answer to @zimmbzon's ask "Hi, how would a non-binary person (me) get around the binary gender rules and vocab in Thai?"

Favourite: uhhh … maybe my musings on honorific translations in kimi ni wa todokanai? (yes, technically a reblog from sideblog, shh)

November

Popular: most popular was this throwaway therapy vent containing food for thought and while I guess this meme is mostly fannish I'm linking it anyway because it's my blog and I'll cry if I want to (or something)

Favourite: when I called out the resemblance between the Last Twilight trailer and Intouchables (2011). Literally no one cared, but then @my-rose-tinted-glasses independently came in strong with receipts as soon as the actual first episode aired and made me feel validated af.

December

Popular: Why I'm pretty sure Last Twilight's "fried rice/false rice" joke was funnier in Thai

Favourite: the saga of the songs in Ep 4 of Last Twilight

I didn't do any round-up posts, but I'll include the other category @twig-tea added:

Five other posts that I want to highlight because I can:

BL Favourites Tag Game (July 2023)

Link to fujoshi.info with information on WHY you should check out that site if you're interested in having an informed opinion on BL and the genre's history.

contemporary issues in Thailand as mentioned in Only Friends ep 1

Thoughts on code-switching in Step by Step

Reply to @mynameisnotthepoint's comment-via-ask on my anti viki rant

I'm not going to tag anyone because I'm completely lost – I was mostly off tumblr for nearly three weeks; if you made a post like this you'd like me to see, please link me/tag me! <3

[darkmaga-returns]

The FBI is a captured entity—part of the blob. It appears beholden to some force while still legally subject to the will of the Chief Executive unless it decides to investigate them, which might look like obstruction of justice (or injustice, depending on the side the media chooses). Data from the FBI is political and about as reliable as Labor statistics for BLS, weather records at NOAA and NASA, or GDP (from whatever bureaucratic crevice that now oozes).

Given my pithy preamble, what then does it say that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has not just quietly revised its 2023 crime report but done so in such a way that you’d never know differently if you didn’t download the update and fisk it?

But crime went down under whoever was running the Biden administration. Ask any Democrat running for anything or the sheeple trying to help them across the finish line. We’ve posited that this likely results from a decline from the peak during the Summer of Love and simply ignoring crimes and not punishing their perpetrators. After all, the crime capitals of America are all run by Democrats with dodgy DAs who are looking the other way to facilitate the chaos necessary to the revolution.

It’s always about the revolution with them, in case you forgot.

Fewer reported crimes allow you to claim crime went down, and I think that’s still true. Given the FBI’s tweak, this is a much more alarming fact three weeks before “the most important election in our lifetimeTM.”

It initially reported that the rate fell by 2.1% in 2022 but has since been updated to show it actually increased by 4.5%, proving Republicans’ claims that violent crime is plaguing the nation. The FBI finally admits in the new data that there were thousands more murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults under the Biden-Harris administration — something former President Donald Trump has repeatedly brought up throughout his 2024 campaign.

For those saddled with common core math (like the FBI, it appears), that is a 6.6% rounding error. Crime went up almost 5% under Biden Harris in 2022, and the FBI felt the need to report it but not in any way that might result in a lot of attention.

[gothicbarbie]

MY TOP 15 BL SERIES OF 2021

I did one of these for 2022, so figured I should do one for 2021, 2020 and then one for the shows before that. I started watching Bls seriously at the start of 2021, and its been such a fun journey. These lists are probably more so for me than anything else but maybe someone will find them helpful when trying to decide which ones to check out... let me know what your favs are!

1. We Best Love [Taiwan] - To date, my favorite BL series thus far. IMO it really has everything. Great premise and storyline, great acting and dialogue, and amazing chemistry between the main two, plus decent enough intimate scenes and kisses. It really ticks all the boxes for me. Plus, I love a good rivals to lovers storyline and samyu are pretty darn sweet.

2. Utsukushii Kare [Japan] - This one is a bit messy and there are definitely some problematic elements, but gosh, it's so entertaining. From start to finish I was hooked into the storyline and the relationship betwene the main two. And I think it was a well-rounded story with a good ending, so it left me pretty satisfied. For a Japan series too, it had a nice kising scene in the finale.

3. Light on Me [Korea] - Adore this series, and finally we get a longer Korean BL. The main characters were adorable, and the show was light enough and funny but had some good drama as well. Not the best kissing scenes ever but the main two's chemistry made up for it imo. Very sweet series.

4. To My Star [Korea] - This one took a few watches to grow on me but in hindsight its one of the better BL's out there (lets not talk about season 2)... the storyline was fun and it was one of the first Korean BL's that I watched, so it was a good one to start on! Korea goes unmatched for me with their BL's.

5. Kieta Hatsukoi [Japan] - Not a lot to say about this one tbh, I would have to rewatch to really give some better insight but I remember really enjoying this one. Japan BL's can tend to be a bit dramatic and sometimes a bit dark, but this one was so light and fluffy. It was a nice change of pace.

6. Don't Say No [Thai] - Okay, storyline wise, this BL kind of dragged for me. I didn't find the premise overly interesting. HOWEVER, Jafirst and their chemistry really made up for it. It's obvious how comfortable they are and their kissing scenes were one of the best scenes from this year. (We won't bring up THAT scene with FIAT in episode 2 (or was it 1?) because I lost my brain there.) But yeah, we'll just say this series was very enjoyable haha.

7. HiStory 4 [Taiwan] - This was a solid season. Not the best the series has ever done but I love that each season is different. The brothers storyline was a hot frickin mess but the main pairing was cute. Overall, I just found it very enjoyable.

8. Peach of Time [Korean] - Is this Korean or Thai? Not really sure, but it was a cute season that felt like a bit of both worlds. Not the most amazing chemstry or storyline of all time but it was sweet and interesting to watch. It had a certain charm to it.

9. You Make Me Dance [Korean] - It's hard to find a korean bl I dislike. And while this one is not that memorable compared to some others, it was still a nice watch.

10. Tale of a Thousand Stars [Thai] - People go crazy for earth+mix... they aren't really my cup of tea. Nothing against them, they are sweet, I just dont go crazy for them. The setting wasn't really my thing either but I did like the energy between the characters and all their cute moments and scenes, so it kept me entertained. Wished they had a better last kiss though.

11. Lovely Writer [Thai] - Found parts of this boring and the storyline didn't really hold my interest all that much but I did enjoy the scenes between the couples. I wish the side "pairing" had gotten more focus cuz that kiss on the street was great! But it was nice.

12. I Promised You the Moon/I Told Sunset About You part 2 [Thai] - Part 2 was nothing compared to season 1 at all. Season 1 imo was masterpeice and season 2 was just like a typical bl series imo. I hate cheating storylines so this series made me pretty mad haha but it wasn't UNWATCHABLE and I still liked the chemistry between the main 2.

13. Nobleman Ryu's Wedding [Korean] - The time setting wasn't really for me, but it was a cute and fun series. Not much else to say!

14. Fish Upon the Sky [Thai] - TBH I don't remember a WHOLE lot from this series and am planning to rewatch for pondphuwin, but I do remember enjoying it.

15. The Tasty Florida [Korean] - Again, can't go wrong with SK for me. But, compared to the other Korean series, this one wasn't AS good. Still enjoyable.

Honorable mentions: (Won't go into detail on these, but overall I found all of them nice and pleasant to watch, but they didn't grab me in the same way as some other series.

BxJ Series - (still have yet to see it but I did enjoy season 1), Bad Buddy - (watched a reactor watch this so technically couldn't add it to my list, but will try to watch it eventually), Be Loved in House I Do, Tinted With You, My Sweet Dear, The Man Who Defies the World of BL, The Novelist, Behind Cut, Stuck on You

Also check out my lists from other years! https://gothicbarbie.tumblr.com/post/705678223200174080/my-top-bls-of-2019-and-earlier https://gothicbarbie.tumblr.com/post/705674738528354304/my-top-15-bls-of-2020 https://gothicbarbie.tumblr.com/post/705139242020618240/my-top-20-bl-series-of-2022

[mel0000]

My top BL-Series Of 2022

Hello my fellow Bl-fans. The girls/ gays and theys obviously won this year, so let’s look back on our blessings 😃

I’m not spoiling anything or I’m trying not to, let’s go 🚶🏻‍♀️

1. KinnPorsche

This doesn‘t come surprising, does it? I remember how I lived week to week back then and the mafia topic was still kind of new and oh so exciting. Enough sexyness, earnestness and humour gave this series a well rounded outcome. There were still holes in the plot here and there but where weren‘t any this year? Let‘s move on. (Waiting for season 2)

2. Semantic Error

My god, these two held me by my throat in the beginning of this year, you couldn‘t help but immediately fall in love with them. It was a successful series and I hope Jaechan and Seoham will do another project in the future, but I don’t think so as of now.

3. Young Royals 2

Another Wilmon gold piece produced, which plot went smooth and showed progress over the episodes. It’s still very short for such an amazing piece and I miss Wilmon almost all of the time, but I‘ll gladly wait for season 3.

4. The Eclipse

The portraying of strong queers went WILD with this one. How Akk got weak in the knees because of Ayan had me gushing over them every week. The plot is lacking a little tho since some points weren’t finished/ worked on properly and Thua..no, just no. Neo looked so dann handsome in his role though and did such a good job with Louis!

5. Between Us

It‘s not finished yet and the plot seems to move too slow atm, but boy, Win is the consent king of this year and is doing the work for every bl character this year that couldn’t do the bare minimum. *COUGH*LITA*COUGH*

We also got a P‘Deeaan~ and the UWMA throwback is nice and so well done from this perspective.

6. Cutie Pie

Nunew and Zee feeding the sub bottom/ dom top fetish/ height difference fetish well 😂 I didn’t like the bff side couple that much and sometimes the corny plot was too much, but the acting was well done.

7. My School President

I can’t believe either that this is in my list already BUT IT IS MAKING ME FEEL THINGS THAT COME CLOSE TO THE THINGS I FELT WHILE WATCHING BAD BUDDY. It is super cute now, not like you think at the beginning and I can’t wait for a new episode. The fandom posts here on Tumblr are also 😘👌🏻

8. Never Let Me Go

This one is also here already. Can’t say much except for the acting that has improved for both Pond and especially Phuwin, my little guy grew up.

9. Blueming

One of the best k-bls this year, hands down. Story, aesthetics, just everything.

10. 180 Degrees Longitude Passes Through Us

"You ask me what I‘m thinking about, I tell you that I’m thinking about whatever you’re thinking about“ it’s DADDY ISSUES, everyone! We all needed a series like this. It was slow-paced and kind of clickbait, but the aesthetic shots made up for that. Nothing made up for the one of a hell annoying mother tho. I also didn’t know any of the actors before even though they seem quite famous.

Very honorable mentions:

Plus And Minus (best Taiwanese bl, still not over the cameo)

Star In My Mind (the Joong-flavour)

My Only 12% (good worked out plot, good acting, angsty season)

Enchanté (the end omg 🤦🏻‍♀️, Force is one handsome dude)

Old Fashion Cupcake & Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice (best of Japan this year)

My Secret Love (preferred the second couple)

Cherry Magic The Movie (😍 I missed them and WEDDIIIIING)

Big Dragon (…they could improve the plot for season 2)

Love Mechanics (the kinda non-con at the end turned me off and it wasn’t my favourite story to begin with)

Eternal Yesterday (I should‘ve watched the trailer, I didn’t expect THAT 😂 but it was still good)

To My Star 2 (at first I thought we didn’t need the angst, but we kind of did)

Vice Versa (good story, mediocre acting, not my favorite couple except for the lesbians 😏)

Cupid’s Last Wish (…we didn’t need that, but EarthMix we did)

Kissable lips (I’m happy that the actors still work together, but it was mediocre)

About Youth (can’t remember anything, but it was good 😶)

My Tooth Your Love (cute and the couples slayed)

Magic Of Zero (🥹 EarthMix and MilkLove)

Secret Crush On You (super corny and mediocre acting, but the topics they handled and how they handled them!! Rare occasion)

The Tuxedo (pretty actors and an okay plot)

The Miracle Of Teddy Bear (not my cup of tea, but I’m happy it was kinda famous in Thailand)

Not so honorable mentions:

Minato’s Laundromat (did turn me off and also non-con)

A Man Who Defies The World Of BL 2 (it was probably decent, but I can’t remember one second of it 😫, I’m getting old)

Ocean Likes Me (cute and HOLLAND💓💓💓💓💗 but we didn’t need that)

Cherry Blossoms After Winter (the non-con destroyed it)

Our Days (I don’t know what the person ate that made the plot go this way)

Check Out (we all know why this is here, I can watch porn instead, thanks)

Close Friend 2 (oh we didn’t need that as well)

Love In The Air (kinda non-con and Mame can’t live without rape in a plot, sorry not sorry)

Oh!My Sunshine Night ( I started this series and stopped after two episodes since it was boring, sorry OhmFluke)

War Of Y (started off good, but went downhill pretty fast. Been skipping the last few weeks through the episodes)

Love Victor 3 (not sure where to put this honestly. I loved 1&2, but this was a back and forth, which is normal for teenagers, but I think this wasn’t it for me)

Mr. Cinderella (finally a Vietnamese bl, but not my cup of tea)

Heartstopper (kinda overhyped, plot didn’t get me, boring 😶)

Note at the end: Look how far we’ve come! It’s sad bl’s with lots of sex scenes get the most attention, I recommend everyone to just watch porn if you’re thinking a series/ movie is bad/ not enough because there is not enough bed sports displayed. If you’re an adult, you must know there are relationships that aren’t only in for the sex. (Since I’ve seen enough people saying you’re not a couple when you’re not having sex, BULLSHIT YOU F***ING CHILDREN)

Thanks for coming to my rant. Let’s hope for a better 2023!

[absolutebl]

Getting to know your BL mutuals - 2022 Edition

tagged by @jenos-sociopath thanks hon! 

Simple, answer the questions. @ some people. Include the tag: g2ky BL Mutuals 2022

What has been the BL that took you by surprise this year?

Old Fashion Cupcake, it came out of nowhere so I had no expectations, but it still managed to be way better than I was expecting. Absolutely brilliant and one of my favorites of this year. (Full review here.) As a BL it’s not perfect (that award goes to Semantic Error) but as a show for ME it was almost exactly what I love best in the world from acting to filming. A marvelous piece of cinema. 

My Ride, a charming little pulp with a fantastic cast and script. Slow burn and really beautiful, this one defied all expectations (I don’t expect much from the Thai pulps) and remains really dear to my heart. Full Review here. 

Cherry Blossoms After Winter, Korea went very classic Japanese yaoi with this one and added super atmospheric touches and a nod to equal rights and soem very old fashioned tropes. That’s what was unexpected. Korea usually sticks to a very specific kind of BL, this was not that kind, it made it a particularly nostalgic viewing experience for me. Full review here.

I’m not mentioning some of my other favorites of this year like Minato’s Laundromat, Takara, Bad Buddy, Blueming, DNA Says Love You etc... because they didn’t surprise me, they were what I expected from those industries and talents.  

What has been the BL that you felt a disappointed with this year?

Blue of Winter AKA Judo Boys - Korea should stay away from pulps 

Love Area: Part 2 - I didn’t expect much, it still disappointed 

Love in Spring AKA Spring of Crush - I expected BL, it wasn’t 

The Tuxedo - yeah, what the ACTUAL fuck? 

Check Out - such a killer intro episode last year, such a terrible series this year

Our Days - what a shit show, why did I watch the whole thing? I’m disappointed in myself. 

Coffee Melody - my much anticipated Pavel’s next BL and it was so lackluster  

Even Sun - how to blow good chemistry on a bad script 101 

Love Mechanics - how to blow good chemistry on a bad script 201

Sky in Your Heart - OMG no, what happened? worst chemistry ever 

Senpai, This Can’t be Love! - turns out, it can’t be love

Kabe Koji - I was robbed 

Enchanté - grumble 

KinnPorsche - yeah, BITE ME 

Kissable Lips - he fucking DIED? 

A few of these I still rated well, because they were decent BLs by BL standards, it’s just I gotta reset my expectations. 

What has been your favorite BL this year?

Favorite BL couple of 2022

Aside from the leads of the 4 favorites already mentioned? 

Michan & Koichi 

Minato & Shin 

Takara & Amagi

Pat & Pran

Pluem & Kewin 

Vegas & Pete

Daisy & Intouch

San & Aei 

Rain & Payu

If you had to suggest a BL for someone what would it be?

Top 10 BLs to SUCK in new fans. 

What's your non-BL favorite for this year?

Hum, good question. 

A Business Proposal 

Love and Leashes

So who wants to go next? 

[lollipopsub]

~ getting to know your BL mutuals ~ 

I was tagged by @leonpob so lessgo

I’ve been stressed about this for days cause I need to make the RIGHT choices?????!

rules: answer the questions and @ some people. include the tag 'g2ky BL mutuals 2022' on your post so we can find everyone's answer.

what have been the BLs that took you by surprise this year?

I think I was the most surprised by Eternal Yesterday. I went into it expecting something more along the lines of Senpai, This Can't Be Love or Kabe Koji, which is kind of slapstick, lighthearted and not too intellectually challenging, but boy was I proven wrong. The show manages to take a ridiculous premise and turn it into a well-written, well acted story that is probably going to break my heart (at the moment the final episode is yet to air...)

what have been the BLs that you felt a bit a lot disappointed with this year?

Sing In Love.

I was excited about a grittier plot and a new Japanese production, but it just made me uncomfortable and I did not want to finish it.

Cherry Magic The Movie also felt like a letdown. It just bored me, honestly.

what has been your favorite BL this year?

omg i looked up a list to see which ones were from this year, and it was like 5 Japanese, 5 Korean, 5 Taiwanese and then 60 billion Thai😂

I think my favorites are Old Fashion Cupcake and Eternal Yesterday.

Old Fashion Cupcake is everything I wanted in a good drama; good pacing, relationships between characters that make sense, believable character behavior and good acting and also really hot actors.

Eternal Yesterday has just absolutely overwhelmed me. I am a sucker for melancholic stories (to the surprise of literally no one), and the way Japanese dramas manage to wrap up some quite profound thoughts about the world and what it means to be a human is something I really adore.

In Episode 6 when Koichi asks if it's impossible for the people you love to be tied in the same place; for two people to be equally important to and loved by you. Or Episode one, where Mitsuru says it's not that Koichi broke down his wall, but he opened a door through it.

I really thought about adding More Than Words to the list, but I feel like it shouldn't really be grouped into the BL-genre. I still feel like the frames of the genre are limiting many aspects of film-making and storytelling, and that it's more an LGBT+ story than a BL drama.

favorite BL couples (not just of 2022)?

BounPrem and YinWar I think. Now that Prem has gone independent, I just want him to drag Boun with him to Yin and War to create a Supreme Company for Hot People™ and to actually make the YinWar Concert Trailers into a really hot show.

Especially War is an absolutely incredible actor, so I just really hope the two of them will get some interesting projects in the coming year!

what's your non-BL favorite this year?

Silent.

No doubt, no question. It's so good. Everyone and their grandmother should watch it pls.

.... Oh wow I am really biased, huh? 😬😬

I didn't intend for every show on here to be Japanese, I just think the Japanese shows I'm mentioning are a lot more well-rounded than the Korean and Thai and Taiwanese counterparts that I've seen this year. I am intrigued by how Korea seems to be branching out more and embracing the genre not as adaptations of fictional stories, but as stories about people. I just feel like the genre is so old in Japanese medias that they're a step ahead and I like how the Japanese shows are carried by the stories of the characters and their little lives rather than some large, daunting outer factor.

I want to tag a lot of people but I am an awkward turtle so I don't have a lot of people to tag. I hope it's ok to tag @storge and @chaeunwoo 🥺

[gillianthecat]

Fahlanruk episode 12

my mostly negative thoughts while watching the final episode

Sher really took off his shoe to throw at Fah. 

This ending is making me appreciate Big Dragon's finale even more. 

The problem with Fah and Sher is that their story keeps reminding me of other shows that do whatever trope or plot better. Tending a cut on the bottom of the uke's foot -> Between Us made it more interesting. "Don't let me chase you away" -> I cared much more when Ji-woo said this to Seon-joon in To My Star 2.  The shoe throwing I haven't seen before though. 

I feel like Fah and Sher aren't actually going to do anything to solve their problems. Like have a conversation about... whatever their problems are, I don't even know at this point. Not trusting each other I think is at the base of it, and that's not going away just because you're being cute and calling each other faen. 

Tap and Ping have such good pajama game. They're so cute in their coordinated old man jammies. I've seen very few repeats, and I've loved every one. Do you think Ping has been buying them for them both all along? Excited about getting into bed next to his crush in the couples pajamas he got for them? 🥺

Ok, this scene in the kitchen where Fah is about to feed Sher porridge and asks Sher to be his boyfriend is pretty cute, I will give them that. 

Ping and Tap tagging tagging each other in their relationship status on Facebook is adorable. I love the way they're looking at each other here. (But do university students in Thailand even use Facebook anymore? I thought it was passé for that entire generation.)

I'm annoyed that even in late 2022 even sexually voracious uke characters still turn reluctant about sex once the relationship is established. It makes no damn sense! First Big Dragon and now this. I mean, it does sort of fit both their characters and dynamics (and Yai better than Sher), but I'm so annoyed by the trend overall. 

But at least even the sweetest most innocent of the three couples get to have sex. Good for them. And interestingly, these actors seem most comfortable with the physicality of it, out of all three pairs. Well done, Gear and Prince.

There is no way that Sher's cut was that serious. This is ridiculous. 

Are these music people cameos by actual famous music people? Otherwise there is no reason to listen to their extremely boring conversation. 

JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. Will anyone in this fucking show just let Sher live his own fucking life the way that HE wants to? Now that they're all done pressuring him to give in and date Fah they can't be content that they won that round and have to start pressuring him to reveal himself as a singer songwriter. There are a lot of good reasons for someone to want to remain anonymous and not be a pop star! Just because it doesn't fit your idea of how he should be living his life it doesn't mean he's not "embracing his own uniqueness" or whatever the fuck. I am getting much angrier than I should about this on behalf of a character I don't even care about. But it really is pissing me off. 

Wait, this play is about how toxic social media is and how gossip can fuck up relationships? Didn't Pink write this play? I... I don't even...

I'm still kind of rooting for Pie in all his campy villain glory. At least he's not pretending to be anything other than a selfish asshole and not trying to justify his interfering behavior as anything other than self-interest. 

Does no one teach the children basic internet safety anymore? Sher, why are you talking to this rando who messaged you out of the blue instead of blocking him. Maybe everyone SHOULD be making all of Sher's decisions for him after all. 

I know 80% of BLblr is relieved not to hear singing in their BLs, but it weirds me out when the characters are singers but we never or rarely hear them singing. Or, even worse, they play other music over footage of the character singing or playing. At that point, why even bother. 

See. These idiots never actually dealt with the fact that they don't trust each other! Shit like this is going to keep happening. Unless they somehow manage to have a real conversation in the last ten minutes of this show, but i I highly doubt that. 

Ok, I guess they did manage to sidestep the jealousy and work together. Whatever. I still don’t buy that they figured it out.

This episode is taking me forever to watch because I keep getting bored and/or irritated and going off to do something else. I could just not watch it of course, but I keep telling myself, just 30 minutes left, just 20 minutes left, just 5 minutes left of the whole fucking series, just get it over with so you never have to watch it again. So I am determined to watch it and be miserable. I am starting to actually hate the show now though, perhaps because of it.

They even did the thing with the play that I hate, where the dialogue is a barely veiled metaphor for the main characters relationship. And who is this woman in the white dress that they thanked? She was also the music... producer? that Sher met, I think? I feel like she must be a cameo because otherwise the focus on her makes no sense. Maybe the novel author? (She's certainly not an actress; she's even stiffer than all the other terrible acting in this show.)

Since I'm already being mean about it, I will take this opportunity to get it off my chest: the acting in this show is, with few exceptions, pretty awful. Sher and Fah feel like the worst offenders, but that's probably because they're awful characters that have no other redeeming features to save them. It's part of what's making this last episode such a slog. Them being "cute" together is not actually cute because I keep noticing how awkward and fake the acting is. 

And even Ping and Tap, as much as I adore them, are not doing very good acting most of the time, I hate to say. Ping is the best by far, and has moments of brilliance, but also a lot of awkward fake moments. I do blame the director for a lot of it, because it's so universal, and it often just feel like he's been given bad direction, and odd instructions regard timing/pacing. I would love to see him in something else with a better director because he's still pretty young and I think he has a lot of potential. As for Tap, I think he's the prettiest out of all the actors, and better than most of them, but he's still not that good unfortunately. But again, perhaps with a better script/director...

I do not understand (well 80% of this show to be honest, but specifically) why Sher and Fah are friends with Pink. Why they tolerate her sobbing and screaming "my ship has reached its destination." That is CREEPY. She is a fucking CREEP.  If I was them I would take out a restraining order. 

Speaking of things I don't understand, why is Fah doing an instagram live for the general public? He's not an influencer or anything like that as far as a can tell. Just a random popular kid on campus. Is this a real thing in the real world? Anywhere? Or in Thailand specifically? Do college kids these days treat the popular students like minor celebrities and follow their every move? It could well be, I am old™️ and don't understand how the youths are using social media. 

I do find it hilarious that for whatever reason they decided Fah and Sher needed a last minute separation. But only were willing to do it for a week(?). I couldn't actually tell you why or for how long because I'm seriously struggling to pay attention at this point. 

Yay! It's fucking over. I made it. Now I can let everything about this show slip from my memory, as it’s already trying to do. (Except for Ping and Tap, them I’ll keep.)

I will say that this final episode is making me appreciate Big Dragon's more. That one I did love, because the show has my heart and they did do many things very well, but I was also aware of several things I wished they'd done differently. But any flaws it had paled in comparison to the nonsense mess that was Fahlanruk ep 12. 

[waitmyturtles]

SUNDAY SHOW ROUND-UP!

Goddamn -- there are so many shows! The holiday season and many life obligations are preventing me from writing meta about most of these shows except for the big priorities (my Old GMMTV Challenge project and Last Twilight). So here's a quick round-up of what I'm thinking, feeling, etc., about the dramas I have going on.

1) CHERRY MAGIC THAILAND IS DELIGHTFUL AND FULFILLING TO MY SOUL AND LIFE

I've mentioned before! I'm a HUUUUUGE Cherry Magic Japan girlie. I am a major defender of the movie, AMA. When I joined Tumblr last year, besides Old Fashion Cupcake, Cherry Magic was....I think it was the first gigantic rabbithole I fell in. I love, unabashedly, everything about this franchise, and I think TayNew are carrying it splendidly so far. (Also, the original mangaka of the whole Cherry Magic franchise, Toyota Yuu, is 100% on board with the adaptation and is regularly tweeting about it, and just! COULD THAT BE MORE CUTE AND REASSURING FOR US CM GIRLIES, NO I DON'T THINK SO, BIG HAPPY SIGHS.)

So the original manga exists in the Cherry Magic Thailand universe, huh? I'm gonna admit my unreasonable optimism to say that I am not-so-secretly hoping for a Machida Keita/Akaso Eiji/Kurosawa/Adachi cameo -- but the manga existing in this universe jags that up a bit.

BUT! Toyokawa still exists in the universe... so does that mean that Kurosawa/Adachi do, too? I'M NOT GOING THERE, BUT I AM.

ANYWAY! I noted last month that I really appreciated seeing a lot of Japan in the Cherry Magic trailer -- "Karan-san," Karan speaking Japanese, "san juu," the fact that Toyokawa is still the company that all these guys are working for. But I also love the very overt Thai visuals -- the Buddha in Achi's apartment foreground, the offering to the monk (which replaces the onigiri guy in Cherry Magic Japan, lmao) -- I'm just, covering my mouth in happiness at noting that these details are very well-placed, and very intentional.

That's it, I enjoyed every last second of this first episode in total joy of seeing this Thai remix. With X Nuttapong behind this show -- yes, oh yes, I loved seeing literally the phrase "theory of love" in the subtitles, and good on him for going there a bit.

2) An Old GMMTV Challenge update! So, I interrupted the OGMMTVC to catch up with La Pluie, because I know LP will be on a lot of best-of-2023 lists later this month.

By episode 4 or so, I knew La Pluie had to, HAD TO, go on the OGMMTVC syllabus, so on it went. And I'm going to pause on writing about it out of chronology. I'm watching Secret Crush on You (2022) now, I'll do my watchlist thing, and I'll rewatch LP.

La Pluie was a motherfucking important show.

The subversion of the romance genre in Thai BL. I mean. Give me a mallet to crack the gigantic egg on that on. @lurkingshan's La Pluie meta round-up post has been a walking stick for me as I've stumbled to get my thoughts together around this show, and honestly, I'm not ready to write about it yet. I need to finish 2022's shows on the watchlist and get through some important 2023 rewatches to fully write about La Pluie in its context, and to understand how such an important show came about this year by way of the straightforward honesty it took in dismantling and rebuilding some very key expectations that we may have carried about romance in Thai BL before its airing.

If you haven't watched La Pluie yet, do it before this year is over. DO IT. IT'S INCREDIBLE AND SO MUCH.

3) Playboyy, episode 4: I have a lot of thoughts, and no time to write about this show, but episode 4 was really different than the first three. It was CAMPY AF, way melodramatic (wtf Zooey/Soong), but it also had many more nuggets of a plot than I had expected to see by way of Nont finally revealing himself to WAY more people than I had expected. I'm sticking with it with the expectation that Cheewin will know how to get himself out of this mess, BUT, one huge criticism -- the intimacy is getting harder to watch, because it's being lazily acted and filmed (..... you had y'alls' shorts on, Prom/Nont, ahem), and it's just a lot, and can we just, like, get more to the story, I'm gonna put that in the show's request box.

Clown theory: I think Prom knows more than he's letting on and is using Nont in some bad ways to get back at those other dudes for leaving Playboyy. But I'm trying to not get invested-invested because a) still sooooo many names to remember, GOD, and b) soooo many shows airing, my brain can't take it.

4) The Sign: I'm putting this guy on pause. I heard yesterday's episode was 90 minutes, and I can't commit to a weekend show that needs that kind of time commitment. I'm following y'all in the gifs. This is no knock on BillyBabe. I REALLY LIKE THEM TOGETHER. GO SAINT, I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU. But I'll watch this when there's a lull in the midseasons.

5) What Did You Eat Yesterday?: WDYEY and Last Twilight are the best shows airing right now. When a show is so good, it doesn't need meta? That's WDYEY. Nishijima’s quiet “hai” to start the conversation with Kenji’s mom? Some of the best acting in all of BL.

The amazing @isaksbestpillow threw down some clutch background about this past Friday's episode that's WELL worth reading, about chosen family and what Kenji's family was offering to Shiro. Gorgeous, screaming, crying, etc.

That's all I got, happy Sunday, y'all! The OGMMTVC will come back with SCOY when I wrap it up, hopefully soon!

[mousieta]

Review: My Tooth Your Love

Year: 2022 Country: Taiwan Platform: Viki My Tooth Your Love had no business - No Business - being as good as it is. I went in sceptically because… I mean just look at the title, it’s so silly. But this show isn’t. Which isn’t to say it is dark and serious, because it isn’t. But what it is is delightfully well written and thoroughly charming and enjoyable.

I honestly don’t think I have a single criticism of it and I don’t think I’ve enjoyed so wholly a BL since Tale of A Thousand Stars last year. This was a complete delight to curl up with each week and waiting for new episodes was the best kind of torture.

The writing was solid and had moments of good insight, especially on the topic of mental illness and dealing with/ recovering from trauma. It was also refreshing to watch adults have a sweet love story.

The actors were absolutely amazing. Andy and Yu Jin are so effortlessly into one another, seemingly completely smitten and so casual in their affection and intimacy. Serious fan service kings, I cannot get enough of it.

Andy plays Bai Lang a restaurant/bar owner with a toothache and fear of getting dental work done, and Yu Jin is Jin Xun An, a sometimes aloof dentist. So, of course, they are meant for each other. They’re rounded out with an adorable cast of side characters and pairings.

Really, its hard to review a show like this because it knows exactly what it is and nailed it so perfectly that all I can do is recommend that if you’re in the mood for a sweet romcom, you give it a go, you will not be disappointed.

2022 Drama Reviews Masterlist

[littleragondin]

For the ask game: 🏳️‍🌈, 💎, 🧸

Thank you for asking! („• ᴗ •„)

🏳️‍🌈 something you wish wasn’t so common in BLs

I'll go with he shipping characters/obsessive BL enthusiast. Sometimes it feels like we are getting away from it and then one makes a surprise appearance (yes i just watched Marry Go Round and while I ended up mostly ok with her, Emmy took me by surprise) and I'm back to

ヾ(`ヘ´)ﾉﾞ w h y ? ? ?

Even the mildest examples (I'm thinking like Tomoyo and Sakura (...the wasted potential of not giving us a crumb about them being a couple i swear) from Senpai, danjite koidewa who were very respectful and low key about it) make me roll my eyes and sigh now. It's okay, I think we can find other ways to make "audience relatable" characters if that was the point of them.

(but I also have to agree with everyone I saw mention the sleeping kisses, that can go for good)

💎 show you wish people talked about more:

I will have to say The Miracle of Teddy Bear again yeah. I know it's a 2022 release, that it's on the longer side (17 ep of 1+ hour) and it has a polarized reputation, but I feel like it had so much to say, I was completely taken it by it, I think it had a lot of heart, and while a bit heavier than the soap opera/cheesy cheap aspects might initially suggest, it left me with a lot of hope and I haven't stopped thinking about it since I saw it in April.

🧸 friends to lovers or enemies to lovers?

That one's a no brainer for me, I'm a friends to lovers addict every day of the week. I enjoy a good enemies to lovers, I do. But there is something with a long lasting friendship that wants to turn into something else, the knowing the other, the familiarity and already loving them so much, the fear of losing what you have... yeah I am team friends to lovers all the way.

[dream-thief-forever-amen]

Alright @staytotheend here’s what’s what…

WATCHED (recently enough)

Roommates of Poongduck 304 - really enjoyed it and would recommend to anyone - but it didn’t trigger obsession or anything

My Only 12% - cute but not particularly unique or memorable

Old Fashioned Cupcake - looooved it

Love in the Air - loooooved it and am obsessed with it and am still eating it up

KinnPorsche - ultimate obsession show of 2022 triggered absolute neurotic love in my brain

Semantic Error - good, I liked the pissy short boy in particular

Not Me - good, cool concept, more well rounded than most shows, enjoyed watching

Love Mechanics Uncut - got stupidly sucked into this show and loved it week to week

Ghost Host Ghost House - fun and unusual plot, great chemistry, a nice snack show after a long day at work

Coco Milk Shake - like a huge snuggly hug - it was adorable and I’d cut off a finger for a full length production of this super short show

Kabe Koji - exactly what I thought it would be and fun in the chaotic way of Japanese BL - but annoyingly chaste considering the subject

ON AIR SHOWS I’M FOLLOWING

The Director Who Buys Me Dinner - cute, unique plot, but the eps are painfully short

Between Us - loving every ep so far, no complaints

Reborn Rich - I love a good melodrama about rich people being miserable - not a BL

My Tooth Your Love - the couples are cute, it’s entertaining, the dentist is gorgeous… need to watch the last two eps

My School President - gah it’s super cute

WATCHING WHEN THE MOOD STRIKES

Big Dragon the Series - eh it’s sloppy but sexy

GAP - three eps in and not charmed at all

To My Star 2 - ahhhh my heart can only take small doses

Oh My Assistant - not bad but it’s not holding me

LAST BINGE

Weak Hero Class 1 - excellent and emotionally damaging… not a BL really unless you squint, which I did. This show made me immediately rewatch Better Days and ExtraCurricular to stay in the secret high school violent chaos theme…

REWATCHING

Love in the Air - on Viki now for the different subtitles but also cause I am crack addicted.

KinnPorsche - must rewatch once before the new year… seems like a perfect way to close out 2022. Fav show of 2022 closely followed by Love in the Air.

PLANNING TO WATCH

The Glory - not a BL but a magnificent revenge melodrama (hopefully)

Only Friends - can’t wait for this!

Be Mine Superstar - looks fun

Eclipse the Series - why haven’t I watched this?

Summer Strike - not a BL but I like the male lead and it looks relaxing

The New Employee - gonna wait til there’s a few more eps out before I start it

You’re My Sky - someday

Remember Me - curious about this one

Eternal Yesterday - very intrigued by the premise

My Beautiful Man 2 - a sequel?!!! Yay!!!!