#black brooder x heavenly human

[respectthepetty]

When dealing with a story about a Heavenly Human and Black Brooder, nothing says they are together like the little black and white figurines hugging.

And wearing each other's color while eating strawberry (heart) cake.

[respectthepetty]

Me Versus Uniforms

My favorite game is spotting the unique ways colors are integrated into school uniforms.

Catch Me Baby - Red Rascal x Blue Boy - Pen Caps

Dangerous Romance - Blue Boy x Red Rascal - Helmets

Love Mechanics - Red Rascal x Blue Boy - Helmets and Phones

Destiny Seeker - Blue Boy x Red Rascal - Undershirts

Big Dragon - Red Rascal x Black Brooder - Backgrounds/Lighting

Perfect 10 Liners - [Underclassmen] Blue Boy, Yellow Yal, Green Guy - Backpacks

Perfect 10 Liners - [Upperclassmen] Blue Boy, Red Rascal, Purple Person, Orange Oddity - Undershirts

Your Sky - Yellow Yal, Blue Boy(?), Green Guy, Pink Person - Phones and iPad Covers

Addicted Heroin (Thailand) - Yellow Yal x Pink Person, Green Guy x Blue Boy - Accessories (watch, bracelet, headphones, writing utensils)

The Time of Fever - Blue Boy x Yellow Yal - School Badges

The On1y One - Yellow/Orange Oddity x Blue Boy - Lighting, Phones, and Bracelets

Light on Me - Black Brooder x Blue Boy - Cardigans, Shoes, and Sweaters

My School President - Blue Boy x Red Rascal - Lighting

A Secretly Love - Black Brooder x Heavenly Human - Undershirts

Secret Crush on You - Green Girl, Blue Boy, Yellow Yal, Pink Person - Drinks

My Love Mix-Up - Yellow/Orange Oddity x Blue Boy - Lighting and Cardigans

Between Us - Blue Boy x Red Rascal - Backpacks

Love for Love's Sake - Heavenly Human x Black Brooder - Undershirts and Backpacks

Bad Buddy - Blue Boy x Red Rascal - Major Workshop Shirts

I Cannot Reach You - Blue Boy x Yellow/Orange Oddity - Phones

Jazz for Two - Black Brooder x Heavenly Human - Undershirts

To Be Continued - Red Rascal x Blue Boy - Schools' Embroidery

It's just like when Japan color codes ties in its workplace BLs.

It's me versus the BLs, and I love it!

[respectthepetty]

Hi RTP! What are the BLs you would recommend solely for the colors? 🌈

Anon, before I answer this great ask, I want to highlight other posts I've written that are slightly similar:

Reading the (Visual) Rainbow Awards 2023

Overall Winner - Kiseki: Dear to Me

Top Five - Color-Coded Storytelling in BLs

Honorable Mention: Oh No! Here Comes Trouble

5) Moonlight Chicken

4) My Beautiful Man

3) My Love Mix Up

2) Semantic Error

1) Big Dragon

Top Five Color Moments of 2023

Honorable Mention: 7 Days Before Valentine

5) GAP

4) Bed Friend

3) Last Twilight

2) Moonlight Chicken

1) The Eighth Sense

Bonus: Jeff Satur x SHAUN's "Steal the Show"

I don't want to repeat any of the shows I picked, and I'm trying to pick more recent ones so people can find them if they want to watch them, but per your ask, I'm recommending them based solely on colors regardless of how much I liked them.

Recommended Colorful BLs

Honorable Mention: Intern in My Heart

The show is not finished, and it's not a BL, yet it is doing everything right, which is why it gets the honorable mention. Great (Grey) is coded black/dark in the show, and Top is coded pink/light. They are supporting characters who are best friends, and they have stuck to their colors throughout, but in the last episode, they *almost* exchanged colors after Top revealed that he liked Great. Now I'm praying to all the saints for a full color exchange in the finale like I have a personal stake in this because I do! I'm invested, and it better not disappoint me.

#5 - One Room Angel

When I write "Heavenly Human" for a character who wears white, and "Black Brooder" for a character who wears black, THIS is what I mean. A story about an actual angel and a guy who wanted to die was the perfect place to use the light x dark dynamic. However, calling this show a BL is troublesome, which is why it's number five. It still is a great example of what the light x dark color scheme should be used for, and in the end, the guy who wanted to die is much lighter in mood and color, which is what the colors are all about.

#4 - Why R U? (Korea)

First and foremost, that kiss was LIT! The Thai version had Tutor and Fighter's high heat, which could never be matched, but Korea had that kiss, and it ate! But on top of that, it had colors! Ji Oh was a Black Brooder while Lee Won was a Multicolored Menace, and right after this kiss, they flipped colors. That's right! After five episodes of being enemies, they made out for acting "reasons," and then exchanged colors. Normally, Korea is all about the feelings, so the color exchanges in Korean BLs align with a character's feelings changing, but this one directly correlated with a kiss. And for emphasis - That kiss was fire!

#3 - Secret Crush on You

Destiny Seeker might have won the 2023 award for best group effort in color coding, but Secret Crush on You set the bar for that award the year before. This show is Color-Coding 101. Each character has a color, and by each, I mean each and every single damn character in a cast of eleven (plus three fairy godmothers) has their own color. That is a ridiculous feat! Wardrobe, props, and lighting deserved a raise for this show. Some shows can't even get consistent color coding when it only has two characters, but this show understood the color-coding group assignment for the entire series! I'm still applauding two years later.

#2 - Stay by My Side

Taiwanese BLs are my vice. Even the worst Taiwanese BL will still be better than the rest of these BLs. I WROTE WHAT I WROTE. So, of course, I liked this show beyond color reasons, but the colors greatly helped me enjoy the show even more. We had a guy who was haunted by ghosts. He was colorful and light coded. Then we had his roommate who could magically keep the ghosts away. He was dark coded. Read it again. The guy being haunted was bright, light, and colorful, while the guy with the power to help was dark. GENIUS! It was Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice but to Kiss with a supernatural twist. The dark coded guy is sad and isolated but the one who is being HAUNTED BY GHOSTS brings life to his world! Give me a minute. I'm still not over it.

#1 - Pit Babe

I watched this show muted and without subtitles, yet the colors guided me through all thirteen episodes. I understood the plot perfectly because of the colors, and only became confused when people tried to tell me about the actual plot. Alpha? Omega? Santa Maria? Wasn't important. Didn't matter. I don't know them. Red and Blue were the main characters here, and they did their damn job. Babe, in his black, was his own man. He wasn't trying to fit in, but every time the red light focused on Charlie and Way, I was screaming for Babe to run because the colors told me they were still tied to Tony BECAUSE THEY WERE! That's elite color coding, and it ushered in a whole new way for me to watch a show. I loved it.

Bonus: Old Fashion Cupcake

I love this show which is why it is a bonus. Unlike the other shows where I had issues with some part of the plot, Old Fashion Cupcake is as close to perfect as any show has ever come in my personal rating system. It is an Advanced Color Coding course only offered for graduate students, which, honestly, is very Japanese of it because it was in the ties. The color coding showed up in other ways, but the ties were where the story lived since in the past, Nozue was a bright red, but we saw his red damper in the present, which made his loyal assistant bluer. It was only five episodes, yet it used every second of those five episodes in every single way to propel the story forward, colors included. Actually, let me go rewatch this for the hundredth time instead of just writing about it!