#day 2: dancing

[hinamie]

surprise it's yuri!!!in 2024

[halemerry]

Of course it needed to happen at a ball. Of course it needed to be a dance. Of course Aziraphale was so fixated on that. From his perspective what could be a more perfect way to blatantly declare I love you the way humans love each other? What could be a more perfect way to wordlessly shout I love you to the point of defiance of what I am? Angels don't dance but darling I do. I'm the angel that goes with you. We don't have to be lonely. We can just be us.

[seefasterdraws]

i loeve you dai gyakuten saiban

[azfellschild]

day 1 of painting a random s2 scene until good omens gets renewed for s3

♡ LET'S BEGIN ♡

[h0estar]

i'm actually going to cry.

maybe the reason Anya suddenly revealed her secret to Damian, of all people, is because she felt guilty about knowing his deep desire for familial love. he didn't mention it, but it was painfully obvious in the way he looked at her with this soft, sad smile:

anya is so strong. i would've cried and hugged him 😭

but lo and behold, anya wasn't so strong after all. after trying so hard to keep her ability a secret, she told damian anyway – and without hesitation too.

crying... this panel is everything to me

personally, what Anya did was equivalent to a hug. maybe she felt bad... maybe guilty... maybe she wanted him to feel less alone... maybe she pitied him... maybe she sympathized... or maybe she felt it was the right thing to do. but in her own way, she definitely did it to make him feel better and less alone :')

maybe i'm just yapping. but the two of them are so similar in so many ways. Damian despite being part of a real family longs for real connection. and Anya, despite loving her family so much, secretly wishes what they had was truly real – a family not held together by a mission or conveniences, but just that, a simple family. they both just want a home man

this chapter was perfect in so many ways. these kids make my heart hurt, and i'm so scared yet excited for what Endo has in store for the next arcs <3

[raionmimi]

I feel like Symmetra would be up Venture's alley specifically because she wouldn't break their immersion if she was starring in a historical film

[ninjasmudge]

so i heard the news

[galedekarios]

🌼

[lovewillthaw-j]

Elsa ❤️

[reginaldubel]

have these 2

[absolutebl]

TOP 10 BL Trends of 2023

This is just me with my analysis hat on. 

1. 2023 = the year EVERYONE went outside their lanes

Everything went topsy-turvy this year in BL. 

For example, Korea gave us agonized yearning and outright queerness (The 8th Sense, The New Employee) while Japan served up soft office workers and tender family (Our Dining Table). 

The BL world went askew for a while, especially in the spring of 2023. 

Not that we still didn’t still get Korea’s soft angsty bubbles or Japan’s “what are you doing and why does it hurt?” kink-fests. But there were quite a few BLs that made us chronic watchers sit up in confusion and wonder if Korea was dabbling in Taiwan’s territory or Japan in Thailand’s. Then they fudged the kisses and we were like... okay, back in familiar territory. 

In contrast, Thailand stayed course-correcting for the damage they’ve done in the past with tropes (2022) and self referential meta criticism (2021), but also almost aggressively returned to their BL roots after last year’s series of shockers. Certainly, they are reexamining those roots, transplanting some, aerating others. But they really went back to classic Thai university and high school BL and pulps in a big way in 2023. 

Taiwan is always difficult to gage because they produce so few but they seem to have stuck with what they do best with no deviation while producing more this year than they have in ages. I’m happy for that, why change a good thing? But there is a tiny part of me that really wants them to hit it out of the part with a quality piece soon. For me, We Best Love still reigns supreme, but I would really like the HIStory franchise to give us that level but longer - like a happy version of Your Name Engraved Herein. I think Taiwan has the chops to give us something as good as The 8th Sense or Old Fashion Cupcake but in their style, and I would like to see them exercise their talent for good rather than just profit. 

I know, what a very odd thing for me to say. But if any BL is going to break into the mainstream American market, I genuinely think it’s most likely come from Taiwan. 

Vietnam and the Philippines are falling behind, in general. They just didn’t bring out very many shows in 2023, and what the brought out tended to fub the endings. This is forgivable in Japan (because of their style and quality) but not what watchers want in the lower production value propositions. In other words, if you do a pulp, you can’t mess up the ending (by romance standards). that doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon. 

2. The Office Romance Dominated

After years of Thailand serving us an endless (and slightly bland) buffet of university (and a few high school) BLs, this year Korea was basically like...

Ofiice. We like the Office. It’s cheap to film we can use grown up actors, acting (mostly) their actual age. 

And yeah... it totally worked. 

To be fair, Japan has always given us office live action yaoi from the beginning (they had the source material) but this year everyone else, including Thailand, seriously started playing in this setting. 

3. Boys Danced with Boys

The darling @heretherebedork​ was a big fan of this one, and I rather like it myself. Prior to this boys dancing together was very very rare in BL, but this year we got way more than our fair share. It was lovely. 

Never Let me Go

My School President 

Bed Friend 

The Day I Loved You 

Step by Step

Be Mine Superstar

Tie the Not 

Dangerous Romance

I think there were a few more. These are the ones I remembered to write down. 

4. Getting (even more) Meta With Tropes 

BL has been getting more and more meta over the past few years but this year they really focused in on tropes specifically. Calling out their own biggest and most favorite tropes in a massive way, especially Thailand and especially GMMTV. 

Like they tunneled in on damaging tropes with Bad Buddy and the like over the past 2 years, and now they are just having fun with us. 

I mean they just started the dancing trope and already they are calling it out? That’s like rapid-fire regurgitated meta there, GMMTV. 

5. Cameos are the norm now 

Taiwan has always loved cameos but in the past the other countries have been show and steady with only one or two a year. (Unless Japan does a parody.) 

This year Korea got in on the game.

Korea rarely starts trends but they do adopt smaller and lesser known existing ones and make them super popular. 

This year they did that with cameo couple appearances, even borrowing a few of Thailand’s pairs (TutorYim and MaxNat traveled north). They did it so much I stopped tracking. Love Class 2, Why R U?, and Jun & Jun were the heaviest hitters. 

Taiwan, of course, came back swinging. Kiseki was the gum-ball machine of pair cameos. (In Taiwan mafia = gay.) 

6. We are entering the cross pollination age

The number of remakes picked up or started this year was startling, not just countries revisiting their own content (Thailand, Japan) but countries revisiting OTHER countries stuff.

Lemme explain...

Korea has started remaking Thai content (Why R U?) alongside cameo'ing Thai pairs.

Thailand is doing Korean IP (My Dear Gagster Oppa) and has 2 Chinese ones slated for next year. 

GMMTV acquired a lot of Japanese IP (Cherry Magic, Ossen, and My Love Mix Up) - and then had problems distributing it. 

This is probably the most surprising trend for me. Especially the Japanese stuff. I would have thought these properties well outside of Thailand's price range (even GMMTV's) not to mention Japan’s legendary IP issues (I swear I typed this pout before the pulled TayNew’s excellent Cherry Magic). 

Also why not option some of the older popular manga instead? Bet that's much cheeper. (I did see a NEW Thai translation of Finder into Thai, which is 90s yaoi, so I have my fingers crossed on that front.)

I shouldn't be too surprised. 

Thailand is running out of y-novel content. Their publication industry is just not robust enough (I was just talking to a friend about this at length recently). But I didn't think they had the funds to option, especially from Japan. 

Perhaps the option deals are for peanuts?

7. Korea got cheeky

I’m not sure quite how else to put this. 

After finally figuring out boys can kiss, Korea started to do not just higher heat but playful higher heat, with more aggressive word play and linguistic innuendo, like they are entering their racy rom-com teenage years (Why R U? Love Class 2 and Jun & Jun in particular.) 

I guess: Welcome to your BL teens, Korea? 

It’s cute of them. I am very much enjoying it. 

And now that comedy is warming them up, we get to see them play with actual queer burgeoning physicality in shows like The 8th Sense. 

It’s nice. I like seeing Korea stretch its wings. They still stick to their bubble, but that bubble seems to be expanding. 

8. The Amnesia Trope is back

And I, for one, would prefer to forget about it. 

9. BL got trendy 

I’m not quite sure how to articulate this category but basically we started seeing a lot of “modern” romance trends out of the west (like a/b/o) show up in our BL. Not a ton and sometimes quite small, but there has a been a steady rise of things like: no seme/uke, femme gay, out gay, condom use, messy gay. 

We also got an increasing range of sub genre frameworks (like mafia, office setting) that’s moved BL pretty firmly (even in Thailand) out of school and into the workplace, whether actual working is involved or not. 

It’s not to the point where it feels like we get more non-school BL than school BL (if I include all countries in this assessment).

Japan, in classic Japanese fashion, quietly started moving in the opposite direction. It’s what they do. 

10. The Vampires are coming 

This is an announcement trend, which I don’t usually report on but it’s so CLEAR. 

So last year we had a spate of announcements of possible Omegaverse (2 from China, 1 from Japan, 1 from Thailand - the only one that’s happened). 

This year we got 5 Vampire (or vampire-esk) Thai BLs announced including one from GMMTV. 

Whether all 5 will actually get made is unlikely, but having had (basically) none prior to this (Kissable Lips), I’m pretty confident that we will get at least 2 of them. And I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one other country made one as well. (Side eyes Taiwan with interest.) 

Final thoughts

It feels like we are also seeing a decline in BL (both by quantity and quality) from Vietnam and the Philippines. As you all know, I don’t track or really watch either of these two very closely. But it feels like, now, no one else is either. 

I think we have likely seen the BL heyday already in both places and their industries are now on the decline. 

We might be witnessing a thinning in the players in the BL field. 

FYI we had approximately 

136 BLs in 2023

Previous Years

2022: 117

2021: 95

2020: 62

2019: 40

2018: 30 

2017: 44 (China’s last gasp)

2016: 27

2015: 17 (50% micro)

2014: 17 (50% micro)

And that’s it! Let me know in the comments if you’ve spotted any additional trends you want to call out.

Last year, 2022′s trend report

2021′s Trend report

Last Year’s Stats & Predictions

(source) 

[tomhardymyking]

If after the kiss in 𝑽𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒎 1, the "confession" that they love each other in 𝑽𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒎: 𝑳𝒆𝒕 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝑩𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒏𝒂𝒈𝒆, 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗺's hint to 𝗘𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗲 about skinny-dipping in 𝑺𝒑𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓-𝑴𝒂𝒏: 𝑵𝒐 𝑾𝒂𝒚 𝑯𝒐𝒎𝒆, and that maybe 𝑽𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒎: 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒂𝒔𝒕 𝑫𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 could be R-rated, there's not something more explicit in the last one with 𝗦𝘆𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗸 / 𝗩𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗲 / 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗲, I will feel cheated 😮 😏

Happy day everyone, by the way 💖 Remember that everyone has the right to love whoever they want 👏🏻

⠀⠀⠀⠀

Si después del beso en 𝑽𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒎 1, de la "confesión" de que se aman en 𝑽𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒎: 𝑯𝒂𝒃𝒓𝒂 𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒛𝒂, la insinuación de 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗺 a 𝗘𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗲 sobre bañarse desnudos en 𝑺𝒑𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒓-𝑴𝒂𝒏: 𝑵𝒐 𝑾𝒂𝒚 𝑯𝒐𝒎𝒆, y eso de que tal vez 𝑽𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒎: 𝑬𝒍 𝑼𝒍𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒐 𝑩𝒂𝒊𝒍𝒆 pueda ser clasificación +18, no hay algo más explícito con 𝗦𝘆𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗸 / 𝗩𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗲 / 𝗩𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗶𝗲 en la última, me sentiré engañada 😮 😏

Feliz día a todos, por cierto 💖 Recordad que todo el mundo tiene derecho a amar a quien se quiera 👏🏻

⠀⠀

[jelloholic]

Team Black characters at the beach

Rhaenyra:

Stays out of the water, prefers to tan and play with the younger kids in the sand

Goes in a modest 2-piece swimsuit that Daemon argued was too revealing (she slayed)

Daemon:

In the water terrorizing the kids (all of them, not just his own)

Gets angry when his team loses in beach volleyball

Corlys:

Slept through half the day

Cute grandpa that teaches the babies how to swim

Rhaenys:

Proposed the idea of volleyball bc she was bored and seeing Daemon freak out at losing would be funny

Brought a gazillion snacks and drinks (including some sneakily hidden booze)

Jacaerys:

Always moving and being active (volleyball, swimming, indulging Joff by racing him)

He is the default parent supervising all the kids (except Vis and Aeg) bc the adults are relaxing

Baela:

Making weird faces to scare off the men checking her out, then mocking them viciously

Absolutely destroys everyone in volleyball

Lucerys:

Ate most of the snacks himself (he felt very bad about it)

Spent most of the day swimming and got sunburnt bc of it

Rhaena:

Made a collection of sea glass, pretty rocks and shells

Sat with the adults in the shade and talked with them

Joffrey:

Somehow befriended most of the kids from other families

Caught a fish with his hands and scared strangers with it (much to Daemon's amusement)

Baby Aegon:

Cuddled up to his mom most of the day

Insisted on an evening beach bonfire bc he wanted smores (he was indulged)

Baby Viserys:

Made sandcastles all day

Bragged to everyone about his turquoise seashell bathing suit

Addam and Alyn:

Walked along the beach together while talking

Used Corlys's money (with permission) to get milkshakes and souvenirs

[fraternum-momentum]

WE'RE GETTING EVICTED FROM OUR APARTMENT.

[theladyeowyn]

Honey … It's okay. It's okay.

[nguyenfinity]

Switch is back after their Valentine's event for White Day to bring you Magic for your special someone(s)! Show your friends and fans a little appreciation in return, whether you're sailing for a Romancing Cruise or just for lifting their spirits A little bit UP!!

art-only below the cut!