#first of the remakes I’m doing for the 2024 series…

[roscoehamiltons]

LHFW 2024 graphics: Pre-testing at Bahrain redux (original)

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Scandals, Face Offs & Disappointments, Oh my!

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

Oct 2024 Week 3

Ongoing Series - Thai

Jack & Joker (Thai Mon IQIYI) ep 6 of 12 - 3 tiny girls ragging on Jack was possibly the greatest opening sequence ever. Poor Jack. He is so not single anymore - so far as everyone around him is concerned. 

Love Sick 2024 (Thai Sun iQIYI) ep 5 of 15 - Sports day continues. We get a little backstory on the respective crushes on Noh. The jealousy between Phun & Earn is way more extreme in this version. I'm not mad about it. I love a claiming. Although it is so unfair of Phun to claim Noh when they agreed not to go there, AND he’s dating someone else. The byplay with Pete’s ex was fun. I wonder if we’re supposed to suss that Noh knows he’s gay in this version? 

I'm doing a face-off style watch along of this new version versus the original 2014-2015 version. Where I decide with each new ep which one wins. I will render a final judgement at the end. Frankly, I'm warming to this show way more than I thought I would give my extreme affection for the original.

Kidnap (Fri YT) ep 7 of 12 - Oh it’s so cute that he just wants to officially move in. And the necklace claiming thing was darling. Mini boyfriend era. Min being a kept baby girl was kinda fun. The family thing was too sweet. Oh noes my man has been strangled! Oh good he’s okay. Stupid breakup “for the plot” moment, they could have easily been separated by baddies, we didn’t need to go through this. 

Fourever You (Thai Thurs YT) ep 3 of 16 - I don’t care how cute he is or how longing those beautiful eyes, ghosting is a pretty big offense. Especially high school first love. I’m glad Ter is being difficult about it. Still the backstory is getting frustratingly confusing. It seems increasingly convoluted (full of girls) and I’m not sure what happened. So I’m not sure if I should be on Hill’s side or Ter’s. I’m beginning to feel manipulated and I don’t like it. I still like the show, but not as much as I did last week. I’m on a roller coaster here. 

Battle of the Writers (Sun YT) ep 11 of 12 - It remains odd, disjointed, but still modestly entertaining. Ozone using a well placed Phi for manipulation purposes made me happy. Random het wedding is random. 2 drunk horny sunshine babygurls was cute tho. 

Every You Every Me (Thai Mon Gaga) ep 2 of 10 - AKA Just one meet cute after another. Nice queer rep this time. It’s lovely, just not my style BL. 

Addicted Heroin (Thai Tues WeTV) ep 10 fin - Okay so last week half the ep was eng subbed and this week only 3/4. Whatever. Please note my extreme annoyance with everything about this show will color my rating. As it should. Ready for a mini rant?

Conclusion

What to say about this damn show? It wasn’t what I wanted and I didn’t like it. I’m disappointed in myself for having expectations and in it for not living up to them. It starred August for fucks sake! How could they fuck it up so bad? I wanted it to be a Thai reinterpretation of the brilliance that was Addicted giving us the ending that we never got to have but the narrative deserved. I got a resounding nope. The side couple was messed with, rearranged, and then entirely dropped and forgotten. The main romance was weirdly obsessive without any physical payout or emotional resolution, as if this remake were the censored Chinese version. All characters acted irrationally most of the time, and from what I could tell there was no logic to the ending, which seemed to be to minors escaping to a beach, abandoning their schooling, families, and respective futures. It was a hot mess. Without being hot. 4/10 fatally flawed, do not bother

Bad Guy My Boss (Thai Sun Gaga) ep 5 of 10 - it's bad. I don't like it.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Let Free the Curse of Taekwondo (Korea Thurs Gaga) eps 1-2 of 8 - High school student Do Hoe lives with his violent and brutal father who runs a Taekwondo gym in a rural area. Then cheerful Ju Young arrives who dreams of going to college for Taekwondo. Joy begins to fill Do Hoe's dark life. An unexpected incident forces them apart, they reunite over a decade years later.

Make no mistake this one is dark. And Korea can go many directions when it leans dark. So I’m not entirely sure what to expect. All the triggers: child abuse, corporal punishment, alcoholism, gambling, and a few other things. But also a fantastically awkward kiss. Oh this is VERY good. I’m enjoying it. Tumblr is officially losing its tiny mind about it. What can I say? This hellhole loves it some gritty dark angst with high romance and deep meaning. All hail the return of Queen Hwang Da Seul. 

My Damn Business (Korea Sat YT) eps 3 of 7 - He kinda is the worst boss ever. Now he’s turned into a drinking buddy whether baby likes it or not. I really feel for this kid. I do want more backstory on both of them. Why are they the way they are? All that said….. phenomenal kiss. Thanks boys. 

Teenager Judge (Vietnam Sat YT) ep 4 of ? - I do like the brothers relationship. Even though we know it’s gonna become romantic, it’s nice to see them all teasing and friendly. Meanwhile I’m getting a little exhausted by the bullying and I’m very much ready for the revenge narrative to continue.

Although I understand we have more of a spiral first, could we get on to some actual kissing soon? 

I'm shallow I just wanna see BV kiss the next boy. It's the BL world's version of Pokemon.

Our Golden Times (Hong Kong YT) 6 fin - Okay so this was the last ep! 

Summary

This was an odd disjointed little piece, but the most BL BL we’ve ever seen out of Hong Kong. The optics are good and it’s enjoyable for what it is, which is a circumspect, badly subbed, and slightly odd yet earnest reunion romance. I liked it more for what it could be, and for what it represented, than for what it actually was, but I still liked it.

7/10 recommended with reservations

I would like to nominate Our Golden Times @bengiyo as a candidate for the next "Girl you tried." Because it really did try hard to be the best little BL it could be under the circumstances.

First Note Of Love (Taiwan Mon Gaga) ep 11 of 12 - I do like all the couples, and in classic Taiwan style we’re ending ultra sappy (when they don’t fuck it up, and I don’t think this one will). Mei is the secret power behind the throne - as we all knew - love this for her, and us. 

Love is Like a Poison AKA Doku Koi: Doku mo Sugireba Koi to Naru (Japan Tues Netflix?) 5 of 10 eps - I'm falling beind because my subber is, but sort-of trying to keep up. I don’t know. Just Japan messing with us, I guess.

Eccentric Romance (Korea Weds Viki) eps 3-4 of 12 - It’s oddly erotic with all the gym stuff but also awkward and weird with the jelly plus suspicion. (Hi GeonU, another Thai/Korea BL for you? Is it a thing for you now? Could you recruit Jimin to the cause? I mean you go him into a reality competition. BL is right there. Waiting. Pretty please with a shirtless hottie on top?) Anygay, I keep thinking that this show would actually be better if the Thai character were just a Korean character and this was just a regular KBL. Although, it probably still wouldn’t be very good.

It's airing but...

The Hidden Moon (Sat WeTV) 10 eps - This is a supernatural romance (my ghost boyfriend trope) by Violet Rain (I Feel You Linger). A man is hired to write an article about an old mansion in Chiang Mai being converted into a café. He sees the ghosts of people who died at the mansion, falls in love with one of them. Was substantially recast. I loved IFYLITA except the ending so I think I'll let this one run it's course you can tell me if it's work tracking down... if they managed to land it. I have my doubts.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

Still Coming:

10/21 Love in the Big City (Korea Mon Viki) ep 1 of - Okay, this is both a movie (already out) and a series. Neither one is likely BL and I can't imagine it will end happily. Here's your synopsis:

Cynical fun loving student Young pinballs from home, to class, to on night stands. He and Jaehee, his female besie and roommate, frequent nearby bars where they push away their worries about life, love, and money with soju and hookups.

Apparently this is causing a homophobic ruckus in SK right now. As is wont to happen when one puts a really big name in the gay lead and your country is, well, pretty damn homophobic. Brokeback mukbang anyone? (Oh yes I am aware I'm a turd, but I'm too old for this crap. I guess that makes me a coprolite.)

10/23 See Your Love (Taiwan Weds Gaga Viki et al) 10 eps? - Zi Xiong, a third-generation heir, attempting to flee from taking over their family business, meets and falls in love with Shao Peng, who works as a hearing-impaired nurse. From the same production house as Kiseki Dear To Me in partnership with Shinehouse Theatre, funded by Taiwan’s BIGART + Japan's Rakuten (Viki). Show includes Lin Chia Yo (Be Loved in House: I Do). Director Chiang Ping Chen’s childhood experiences with his deaf uncle have inspired the drama.

10/27 Perfect 10 Liners (Thai Sun YouTube?) 24 eps! - New directing yet another university BL with engineers + their mentees. Based on a Jittirain novel. with a massive cast and massive run time. We will be watching this until APRIL of 2025!

ForceBook playing the same old characters = enemies to lovers tsunder/sunshine jock/nerd thing.

PerthChimonSanta are doing the cohabitation cool guy/dork trope.

JuniorMark are doing popular sunshine meets lonely sad boy (the only interesting pair IMHO).

Not sure if these will be interwoven (We Are style) or shorter stand alone runs-within-the-run of 8 eps each (Y-Destiny style).

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

You just kissed his brains out, what do you think? (Eh, we all know the aniyo is coming. This uke is made of tsudere and 아니요 ) (Damn Business)

I know, it's not a good show, but just LOOK at his face.

And the uke drunken shenanigans was brilliant. Loved it. (Battle Writers)

I did LOVE the twist on Golf. (Love Sick 2024)

Joke coming for our hearts just like...... it's TOO MUCH. War is SO DAMN GOOD. (J&J)

Calling out the trope HDS?

Gah. So awkward.

(Both from LFTCOT)

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

Sigh, Tumblr in its infinite wisdom doesn't like too many at-ings.

[brucebocchi]

Ranking 2024 anime, Pt. 5: #10-1

hey, this post is also available on my ko-fi, so please check it out and consider tipping/donating as i do this for free and am currently between jobs. you can find part 1 of the list here, part 2 here, part 3 here, and part 4 here. all of my seasonal reviews are on my ko-fi and under my anime reviews tag, mixed in with my occasional musings. thanks!

And we are in the home stretch! I didn't want to split up my top 10 like last year, so it took a couple days to get it all together. Thanks for your patience.

​As you may have noticed, some of these reviews are longer than others. I've reviewed most of these shows before, so I didn't want to be too redundant while talking about shows I've already reviewed. You can, of course, go back and read my initial reviews in my previous seasonal roundups.

Also, I just wanted to quickly shout out a few shows that I haven't watched much or any of, but would likely have placed well in these rankings, namely Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction, YATAGARASU, the Spice and Wolf remake, Orb: On the Movements of Earth, Sound! Euphonium's third season, and the late Akira Toriyama's SAND LAND and Dragon Ball DAIMA. I only have so much time in a day, week, month, and year, but those series have been on my radar and I do intend to pick them up sooner or later.

But for now, let's focus on what I did watch. Off we go:

10. Blue Box

This is a slightly biased placement on my end because I picked up the manga this year and quickly fell in love with it, and I’m just happy that it got a faithful, well-made anime adaptation. If you have an issue with that, I’m gonna let you in on a little secret: This whole list is biased. It’s MY list, after all.

After an uneven summer output between My Dear Friend Nokotan and Suicide Squad Isekai, WIT Studio is in full form adapting Kouji Miura’s gorgeous high school sports romance. Rising first-year badminton player Taiki has a huge crush on his basketball star senpai Chinatsu, who practices in the same high school gym he does. He’s happy enough to keep a friendly distance as they improve at their respective sports, but that distance is closed significantly when her parents go abroad for work and she ends up moving in under the same roof as him. The spirit of competition is in the air, and is that a whiff of romance I smell as well?

The reason I felt the need to call out my own bias at the start is because Blue Box’s debut cour is, on balance, probably just “pretty good,” but I was just so overjoyed that this anime even exists that I was willing to overlook the early story’s growing pains. Taiki, of course, is the POV character for most of the first cour, and most of the romantic tension we see so far is entirely from his end as he swoons and huffs and goes into cardiac arrest over any and every gesture Chinatsu throws his way. You know, teenage boy stuff. There have been criticisms that Chinatsu doesn’t get much interiority for a bit and that she’s a bit of an enigma in terms of her role in the central “romance,” such that it is so far, which is a valid criticism of a lot of shonen romance stories. I’m generally of the mind that these things are more potent when the object of the protagonist’s affection is treated as more than a puzzle for him to solve, but I think Blue Box does a fine job of establishing what Chinatsu means to Taiki before we do indeed begin to get a feel for how she operates and what she might think of him. If you found that part a little maddening early on, trust me when I say it’s worth sticking it out.

Regardless, the character writing is what made Blue Box such a hit in Weekly Shonen Jump. Taiki is a flat-out good kid, if a little naive, and his boundless determination to achieve and exceed his goals in both badminton and romance makes him easy to root for. Chinatsu is fairly taciturn, as mentioned, but that’s by design; she’s a notoriously difficult person to read, as even her friends and teammates note that they can rarely decipher what she’s thinking. She’s still an effortlessly charming character, and it’s not hard to figure out why Taiki’s got it so bad for her. The real highlight of the series, though, is Taiki’s classmate and longtime friend, Hina, a rhythmic gymnast and an absolute troll. She is an absolute delight in every scene she’s in, whether she’s knocking Taiki’s knees out from under him, focusing on rehearsing her next routine, or prying into Taiki’s love life and realizing that, oops, she really cares about him too. Hina is wonderful and I just want the best for her.

Characters this likable will need the voices to match, and I am over the moon about this show’s casting. Shouya Chiba is tremendous as Taiki, in a far cry from his Epic Based Stoic Chad role as Ayanokoji in Classroom of the Elite. Every line read for Taiki sounds exactly as gung-ho about sports and devastatingly down bad for his crush as you’d expect of a hormonal 15 year old. Reina Ueda is terrific as the soft-spoken Chinatsu, but I’m looking forward to hearing the always-delightful Xanthe Huynh (Haru in Persona 5, Marianne in Fire Emblem Three Houses) take on the role in the dub just as much. Akari Kitou channels much of the same gremlin energy she did for KamiKatsu to portray Hina’s mischief, and I look forward to hearing her nail Hina’s excellent upcoming character moments. And although it’s a secondary role, the casting I was most excited to hear was Chiaki Kobayashi (Mash in Mashle, Stark in Frieren) as Taiki’s teammate Kyo. Kobayashi’s languid tsukkomi affect was exactly what I had in mind whenever Kyo would put Taiki’s lovelorn antics into stark relief in the manga. It’s like he was born for the part.

This show looks tremendous, perfectly adapting both the soft, doe-eyed character designs from the manga as well as the lower-detail gags. The pastel color palette and gorgeous lighting effects are exactly what I was hoping for while reading the manga.  If I have any complaint, though, it’s mostly that I want to see more of the sports action. The granular details of the badminton matches and basketball games are hardly the focus of the story, but the action panels are usually the best part of Miura’s art in the manga. Shot-for-shot, it certainly does hew close to the manga presentation, but it’s mostly a racquet swing or close-up jump shot followed by an onlooker’s reaction. I’d have liked a bit more follow through. The CGI used for background competitors can get a little distracting after a while, too, but it’s easy to forget about.

Blue Box is continuing into 2025, and I’m waiting for every new episode with bated breath. If you liked the first cour enough but still have doubts, trust me when I say it just keeps getting better. I look forward to coming back to the second half of this season in another year for my victory lap.

9. Girls Band Cry

This is one of the most inventive girls-band anime out there, certainly the most so since that one from 2022 that I swore I wouldn’t bring up by name. Gorgeous 3D-CG animation, stirring original music, and a compelling cast of characters combine to make Girls Band Cry even more than the sum of its parts.

More than anything, I think what makes Girls Band Cry a terrific showbiz series is that it depicts the uncomfortable reality that a lot of artists are just flat-out unpleasant people and often don’t mesh well with one another. Protagonist Nina is messy, stubborn, and angry at the world and her parents and will not hesitate to make it your problem. She butts heads with her friends and bandmates at any provocation, but stubbornness is a major driving factor in the plot: Each of the five members of Togenashi Togeari has something they’re trying to move on from with their music, and while they each have an opinion on how to get there, they do come to realize, after a lot of silly yelling matches, that they want to do so together.

As a vehicle to push Girls Band Cry and Togenashi Togeari as a real-world multimedia experience, this show is a success. It’s a terrific-looking show in ways we rarely see outside of Studio Orange productions (and allegedly Love Live! Sunshine!!, which director Kazuo Sakai also had a hand in); the 3D computer-generated character models and animations are terrifically expressive and lively, and creative visual effects add a compelling sense of synaesthesia to Nina's emotional highs and lows. The voice cast, all pseudonymous contest winners, are also the real-life band members, and they fully nail both elements of their roles. TogeToge’s music in the show is terrific, and as an already-existing Gorillaz-esque virtual band, I’m excited to dig into their back catalog.

Girls Band Cry finally got an official English translation, so there’s no longer any excuse to sleep on this one. It’s funny, it’s heartfelt, and above all else, it fucking rocks. Don’t let this one fade away just because you might’ve missed it when it aired.

8. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End, second cour

When I ranked the first cour of Frieren as the best anime of 2023, I wrote:

The debut season of Frieren will continue into 2024, and if the quality remains a constant, it could very well be one of the best anime of next year too. It has remained as MyAnimeList’s top-rated anime ever for its entire run, warding off the legion of Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood fans. Frieren deserves it.

A year later, it is still MAL’s top-rated anime, and by a healthy margin. Another 12 episodes aired to kick off 2024, and it was indeed one of the best anime of this year as well. I stand firm in my convictions that not only is it one of the best anime of the decade so far, it’s one of the best anime I’ve ever seen.

I really shot my wad by praising Frieren so profusely midway through its run, to the point where I still don’t really feel the need to add much more here. The second cour mostly focuses on the First Class Mage exam arc, allowing us to learn more about the present state of magic in the modern day and adding some much-needed depth to the cast. It continues to strike a lovely balance between the quieter moments and bonkers action sequences, as well as the more serious moments with laugh-out-loud goofiness. It may be a lesser arc in this story, but it would be a standout in so many others.

If I haven’t been clear enough, I remain over the moon about Frieren. The second cour looks and sounds just as incredible as the first, and this show’s success should serve as a reminder to the industry that investment in quality pays off. Madhouse knows they have a banger on their hands, and if the next season can maintain this level of production value for the major arc that is still to come, Frieren may very well earn GOAT status. Even if another season somehow never materializes, I’ll still be talking about this season in five years when it comes time to talk about the best of the decade. Watch this goddamn show.

7. A Sign of Affection

For all the romance anime and manga I consume, I’ve shamefully been lacking on the shoujo/josei front. I really gotta fix that. If reading more shoujo was what spurred Yukinobu Tatsu to make DanDaDan, then who knows what it might do for me? A Sign of Affection isn’t my first shoujo, strictly speaking, but it does feel like one of the first I’ve seen of the good old-fashioned flowery romance type.

What a gorgeous show. A Sign of Affection looks terrific, sounds terrific, and above all feels terrific. This is just a lovely, fluffy romance with low stakes and easy payoff; just two pretty people getting to know each other and learning to overcome their differences. It’s low on gimmicks and plot contrivances, and for as much as I like romcoms and romance stories with a unique bent, I love a good straightforward romance just as much sometimes. Everyone looks beautiful and likes each other and Jesus Christ look at the lips on these boys. There’s even a double-date to Costco, and what better depiction of marital bliss could there be?

I’m still pleasantly surprised at how this show handles the main character’s disability. Protagonist Yuki’s congenital deafness isn’t a single-note character quirk or a plot device to make her seem helpless; it simply is. It’s a part of her life that serves as the lens through which all of the people in her life see and treat her, and it leads to the only thing that resembles a major conflict in the show. Itsuomi, the main romantic interest, doesn’t baby her or walk all over her; he instead gently tests her boundaries while learning to accommodate her in a way to ensure her comfort. Her childhood friend Oushi, on the other hand, is very jealous of this development because he seems to feel entitled to her just because he did the bare minimum to accommodate her. The circumstances aren’t common, of course, but it’s a good lesson for a shoujo to have: Don’t settle.

My praise for A Sign of Affection mostly boils down to “it’s just really nice,” but it does “just really nice” so goddamn well. It’s fluffy, it’s comfy, it’s cozy, all of those adjectives that would set off my fight-or-flight response if I heard them from someone else, but I was enthralled by this show week in and week out. I can’t believe I neglected to start reading the manga, and I’m gonna have to get on that ASAP because I can’t wait for another season.

6. The Apothecary Diaries, second cour

I found myself more intrigued at The Apothecary Diaries at the end of 2023 than most other shows I’d watched that year. I grew more and more invested in the idiosyncratic Maomao as she investigated mysterious ailments and navigated imperial palace politics, all the while being a lovable little shit. 

Before I’d realized it, though, the 2024 half of its run knew it had its hooks in me and took me for a ride. What looked at first like a series of one-off puzzles quickly began entangling into a much larger mystery, rapidly gaining momentum until exploding into a massive emotional payoff. So many of the small details in what you assume are episodic mystery-of-the-week mini-stories become relevant in unexpected ways and draw you in ever further. I adore this kind of lowkey long-term storytelling, and for it to be part of such an appealing package is basically catnip for me.

For as gorgeous as The Apothecary Diaries can be visually, sonically, and sometimes even emotionally, it’s worth mentioning that this show is also hilarious a lot of the time. Maomao is on permanent goblin mode whenever she isn’t carrying out official business, and any time the palace officials have to rein her in is a delight. The push-and-pull between her and Jinshi is endlessly entertaining to the point where I can wait forever for that payoff if I have to.

I neglected to read the Apothecary Diaries manga after the first season went off the air (though I nearly bought all of it sight unseen), and with the second about to drop, I guess I’m holding off for another six months. Can’t say I mind, though. I’m along for the ride and I want this show to keep surprising me for as long as it can. This is easily one of the best anime of the 2020s so far and I’m gonna be there front row center for every new episode.

5. Bang Brave Bang Bravern

People say “peak fiction” too goddamn often these days. Not that it was a meaningful term to begin with, but it’s been memed to hell and back and is mostly just thrown out ironically to mock garbage writing. To be honest, I’m not above it myself, but I prefer to ascribe it, even jokingly, to stuff that can only truly come from a brilliant and/or deranged mind. Preferably both. Peak fiction, to me, is the intersection where talent meets insanity, no matter the degree of either.

Bang Brave Bang Bravern is peak fiction.

I gushed about this show after the winter season, and I almost don’t want to say anything further about it, mostly for two reasons: Firstly, because I don’t really want to give the game away any more than I already did back in April, and secondly, because I think it may have permanently burrowed into a specific part of my brain and then melted it. All I’m left with is “this show fucking rocks, dudes rock, you need to see it, it’s peak, don't ask questions, just watch it.”

Indeed, Bravern is the Dudes Rock anime of the year, and an essential piece of Dudes Rock media. It’s Top Gun with aliens and a giant talking robot. And the robot wants to fuck his pilot. This show is loud, horny, stupid, and self-aware, combined just so into a cocktail of legitimate brilliance that is, for better or worse, unlike anything I’ve seen before or since. Nearly every single episode had me clawing at my hair and shrieking “WHAT THE FUCK AM I WATCHING,” and that is the highest praise I can give just about anything.

I might be overselling it just a touch, but Bravern is just as earnest as it is utterly wild. It’s an intentionally hilarious show, but it means everything it does and says. It’s a love letter to mecha anime and tokusatsu, and with its top staff sporting Gundam and Macross bona fides, that love oozes into every aspect. The mechs, both manmade and alien, all look tremendous, the music is a throwback to the goofy bombast you’d find in series like this as far back as the Showa era, and the ensemble cast outside of our silly leads are just as gung-ho and serious about Saving The World as you’d find in just about any other mech show. Anything that can be this goofy with a completely straight face is going to hook me in.

All in all, Bang Brave Bang Bravern is hypercompetent lunacy with heart. Call it weaponized genre awareness if you must, but it knows exactly what it’s about, grabs you by the collar, and takes you for a ride, all while doing badass tokusatsu poses and calling out special moves with silly names. This is legitimately what fiction is all about. 

Also, if you don’t like Lulu just because she screeches a lot, you’re a weakling. Gaga-pi, motherfucker.

4. The Dangers in My Heart, season 2

This was a series whose first season was conspicuously absent from my 2023 rankings, but I caught up shortly after finishing that list in order to catch up to the second season. I’d watched a glut of slice-of-life romances in 2023 and figured I could afford to miss this one. I’m overjoyed at how wrong I was.

To paraphrase the second season’s exceptional OP, The Dangers in My Heart is indescribably beautiful. As I said with A Sign of Affection, I love me a straightforward anime romance, and this middle school slice-of-life is just that: Underdeveloped edgelord boy ends up making unlikely friends with, and falling for, the cheery popular girl in his class. This is easy wish-fulfillment on paper, but that’s hiding the trick: Kyotaro isn’t gonna get anything he wants by keeping his quills out for anyone who comes near, and he has some growing up to do if he’s ever gonna get what he wants.

Season 2 picks up right where the first left off, with Kyotaro’s arm still broken from his family trip and Anna feeling guilty because she thinks her distraction was what led to the injury. Right out of the gate, we see the care these two have developed for one another: Anna wants to help while he can’t do his own schoolwork, while Kyo is quick to try to cheer her up when she no longer feels like she’s able to. Already we’re seeing Kyotaro’s character development coming to light: The Dangers in My Heart isn’t a story about a Nice Guy getting the girl just by being there; it’s a story of self-improvement, of trying to become the type of person whom your crush would want to fall in love with. For a story about and ostensibly marketed to early teenagers, that’s a good lesson to have, and I absolutely devour stories like that.

As can be the case with plenty of adolescents, most of the conflict here is internal. Kyotaro spent the early part of his middle school education keeping a safe distance from everyone in order to avoid getting hurt, and as you can imagine, that did a number on his self esteem. Though he’s mostly kicked the chuunibyo mindset, Kyo still prefers to keep his distance, less because he doesn’t want to get hurt, but now because he doesn’t want to hurt anyone else. Specifically Anna. So much of this story is about him learning to be okay with letting people in and not just falling in love, but making friends and becoming somebody whom people just want to be around. It’s a chuuni rehabilitation story. You love to see it.

With all due respect to mangaka Norio Sakurai, the biggest surprise that came from reading the manga was how much better the anime looks than its source material. The anime looks tremendous in its own right, but compared to Sakurai’s doodly, occasionally messy style, the love put into the show stands in stark relief. Characters, backgrounds, and lighting are all soft, squishy, and warm, almost like the entire thing was run through the filter through which only a 13-year-old in love can see the world, even as a little edgelord. Little flourishes in the environment and music highlight the minute but consequential motes of progression in Kyo and Anna’s relationship. The OP ended up shaking out as my favorite of the year, even with 2024 being bookended by Creepy Nuts bangers. It’s that special to me.

And just like that, The Dangers in My Heart went from “eh probably not for me” to “yeah this is one of the best anime of the decade so far.” It’s a simple slice-of-life romance on paper, almost literally so in the manga, but this is a transformative adaptation. There’s much more of the story to tell, and I wouldn’t complain about more, but as it stands after two seasons, The Dangers in My Heart is damn near perfect as it is.

3. Oshi no Ko, season 2

Another year, another season, another top-four finish for one of the best manga adaptations I’ve ever seen. 

The anime adaptation of Aka Akasaka and Mengo Yokoyari’s showbiz-revenge manga made shockwaves last year following its thunderous feature-length premiere, and its source material made even more waves due to some questionable plot developments that fortunately went nowhere. Doga Kobo was undeterred by any negative attention brought to the brand, though, and pressed forward into the next arc with a level of swagger you rarely see brought into an anime’s sequel season.

The 2.5D stage play arc in Oshi no Ko’s manga wasn’t my favorite, but it was one that you could tell just from reading it would translate well to the screen. Even then, I wasn’t prepared for just how hard Doga Kobo would go in adapting it. Character animation is sumptuously fluid, color used to amazing effect, and personal expression bursts forth into impressionistic abstraction to such a degree that it made manga artist Yokoyari cry. Everyone looks and sounds incredible beyond any way I could’ve imagined from reading the manga, which, at the risk of sounding defensive, is still very good as a whole.

This being a story largely about the music industry, the music remains as on-point as ever. It’s too soon to tell if the second season’s OP/ED pairing tops the instantly-iconic “Idol” and “Mephisto” from the first, but these are no slouches. This season’s OP, “Fatale,” is a whiplash-inducing banger by Tatsuya Kitani and idol Kento Nakajima, performing under the collaborative name of GEMN (itself a relevant name to the show; twins without the i/Ai, DO YOU GET IT???) with visuals that might actually top those of "Idol." The new ED, “Burning,” is Hitsujibungaku at their fuzzy, 90s-style alt-rock best, and it takes on a brand new meaning by the end of the season. Of course, there’s also the story-relevant music; while the bulk of the season focuses on the stage play, the last few episodes give us a glimpse into the pop music process, with the season capping off with an in-universe music video that, while not sonically my exact cup of tea, features 90 seconds of some of the best-looking dance animation I’ve ever seen in my life. That’s a flex if I’ve ever seen one.

And just like the first season, the second capped off with an announcement that Oshi no Ko will indeed be returning for another season. At this rate, and with the anime’s success, they will adapt the entire work, which will raise some eyebrows. I’m not going to litigate the manga’s later controversial developments nor its widely-panned ending, but if Doga Koba was able to handle everything that came before those things with such aplomb, I have faith that it will at least be done well.

2. DanDaDan

I want to preface this by saying that I agonized over whether this or the final entry is my anime of the year. I’m comfortable with what I chose, but if I’m being realistic, DanDaDan is basically 1b. This is a masterpiece already.

Although the source material was a bit of a cult hit until this year, DanDaDan came with a considerable amount of hype. If you were even peripherally familiar, it wasn’t hard to see why: Yukinobu Tatsu’s art is absurdly detailed in almost every panel, character designs are easily recognizable (one of the leads dressing similarly to a Persona 3 character was fortuitous for the anime to drop in the same year as Reload), and so many bizarre things happen in the plot that relaying them to anybody who wasn’t already familiar would make their brain briefly touch the void. Above all, though, Science SARU was tabbed to animate it, and any project by them is immediately worth your attention.

Sure enough, DanDaDan made an instantaneous splash, its first episode adapting the manga’s bombastic, twisty 63-page opening chapter nearly beat for beat. I’m not gonna “don’t look it up, just go in blind” this one, but almost too much happens for me to properly detail it all without just writing a complete synopsis. It boils down to “lonely nerd boy believes in aliens, angry kogal believes in yokai, it turns out both are real and now they have to deal with it.” It’s silly, it’s wild, it’s action packed, and if you can stomach the sexually-compromising alien abduction of the girl, you’re along for the ride.

I’m not gonna harp too much on that last point. It does stink that the female lead, Momo, is stripped to her underwear for the sake of alien sexual “research,” but said aliens get their comeuppance before anything happens to her. It’s still not great, and it’s not the last time female characters are portrayed in their underwear, but I do promise it’s for story reasons, it takes a backseat to the onscreen action and is pretty clearly not done for the sake of fanservice. I know such things can be beyond the pale for some people, but if you think you can compartmentalize that, I recommend you watch the first episode with that caveat in mind and decide from there. You may be pleasantly surprised.

DanDaDan is effectively two stories at once; on one side, we have Momo and the boy, Okarun (a nickname Momo devised for him to preserve her own sanity), gaining wacky supernatural powers in order to fight back these occult threats and regain what was stolen from Okarun from his first encounter with the unexpected (IYKYK). Because these threats can come out of nowhere, their daily high school lives can completely pop off without warning. On the other side, we have quieter slice-of-life tension as Momo and Okarun get to know (and frequently misunderstand) each other and realize they are completely and hopelessly head-over-heels for one another.

Surprise, motherfucker: DanDaDan is a romcom.

Yukinobu Tatsu, formerly an assistant on the first saga of Chainsaw Man, long struggled to get his own work serialized. At his editor’s urging, he read something like a hundred manga for inspiration, including several shoujo romance series. That research shows through in DanDaDan; although the bonkers action sequences and off-the-wall monster designs are what draw in readers and viewers alike, what’s kept this many people along for the ride is the beating heart just barely under the surface in the form of the romantic tension between Momo and Okarun. It’s easy to write this off as some “lonely nerd gets the cute gyaru just by being a Nice Guy” wish fulfillment, but that’s not really the case here; Okarun was a weird little twerp right from the jump. Similarly to Kyotaro in the aforementioned Dangers in My Heart, Okarun believes early on that he’s nowhere near Momo’s league, completely unaware that she quickly grows to actually like having him around, so he puts in the effort to become a more well-rounded person so that he can be confident enough to be seen next to her. He also just wants Momo to think he’s cool, and she thinks that’s adorable. And she’s right! These two are cute as fuck together.

So you come for the wild action and stay for the tremendous character dynamics. It should go without saying that Science SARU nailed all of the above, but I’m gonna say it anyway. Reading the Manga+ comments on each chapter as I read through the manga, readers were begging a top-flight battle shonen studio like MAPPA or WIT to pick up the series, and I think these fans got more than they bargained for. Masaaki Yuasa hasn’t been in charge of a series at the studio since Eizouken, or anything they’ve put out since Inu-Oh, but his influence is all over their recent works, including last year’s fellow top-three series, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. It’s beyond impressive how, much like Scott Pilgrim, this series manages to maintain the source material’s art style while still looking very much like a Science SARU anime. Everyone is bouncy and malleable as their moods dictate, line weights are wildly varied, and action animation is kinetic and unpredictable. Each fight with an alien or cryptid is awash in eye-searing color or eerie greyscale. The music is a boatload of fun as well; even putting aside the Creepy Nuts OP (banger after banger after banger from those dudes) and Zutomayo ED, regular proceedings are punctuated by a wildly varied score, from funk to folk to an insane chase scene set to an electronic mashup of the “William Tell Overture” and the can-can. Everything about DanDaDan keeps you guessing.

I was looking forward to DanDaDan enough that I went to the theatrical premiere of the first three episodes and was sufficiently blown away. If you’ve seen the show, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that it looks and sounds incredible in a cinema setting. I left the theater positively buzzing, telling anyone who’d listen that they had no idea what was coming, but even knowing the entire story, I wasn’t prepared for more of what was to come. The literal next episode after what I’d already seen in the theater had one of the most bonkers action setpieces I’ve seen since Gurren Lagann, and just three episodes later an unbelievable emotional gut punch, prior knowledge of the manga be damned. Every single aspect of DanDaDan as an anime was given the same level of love and care that Tatsu put into his own work. It’s one thing for an anime adaptation to be faithful to its source material, and another entirely for it to elevate and transform it. DanDaDan somehow does both.

If there’s anything that held this back from being the anime of the year, it’s that this season kind of just… ends. With the 12-episode runtime that was given to the debut season, DanDaDan ends its first run right after the beginning of the manga’s next arc, which feels bizarre. There’s no resolution, but there’s no real cliffhanger here either. Which I kind of get, the story is driven by a constant forward momentum, but a little warning that the season was ending would’ve been nice. It’s only a six month break until the show comes back, but judged on its own, the way this season ended left me feeling a bit cold and the season itself feeling incomplete. Even shows that have year-long breaks between cours rather than seasons tend to put some kind of cap on each individual run, but DanDaDan just kinda left the toilet unflushed, and next to it a Post-It note promising to come back later. For something this lovingly crafted, that seems like a bizarre oversight.

That was hardly enough to temper my enjoyment though. Anything this well-made is deserving of the attention and success it’s attained, but to have this story, with these characters and this level of bonkers action made this well, is just an embarrassment of riches. And God help me, I’m shamelessly greedy. July can’t come fast enough. I need all of it.

1. Delicious in Dungeon

At the end of its run midway through the year, I declared Dungeon Meshi the best anime of the year up to that point and that I’d be impressed if anything would manage to overtake it. Though the other two entries in my top three made extremely strong cases, nothing else quite hit the spot and nourished the soul quite like Dungeon Meshi.

Barely a year removed from one of 2022’s best anime, Cyberpunk Edgerunners, Studio Trigger kicked off 2024 with another Netflix original, this time with its first proper manga adaptation since the studio split from Gainax a decade prior. It seemed an odd fit at first to have a studio known for wacky, hyperkinetic action productions like Kill la Kill and Promare to adapt this quirky fantasy dungeon manga, but hey, they also did Little Witch Academia. It turned out to be an odd fit, but in the best way: Dungeon Meshi is pretty offbeat as it is, so for it to get picked up by one of the more oddball prestige studios ended up making a tasty stew.

I struggled to elaborate on what makes this show so good after each of its cours, and six months later I remain a little lost for words. It’s an exceptional story adapted exceptionally well. Between the characters, the story, the setting, the emotional stakes, the comedy, the highs and lows, they nailed it all. Trigger just gets it. Even when characters go off-model for the sake of an intentional animation quirk, it still has that inimitable Trigger charm to it. It sounds just as good as it looks, too: The orchestral score highlights the quieter, sillier moments just as well as the tenser action setpieces, the foley work behind the dungeon’s bizarre and varied flora and fauna is immaculate, and the cast is perfect in both Japanese and English (I rarely ever say so but seriously, shout out to the dub).

I’m just as sick of saying “this show speaks for itself” when I have trouble finding the words as you probably are of reading it, but I have little else to add here. I’ve written plenty already. Just go watch it. This is already one of my favorite manga ever, and by the time the series wraps up at the end of its second season, it will easily end up as one of my favorite anime ever.

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

Introducing my jaytim fanfiction series Chained!

This is the largest writing project I have ever attempted! Currently (March 29th, 2024) it sits at a length of 153,000 words published and some back of the napkin math puts the final product in the ballpark of War and Peace’s 500,000+ words. halp lmao! This post is designed to serve as an introduction to what the story is about, what my Tim and Jason are gonna be like, and what parts of canon I’m sticking to

"So, what’s the premise ya dorkus malorkus?”

Jason is set in front of a contract that will grant near omnipotence over every facet of reality. The catch is that it requires the person who actually gains the power to be permanently bound into the service of someone else. Afraid of what this could do in the wrong hands, Jason asks Tim to be his new Master.

(a picture of Jason with the halo and armor the contract grants him that I drew :3 also, have a link to the fics!)

After many hours of intense negotiations (the entire first fic in the series), they produce a subcontract designed to maintain Jason's basic rights as a person while still granting them enough power to overcome whatever whatever caused the contract to be written in the first place. Now all that's left is to destroy the evidence, win the fight, and start remaking the world in their image...

Expect to read about: extensive theological discussions complete with readings of the Bhagavad Gita, shape shifting, hijinks, Harley Quinn being a menace to society really good therapist, redonkulous amounts of time travel and time loops, murders most foul, webs of lies and deceit as Oracle works to uncover their secrets, angst, fluff, hurt, comfort, and I’m gonna stop there before I overpromise myself, turn into a puddle, and never manage to finish the damn thing, lol

The draw of the premise for me is exploring the constant renegotiation of boundaries between Jason and Tim as they navigate a truly terrible idea of a romance. This is slow burn in that it takes them a really long time to get together properly due to the aforementioned terrible idea part, but they know they’re in love very early on.

“Lay out the dynamics there hoss”

I reserve the right to fuss with these, but my intention is:

Jason/Tim = the genius fragile human made of pure spite and determination and their sentient bodyguard/servant monster who they like lowkey have a thing with. Think Integra Hellsing and Alucard.

Barbara Gorden versus Tim Drake = genius versus genius 5D chess headgames war. Think L and Light with Jason as Ryuuk. But like if Light was into Ryuuk.

Tim/Jason versus [MAIN VILLAIN SPOILERS] = warring Gods. The source of a new mythology.

Honestly, just mark down Hellsing Ultimate and Death Note animes as major influences.

“What’s a folk gotta do ta get some headcanons and characterization in this joint?”

For Tim I’m going mainly with him in his Red Robin run where he finds Bruce, blows up the League of assassins and shit like that. I love how absolutely arrogant this man is, and I find the way he struggles with the ethics of the job really neat. This version of Tim seems perfect to act as the commander: always tempted to do more, tempted to go further into the dark with power, but also having a lot of self control and dedication to doing right.

In terms of personal headcannons I am making him trans (cause I can), ADHD/Autistic (because it makes sense), and a dabbler in mild, lowkey amphetamine abuse (The coffee chugger who never sleeps of fanon intrigues me, but also caffeine kinda doesn’t do that, whereas adderall definitely does. He’ll use both stimulants as available and needed. I like a man who knows he badly overworks himself but who can’t realistically say he shouldn’t be overworking himself.)

Jason is a much harder cat to herd because writers have long been playing tug of war with his characterization, dragging him over the line to unhinged villain then back to just another bat over and over. I always like Jason, but I think he’s at his weakest at both extremes of the spectrum. He’s a good villain/antagonist in general, but a phenomenal one when he has real goals and morals. He’s a good anti-hero/tenuous ally in general, but a phenomenal one when he and the family have serious disagreements and Jason is still a killer.

I’m keeping this fic as canon compliant as possible, but there is a bare minimum amount of rearrangement necessary to make Jason consistently morally grey rather than an ethical checkers board that looks grey when you turn it sideways and squint.

Headcanons for Jason include chronic pain (I just think being blown up should screw with a guy’s nerves), trans (cause I can), and having schizophrenia (cause I see some possible canon evidence and he’s had a LOT of ableist stuff thrown his way and I don’t really like ‘well I’m not actually mentally ill’ as a resolution point to that. I am leaving it ambiguous if this has anything to do with the Lazarus Pit, but I intend it to be very unambiguous that it has nothing to do with why he has beef with the rest of the bats. His grievances are not delusions. His moral positions are not delusions. He will hallucinate and I may have him develop delusions, but he’ll also take medication for that and employ coping mechanisms like real life people with schizophrenia do. The mental illnesses are something he deals with, not something that controls him into being evil, no matter their source.)

Oh and it should go without saying that everyone has so much PTSD!

“Cut ta the chase already jabrony, give us da timeline”

Crisis on Infinite Earths, Final Crisis, Infinite Crisis, Flashpoint, Convergence, and the Rebirth changes happened in this fic's canon. We are dealing with multiple multiverses. If you’re familiar with the concept of ‘Hypertime’ used to facilitate the Elseworlds series and elaborated on during the Dark Knights: Metal stuff, I’m building off of that. If you’re not, don’t worry about it, there will be a far better explanation in the fic as the characters discover this shit for themselves.

This takes place during the "Rebirth" era of DC comics canon in a fanfic universe I made up within that canon multiverse called Earth 69. Earth 69 is my idea of what the pre-flashpoint timeline might have looked like if flashpoint never happened. Essentially I'm taking the post crisis stuff and extending it by acting as though that timeline just kept going, with plot points from New 52 and Rebirth canon welded onto the end of it. Keep in mind though, Earth 69 only coincidentally mirrors pre-flashpoint events; that canonical pre-flashpoint multiverse still exists!

Now lets go through just Earth 69′s timeline, focusing on Tim and Jason

Based on the letter Jason sends to Kid Devil, I put the year of his death as 1985. Ten years have passed since then at the start of this fic, making Tim 23 and Jason 25. The influence of alien tech and supergeniouses accelerated cultural and scientific growth such that while the fic takes place in 1995, every bit of tech and culture from 1980 to 2024 is fair game to show up. I find it fun to play around with laser turret drones and microfiche spy tactics all in the same story, so our heroes listened to My Chemical Romance on their smartphones while watching the fall of the Berlin Wall on live TV.

Batman (1940) issues #419 - #429 aka Jason’s post-crisis Robin years happen almost identically to the comics, except that Jason is a trans man and it was the Penguin that got Willis Todd locked up for life and then killed instead of Two Face. Bruce eventually finds out he’s trans and is supportive if understandably clueless. He raises Jason as his son. It’s important to me that Jason’s beef with Batman not leave either side objectively correct. Their relationship and hurts are a lot more compelling to me if Bruce isn’t transphobic.

A Place of Lonely Dying and the Robin (1993) series happen with very few deviations, with the understanding that I've read less of this than would be ideal and might get some things mixed up as I go along. Those deviations include Tim also being a trans man. Because he was looking into transition care for Jason, Bruce already knows about puberty blockers and HRT and supplies them to him. That becomes a big part of why Tim’s Dad is so freaked out by Tim being Robin. In this timeline, one of the major reasons Tim is so attached to the role of Robin is that it’s the first role in his life where he gets to be himself.

Lost Days happens as it did in comics except for two changes. Firstly when Talia sleeps with him, it's not sex, it's fully clothed cuddling and actual sleeping. I think this compromise preserves the important emotional conflict that I identified in this reading of her motivations, while sidestepping some of the problems the sex caused. The second change is that Jason won't have ended Lost Days by going to talk to Hush...

Because I HATE Thomas Elliot as a character. I hate how he was implemented. I hate that he kept showing up. I hate that they killed off Harold. I hate Hush. So it never happened on Earth 69! Instead I'll be emphasizing Tim and Jason's later fights, which have some similar emotional beats.

Now, whether or not Jason held a knife to Tim’s throat is kinda fucking important to how their relationship is interpreted! Most people, understandably, make this a serious event between the two. However, in all the comics I’ve been reading, I have seen zero characters ever acknowledge that Jason was involved. Tim hasn’t thought or said anything about it, even when it really seemed relevant. Jason technically tells Batman he did it in UtRH, but it's never brought up again and at this point it feels almost like Judd Winick tricked DC into publishing a headcanon that applies nowhere else lmao. Therefore I feel fine with just ditching this and putting more emphasis on their later fights which have similar emotional beats.

Under the Red Hood happens, with one modification. He knows about Stephanie's death and treats it with the gravity she deserves. He is targeting Black Mask because of Steph's death, and something very similar to the excellent fanfic 'hangman is coming down from the gallows' by nex_et_nox happens.

Young Justice (1998) happens, except for some of the mythological encounters. They did watch Santa get blown up, but I will be taking liberties with how the Greek Pantheon operates, and holy fucking shit, no they did not meet the goddess Kali like that, what the fuck, did no one even try to do a basic level of cultural sensitivity research?!? Anyways.

Jason does fight Batman, Green Arrow, and Mia as told in Green Arrow (2001) #69 - #72. Roy does hear about this, but he hears about it the way that Mia herself tells it when asked about it in the comic, i.e. “He didn’t hurt me. We just talked.” So he's not exactly all that freaked out about it.

Roy Harper and Jason first meet in Outsiders (2003) #44 - #46 where he helps Roy and Dick exonerate Black Lightning with no ulterior motives, as in the comics.

Teen Titans (2003) #29 (The Titans Tower fight) happens as it did in comics. i.e. It was a fair one on one fight in which both participants understood that the other was not trying to kill them and both combatants walked away with nothing more than superficial injuries. Tim came away from that with a black eye and a grudge; Jason came away from it thinking Tim was pretty alright in his book. The writing on the wall was either Jason’s own blood, or red paint, because there is simply no earthly way that was Tim’s blood.

Teen Titans (2003) in general happens to Tim, though there’s a lot that connects to Countdown to Final Crisis (which can only have happened in the canonical pre-flashpoint multiverse) that may or may not need to be edited and removed.

The combination of events from Countdown to Final Crisis and Teen Titans (2003) #47 also happens, in which Jason attempts to save Duela Dent from murder, fails, connects with Donna at her funeral, and then is interrogated by Tim and Dick who suspect Jason murdered her. Oh and also it's where Tim kicks him in the pants lol. Obviously the reason Duela died and who murdered her has to be different, but all that should be details that don't matter for the fic's purposes.

I've already mentioned that Robin (1993) was being considered canon to Earth 69′s timeline, but make special note here of issue #177, in which Tim sends Jason to jail (his first prison stint, yay :D). One modification here: Jason's plan is to manipulate the established mob families into fighting the cops, leaving the local communities to govern themselves, not to use "kid gangs" to soften up the cops and the mob like happens in the comic. Because like... the on panel plan makes no sense, either logistically or for his character, and idk why but the way the author uses the concept of “kid gangs” leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Nightwing (1996) #118 - #122 aka Brothers in Blood aka the one where Jason becomes a tentacle vore monster happens exactly as depicted in comics. Exactly. As. Depicted. Well okay not exactly, I need him to not have threatened to bomb a building full of innocent people, that is a bridge too far, but everything else stays!

The Red Robin series happens as depicted, except for how Tim got the costume. The Red Robin costume that Tim wears in the pre-flashpoint multiverse was from that multiverse’s Earth 51. On Earth 69 the Red Robin costume was what Bruce made for Jason in anticipation of him wanting to outgrow the Robin mantel one day, like Nightwing did (tho uhhh great job reframing why the Nightwing mantel exists there Bruce lmao). When Dick gave the Robin role to Damian, Tim took the Red Robin outfit for himself from it’s pedestal next to The Memorial Case. There was a considerable amount of spite towards multiple people involved in that decision.

Battle for the Cowl is where it gets trickier. I am going to gut most of the plot of BftC and combine a few plot elements from it with the Batman and Robin (2009) series in order to create a much longer lasting conflict that preserves Jason as an anti-hero and his partnership with Scarlet/Sasha as a competing vigilante force to Dick and Damian.

After Bruce’s “death” Dick super does not ever want to be Batman. No one does really. Jason hears Bruce's post-death message and is understandably fucking devastated. He decides to say fuck that noise, Bruce is gone now, and I'm gonna be Batman since no one else seems willing to do it, and I'm gonna do it my way! Another Batman running around shooting people dead forces Dick’s hand and he takes up the Batman mantel to fight him. Batman and Robin (2009) #3 - #6 happen roughly as depicted, but with Jason still claiming to be Batman, and he doesn’t have red hair. (I’m so sorry white suit + pill helmet costume, but I must leave you behind for the sake of continuity). Jason's stint in Arkham and then Blackgate happens. Batman and Robin (2009) #23 - #25 happen as depicted, minus the part where Jason rigged the entire fucking civilian tram line to explode. After Jason and Scarlet fly off into the sunset together, they come back to Gotham and keep fighting.

Sometime after he's free again he does Roy a favor. I haven't decided what exactly, but it's big. I’ve toyed with the idea that he broke him out of prison because he doesn’t want to see Liam grow up without a dad in a move very similar to the Outsiders thing and roughly analogous to how he meets Roy in Red Hood and the Outlaws (2011), but that seems a lil repetitive and why would Roy even be in jail, so idk.

By this point the events of Red Robin are over and Tim has joined Dick and Damian in fighting Jason. Sometime before the climactic battle, Scarlet leaves for [FANFIC SPOILERS] reasons, so it becomes just Jason again. He goes through with something like the plan from Battle for the Cowl, luring Tim to his Batcave and offering him a place as his Robin. As in comics, Tim's answer is to pick up a crowbar and wack Jason across the face with it! Jason wins the fight and stabs Tim in the chest, knowing it's not gonna kill him, but fine with it leaving one hell of a scar! Dick's fight with Jason afterwards, and Jason jumping from the train into the harbor, happens as it did in BftC #3 with the exception of Dick wearing the Batsuit instead of Tim.

Starfire contacts Roy for help with a lengthy, off planet mission - one that absolutely needs a Bat on board. Every single Bat is up to their eyeballs in fires to put out and projects to run... except for Jason. Roy knows a lot of other Heroes with very good reasons to hate him, but in his personal experience, Jason’s always been a reliable if shady and asshole-ish guy working for the greater good. Ya’know. A Bat. It helps that they both think Bruce treats Dick like garbage sometimes and thus are inclined to be sympathetic towards Jason's beef with him. Roy vouches for him and brings him on board. They work well together, they save the days in outer space, and after a particularly dangerous mission they have a "thank fuck we're not dead" threesome together. This replaces the New 52 version of Red Hood and the Outlaws.

During the trip back to Earth, Jason confides in them about his woes and they encourage him to sort his shit out and get his life back together. Jason agrees and after considering it for a while he asks Roy and Starfire to help negotiate a truce between him and the rest of the Bats. They agree and thus begins two years of ceasefire and getting more friendly with the other Bats.

During those two years, the events of Dark Knights: Metal occur. The Source Wall is broken, and all the peoples of all the earths are plunged into a nightmare world. No one really remembers what happened, it’s all very vague and drifty, like remembering a dream, unsurprisingly. People have been referring to this event as The Nightmares.

This two year period also contains my version of Rebirth Red Hood and the Outlaws. Jason attempts to infiltrate Black Mask’s gang because the real Black Mask should be super dead and super unwilling to work with him. He’s a LOT more competent about it than in comics tho.

The biggest change is what goes down with Cobblepot. Jason’s original intention was to fake the penguin’s death and take all his power and assets from him, as he did in comics. However, he loses Artemis and Bizzaro before he goes through with that plan instead of after. At the last minute he switches the blanks out for lead. The Penguin is super dead.

He fights back when Bruce confronts him, but it's still a brutal fight and ultimately Roy has to separate them. Then Jason follows his father’s trail to the experimentation prison thing like in comics. Roy doesn’t die along the way, we don’t have the scene with Bruce at the diner, but in the end it turns out that his father is actually dead. No one survived that place. He only found boxes of dusty, decaying files, a grave out back, and Dr. Fate. Once he was convinced there was nothing more to find, Dr. Fate took him to John Constantine and The Contract, and that’s just about where our story begins!

Have another link, and I hope some of y’all enjoy what I’ve got so far!

[hyp-no-tic]

GMMTV 2024 PART 2 - BINGO

For the upcoming event on April 23rd (which I'm not going to be able to watch live 😭😭😭)

I was quite pleased with part 1 🌈🥰 And let's be real, I've got no time to make another bingo card for part 2 so here's what's left of my first card!

Thanks again to @icouldhyperfixatehim for creating this awesome bingo card.

Things I’m fairly sure we’re getting:

Firstkhao series (pretty much confirmed)

Mark fucking Pakin KISSING (it looks like we're getting MarkOhm??)

(And that's it since I've had no time to snoop on social media recently and anyway I looove to be surprised)

And yes I'm aware we're not getting a Fluke Pusit main role since my man moved on from GMMTV since then (to get himself his own main role: bravo!!)

Things I would really like to see:

P'Jojo said somewhere that he’d like to do a domestic cutesy BL, please give the man what he wants. As a general rule, GMMTV should just let Jojo do whatever Jojo wants to do, period.

P’Aof once said in a interview that he would like to work with actors he hasn’t work with yet and that among gmmtv he hadn’t had the chance to work with Gun (or Krist) soooooooooo this could be the year is what I’m saying.

PLEASE give me something by the BMF production team (P'Waa Waasuthep, who also directed The Gifted) because Be My Favorite is definitely one of my favorite series, it was perfect.

Another more politically oriented drama (à la The Eclipse, Not Me)

Since remakes are in right now, you know what I would love a Thai take on? Color Rush! I really liked this KBL, it had SUCH an interesting premise but… *sigh* it was way too short to be impactful imo (the vibe of the show though omg). (P'Nuchy? P'Golf?)

More trans characters with great supporting roles/strong storylines, more non-binary characters

More QUEER ELDERS!! Different generations of queer interacting (ex: the gay uncles in My Ride the series, they were EVERYTHING)

Already completed in Part 1 :

EARTHMIX: Ossan's Love TH

ADULT LIFE BL (post uni): The Trainee, Peaceful Property, Ossan's Love TH, Wandee Goodday, hell I'll put Pluto in it too!

GEMINIFOURTH: My Love Mix-Up!

OFFGUN and TAYNEW: separately but whatever it counts (and anyway it was a wishful dream)

NEO SERIOUS ROLE: Am I splitting hair? Who's knows? But it does not look like he's playing a clown in My Golden Blood, gimme baseball bat!Neo

1 GL NEW SHIP: Pluto (plus several side couples!!)

MAGICAL REALISM BL: My Golden Blood's more supernatural but saaaaaaaaame

NEW WTF SHIP: JossGawin +  NamtanFilm

GAWIN CASKEY MAIN ROLE: My Golden Blood

WINNYSATANG + AOUBOOM + ENSEMBLE BL CAST: We Are the series

[natlacentral]

‘AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER’ STAR DALLAS LIU ON BEING ASIAN IN HOLLYWOOD

Actor on the rise, Dallas Liu, is stepping into his first leading role as Prince Zuko in Netflix’s live-action remake of Avatar: The Last Airbender. For those who grew up watching the popular Nickelodeon series—often dubbed by critics as one of the greatest animated television series of all time—the story of Aang and the four nations is both familiar and nostalgic.

Liu, however, has teased fans saying, “[Watching the new show is] going to be quite the experience.” Set for a February 2024 release, the remake is headlined by some of the most popular Asian actors in Hollywood including Daniel Dae Kim, Paul Sun-Hyung, Ken Leung and Elizabeth Yu. 

As the story itself borrows elements from indigenous Asian tribes, it’s become culturally important to showcase the people as they are. Yet, when questioned about how Hollywood segments the nuances of the term “Asian”—broad in itself, encompassing countless ethnic groups spread across 48 countries—Liu reveals that being “Asian” isn’t necessarily the most important thing about any one character. 

A cultural movement 

“Typically the breakdowns [for an audition] will just be Asian, black, white, Latino, and [actors] will go into that because not always in every project are they going to need to explain the background of a character,” says Liu. “As Asians in Hollywood, we not only want to be able to tell a cultural story, we also want to be a character where [being Asian isn’t] the only thing about them.

“At the end of the day, we are real people living everyday lives. So although, culturally, we might be different, we’re all human beings at the end of the day.”

For Liu, who began his acting career at age 13, honing his craft has culminated at just the right time. “It’s super hot [to be] an Asian-American actor in Hollywood right now,” he laughs. Having previously appeared in Marvel Studios’ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings alongside Simu Liu and Awkwafina, Liu is at the forefront of a cultural phenomenon progressing towards the inclusion of Asian-influenced projects.

“I think as far as Hollywood goes, we’re doing a better job [at representation], but there’s always going to be room to improve.”

For him, the challenge becomes less about the scarcity of opportunity and more about experience. Having had a mentor himself at the beginning of his career, Liu ponders about the future of Hollywood and notes that more mentors will likely be available to guide young actors and actresses and lead them in the right direction. “We hold a lot of responsibility knowing that there are only more opportunities to come for all of us,” Liu says.

Succeeding in Hollywood

In a way, Liu is living an interesting paradox in Hollywood. While representation has been touted as one of the most important issues for this generation of artists, it’s also become something that mustn’t tie an actor down. “It’s just a character, at the end of the day,” says Liu. “People want to see what you can do with it regardless of how you look.”

“I’m living my life trying to make it as an actor, not necessarily as an Asian actor who wants to work only on Asian projects. I want to be able to do everything. I don’t want to limit myself to any sort of opportunities.”

What then is the most important factor when it comes to landing a role in Hollywood? “Preparation,” Liu shares. Less about how you look or who you are, preparation encompasses different strategies for different actors. For Liu, it’s as simple as knowing your lines and understanding what’s going on in the scene.

“A lot of auditions have been on self-tape because of Covid, so people are typically filming their auditions on their phones,” Liu says. “It might help to have a good lighting setup. Order a ring light and set it up behind the camera. But honestly, at the end of the day, it comes down to whether or not they like you and that’s usually out of your control, especially in the early stages.”

Coming from Hollywood and creating stories from the histrionic city has made Liu realise that rigidity has become passé for most storylines. He says, “It’s good to have those much broader and more general roles where everyone can come in and get a shot at [an audition].”

[rifki16]

Hidamari ga Kikoeru Raw Material, film and Pilot Episode Review Date

In anticipation of the Silhouette of Your Voice (2017) Live-Action series remake, airing on June 26, 2024. I intended to read the manga, as well as, refreshing my memory of the film (2017). However, I don’t think I have the time for it; I’m swamped with my thesis work. I am planning to write a review of the manga, the film and the pilot episode by June 30 - and to upload it here on that day as well.

I’m very amped up for the series. I hope that the LA can give a better justice to the raw material - the manga, as well as, a better disability representation. The film was the first Japanese BL work with disability representation that I have ever consumed. My prejudgment about Japanese society and their relationship with disability is that they are averse to it - with the whole masculinity-driven societal mindset.

I do hope that the LA show can at least try to show a social model of disabilities.

[the-cat-chat]

September 13, 2024

Friday the 13th (2009)

A group of young adults set up tent near the abandoned summer camp where a series of gruesome murders are said to have taken place back in 1980.

Warning: Review may contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.

JayBell: Happy Friday the 13th!!! To celebrate (aka punish) ourselves, we decided of our own volition to watch the 2009 Friday the 13th. Well, really it was the only Friday the 13th movie streaming so "of our own volition" is a bit of a stretch.

If I remember correctly, we didn't even like the original Friday the 13th, and our viewing of Jason Takes Manhattan was also bad, but in a much funnier way.

I thought this was a totally new remake, but no, it's just another one in the series. So basically they just exposition dump the whole backstory to the audience in the beginning of the movie. So yeah.

Wayyyyyy more nudity and sex in this movie than I anticipated. I think I got jumpscared by boobs more than I got jumpscared by Jason.

Anyways, long story short, this is bad and I did not like it. I kid you not, the entire time Anzie and I were CONVINCED of this plot twist that never came. We basically created a new movie in our minds, and let me tell you, it would have been a much better movie.

Are you telling me that what set Jason off was a guy peeing on some weed plants? Is Jason growing weed as a hobby? Why on earth does he kidnap some girl and keep her hostage?

A lot of the girl characters blend together in my mind since they have no defining characteristics. The asshole boyfriend is an asshole for no reason. And his girlfriend sees Jared Padalecki one time and ditches said asshole boyfriend, which fair, but seems a bit sudden in context.

The heart of the movie should have been Jared Padalecki's character and his sister. However, they barely make an attempt at building that relationship.

In the end, I didn't care who lived or who died, the plot is stupid and boring, and the characters are bland and shallow. Maybe I'm learning that I just don't like traditional slasher movies.

Rating: 2/10 cats 🐈

Anzie: Uhhh soooo I really couldn’t pass up an impromptu Friday the 13th partaay. But seeing as the 2009 version was the only part of this franchise streaming (hopefully X streams by the next Friday the 13th) we haddd to go with that. And uh again I know how to pick them. My first comment. Jared Padalecki- I should’ve known. And second why is there so much boobage in this one??? Seems excessive. Ummm. Next the weed??? What’s with that plot. I feel like I missed something?? I will say. It’s small points do come from the fact I got to be imaginative and come up with a huge scheme that it wasn’t Jason it was the weed growers and the cops were in on it and that’s why they weren’t helping find anyone blah blah blah but no. Just Jason and his mommy issues. Reaaalll quick. Um soo Jared padaleckis looking for his sis riggght. Ummm why’s no one looking for all the other people she was with??? Just asking. You know since I allllready can figure out the whole Jason thing of if he died as a boy or how’d he turn into a man or why’s he immortal ish or is this he technically a zombie??? What’s the deal!?!??? So yeah I guess I can just focus on the other giant plot holes. Everyone in this movie is absolutely annoying and to be fair Jason didn’t deserve the woodchipper. And that shamu move at the end. I’m over it and can’t wait till next time. Blame the duality of humankind and my propensity for loving to subject us to uttttter trash.

Rating: 1/10 Cats 🐈‍⬛

[agentnico]

The Gentlemen - season 1 (2024) review

Alright, alright, alright….. wait, McConaughey is not in this one? Oh, well that’s not alright, alright, alright…

Plot: When aristocratic Eddie inherits the family estate, he discovers that it's home to an enormous weed empire, and its proprietors aren't going anywhere.

Guy Ritchie is honestly great. Since way back when he made Lock, Stock and Snatch, he’s consistently churned out top quality entertainment, except maybe the Aladdin remake. I mean I totally get he probably got a superb pay check out of it, but honestly what in the heavens did Guy Ritchie have to do with blue genies I will never know. Regardless, where the man really excels at is when it comes to the British gangster genre. The guy can make swearing sound so poetic and melodic - it’s honestly mad how something so otherwise rude can come off utterly beautiful and delightful like a song. Especially in his 2019 film The Gentlemen, the writing in that movie was so good!! Naturally Netflix caught onto this too as we now how a spin-off series.

Going into the show I was looking forward to it but also cautious, as I was aware this new show was missing the star power of the original film. I mean can you blame me? The movie had the likes of Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Colin Farrell and Hugh Grant to name a few. That’s a solid load of A-listers huddled together. As for the show, the names like Theo James or Kaya Scodelario didn’t instil heavy excitement, especially with James as honestly, I always thought he was a bit of a prick. Granted this may be due to when he played the dickhead in The Inbetweeners movie, and gosh do I feel old with that reference, but he just has that face of a guy that’s so full up his own arse. Again, I’ve never met the chap, he’s probably a lovely human being, but I’ve made this prejudgment in my head and as such when I found out he was the lead of this series I naturally rolled my eyes. That being said I give Netflix props as they hired the original film director Guy Ritchie to create this spin-off and even direct some of the episodes and do a lot of the writing, so of course I was going to check this show out.

Never doubt the Guy should be a new cinematic rule. I’m proud to report that the new The Gentlemen series is a fantastic watch. It’s not the most original show, yet it plays out more-so like a Guy Ritchie’s greatest hits, as it’s got his visual flare and style, with the super cool and smooth fashion choices - honestly Scodelario has a wardrobe change every other scene and each time it felt like she was walking out of a Tom Ford fashion exhibit, and then also all the men wearing their gentlemanly suits dripping with swagger and smoking their cigars and drinking their whiskeys - the whole thing is simply infused with that signature upper-class British gangster feel. Ritchie’s signature syllable-heavy dialogue that just rolls of the tongue is also more than ever present here, and whoever decided to cast Giancarlo Esposito in this show deserves a pay rise, as Esposito’s soft-spoken melodic tone proclaiming the colourful lines of Ritchie’s rich exposition was music to the ears.

The cast here too are super game. Theo James was actually solid as the lead young duke, as he had that manly prowess and was very believable as someone who gets shit done. Kaya Scodelario I thought at first was trying too hard to mimic Michelle Dockery from the original movie, but eventually she made the role her own, and she gave enough mystery to her performance to make us feel uncertain of her true motivations. Daniel Ings as the duke loser-cocaine-addicted-brother Freddy was a lot of fun, however I would say his character became a bit overbearing and annoying in the end, as he constantly made so many mistakes throughout that I honestly kind of wanted him to get killed. It’s as if whenever the show needed an excuse for something bad to happen, they’d just get Freddy to fuck up again. Apologies for my language, I don’t usually swear in my reviews, but also this is a Guy Ritchie project we’re talking about, and he uses the F word every other sentence. So fuck it. In regards to other notable cast members, Pearce Quigley as Gospel John, a leader of a religious gang was oddly creepy yet entertaining, especially when he’d randomly scream certain lines for absolutely no reason. Pure psycho. Peter Serafinowicz and Guz Khan have amusing turns. Lastly we have two British gangster alumni Vinnie Jones and Ray Winstone. These two of course were on a different level to everyone else. Of course Vinnie Jones can be quite cheesy when it comes to acting. One can fondly remember his delivery of the line “I’m the Juggernaut, bitch!”. But when it comes to Guy Ritchie, Jones and him have always been a great pairing. Here as the duke estates’ caretaker, Vinnie is super reserved yet again super cool. I think cool is a word that can be used and abused when it comes to this show. It’s all so cool! Then Ray Winstone as the leader of the crime family… I mean it’s Ray Winstone as the leader of the crime family! He got that Godfather-level gravitas, only more Cockney, and it was great watching him do his thing.

When it comes to the story, this show is standalone to the original film. You can definitely see the inspiration though with certain narrative beats and story choices being very reflective/similar to what occurred in the film, and then the hidden weed farm under the estate looked like exactly the same set as from the film. But overall this is completely its own thing, and each episode brings more fun crime shenanigans for the characters to deal and navigate through, and it was consistently entertaining. My only complaint is that I’d say the finale a tad anti-climactic. I think with all the roughness and toughness that the characters go through, the ending tied everything up a bit too conveniently and neatly. I get I’m not to expect the most realistic thing as this is Guy Ritchie’s world, but I did want things to get a bit more messy, especially due to the build up. That being said this is a major win for Netflix, and I’m expecting a season 2 to be green-lit soon, as this is a winning package.

Overall score: 7/10

[denimbex1986]

'Over the course of his nearly 40-year career, Steven Zaillian has reinvented himself almost as many times as Tom Ripley, the indelible lead character of his latest project, Ripley. He’s written films about erudite cannibals, baseball statisticians, American gangsters, serial killers, and chess prodigies. “Each time I go out, I feel like I’m doing it for the first time and that it requires different material, requires a different approach,” Zaillian tells Tudum.

Zaillian is freshly nominated for both writing and directing Emmys for his work on Ripley — accolades that join a healthy group of previous awards (including an Oscar for writing Schindler’s List and a Directors Guild of America award for his direction of The Night Of)...

“You learn something new every time, but it’s impossible to learn everything,” Zaillian says. It may be impossible, but he’s still trying...

Ripley (2024)

For Ripley, Zaillian also had a new challenge to face: setting his work apart from what came before.

“When it was proposed to me as a series I felt, ‘OK, it’s dangerous because there have been films made from it.’ But this is a different form, and the approach is going to be so much different that I was intrigued by that idea. I didn’t feel like it was a remake. I felt like it was something new, and so that’s how I convinced myself to get involved in it. I wasn’t consciously trying to make it different, but I was consciously trying to make it in a way that captured what I felt when I read the book or how I saw things when I read the book, and just by doing that made it different.”

One new choice Zaillian made gave Tom Ripley a distinctly sadder edge: This iteration of the character is older than he’s ever been before.

“The idea that this person who’s a failure, this petty con man who’s got no future at 25, is not as serious as one who’s 35 or even late 30s. One of the themes of the show is that everyone is a fake. Tom is obviously a fake in every way. Dickie claims to be a painter and isn’t really. Marge claims to be a writer, and Freddie claims to be a playwright. So everyone is sort of a failure at what they want to be, and I just feel like characters in their 30s feeling that it makes more sense than characters in their 20s.”

You might ask yourself — does Zaillian see any patterns connecting the diverse projects that make up his career? Only one: hard work.

“I consider each project on its own. Do I respond to a particular story or characters, and do I think I can do a good job? That's always been my only guide really.”'

[absolutebl]

Wading back into the BL world after several months away, and I would like to politely request recommendations. I'm looking for completed BL shows that are as good as Bad Buddy, have a D/s element, are supernatural, and/or are about politics like Not Me. Any or all of these combined would be lovely. I prefer Thai, but any country is fine.

You're the best!

Hi sweetie! Welcome back.

Recently completed BL, as good as Bad Buddy (I rated that a 9/10) with D/s elements, supernatural (PNR), and/or politics.

Okay so I sorted the spreadsheet of doom by year (we are in October 2024) and then ranking, and here is what I got:

Century of Love

Thai Gaga

fated mates, PNR, historical element, grumpy/sunshine, D/s hinted at but not fully executed

This is a very pretty drama about a young man who fell in love with a nice girl 100 years ago, and when she died in his arms, he was cursed to live until he could meet her reborn self. Only this time around, she’s reborn into the body of a man. Or is she? I love it when Thailand gets all up in its own historical business and reincarnation and shizz. I like this pair (it’s not DaouOffroad’s fault I didn’t enjoy their first series.) Daou’s wushu is snazzy and we got a unique meet cute. (Erm… Remeet cute? Meet cute 2.0?)

Ultimately, this is I Feel You Linger in the Air + First Love Again, rather than (as one might expect) Until We Meet Again or The Director Who Buys Me Dinner. The leads turned in great performances, although Daou outclassed everybody else on that screen. It’s a good story and a great BL and I can’t find any major faults with it beyond a certain level of camp that is sadly endemic to lakorns. Also I’m going to give it credit as the kind of BL that one could safely recommend to lovers of melodrama and historical romance, without having to qualify it as “good for a BL.”

It was, to put it succinctly, a VERY ENJOYABLE show.

Cherry Magic (Thai remake)

Thai grey

paranormal, office romance, no D/s

A soft charming warm hug of a show about crushes and mind reading and self worth that really worked for me. With no-fuss execution from a consummate team (at GMMTV) and an OG lead pair (proving why they remain eternal and deserve to grow up). Look, here’s the thing,

Cherry Magic is a great Thai BL in its own right - not comparing it to any other iteration. But even when I do compare (and I've seen all the Cherries and read the manga) it stands strong. I, personally, like the Thai BL slightly better than the Japanese live action yaoi, but I think that’s because I just really enjoy Thai BL's style and I LOVE TayNew.

Also all the kissing was both present and better in this version. As it should be from Thailand.

Cosmetic Playlover

Japan Gaga

obsession, office, tsundere/sunshine , claiming, ownership D/s but nothing more than that

I loved this little show. It was a classic office BL about the older workaholic who loves his job and the younger upstart who unexpectedly loves his boss. It’s a hyung romance where everybody is extremely earnest and sweet and pretty about everything. Except our seme, who is slightly unhinged and a little obsessed in all the ways one likes best from Japan. Plus the kisses were good! I can’t ask for anything more, utterly charming unexpected gem of a show. What a great time!

Love For Love's Sake

Korea iQIYI

isekai, paranormal, high school setting, very soft, sunshine/tsundere, it's Korean so no D/s (the only one that might satisfy from them recently is bully romance Jazz for Two)

trigger suicide

Isekai-based KBL is about a man who must win a game by convincing a reserved teen outcast to fall in love with him. Of course, that teen represents himself and his own unhappiness. Like many queer narratives, this show is actually about self worth, trust, and found family, and it is VERY on the nose. But I don’t expect subtlety from my BL and I enjoyed it's truly lovely redemption arc and earnest performances.

I personally found the narrative a touch disjointed with overworked filming angles and poorer than average captions, but the consistency of tone, script, and immersion is beyond the norm for BL. You will drown in this show and like it that way. The leads have fantastic chemistry and it's ultimately highly rewatchable and utterly charming, which counts for a lot.

The Sign

Thai YouTube

paranormal, soulmates, sunshine/tsundere, high heat, police procedural, every other trope, there's even some elements of D/s in there because it has...... well, everything in it

This show is literally everything (except straight) all at once. It's BL, queer, band of brothers, romcom, erotica, PNR, fated mates, police procedural, fantasy, mystery, suspense, and slasher. It’s the king of genre mash-up chaos. Sure, it's madness but there is genius in it.

Was it a crazy unhinged mess +1 roll for damage? Yes. Yes it was.

Did it manage to hold all those tangled threads together? No it did not.

Was it also a charming, sexy, engaging, non-stop piece of entertainment? Sure thing.

I think this show is basically my KinnPorsche, and frankly I’ve been chasing that dragon naga since KP aired. Is it perfect? No. But it was balls to the wall FUN. Emphasis on balls.

I rated it a 9/10 in 2024 but doesn't contain any of your other requested criteria

Sugar Dog Life

The Rebound

Unknown

Wandee Goodday

We Are

Sorry the D/s has been very light on the ground this year. I mean there has been some kinky stuff, but nothing even approaching BB in terms of quality. I mean Deep Night was about sex work and had a poly romance but was it...... good? Not really.

I rated it an 8/10 but at least it has kink

My Stand-in

Meet You At the Blossom

Jazz for Two

Deep Night

[bartoonist]

BAR’s PS5 Screenshots 3-16-2024: Here are my 10 new Screenshots from Street Fighter 6 I actually forgot to post on some of my social media platforms almost a week ago now, due to working an Oddworld + Steven Universe Fan Art illustration of Lapis Lazuli and Abe, and working on my 10 yr milestone remake illustration of my Grandma getting peddled around in her red wheelchair by a Dolphin DreamKeeper Avatar I created for her back in 2014 as I remade it this year (as of 3-16-2024 of writing this post’s description of course), and visiting my grandma to make sure she’s doing well, I just lost track of the time, but on the bright side, I got back to playing Street Fighter 6 on my PS5 since I might as well try to finish playing through my Street Fighter Avatar’s world tour storyline, my SF6 Avatar used to go by the full name of Brisk Tintor, but after seeing the in game-mobile text msgs on how my avatar was being addressed by his full name like it was a first name basis, I went to the in game settings, removed the surname: Tintor, so now my SF6 Avatar is plainly addressed as just: Brisk nowadays in my SF6 World Tour PlayThrough of course, any this is what my SF6 Avatar’s full body appearance looks like in my Real Life Likeness with just my face, stomach, height, and skin tone etc, but with some exaggerated mashup design choices of Frank Miller, Rob Liefeld, and the Elven People of my longtime favorite Cult Video Game Series: Jak & Daxter, just for fun. I’m aware that there are some people who have a lot of mixed feelings about the Street Fighter character customization features being weird, but to me: that’s no surprise because longtime street fighter fans should know as well as I do that most of the character design styles for Street Fighter Characters have always had this marvelous mix of Frank Miller, Rob Liefeld, Kevin Eastman, Mark Bagley, and Antarctic Press AmeriManga imho, so I hope you folks like these screenshots of my SF6 Avatar: Brisk, as I’m proud of how I designed him for fun anyway of course.

[mister-e-muss]

Alright. I’m late but here’s my backlog report for January. How did my first month of 2024 go in terms of games?

In a word, rather well.

Trails from Zero:

The first game of the new year that I beat. Would you believe me if I said this whole thing only took me about a week of concentrated play to beat?

Anyways, it’s probably the most solid title in the Trails series so far. As I’ve said before my journey into Trails was a bit screwy, due to only having a Switch and a standard laptop. It was surprising to find that a lot of the good that the series accumulated was actually added in this entry specifically, from attacking enemies on-screen, to bonus experience, to being able to use combo attacks a la Chrono Trigger.

Also, music good.

Star Ocean Second Story R:

I’m a sucker for anything that can blend science fiction and fantasy, which means that this was almost as good as drugs.

The only two negative things I can say about it is that 1.) the music wasn’t really bad, but not what I’d call my favorite, and 2.) I wish that characters had more interaction in Private Actions. I like the Private Action events, but I wish more involved more than the protag and the character in question.

My complaints with First Departure, mainly that the combat felt very barebones and there was no fast travel, have been destroyed here with extreme prejudice. The breaks and sidesteps are fun additions that don’t break the game, and the fast travel system not only gives you easy access, but also notes when and where events are available, so no more cursing yourself for not having the exact timing to recruit a character.

Gunvolt Chronicles 2:

If you liked Mega Man Zero/ZX, chances are you will like or do like this series. I myself have been a fan since the 3DS days.

Unfortunately, while I did enjoy my time with this, I was a little bit disappointed.

In terms of gameplay, Copen no longer feels like Copen. The high-speed human pinball has been grounded and his range has been shortened. While he gets his wings back once the kudos reach a certain threshold, this means that I was constantly cursing my muscle memory, having to remind myself that I only had one air dash and the attack button was no longer a straight shot but a melee saw.

In terms of story, while I like a few of the ideas and the new character of Null, I found it hard to truly get invested. None of Gunvolt Chronicles 1’s supporting cast is present aside from Kohaku, and we frankly don’t spend enough time with Null or Ypsilon for them to be compelling. Also ‘character falls into portal because reasons!’ is a trope I hate. They explain it eventually, but it’s just the perfect encapsulation of how break-neck fast this story moves. Prologue movie where characters get isekai’d, short two-sentence long introduction to Null, and Bam! Months long time-skip.

I feel like Inti-creates and I just have different opinions on the Gunvolt series’ identity, but that’s a discussion for an entirely separate time. I make these reports to have fun, not to vent.

Final Fantasy IV (DS version):

Would you believe me if I said this one took half the month?

Anyways, I first encountered this game on the Wii’s Virtual Console shop, back in the good old days of owning your own retro software. Being a kid of average intelligence, it completely escaped me that you could save on the overworld, which meant that despite trying to get into it a few times, FFIV was the first game to be booted when I needed memory space.

A few years back I finally got my hands on a copy of the DS remake with 3D models and voice acting by the likes of Yuri Lowenthal. And it rocked.

I think the augment system is undercooked, but that is the only complaint I can think of, because the music, the story, and the gameplay are all great! Let me put it to you this way: FFIV’s active time battle system was so good that they used it for five more games straight, and borrowed from it heavily for 12.

I know that the Crystal Remasters have come out and gained notoriety, but I still prefer this version because of the solid voice cast, fun art direction, and balanced yet challenging difficulty.

[contrarynonsense]

I felt like sharing my thoughts on the gmmtv 2024 lineup (so far) since I ended up watching the livestream last night. Without further ado:

My thoughts on the gmmtv 2024 (part 1) line up! (Dramas only)

My Precious: Congrats to the cast but I did not watch the movie (which like literally just came out it feels like) and I don’t have a high interest in watching the drama adaptation.

Ploy’s Yearbook: I was slightly confused on the plot but as long as it’s not time travel I might give it a try. The girl lead ensemble cast seems real enjoyable.

We Are: Not gonna lie, I have some mixed feelings on this one. I love all the pairings but four couples in one series with low plot is far too many. I don’t think the screen time balance will be good and this feels like they are wasting some strong talent. Best I can phrase it is they are using the popularity of the couples to carry the show rather than have it be a story that can stand on its own. :/

The Trainee: I will always love OffGun and I’m most likely going to watch this, though I find it a little silly to announce another show for them when Cooking Crush hasn’t even aired yet. They really do need to let Gun spread his wings a bit more though imo. Also people keep saying there were no subtitles on the trailer but there definitely were??? So I don’t know what that’s about.

Only Boo: Love the fresh faces and the cast seems pretty good, but I have a very strong distaste for idol dramas. So unless this gets some seriously good reviews I’m probably going to give this a pass.

Pluto: A GL!!!! I’m not super sold on the plot, seems reminiscent of Not Me with the whole “pretend to be your twin while they’re in a coma” thing, but the girlies be stunning and working, and we need to show gmmtv that there is a market for this! So I will definitely be watching and supporting. 😤

Summer Night: They had me in the first half, I really thought they might be mixing couples and giving us DunkPhuwin. I was sold on that in seconds. But alas, it’s a messy heterosexual love square… thing? Honestly I got very lost on what was happening as the trailer went on. Love triangles/squares are overdone and really not my cup of tea, so I’ll skip this one and dream about what could have been.

Peaceful Property: I’m really, really excited for this one!!! Idk if it’s BL or Bromance but honestly I don’t care. The found family with ghosts and slapstick had me sold, the casting is incredible and TayNew with a dynamic swap is sending. Probably one of my favorite offerings on this list.

Ossan’s Love: while I love and respect the original for what it did for normalizing a lot of lgbt+ media in Japan, idk how I feel about them doing a remake. Even if neither Earth or Mix play the Ossan (which I doubt they will), they are still a bit too young for the other roles. I doubt doubt their skills, but these two are my age and they keep casting them (especially Earth) as these older aged characters. Like, these guys aren’t even 30 yet. I know they are very popular in Japan but… I will wait and see on this one. We didn’t even get a trailer so maybe it will surprise me and surpass my expectations.

My Golden Blood: This one I think caught ALL of us by surprise. Gawin bringing back a retired BL actor in a new pairing for a cheesy vampire romance? Amazing and honestly a little hilarious. I’ll be giving this one a watch most likely, mostly because I think the premise is very amusing.

Kidnap: While good for Ohm (possibly? little unclear on if this is BL or not, it might just be strong friendship) being in a new pair after the mess that was the fan base for Bad Buddy, I cannot stop laughing at the line “for some reasons, I have become a kidnapper.” I’m not supremely interested in the plot, but I hope it turns out good for people who are excited for it.

High School Frenemy: Apparently this is a remake of the Korean show School 2013, but I have not seen the original so I didn’t notice. Lots of gangs and fighting, as well as new faces. Don’t honesty have a strong opinion on this? Again, not my cup of tea. I lean more into comedy than I do angst and high drama.

Wandee Goodday: Yo this one was a ride. I had to get out of my chair and squat to the side for several minutes to recover. I’m not into high heat but damn were they committing and very unabashed about, like, anything. I also love the comedic timing of a lot of it. I don’t know if I’m personally going to watch this one but God I hope it succeeds and goes as good as the trailer.

My Love Mix-Up: GemFourth are back! Little sad that it’s not an original story but I love Kieta Hatsukoi and I know they will kill it. And they have (as far as I can tell) clarified that this is a new adaptation based on the manga, and not a remake of the Japanese drama. As such, I will not be comparing the two and waiting to see what their take on the story will be. Hopefully they will adapt further into the story than the JBL did (though no shame on that version, they did spectacular).

Enigma Season 2: I did not watch season 1 and I will not be watching season 2. Sorry.

Those are my thoughts on the lineup from part one! Missing some big names like FirstKhao and ForceBook, but honestly they are probably gonna be in part 2 in December so I’m not too worried. Overall the announced shows are kinda… meh? Like there is some standouts but overall not super sold on a lot of them. Plus a lot of them probably won’t even make it into 2024 with how behind schedule they are with this years shows. (Where is 23.5 gmmtv? Where?) We shall see what the offerings will be in part 2!

[theselightsareblinding]

My GMMTV 2024 recap

A few hours before the event I was feeling pretty pessimistic but it turns out I got everything I could've asked for, which mostly refers to the GL series and TayNew. Something similar happened last year, so I realized if you give me my GL and Tay and New and a few interesting series I'll be ecstatic, I don't need anything else.

In order of how much I want to watch them:

On sale or Peaceful Property (I’m not sure which is the correct title): this is like Tha himself read my mind a made the perfect series for me. Crackhead role for New, my favourite for him, scary cat Tay, Jan and Mook which I love too, comedy, found family vibes. Woulnd’t change a thing, I don’t know if it’s BL or not but I don’t care. They also said the creators of The gifted will be working on it so I have faith it’ll be good at least.

Pluto: I would watch any GL crumbs GMMTV decides to give us but this is much more than that. Namtan and Film are a surprise couple, for me at least, but I like both so much, especially Namtan, and we have what looks like a solid plot and an interesting and mature story. Perfect for me again.

My Love Mix-Up: GeminiFourth are on it so I don’t need to elaborate much, it seems cute and I’m sure they’ll be great as always, like the director who is the same as MSP. Yes it’s a remake of a great series, do I care? No. Yes, they are almost the same characters as MSP, do I care? No. They could refilm MSP changing only the colour of their uniforms and I would watch it.

My Golden Blood: I’m still not sure we aren’t collectivelly hallucinating this series, never in my life would I have imagined something like this, but I’m 100% here for it. I actually really like Joss and Gawin both so let’s see what they come up with. Neo and Mond being part of the cast is the cherry on top.

Kidnap: I kinda love a forced cohabitation situation so I’m already sold. Ohm is great and I’m curious to see him with a new partner.

We Are: seems kinda fun and PondPhuwin and Marc make me want to watch it. Not the biggest WinnySatang fan but maybe they grow on me. I miss the time when we had 4 couples in a series like this and all had decent screen time, I hope this is something similar.

Ploy's Yearbook: girls cast, that’s enough to make me want to watch it, even if all of them have a love interest. Namtan, Aye, Film… No need to say more.

Wandee Goodday: like with My golden blood I’m here for the crack, I hope I don’t cringe too much.

The Trainee: OffGun, that’s it. I’ll watch anything. Seems fun, good cast, not that interesting storyline but we’ll see.

Enigma 2: I haven’t watched season 1 but I want to and season 2 looks even better.

My Precious: I’m going to watch it for Nanon and Film but I already know what happens in it, also I’m a bit tired of hearing about it year after year.

Summer Night: probably bad or very mediocre at least but yes I’ll be watching. Did the queerbait get to me? I’m not sure but maybe. I’m curious about it too, how Phuwin and Dunk act without their partners.

Only Boo: didn’t catch my attention but I’m not dismissing it yet.

Ossan's Love Thailand: haven’t seen the original, the original trailer didn't convince me and I’m a bit tired of Earth tbh. But my real first impression will be when I watch the trailer, we don’t even have a poster yet.

High School Frenemy: absolutely not.

This last one is the only one I’m definitely not watching, I’m overall pleased with the presentation and very excited for part 2 too. Some things I also wish for that maybe we can get in Part 2 are:

NeoMark series

Another GL

FirstKhao romcom

[8bitsupervillain]

End of the Year 2024! The Games I Didn't Particularly Care For

I think it’s fair to point out that there are a great number of games that I play throughout the year that are simply “fine.” They’re not particularly offensive, but they don’t really do enough to justify being included in the lists of games I genuinely like. They are “fine.” Honestly except for one entrant here I feel I could have renamed this category: Games I Was Duped Into Playing Because Streamers Made it Look Better Than They Were.

Dead Rising: Deluxe Remaster

I know I have no one but myself to blame for buying and playing this past the point of being able to request the refund. But something about the fact this game has about as many zombies on screen as the Wii version of the original Dead Rising made me morbidly curious about it. It’s… fine. Which is a shame because I remember really liking the Dead Rising games back in the day.

Space Marine 2

A rip-roaring time to be had by all I’m sure, but I didn’t particularly care for the game. Maybe it’s because of the fact I played Boltgun earlier this year, but I just didn’t care to spend much time with this game. Maybe I’ll play the rest of it at some point, but as it stands it’s just an it’s fine I guess.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard

I’ll probably finish this one as well, but as of now, with the twelve hours I’ve sunk into it I am not in any real hurry to finish it. I think a random fan art I saw spoiled a big twist for me. My biggest complaint at the moment with this game is one that I have with a lot of western action RPGs, playing it on a higher difficulty doesn’t make it actually difficult. It just makes the bosses and a lot of the rank and file enemies a lot more spongy than I feel they should be.

Higurashi When They Cry Hou Chapter 1: Onikakushi

This year I decided to read Higurashi, primarily due to my love of Umineko, but also because I had vague knowledge of the first story arc in the series due to watching the anime nearly twenty years ago. Also Umineko has compelled me to look at the other works of the author Ryukishi07, and I decided to try his debut work. Little did I know that having this pre-existing knowledge would make the visual novel such a slog to read. It was fascinating enough that I would carry on and read the rest of the main series, but I was not having the best time with this entry. Because I was impatient for it to get on with what I knew was going to happen towards the end of the chapter.

Silent Hill 2 remake

When I was in the process of playing the game I felt that I was enjoying it, it felt a bit padded, but I was enjoying the gameplay of it. However as time has passed I find myself doubting my own memories of my time with Silent Hill 2 remake. Did I actually enjoy my time with it? I don’t know, it was probably fine enough but I have zero desire to ever play or look at the game ever again. I don’t particularly care for the new endings they added to this remake (I did not play the game a second time to see them) and I just don’t look back fondly on the journey with Silent Hill 2 remake.