#kare kun

[virtie333]

Let's talk about sex...

[sapphicstarwars]

Sapphic Rarepair Tournament Round 2-49

[finnpoerebelscum]

FALLOUT - Chapter 14

Chapters Posted: 14 of 18

Rating: T+

Warnings: Canon-typical violence & fighting/blood/gore/graphic descriptions of injury/angst/hurt/comfort/Multiple POVs

Characters/Pairings: Poe Dameron/Finn, Karé Kun, Iolo Arana, BB-8, OCs.

Summary: Still reeling in the aftermath of Crait, Poe Dameron and Finn are sent to a secret Resistance base tucked away on Lothal to serve as acting generals. Their numbers dwindled to barely a handful, and with General Organa’s order grounding all surviving Resistance personnel to heal and regroup, morale is at an all time low. Poe grapples with his inability to sit still; the First Order looms, an ever-encroaching threat to what remains of the Outer Rim’s free space; intimate feelings grow impossible to ignore and a shocking return promises devastating consequences not only for those stationed on Lothal, but for the Resistance and galaxy at large. 

A/N: An AU adventure, a side-quest of sorts, to account for some of the time between TLJ and ROS. Stormpilot centric. Canon up until the end of TLJ (but does not take into account Resistance Reborn or the Finn/Rose arc).

Thank you to anyone who has read, liked, and/or reblogged! I am so grateful for you and your time.

Masterlist

CHAPTER 14

“Have we met?”

Ira Nyx sat, hands folded before him on the table, his face impenetrable.“No. But I have heard your name and seen you many times. Now I know who you are.” 

Still hovering by his side, Finn’s eyes searched Poe’s. He hadn’t stopped staring since Poe had woken. 

“How do you feel?” Finn interrupted his exchange with Ira. A welcome break—it was too much for his sluggish mind to follow. A hollowness permeated his entire body, his head too light for his shoulders.

“Not really sure yet.” 

“Oh. Yeah, okay.” Finn sat back on his heels. “Take your time.”

Poe took in the bruises forming around Finn’s cheekbones, the cuts on his lip and chin. “Are you okay?”

“You’re asking me if—“ Finn’s face crumpled and he dragged his hands down over it. When he looked up, his eyes were wet, voice a fierce whisper. He grabbed Poe’s hand. “Don’t ever do that to me again.”

Poe’s heart skipped into his throat. “What?”

“Die. Almost die—whatever. Just… don’t do it again, okay?”

The edges of Poe’s smile trembled, his throat tight. “Okay.” 

Finn blew out a breath then turned back to Ira. “Enough with the cryptic back and forth. Out with it.”

“He survived Order 66.” Karé’s voice startled them. Poe had forgotten she, Iolo and BB-8 were standing by the door. 

Ira Nyx wasn’t the most subtle being—he had an innate reverence to him, a larger than life presence, only in small part due to his towering stature. That he had once been a Jedi… All the pieces clicked neatly into place. But as far as Poe knew, no one had survived Order 66. That was kind of the whole deal. Any Jedi from that era… They were all long dead. “How is that possible?”

“I hid.”

A frown creased Finn’s brow. “For how long?”

“Since the day I watched them all die.”

“That’s what, almost 40 years?” Poe said. “Did you know what was happening during that time?”

“Yes.”

“Yes? That’s it?”

It was quiet for a long time. Ira Nyx looked ancient when he spoke next, his giant shoulders sagged. “Indeed.” He stared at his hands. “I made a choice. Anyone around me would have been at risk.”

“But what about all the people you could have helped?” Poe carefully pulled himself to a seated position. “On Garel alone. Not to mention the rest of the Outer Rim.” 

“I knew what was happening and did nothing. That makes you angry.”

Poe willed the heated hammering of his heart to slow. “Look, I don’t know you, and I don’t really care that you did nothing. But you need to know how many suffered and died while you hid.”

“I know.”

Finn shifted. “Yeah?”

“I saw them. Not each one but many. Just as I saw you before I met you. Always in fragments. Scattered images. With you it was fire. Blood. Many beings dying. A great… wave razing everything in its path.”

“You saw the base explode,” Poe said.

Ira frowned, a far off look in his eyes. “Are there more?”

“Many more,” Finn answered for him. “Why?”

“I saw it four times. Each distinctly different than the last.”

The fire in the hearth snapped and popped into the quiet room. Realization settled heavily between them. Three other bases had probably been destroyed. There went that list, unraveling into oblivion. More names. More friends; gone. 

Karé broke the silence. “You can see the future?” 

“I cannot see the future.” Ira gave a good natured chuckle. “I see… echoes. Of what could be. What has not yet come to be. When I saw all of you, none of it made sense until we were face to face.”

“Did you see anything else?” Finn asked.

“Bits and pieces.” Ira pinched the bridge of his nose. “I cannot put it all together.”

Poe realized Finn still hadn’t let go of his hand as he heard him say, “Maybe we can help with that.”

* * *

With orders to stay in bed, Poe was left alone in the house while Ira led the others to where he concealed a landspeeder. Poe protested. He couldn’t help himself—he wanted to see what ancient model Ira had been hiding for the last forty years, and was eager to get his body moving, but with a fit of impressive squawking, BB-8 had won the argument in the end. 

The second the tattered cloth fell back over the door, Poe crept up off Ira’s makeshift mattress to stretch by the warmth of the hearth, watching the flames lap hungrily over fresh tree scraps.

A whisper of pain crawled up his side when he moved, and he’d never felt such deep muscle soreness in his life, but he was alive. He could stand, he could walk. As the minutes went on, his body awoke more, his brain with it too. The only traces of a near-fatal injury were the blood-crusted tatters of his shirt that hung open around his midsection. It was like looking down at someone else’s body, the gore dried dark brown in places, but no injury peeking through the ruined fabric. Only a shiny scar was left, skin knitted together in a jagged line, but miraculously healed and closed. Poe ran his fingers along his face and found similarly scarred over cuts and scrapes where shattered transparisteel had peppered his face. The same ghost-echoes of pain flitted across the healed skin at his touch.

He couldn’t remember anything after the bitter cold in the G-9’s cabin and Finn’s warm chest against his back… But he could feel echoes. A distant warmth, spreading through his core, replacing the cold. A stranger knitting him back together with their bare hands. Someone he had never met.

The full-body hollowness had evaporated and  been replaced with a tightness in his lungs. His confession to Finn. It was out in the open. Bits and pieces of the conversation floated back to him, but not much else. Had Finn reacted? Did he feel the same way? Like trying to catch a wisp of smoke between his fingers, the memory took half shape, but dissipated before he could grasp it. 

“It’s hard to believe—you standing here. Like nothing even happened.”

Poe turned to see Finn leaning against the doorway. He crossed the room. The tips of their boots touched. Poe wrapped his arms around Finn, burying his face in the crook of his shoulder. He squeezed tight, breathing him in; that familiar, comforting smell—sweat, leather, earth. Finn’s arms slid around Poe’s back and waist, pulling him in. Given the chance, Poe might never let go.

* * *

By the time Ira, Karé, Iolo and BB-8 filed back into the hut, the fog in Poe’s brain had mercifully dissipated. But only to make room for the onslaught of issues at hand. 

Kothal was under attack—yes, the galaxy was at war and that was an unfortunate byproduct—but the Resistance presence on Kothal had brought the fight to them. Kemi’s haunted eyes floated into his mind. It could have been lifetimes ago that they found her in the ruined market square, but the sharp memory of the betrayal in her eyes kept it fresh. They had to get back. They had to warn the other bases. Leia. 

Then there was the chip from the virus-ridden BB unit back on base. Whatever information they could glean from it. Poe paced the dirt floor of Ira’s tiny home. He was alive. In fact, he felt more alive than he had since arriving on Kothal and considering he had been essentially dead just a few hours prior… A reinvigorated fire burned in him.

BB-8 bleeped disapprovingly. 

“What? No, I—“ Poe looked down at the floor. He really had almost carved a figure eight into the dust. “Okay, fine. I’ll stop. Can you display the information on the chip and still protect yourself from the virus?”

BB8 hummed a resounding no, blinking expectantly at Poe. 

“Okay, gimme a second to think. Our G-9’s astromech was completely fried…”

Karé perked up suddenly. “Our nav computer still works. Everything else is shot, but we can at least try that.”

“That just might work.”

And so, in Ira’s landspeeder—Poe had been right, it was a creaky relic of a SoroSuub X-34—they returned to Karé and Iolo’s wrecked pod. It was in better shape than Poe and Finn’s G-9, but still completely unflyable. 

Ira stood outside the craft as the fighters crowded in, jostling wounds and pressed against each other in the tiny space made for two. BB-8 beeped in annoyance, shoving his way through their legs. He popped out his durasteel storage vault and Poe took the First Order branded chip from it, inserting it into an awaiting port.

The nav computer’s screen fizzed into static and went black. Just their kriffing luck. Then, white letters built themselves into words and sentences against the dark background. Some made sense, some just looked like a jumble of letters and numbers to Poe. 

But one thing stood out starkly to all of them, and Karé cursed at the name and title: Tallon Voxel, First Order Engineer. 

“I thought he was dead,” Iolo murmured into the stunned silence. “He went missing on that aid mission to Ryloth.”

Finn and Poe exchanged a glance. Everyone else on that mission had been killed.

“You’re as good as dead if they have you,” Poe said. “They’re not big on the whole catch and release thing. They must have had a use for him to keep him alive.” Although, there was no guarantee he was still alive at this point. The chip had served its purpose. Tallon Voxel might have already, too.

“Engineer.” They all turned to look at Iolo, who shifted uncomfortably. “He created the working model for our base network security protocols.”

“Single-handedly? He can’t possibly have all that information,” Karé said. 

Iolo nodded. “He designed the systems. They need him to override it.”

“So… it’s only a matter of time before the other bases…” Karé let the end of her sentence drop off. 

They were running out of time—against a ticking clock they could not see. It was foolish to hope that coordinates to every remaining Resistance base in the galaxy hadn’t been tortured out of Tallon. There was only so much you could withstand… if you were trained. Engineers weren’t. 

“Lothal was one of the planets listed as a diversionary location for General Organa,” Finn said. 

Iolo paled. “That means Cassidode IV, Primtara… and Mako Ta… could be gone too.”

“We have to warn the others.”

“And get back to Kothal,” Poe said. “Who knows how long the tunnels will hold.”

Finn rubbed his temples. “Our ship’s comms were destroyed in the crash.” 

Karé flicked the pod’s hyperwave communicator on. Predictably, nothing happened; the shredded antenna was the first thing Poe noticed as he had climbed into the wrecked craft. 

“I know where you can get a ship.” Ira Nyx startled them all. They turned to him standing in the gaping hole where the pod’s engine once sat. “Garel City. You can broadcast your message from there. The streets are crawling with First Order troopers, but their main area of concern is the spaceport.”

“And where exactly is this ship?” Finn asked, eyes narrowed. Poe already knew the answer. 

“The spaceport.”

“Of course it is.”

“A friend owes me a favor. Jem Cade. Hangar 71-C.”

“And you’ll be staying here?” Poe also knew the answer.

Ira Nyx’s mouth thinned to a grim line. “I will.”

[absolutebl]

Top 10 Best BLs on Gagaoolala

My Beautiful Man AKA Utsukushii Kare

Japan 2021

One of the most Japanese BLs to release in the last decade, as weird and as messed up as any 2000s yaoi: emo af and hella warped, entirely true to itself with no attempt made to modify its POV for modern sensibilities or current BL fandom. It used seriously old school problematic and kinky tropes, like whipping boy, for a truly uncompromising piece that also manages to hit up themes of communication, consent, and self acceptance. It’s a wonderful BL but uniquely dirty and harsh, in the best possible way - Japanese cinema, uncompromising.

I lost my ever loving mind over the ending. This show won the Grand Prix “My Best TV Award” at the 16th Galaxy Awards.

Minato's Laundromat AKA Minato Shouji Coin Laundry

Japan 2022

A classic age gap romance where a high school student pursues the man of his dreams (who runs a laundromat). This BL is so steeped in yaoi nostalgia, not to mention a classic romance arc, that it will overload some, but those of us who love this genre for its DNA will adore it. It made me very happy because it did everything I want a BL to do - there’s not much more I could ask of a show than this. It’s the closest Japan has come to perfect live action yaoi since Seven Days (and I never make that comparison lightly).

Squee watch-along here.

My Ride

Thai 2022

Thai BL grew up with this pulp (the first ever to make my end of year top 10). It’s a truly lovely and special little show featuring the extremely rare pairing of sunshine/sunshine (AKA a cinnamon roll couple) plus mature explorations of relationships using one of the softest, sweetest, and most innocent friends to lovers vehicles. Kindly, overworked doctor meets broken-hearted motorcycle taxi driver in an “other side of the tracks” slow burn romance. The support cast is excellent, making for great friendship groups and family dynamics. With honest queer rep that adds to, but doesn’t impede, the story, and genuine conversation about the nature of class, wealth, and classism, not to mention communication, honesty, and respect for boundaries, you can’t go wrong with this show. In other news, I am a sucker for a single dimple.

Takara & Amagi AKA Takara-kun to Amagi-kun

Japan 2022 I gnawed on my knuckles and squealed a lot with this BL. Reserved cool kid who must learn to communicate to keep the tiny disaster nugget he’s madly in love with. It is beyond charming: soft and gentle, packed with cuteness and high school angst, thirst, & yearning. Was there plot? Not really. Was it emotionally tense and paced well enough for me not to notice? Absolutely. Did I enjoy the hell out of it? Oh yes.

Kiseki: Dear to Me

Taiwan 2023

The plot is totally ridiculous and slightly unhinged, but that’s normal for Taiwan. It involves all the tropes under a very casual framework of gay mafia gangs + food = love. Absolutely every character is queer. There’s a gum-ball machine of cameos, elder gay rep, great chemistry from all pairs, and a KILLER side couple. As a result Kiseki is a poster child for Taiwanese BL, and I happen to love Taiwanese BL. Bonus? They also managed to END IT WELL, which we cannot expect from Taiwan.

My Personal Weatherman AKA Taikan Yoho

Japan 2023

This style of live action yaoi really only works from Japan. Basically: boys who fell in love in college end up living together but both are so repressed they actually don't realize they're in love. It's higher heat than we usually get from Japan's HEA stuff, and that part is also very well done, but it leaned into the "why don't they just talk for fuck's sake?" trope which is only exacerbated into undiluted frustration by the fact that they're already fucking. It's great, but watching requires more patience than usual, even for Japan.

Our Dining Table AKA Bokura no Shokutaku

Japan 2023

A lonely salaryman and talented cook gets accidentally adopted by a college kid and his little brother. I was always gonna love this show if they stuck to the manga (which is very dear to my heart). And they did, paralleling it almost exactly. It’s a quiet & cozy little parable of found family alleviating loneliness. Possibly too slow for some but definitely high up there for me as the best of what Japan can do with softness (like Restart After Come Back Home). It’s only flaw (if I dare say such a thing) is that it is not really “romantic.” Lovely & sweet but the romance beats are being used to build a family relationship, not just couple intimacy, but that's OK with me. This is a very safe show for anyone to watch.

Step By Step

Thai 2023

This was Thailand’s answer to The New Employee, and everything I loved about that show I loved about this one. This office romance between a stern boss and sweet subordinate felt more authentic to cubical work than previous Thai BLs of this ilk. That authenticity added tension to the narrative and its characters development (how novel). I also really enjoyed the charming side characters and the brothers' relationship to each other (although I could have done without that brother's side BL).

Long Time No See

Korea (Strongberry) 2017

Catfishing assassins on either side of a turf war who fall in love not knowing they are on opposite sides. Or do they? Suspenseful plot, good fight sequences, mature characters, hot sexitimes and even hotter beating the shit out of each other and kissing while covered in blog (this came from KOREA?), plus an HEA. One of the hidden gems of the BL genre.

About Youth

Taiwan 2022

A truly lovely little coming of age high school BL with a classic YA low drama but high angst and an earnest depth. I didn’t even mind the singing, and that’s saying a lot. A weak seme/uke dynamic but tons of BL tropes (both rare in a high school setting but common for Taiwan) makes this one feel both sweet and colored by real world authenticity and grit.

Some of these shows ALSO appeared on Viki or iQIYI, but these BLs will appear only once on these round up posts (here for Gaga), not on the other platforms top 10.

(source)

This list updated Spring 2024, not responsible for cool stuff that aired on Gaga (or was taken off the platform) after that date.

This is part of a series more here:

[negrowhat]

Have we ever discussed how Japanese BLs ALWAYS have the sweetest dates?

Exhibit A:

Exhibi B and C:

Exhibit D:

Exhibit E:

Exhibit F:

Exhibit G:

Sign me up.

[soujux]

24 for 2024 — BL Series Wrapped

Despite my lack of posting and writing last year, I still spent so much time watching series. Honestly, more time than the time I spent working on several final paper. So, here's a semi-comprehensive summary of what I watched and enjoyed.

I watched 24 shows in 2024. Not including Your Sky, because it's on-going.

3 from South Korea. 4 from Thailand. 17 from Japan.

Released in 2024

Show titles and the little notes I wrote while being half asleep.

I Hear the Sunspot

Kouhei fell first for hungry boy Taichi.

Friends-to-lovers in my Japanese BL? Fork found in kitchen!

Kouhei has an auditory impairment, so Taichi (tries) to help him with his studies.

Taichi ultimately fails, but wins Kouhei's heart anyway.

Cosmetic Playlover

Mamiya works hard (serious) but Sahashi works harder (romantic).

Domestic fluff.

Men in a women dominated workplace.

Is this considered an office romance?

Perfect Propose

Burnt out office worker (Hiro) stumbles upon a younger man (Kai) who claims to be his fiancé.

Forced proximity if you squint.

Flirty aaah Kai.

Takara's Treasure

Grumpy Takara/Sunshine Taishin/Mountains

"Is it true that gay people exist?" - Taishin probably.

Asexual characters (Source: Me)

Japan presents its favorite "senior/junior" trope.

It's 25:00, In Akasaka

Yuki wants to be a star, so he acts in a BL show with super star Asami.

Oh, they also know each other from college.

Sensual melodrama with a fake-dating trope.

Love is Like a Poison

Lawyer Ryoma thinks he's in a legal drama when he's actually in a BL.

Sexy Lawyer x Sexy Scammer = Fluffy Downbad Boyfriends!

Haruto is Ryo's husband, but is also my wife (crime of the century).

Well-written characters for a well-written story.

Happy of the End

"Fuck it. Guess we both ain't shit." - Haoren and Chihiro

They were, in fact, not happy at all.

Unethical use of sex toys.

Read warnings before watching.

My Love Mix-Up (Thai)

A Japanese culture incorporated in Thailand made possible by making Mudmee half Japanese.

Just confused boys (Atom and Kongthap) falling in love.

Century of Love

Grandpa San waits a hundred years for his wife to be reborn only to find out that her reincarnation is a boy (Wee).

Grandpa learns what "gay" is and fell deeply in love with his husband.

Love Sea

Rich novelist Tongrak buys flirty island boy Mahasamut and brings him to Bangkok.

Good sound design in my Me Mind drama? A treat!

Would not recommend to everybody, but if you're into a sexy romance show, then this one is for you.

It has enemies-to-lovers, pet play, master-servant dynamic, rich boy x poor boy fantasy, falling in love, age-gap, and FortPeat.

My Stand-In

Joe gets transmigrated to the body of another Joe and fatefully bumped into his crazy ex-boyfriend Ming.

A BL with the plot of a telenovela.

Let go of your morals for this.

Joji's "Glimpse of Us" plays in the background.

A Time of Fever

Donghee's actor portrayed his role as someone who wishes that Hotae isn't gay to protect him from what he went through.

A coming-of-age story of self-discovery told through beautiful mis-en-scene.

Love for Love's Sake

Isekai in my BL?! Sign me up!

Myungha is given another chance to live in a game created by god himself.

Fictional character Yeowoo suddenly finds himself a protective clingy senior.

Gay, mental illness, and actors who looks like Soobin.

Released in Previous Years

More shows and more notes written from dreamland.

A Man Who Defies the World of BL (2021)

Straight man (Mobu) gets isekaied to a BL world.

The title is the story.

A world where homosexuality is the norm, and heterosexuality is unconventional.

Minato's Laundromat S1 (2022)

Age-gap nobody asked for.

High school boy (Shintaro) falls insanely in love with laundromat owner (Akira).

This is textbook BL live-adaptation.

Takara-kun to Amagi-kun (2022)

Sweet boys Takara and Amagi navigate their relationship in high school.

Grumpy x Sunshine trope and Popular x Nobody trope

They want each other so baaaad!

God's Favor (2022)

Yashiro dies after confessing to his childhood friend Kenta, but transmigrated as Kagura by choice.

Iconic line: "Why would you come back to me as a woman?"

Kagura and Rin yuri.

Everyone is bisexual.

My Beautiful Man S1 (2021)

Me (Hira) and the bad bitch (Kiyoi) I pulled by being autistic.

Whipping boy trope.

How not to start a relationship: see your partner as a god.

Finger sucking in my BL again.

My Beautiful Man S2 (2023)

"There is no way that my boyfriend who makes love to me every night actually loves me!" - Hira about Kiyoi

They match each other's freak.

Established relationship and domestic fluff.

My Beautiful Man: Eternal (2023)

Hira finds other (healthy) interests besides Kiyoi.

Celebrity x Photographer

Life changing franchise with an actor who looks like Beomgyu.

Became the Main Role of a BL Drama (2023)

Celebrity Yuichiro and former child-actor Hajime cohabitate for a BL series.

Freak x Anxious Boy

My Personal Weatherman (2023)

Weatherman Segasaki successfully pavloving his stay-at-home boyfriend Yoh into getting horny when the sun comes out.

Yoh being too blind to see just how much Segasaki is in love with him.

The exploration of Japanese couple dynamics and "amae."

I Cannot Reach You (2023)

Yamato is in love with his childhood friend Kakeru.

Low stake problems presented as high stake problems.

Yearning and eager kisses in my BL? Aaah childhood friends-to-lovers.

Yamato has the prettiest eyes!

Sing My Crush (2023)

Everyone knows that Baram and Hantae are married except them.

Best friends to soulmates to housemates to lovers (finally)

Hantae realizes that he's gay after acting upon it.

Singing in my BL as usual.

To wrap-up this comprehensive summary, I'm rewarding certain shows with special awards, because it's so much fun that way.

Best Writing

Love is Like a Poison (2024) - Ryoma's narration gave the show so much personality, but the most commendable about this show was how it kept getting better and better. The ending was perfect, because it provided the audience with continuity while simultaneously tying all the loose ends. It was not greedy! It understood what the show needed, especially for Haruto's character.

Love for Love's Sake (2024) - The concept of isekai is not new, but this show added its own twists to made it one of a kind. There were great choices made in this. It knew the perfect time to reveal information that would greatly benefit the narrative. Not only that, the show also managed to surprise me by being a mental health advocate. A little fact, this had one of they saddest break-up scenes I've seen last year.

Honorable Mention: My Beautiful Man S1 (2021) - The show provided me so much space for thinking, wondering, appreciating, and understanding of Hira and Kiyoi's relationship. The story had conflicts unique to the characters, and it was overall, so literary. The monologues were my favorite part along with the switching of point-of-views.

Most Beautiful Mis-En-Scene

A Time of Fever (2024) - This show bathed in sunlight! The yellows and oranges are so beautiful, so fitting for the coming-of-age theme, and so perfect for a prequel that's supposed to tell a story of the past. Every location is well-lived. They don't feel like sets, but real places. The camera work is perfect! Each frame is deliberate. There is a quality of intruding that makes all the scenes between Hotae and Donghee so raw. It's just an overall eyecandy.

Honorable Mention: Love for Love's Sake (2024) - The show has one of the best camera works on this list, but I did find it repetitive. Everything else is so pretty though.

Best Scene

Hira's Self-Pleasuring Scene in Episode 1 of My Beautiful Man (2021) - Hear me out! This scene surprised me, almost appalled me, so much. However, after rewatching the show 4 times at least, I grew a profound appreciation for the scene in connection to Hedonism. Hira wasn't even touching himself! He's merely looking at Kiyoi's face and thinking about him. I'll be talking more about it in a post one day, but you've got to give me a chance first.

Haoren and Chihiro's "first kiss" on the boat in Happy of the End (2024) - Well, something about them going on a date, kissing for the "first time," and Haoren telling Chihiro he "wants to die," altered something in my brain. The vulnerability was so loud—I swear I can peek into Haoren's soul if I looked into his eyes long enough. I've never experienced a scene like this before.

Best Official Soundtrack

Re-Move On by Gemini and Fourth - The impact of this OST is undeniable. Not only that, this song is so good! I'm glad they kept the streak of good songs since My School President.

geometric by osage - This song genuinely fit the feeling of Love is Like a Poison, and the sound directors perfectly knew when to play the song at the end. I genuinely see the show flash before my eyes whenever I listen to this song. It sounds like the ending of an adventure. Too bad, it's not talked about enough.

Other technical awards will be added in future lists once I get better at my production classes. Best editing, best script, best score, and everything else are way out of my expertise. I'm afraid I'll have to pass on this first. Here are categories created without much logic, just instincts:

Certificate of Appreciation for Better Sound Design

Love Sea (2024) - After the hell my eyes went through in Love in the Air, the company finally improving the audio equipment, and doing a better job at editing the recordings. Listen, it's not perfect, but it's definitely better. Hearing Tongrak and Mahasamut despite the harsh winds, and the lack of actors accidentally touching the microphone again made my ears so happy.

Certificate of Appreciation for Prettiest Kiss

Takara's Treasure (2024) - I've seen better and stronger kisses, but the way Takara kisses Taishin is just so beautiful. They are pretty kissers—visually pleasing lip-lockers. You can almost feel how soft their kiss is through the skin.

Certificate of Appreciation for Cutest Characters

I Hear the Sunspot (2024) - I really love watching Kouhei and Taichi individually the most. They interact with their environment delicately, full of care, understanding, and full of kindness. Both Kouhei and Taichi are very big characters, in my opinion, that's why the show somehow felt underwhelming, because I feel like there were so many unexplored and underexplored areas in their stories. I'm in dire need of a season 2.

Overall Best Show in 2024

Love for Love's Sake (2024) - I only have feelings about this show, not thoughts. The writing, cinematography, acting, chemistry, editing, and message won me over. It's one of those shows that you think about for so long after watching it. If I loved it any less, I might be able to talk about it more.

Watching in 2025

I literally got a iQIYI subscription for Your Sky. I'm also watching Perfect 10 Liners, because nobody told me it's so funny and cute!

I'm looking forward to Ticket to Heaven and Love You, Teacher this year. I hope they meet my expectations, because they both look so promising.

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

My memory is terrible so I wanted to do a breakdown of my stuff every once in a while. Might be monthly, might be whenever I feel like it.

QL - Currently Watching

🇯🇵25 Ji, Akasaka de [7/10] - I do love when Japan does a pov change and this was no exception. Hayama is so far gone. Like we already knew what, but he's been a goner ever since he read his name. He's being worshipped by all these people around him because apparently he's too good looking for anyone to be normal around him, and all he sees is Shirasaki. He said one sentence to him in school that he kept as a reminder. Man is obsessed. I'm so curious about next week. The lines are getting more and more blurred and eventually someone's gotta give. Also Hayama should give lessons on self-control. I have never seen anyone so completely out of his mind in love and jealous and at the same time, so put together. I'm in awe.

🇹🇭 Knock Knock, Boys! [2/12] - Strong start. It's fun, I really liked the flat sharing concept, it reminds me of my London days and kinda like Thanwa, being the mom of the house. I'm wondering if they will settle into their own in-house pairs soon or if there will be cross over, cause that would be fun. Give me mess.

🇹🇭 My Stand-In [1/12] - For a number of reasons I'm waiting to binge this one. I do love watching the gifs on my dash though, pretty is pretty.

🇹🇭 Only Boo! [8/12] - So we're done with highschool and that last episode felt a bit rushed trying to finish all those loose threads but I like that we're getting to a new chapter of their relationship. They continue to be too adorable for words. Side couple - dream kisses my beloathed. From the preview and also the number of thai bl's I've watched I'm thinking this will be a pretty straightforward 'it turns out you like him but now he moved on (not really) and you have to grovel'. I'd love to be surprised though.

🇹🇭 Wandee Goodday [4/12] - I am loving it. Pretty much everything about it. Before I say anything else. Thor is gorgeous and he should do all the shows. Forever. He and Cher are delightful and I love that they are an established couple that seem to have their own roles in the gym and their own relationship with Yak. I said this in tags before I think, but I'm finding it interesting how we collectively talk about this show ending, more often than not, with the caveat 'let's see if it holds up'. We have been burned before and not that long ago so we are all holding our breaths. Contrary to my usual state, I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about this. I think the bones are there for a good show all the way to the end. No one is perfect - except Kao, he is perfection and the ace rep I only dreamed of - and that's great. They are both smitten and complete idiots. I'm looking forward to seeing more of the backstory, and in Yak's case how much of what drives him is a consequence of loss.

🇹🇭 We Are [9/16] - Still enjoying the friendships and still bummed we have no development with Chain/Pun. We had one second of development and it was a look. So much in that look. Not really but at least it seems that Pun is aware of his feelings, so that's something. The last episode kept reminding me of Love Sick because of all the camp stuff. It's an entertaining show but the Q/Toey plot is annoying me a bit now.

QL - Finished

🇹🇭 23.5 - This show lost me about halfway through and I never really connected after that. Even if it really wasn't for me, I'm happy it exists and I hope gmmtv invests in more gl's in the future. I wanted more of the teachers but I'm not greedy and was happy to see that they are together by the end.

🇰🇷Blossom Campus - What a mess. I still cannot believe this came out of Strongberry. I posted my reactions while watching. Final thoughts here.

🇰🇷Boys Be Brave - I really liked this one. Just to get it out of the way, the side couple felt a bit unfinished and could've had a bit more screen time. All the characters had their own stuff going on and 8 episodes just isn't enough to explore that depth in a satisfactory way. With that said. I adore the mains. JinWoo built a wall, put a list on it and we got to see Kiseob slowly tearing it down in its own unhinged unique way. I did a rewatch and something I didn't notice the first time is that when Kiseob is 'caught' with Inho and is explaining what happened while JinWoo hides under the bed, he enumerates what happened just like JinWoo always does. I thought it was so endearing. I found Kiseob's presence on screen always so bright and JinWoo's actor was really compelling to watch. Overall this was a really nice surprise.

🇯🇵 Living with him - Writing this when I literally finished and it's strange. Cause they are so cute by the end. That whole festival date was so adorable, and I think they played the awkwardness of the dynamic change really well. I do think the show dragged in parts and Natsukawa became a tiny bit annoying to me at a certain point. Because he found out so early that Kazuhito liked him that I thought the indecision was too much at times. I kept comparing it in my head to I Cannot Reach You, and the way both Kakeru and Natsukawa's lack of confidence plays a part in how they deal with the friend liking them, but I think in this case the back and forth in his head was irritating to me. It was always one step forward, two steps back. When he found the magazine in that last episode I wanted to punch a wall. Like, oh crap here he goes again. It's great that the friend was passing by so he could do all the work and get these two finally together. For the most part I really enjoyed it.

🇰🇷Love Is Like a Cat - That was a show that I watched. Final thoughts

Rose Watches OJBL

The Novelist (2018) - I put off this one for so long because of reasons and I was so wrong. It's not necessarily an easy watch but it's so good. It's beautifully shot and acted. I went through a whole journey with Kijima, from 'who is this guy?' to 'I fucking hate this guy' to ''I need him to be happy, please'. I will have to rewatch it after I watch all of them because the series is full of details and I'm sure I missed a bunch. Definitely happy I started this journey if for no other reason cause I finally managed to watch this.

Takumi-kun Series 2: Rainbow Colored Glass (2009) - The sad just came out of nowhere. It's got some of the same problems as the first one, choppy editing and even though the cast is new the acting is still not that good. I was less confused throughout which is good, Takumi annoyed me a lot though and the tragic plot was messy and rushed. I'm not sure if I'll watch all of these but probably at least one more and then decide.

Other - Watched

🇨🇳Running Like a Shooting Star (2024)🇯🇵Barakamon (2023)🇯🇵Ghost Yankee (2024) 🇰🇷Wonderful World (2024)

4 Thai BL's coming in June June 7 | My Love Mix-Up (so many mixed feelings) June 9 | Love Sea June 15 | Sunset x Vibes June 26 | The Rebound

As usual my ask box is open for questions or requests. Have a wonderful day/night💜

[ineffable-opinions]

Top 20 BL Live-action of 2024

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

-

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

[choujinx]

FUKUROU-KUN TO KARE (2010-2012) by yamamoto kotetsuko

[theflagscene]

10 BL Boys I Want Carnally To Snuggle In A Motherly Fashion

I was tagged by @kennyomegasweave 💖 But since I already made a post about QL people I want carnally > here <

I figured I’d post 10 BL boys that I just really wanna snuggle, cause they clearly need it.

1 - Team (Between Us/UWMA)

2 - Pete (Love By Chance)

3 - Sean (Not Me)

4 - Amagi (Takara-kun to Amagi-kun)

5 - Tharn (The Sign)

6 - Kiyoi (Utsukushii Kare)

7 - Babe (Pit Babe)

8 - Sky (Love in the Air)

9 - Ayan (The Eclipse)

10 - Nick (Only Friends)

I tag whoever wants to do this, because I’m pretty sure everyone has done it at this point. But if you haven’t, do what I do and join in the fun even if you were tagged lol. I wasn’t the first time I did it, so go ahead, consider yourself tagged now. Go forth and make a list!!

[zhaolusi]

top 9 character's relationships I loved in 2023 tagged by @difanghua !

meet yourself, ousama ni sasagu kusuriyubi, the love you give me, mysterious lotus casebook, miss mystery, story of kunning palace, high & low the worst x, utsukushii kare, my personal weatherman

tagging to do either this version or the character version ♡ @deokmis @ginpotts @dingyuxi @junghaesin @exotoxoxo @marquisguyun @weiwuz @khaotunqs @krystaljungs and anyone else that wants to do this!

[finnpoerebelscum]

FALLOUT - Chapter 18

Chapters Posted: 18 of 18

Rating: T+

Warnings: Canon-typical violence & fighting/blood/gore/graphic descriptions of injury/angst/hurt/comfort/Multiple POVs/self-sacrifice

Characters/Pairings: Poe Dameron/Finn, Karé Kun, Iolo Arana, BB-8, OCs.

Summary: Still reeling in the aftermath of Crait, Poe Dameron and Finn are sent to a secret Resistance base tucked away on Lothal to serve as acting generals. Their numbers dwindled to barely a handful, and with General Organa’s order grounding all surviving Resistance personnel to heal and regroup, morale is at an all time low. Poe grapples with his inability to sit still; the First Order looms, an ever-encroaching threat to what remains of the Outer Rim’s free space; intimate feelings grow impossible to ignore and a shocking return promises devastating consequences not only for those stationed on Lothal, but for the Resistance and galaxy at large. 

A/N: An AU adventure, a side-quest of sorts, to account for some of the time between TLJ and ROS. Stormpilot centric. Canon up until the end of TLJ (but does not take into account Resistance Reborn or the Finn/Rose arc). Complete.

At long last, here we are! If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking around till the end. This was my first tiptoe back into writing after about a ten year hiatus. Thank you to anyone who has read, liked, and/or reblogged! I am so grateful for you and your time. Hearing from fellow Stormpilot devotees (and, more broadly, Star Wars fans in general) always makes my day. May the Force be with you, friends!

Masterlist

CHAPTER 18

Rage swallowed Poe whole. 

He was back on base, dust and rubble grinding into his knees, Vrees’ limp body on his lap, spewing blood. One too many. One too many people lost. Torin was unarmed, and when the alleyway, the here and now, filtered back in to him, Poe had his blaster leveled at Torin’s chest. 

“You seem surprised,” Torin’s voice was hoarse, every bit as shredded as his throat looked.

“No. This is good.” Poe adjusted his footing, checked his sights. From this distance, with his skill, there was no possibility he would miss. “Gives me the chance to finish you off myself.”

“I like this new Poe. Let all that hate out. This is how it starts.” Torin’s eyes were ringed with shadows, sunken into a face ghost-white with blood loss. He looked demented. Inhuman. 

A wave of immense sadness swelled up in Poe’s chest, threatening to choke him, stifling his voice. His eyes pricked as they filled, against his will. This was not him. He fought to protect… not to… Exterminate. 

He fought for the light. Not fueled by hate. 

All he could see was Vrees’ face. It filled every corner of his mind, his being. The smile that creased his eyes into little, wrinkly folds. The belly laugh, gruff and deep. The weathered, gnarled hands squeezing his shoulders. Vrees was gone. Only what he stood for was left. Left for the rest of the Resistance—and Poe—to uphold. 

Poe lowered his blaster. 

A frown clouded Torin’s features as he searched Poe’s face. “You’re weak. Just like the rest of them.” He staggered towards Poe, off balance. “Can’t you see this is why you will ultimately fail? The Resistance is n—“

Torin crumpled to the ground. Finn stood behind him, panting, the heel of the blaster rifle in his hands still raised. 

“Thank you.” Poe dragged a sleeve across his eyes. “Couldn’t listen to another minute of that.” 

Finn came to stand next to him, scanning Torin’s unmoving form. “What do we do with him?”

“I have an idea.”

* * *

Kemi hadn’t been exaggerating. Like some deranged version of a Nar Kanji fighting pit, the surviving residents of Kothal—and Poe was happy to see there were many more than he could ever have hoped—had encircled the remaining, severely outnumbered stormtroopers. 

It left the little white army fumbling and tripping over each other’s feet, entirely surrounded. Captors turned prisoners. The only troopers whose blaster rifles could have been remotely useful were those in the first row facing out toward the encroaching circle of Kothalites. 

But there was no sign of their blasters. They’d all been snatched up by random civilians and aimed at their original owners. 

Poe and Finn, dragging Torin’s limp body between them (still breathing, last they had checked), followed Kemi as she shouldered her way to the front of the crowd. An Aqualish woman still in a grubby apron gripped a confiscated trooper rifle. She stepped aside to let them pass. 

Dr. Bexon stood at the front, arms crossed over her chest. She and Poe exchanged a nod of acknowledgement.  

A happy squawk echoed and BB-8 whizzed up to meet them, jostling the legs of startled onlookers, Iolo and Karé in tow.

“Hey, buddy!” Poe gave his dome a pat. He and Finn lowered Torin to the ground. “Do me a favor and make sure he doesn’t go anywhere?” 

BB-8 popped open a panel, unfolding a double-pointed durasteel arm. A blue bolt of electricity cracked to life between the prongs. 

“That should do it.”

Once the shock of seeing Torin alive and in a crumpled heap at their feet had worn off, the group took turns wrapping each other in a hug, stealing a moment of collective relief amid the horde. Karé released Poe from an impressively crushing hug, then lingered, holding onto his forearms. She looked from him to Finn, scanned the crowd behind them. 

“Where’s Ira?”

Finn shook his head, struggling to meet her gaze. 

“He already knew how it ended.” Poe squeezed her hands in his.

Karé blinked away the tears and nodded fiercely. 

A familiar voice rang out, bringing the roar of the crowd around them to a whisper. 

“Unless you try to commit further violence against us,” Mayor Greer boomed, “Today, you will leave here unharmed. We will escort you to your shuttles and let you go. You will see that we will not stoop to the depths of the senseless violence of the First Order.”

The roar of the crowd returned as they funneled forward, corralling the troopers on their march toward the edges of town and the remaining shuttles.

“You know they won’t remember this,” Poe caught Dr. Bexon leaning in to tell the mayor. “They’ll be sent to get their brains zapped back into submission and go about their mindless little rampages like nothing happened.”

“I know,” Mayor Greer said. “This message is not intended for them.”

Torin remained unconscious as Poe and Finn brought up the rear of the procession, hauling him between them. They stood aside as two troopers took him off their hands and dragged him up the landing ramp into a shuttle. One by one, the shuttles sealed and lifted off, growing smaller and smaller until they disappeared completely from view.

* * *

“There’s a place for you in the Resistance, Kemi.” She sat next to Poe on the steps of the fountain, tracing a swirl into the dust by her feet.

“I know.”

“You can come with us. We’re being moved to the Klosslands. Dr. Bexon’s coming.”

Kemi stared straight ahead, the hint of a smile on her lips. “This is where I belong. They’re just going to try again. And when they do, we’ll be ready. I’ll be ready.”

Poe believed her. When they had first met, she had reminded him of himself at seventeen. She was so different already. Wiser than he had been at her age, that was for damn sure. A deep stab of longing hit him—the ache to take back the things she’d been forced to see. Kemi stood, extending a hand to him. He took it and returned her squeeze. 

“Thanks, Poe. Be safe out there.”

“You too, kid.”

* * *

Poe found Finn perched in the center of the rounded cupola of the tallest building looming over the market square. Poe’s favorite spot in Kothal. 

The setting sun splashed the buildings, sands and grassy fields in brilliant golds and reds. Poe sat down next to him. Their thighs touched. 

“She’s staying, isn’t she?” Finn didn’t take his eyes away from the flaming orb ahead, making its lazy descent toward the horizon. 

“It gives you super-hearing too, huh?” 

Finn laughed, a rich, warm sound, that washed away all remaining tension from Poe’s shoulders and warmed him to his core.

“Not really. I could tell she wasn’t coming with us by the time the last trooper shuttle left.” Finn finally turned to him, deep brown eyes grabbing onto his. 

“What now?” said Poe, heart fluttering wildly under his gaze.

“This.” Finn’s hand slid around the sides of Poe’s face, fingers lacing through the hair at his temples, and pulled him in to meet his lips in a soft, warm kiss. They lingered, breathing each other in, foreheads touching. Their fingers found each other, coming to rest intertwined, calloused and warm palms as if designed to fit together. 

There they sat, until the last glints of daylight faded behind the horizon and the black glitter of the Kothal night enveloped them and everything around. Neither spoke a word, and Poe found the quiet didn’t bother him one bit. Finn was home. The comforting quiet of home.

[takeshi-no-uta]

Good Night!

Source: Kanojo to Kare no Kankei - Heibon na Hayakawa-san to Heibon na Miura-kun no Hibon na Kankei

By: Eiko Mutsuhana (Story), Yoshi Usami (Art)

[ineffable-opinions]

How should I reply to this after that awesome opening 「SALAAR サラール」 had in Japan? There would be lot more Prabhas doujin in Comiket after this movie. So much for reclusive Japan taste narrative...

I think AbsoluteBL's confused use of the terms BL and yaoi is very revealing.

Yaoi = [how AbsoluteBL (ABL from here on) uses it] synonym for older ボーイズ ラブ (boys love) manga.

            = [popular use in anglophone BL animanga fandom] BL manga with explicit content; as opposed to shonen ai.

            = [original meaning] mostly derivative works (there were original works too), which were mostly plot-what-plot type, that are self-published (doujinshi). I have italicized yaoi when conveying this meaning.

Boys Love (BL) = [how ABL uses it] newer BL.

            = [popular use in anglophone BL animanga fandom] (yaoi + shonen ai) umbrella term, referring to all BL content.

           = [original meaning] commercially published BL works.

Original Yaoi (BL doujin) is what Nekoyashiki produces and sells at the comic convention in Kabe Sa Doujin Sakka no Neko Yashiki-kun wa Shouninyokkyuu wo Kojiraseteiru (2022) which is based on a BL manga by, Minamoto Kazuki, a gay mangaka (artist).

source - This post has the direct link to all doujin and manga shown in the live action. They are all real and you can purchase them from DL site and other manga websites.

Here are two panels from What Did You Eat Yesterday dj - the live action was based on the seinen manga and does not include these yaoi scenes.

BL seems to be the most popular term among viewers of BL live-action. There isn't any yaoi – shonen ai type bifurcation between live-action content given the limits on what can be shown on screen.

Japan only has the term ‘boys love’ ‘BL’ for all commercially published BL. Meanwhile, anglophone BL animanga fandom uses the terms yaoi and shonen ai to classify works based on sexual content. Please mind that these terms are practically loan words (hence not italicized) with different meanings (so I have italicized yaoi and shonen-ai to convey this) their different usages in past and present Japan.

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I want to quickly mention the Top 10 BLs Out of Japan post. The terminology issue is very prominent in it. ABL classifies Seven Days as a live action yaoi. Seven Days is not a yaoi. Anglophone audience would call it shonen ai since the original manga lacks sexual content. [The manga is way too overrated for fu-people (BL fandom) to mistake it as anything else at this point.] For the Japanese, it is a BL.

Takara-kun and Amagi-kun is also just a BL for the Japanese. It is not a yaoi. It is a shonen ai. But for ABL, it is BL because it belongs to “modernized version of the genre…”

ABL doesn’t stick to own definition, jumping onto yaoi again when referring to Minato’s Laundromat, purportedly a “modern take”. By anglophone categorization, this work is shonen ai - based on (lack of) sexual content. Arguably, the first actual yaoi on the top 10 list is Old Fashion Cupcake. But the adaptation self-censored all explicit sexual content from the manga. They hinted at seme's fixation with oral cavity irrumation (aka throat-fucking) with a thumb in uke's mouth.

My Beautiful Man season one showed fingers in mouth, to hint at the fellatio from the novel it was adapted from. Subsequent season/movie gave clear indication of sexual content but never very explicit.

Cherry Magic, Our Dining Table and Restart After Come Back Home are all adaptations of shonen ai. Life: Love on the Line didn’t adapt to screen any of the sexual content in the yaoi.

My Love Mix-Up! manga is not exactly a BL in publication. It is a shoujo romance with a BL in it. The live action adaptation, however, is marked as a BL and hence can be considered so. By anglophone categorization of BL, it can be considered shonen ai.

Wondering why sexual content is self-censored?

Why so many shonen ai live-action? (commodity fetishism)

BL “Censorship” & Commercialization

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Now back to the post in discussion.

ABL: In yaoi there’s light (sweet, clean, bright, airy) vs dark (erotic, serious, gritty, rough).

There is no such bifurcation in yaoi, or in BL for that matter. Even the yaoi-shonen ai bifurcation doesn’t exist in Japan. [Moreover, what’s with those descriptors attached to “light”? It sounds like we are discussing architecture rather than media. What exactly is “airy” yaoi?]

As for narrative progressions, there are five identifiable ones:

あまあま – sweet

Characterised by smooth progression of ship’s romantic development. There would be no serious threat to the our ship's relationship. Happy ending is assured. Audience’s worldview (世界観) is never threatened. Main characters would be paragons of virtue or at least easily redeemable. It would ensure the most comfortable viewing experience. There are plenty of erotic works with sweet narrative progression, but not any live action.

e.g.: Cherry Magic, Old Fashion Cupcake, Seven Days

2. ユニーク – unique

All the themes discussed in the BL would be treated in a unique manner. It will defy all rules and expectations, but would not necessarily be completely unpredictable. Nothing is guaranteed. Most likely to threaten audiences’ worldview. It is the opposite of sweet BL in a way – opposite of comforting.

e.g.: One Room Angel, Sing in Love

Sing in Love (2022) – it is best to venture into this movie without knowing anything about it. I’ll only recommend it to people who are comfortable with all sorts of themes and treatments and don’t require any kind of content warnings. In case you are interested in watching but unsure about triggering content, feel free to message/ask me.

3. シリアス – serious

The mood as well as themes and their treatment would be serious. Audience’s worldview (世界観) would be threatened but won’t deviate too much. Main characters would be virtuous to an extend or redeemable. It would not necessarily be comforting.

e.g.: Takara-kun and Amagi-kun, No Touching At All

4. 邪道 – evil road (Jadō)

Audience’s worldview (世界観) will be threatened. Characters would do despicable things. Bad ending and meriba (merry bad) ending are the expected outcomes. It would not be comforting.

e.g.: Fujimi Orchestra, Sei no Gekiyaku

5. 王道 - royal road (odo)

Characterised by rough progression of ship’s romantic development with significant ups and downs. Audience would get a rollercoaster ride. There would be serious threats to the couple’s relationship. Happy ending is not assured. Characters may do despicable things. Audience’s worldview (世界観) can be threatened. It would be oddly comforting.

e.g.: Given, The Novelist

source

In the chart:

ほのぼの – heartwarming – Example: Restart After Come Back Home

コメディ – comedy – Cherry Magic

ダーク – dark – Sing in Love

シリアス – serious – Cornered Mouse Dream of Cheese

キュン – exciting (kyun) – Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice but to Kiss

ABL: Generally speaking, the shows that are very light very sweet and very bright, cartoony, with lots of slapstick elements will have little to no sexual contact at all: so Cherry, Mix Up, Ossan, Same Difference, Mr Unlucky, Our Dining Table to fall into this category.

ABL’s assessment of why there is no intimacy between the main couple in certain BL is a misattribution. Most of the works used here as example are either shonen ai or self-censored adaptation. Such self-censorship is driven by commercial motivations. Ossan's Love 2016 had a kiss and a seduction scene, not to mention a harem set-up.

There are plenty of BL that are erotic comedies – which can be considered ‘very light very sweet and very bright, cartoony, with lots of slapstick elements’ – such as Dick Fight Island, Yarichin Bitch Club, Hangout Crisis, and Kimi Ni Koisuru High Heels. Live action adaptation of Cosmetic Playlover could go there but after self-censored adaptations of 25 Ji, Akasaka de, and Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka, I don’t really have any hope.

There are plenty of live action BL that are the opposite of bright and sunny and lack intimacy between the main couple - Kei×Yaku: Abunai Aibou andThe Night Beyond the Tricornered Window. This again is due thanks to self-censorship as an adaptational decision, driven by commercial motivations.

Also “light BL” owes more to yaoi (doujin BL) than to its predecessor shonen-ai (early BL that was published as a shoujo sub-genre; not to be confused with the English loan word "shonen ai"). First ever live action BL was adaptation (Summer Vacation 1999 released in 1988) of the shonen-ai The Heart of Thomas by Hagio Moto and it was very “dark” by ABL’s standard. Moreover, ABL seems to be unaware of both this movie and how sexually explicit some of those shonen-ai manga were.

Also, use of terminology such as “uke” which originated years later, during yaoi boom, when discussing shonen-ai is anachronic. Of course, uke-like androphilic male representation is really old (see this post on customary male androphilia in Japan) but shonen-ai was working with very different takes on gender(s).

A foursome scene from the shonen-ai Zankoku Na Kami Ga Shihai Suru by Hagio Moto

Risqué is Risky

Wide marketing usually involves cutting down on sexual content. It ensures run even in conservative medium, exemplified by the success of What Did You Eat Yesterday manga that was serialized in the magazine for middle-aged men called Morning.

A lot of live action BL, that are not comedies, have been directors’ passion projects – reading manga and deciding to adapt them. There are no lanes in Japan for BL. Directors have been trailblazers. This is bound to continue into the future.

Some notable directors:

Yôka Kusano (草野陽花) - Bokura no Ai no Kanade, Forbidden Love, BL: Boku no Kareshi wo Shokai Shimasu

Satoshi Kaneda (金田敬さん) - Ai no Kotodama (2008), Junjou (2010), Fujimi Orchestra (2012)

Miki Koichiro (三木康一郎) - The Novelist, Given, Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko

Yukisada Isao - The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese (2020)

Some notable screenplay writers:

Takahashi Natsuko - No Touching At All, Seven Days, Silhouette of Your Voice, Does the Flower Bloom?

Kanasugi Hiroko - Takumi-kun Series 1-5 +  Our Kogen Hotel (2013) [no Thailand didn’t invent branded pair], Sukitomo (2007), Udagawachou de Matteteyo, Fukou-kun wa Kiss Suru Shikanai!, Cosmetic Playlover

That being said Dangerous Drugs of Sex (2020) was the first “hard” BL film in Japan. I would be disingenuous to argue that it was Japan sticking to its lanes. It was a whole new sub-genre of live action BL – there has been plenty of anime adaptations of ero-BL but that was the first live action adaptation. It was also a new thing in Japan’s queer media landscape. The mindset of the cast and crew is remarkable, including the MC, Ishiguro from Future comics.

Risqué can be rewarding too.

Dangerous Drugs of Sex was a blockbuster, enjoying long run in theatres and ranking number 1 in Netflix Japan. It stayed true to the explicitness of content and pushed the boundaries enough to bring about convergence between gay pinku cinema and BL.

OP Pictures’ entry into BL genre, The Shortest Distance Is Round movie series, has also been successful. Their new movie Heavens x Candy (2024) is now showing in theatres in Japan. Interestingly, this one is 15+ and not 18+ like their previous franchise – clearly aiming for wider demographics and opportunities to promote. OP’s entry into BL making is internally fu-culture (BL fan culture) driven, mediated by BL fan and AV actor Kasai Ami.

There are many super popular themes and settings, other than ero-comedy, that BL live action is yet to touch - yakuza (with the exception of Double Mints), historical, beast-man, fetish, etc. Live action BL will probably grow more accommodative in the future.

And to counter the wild claim that Japan doesn’t care about markets outside itself:

Here are some popular Thai BL actors promoting Japanese BL Takumi-kun Series 6: Nagai Nagai Monogatari no Hajimari no Asa (2023).

While I understand where ABL’s obsession with Japanese exceptionalism comes from, it is particularly duplicitous and disingenuous when imposed to BL since it is driven by ever-present moe (affect) and transnational fu-culture. Also, it is China and Korea, and not Japan that has produced some of the lewdest and goriest BL.

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As always I welcome all corrections, critiques and comments.

Hi fave bl encyclopedia ❤️

So my question is about Japanese bl, like I don’t understand it! Please help 😭

So I know japan is like the motherland of yaoi and they pretty much started it all, and they make some pretty graphic and explicit bls ( which is not my cup of tea tbh), but then they also have shows like cherry magic and keita and the most recent KEI X YAKU (I am watching this one rn, and I actually like it so very much) but for the life of me I can’t figure out why these shows are made with zero intimacy between the main couple, not even a simple innocent kiss?!

are these shows considered more mainstream? Are the yaoi only allowed in fandom space? And not in mainstream media?

Just why are these shows made the way they are?

Don’t get me wrong CM and KH are two of my absolute favorite bls of all times, but I still don’t get just… WHY?

Hi! 

The Weeds of Japanese BL 

So I am going to go off of this blog post on the history of Japanese BL and yaoi and only bother to repeat myself if strictly necessary. 

Top 10 BLs Out of Japan - top 10 plus history of BL (part 1 in the series on the history of BL)

Otherwise there would be a lot of rehash. 

So my question is about Japanese bl, like I don’t understand it. Please help! 

So have you read the above post? Because if you haven’t reading that will at least give you some kind of foundation for your understandable confusion.

But part of most people’s misunderstanding over Japanese BL actually has to do with the nature of Japanese cinema. 

Here’s the thing, the Japanese have a very specific taste to their cinema. They have a style and lens that they stick to and (with a few noted exceptions) they pretty much haven’t deviated since the 1950s.

In film style there’s atmospheric (cinematic and sweeping, think Kurosawa) vs live action manga (think cartoonish + sound effects, stylized framing and staging techniques meets slapstick). 

In yaoi there’s light (sweet, clean, bright, airy) vs dark (erotic, serious, gritty, rough). 

In the sexual sphere there's prudish & chaste vs kinky & explicit. 

Everything seems to be bifurcated in Japan. Now, on a very few occasions they can tread the line between the lanes, and borrow bits and pieces from different approaches, but most of the time they stick to those lanes pretty cleanly. 

I can’t figure out why these shows are made with zero intimacy between the main couple, not even a simple innocent kiss

Generally speaking, the shows that are very light very sweet and very bright, cartoony, with lots of slapstick elements will have little to no sexual contact at all: so Cherry, Mix Up, Ossan, Same Difference, Mr Unlucky, Our Dining Table to fall into this category.

They'll owe a lot more to Shōnen-ai (which is turn has a lot to do with Bildungsroman) which means it's more gentle and tends to be a journey of self discovery for the uke - undertaken by younger characters (or younger acting/seeming innocents), and thus (like YA) much less sexualized.

(I am not going to comment on KEI X YAKU since I didn’t watch it because it appears to be a bromance.) 

are these shows considered more mainstream? 

Sort of, it’s more that they’re just considered a different category. Like how USA draws a distinction between the amount of sexual content that is allowed in a sitcom versus a soap opera. Similar kinds of topics, frameworks, filming style, and target demographics dealt with, but expectations around nudity and sexuality are way different. Different air times and lengths too. 

This doesn’t seem weird to me because I grew up with soaps vs sitcoms. But if I step outside of my upbringing, it’s odd right? The nature of the sexual content is so different, but they’re mostly both family dramas with a ton of romance. And then the “late night” (read sitcom timeslot) soaps came along kinda blending the two. Ah... the 90s. 

Where was I? 

Okay so, why are they different? Because Japan thinks of them differently. 

Another thing to know about the Japanese film industry? 

They take little to no interest in or guidance/feedback from the international market. They do not care. Their attitude, when something like Cherry Magic does well outside of Japan is... oh do the internationals like that one? How quaint. That’s special. Should we consider... distribution? A second season? *yawn* how tiresome.

Which is why a JBL will drop locally, get mad pirating and illegal subs and such, and then about half way through suddenly show up on a distribution platform like Viki or GaGa pretending it has always been there.

Can you sense my frustration? This is why backlist is so hard to get hold of too. But it KEEPS happening. 

Like Japan just forgets about us.

Which is probubly because THEY DO. 

Japan cares about their own internal market interest and style way way WAY more than any other BL producing country. (I would argue including Mainland China.) 

Japan respects Japan’s taste.  

PERIOD. 

End of discussion. 

Look at the HAIR.

I rest my case. 

When I talk about the fact that Japan has an unchangingly firm point of view? This is what I mean. 

Set your expectations based on what Japan has done in the past, because that is what they will do in the future.

You will never be disappointed. They will hold steadfast to their traditions, the good, the slapstick, and the kinky. 

Are the yaoi only allowed in fandom space? 

Cherry Magic I would call both mainstream, popular, and live action yaoi. 

Plenty of yaoi of this type (and back in the day) has very little on page kissing (or anything else for that matter), either. There is a whole sub-genre of sweet, or even clean, yaoi. Which is not to say it didn’t piss me off that they couldn’t actually kiss in Cherry Magic. Especial with that elevator fake out and the dead fish kiss from the side dishes. Very disappointing. 

Might be expense involved. Talent ain’t cheep in Japan, might be too costly to have them kiss. 

Or they just being coy teases about it. 

Basically they brats, and we in a non-con kink relationship where they promise but never deliver kisses in some kind of weird passive aggressive D/s dynamic. Also, VERY Japanese.  

Oh shit, my dating trauma is showing. 

Ignore that last bit. 

Just why are these shows made the way they are? Don’t get me wrong CM and KH are two of my absolute favorite bls of all times, but I still don’t get just… WHY? 

I know it is super frustrating. I would like it if they just put at least one kiss in there too. 

Here’s the thing: I happen to like Japan’s lanes, even as I am frustrated by them. Because when they do it well, they are square root of it all. 

Get it???

SQUARE root? 

Because, ya know, no kisses = so square. 

Okay I’m pushing it. 

But also the other lane gives us kisses = great = MURDER DEATH MUTILATION!!!! 

Oh, Japan. 

Here’s some interesting stats on Japanese ‘s BL (or more properly LAY - live action yaoi) for you: 

As of early 2022, there’s still only about 55 of them. 

High heat erotic LAY & pinks: 21 

Light cheerful LAY in which there is little to no kissing, or it’s very dead fishy: 21 

LAY that managed to be very yaoi but actually strike a balance between the two: 12 (and I include all the Takumi-kuns in here and they seriously might not qualify because... Takumi) 

I just did the count for this post and it’s wild how even the split was. 

(I’m missing some and not all are really BL, but with a sample of only 50+ it’s not really statistically viable anyway). 

If you want to really understand how Japan adapts yaoi you should delve into Love Stage!!: 

Read the yaoi manga 

Watch the anime 

Watch the Japanese live action adaptation 

Watch Thai BL adaptation

It’s a pretty informative experience. Tells you a lot about Japan’s relationship to the industry and genre that they started and how yaoi is treated differently in the different mediums. 

But honestly, the answer to your question is gonna really frustrate you. 

This is all just Japan being Japan, and it’s the way they approach BL. Because it’s the way Japan approaches cinema. 

Because, in the end, even if we call it BL, Japan is always going to do LAY, and that is kind of its own creature. The starter to the sour dough, not the bread that results. 

Because Japan is always going to pick their lanes and stick to 'em. 

Having said that, here’s some LAY that actually manages to have all of the things we expect from BL including kisses! 

Seven Days  

Given 

Life: Love on the Line

Restart After Come Back Home AKA Risutato wa tadaima no ato de

Utsukushii Kare AKA My Beautiful Man

That last one is absolutely amazing. See me lose my tiny mind over it and how it manages to be SO yaoi and SO Japanese and SO WONDERFUL despite everything. Or perhaps BECAUSE of everything. 

Utsukushii Kare is a BL that actually no other country could make. It’s PURE uncut Japanese live action yaoi and it’s AMAZING partly because of that. 

Mr. Unlucky (AKA Fukou-kun wa Kiss Suru Shikanai!) is an interesting test. 

I, and many other aficionados of LAY, expect it to have no kissing. But it’s already odd in that it got its distribution sorted before it started airing. Like a goddamn adult. This is confusingly un-Japanese of it.  

If Japan produces this as a slapstick comedy, in the vein of Kieta Hatsukoi (AKA My Love Mix Up), but it actually has decent kiss like Utsukushii Kare? It means Japan, whether it likes it or not, is finally being influenced by the popularity of Korean & Thai BL. 

But if it doesn’t give good kiss, it means they are still sticking to their established traditions. 

And this being Japan, my money is on the later. 

Let’s see how much crow I eat in a month.

More on Japanese cinema here.

(source)

[guujikaroko]

So, here's the promised post about the Chrysos Heirs' speech patterns in Japanese! Be aware that this is all based on what we've seen throughout 3.0 alone, so we might make new discoveries next patch! Here we go:

Aglaea

Her first person pronoun is 私. Normally, it's read as watashi, but Aglaea uses it as watakushi instead, a more noble and feminine form. Her second pronoun is the polite and standard 貴方 (anata), and she usually uses the gendered 彼/kare (he/him) or 彼女/kanojo (she/her) for third person. That last thing might not sound special, but Japanese has a myriad of ways of addressing people without referring to gender, so it's a sign she goes the extra mile to sound more formal.

Talking more about her speech patterns, she's very polite and formal in a distinctively feminine way. There is a form of Japanese known as 敬語 (keigo), which is pretty much "Polite Japanese" and the form a non-native speaker would learn first because it's what you'd use the most. The interesting thing is that Aglaea always speak in keigo, regardless of who the other person is; she never defers to a more informal speech.

In fact, the only times her speech seems to change is when she adopts an outright reverent tone. I talked a little about this before, but Aglaea addresses the Tribios by 我が師 (waga shi). This word choice by her is particularly interesting for two reasons:

1.) The use of 我が (waga), an ultra reverent way of saying "my/mine". It makes use of the pronoun 我 (ware), which is really archaic and not part of modern conversation except for a few expressions such as 我ながら (if I say so myself).

2.) The use of 師 (shi) for "teacher". Usually you'd see the common 先生 (sensei) around, or maybe even 師匠 (shishou), which carries the extra connotation of "master", but Aglaea uses only the first kanji of 師匠. That makes the whole thing sound beyond reverent.

Aglaea also addresses everyone by name properly, even the ones who usually go by nicknames like Mydei.

Tribios

The three speak the same way, the only difference is each one says things according to their personalities.

Their pronouns would be あたし (atashi), a feminine and more informal form of watashi, but as they refer to themselves in plural, it becomes あたしたち (atashi-tachi). They don't actually refer to other people in second person or third person pronouns that much, preferring to use names (or nicknames) instead. It would sound weird in English, but it's a perfectly normal way of addressing people in Japanese, even more so if you're a kid.

Talking about kids, as you'd expect, the Tribios speak exactly how a very excitable Japanese little girl would. The nicknames are a part of it, but it also doubles to highlight their importance in Okhema (you're allowed to be a little more informal if you "rank higher" than the other person in Japanese). The only time they break away from their pattern is when they're reciting the chants to borrow the power of the Three Titans of Fate. There, they adopt the reverent tone you see with Aglaea.

As an addendum, the suffix ちゃん (-chan) the Tribios attach to nicknames is supposed to be used for people younger/less experienced than you or someone you find cute, especially kids, but it's generally more accepted for girls. With a boy, it's more common to use くん (-kun), but the Tribios use -chan regardless of gender.

In short, the Tribios are kids who treat everyone else like kids.

Phainon

His first person pronoun is the masculine 僕 (boku). It's not very formal but it's still on the polite side, and it's commonly used by young men. His second person pronoun is 君 (kimi), which usually denotes familiarity, but he uses it regularly regardless of who he talks to. As for third person, he uses kare and kanojo depending on gender, but also can use アイツ/aitsu (that person) if he wants to be less informal.

In general, he speaks like a cheerful young man of this time would, but since he's Amphorean, it also gets mixed with the prose-filled speech you can see in pretty much all the characters. You can see him attach a more modern suffix to words like っぽい/-ppoi (-ish) and then address the Trailblazer by 我が友/waga tomo (my friend) not much later.

On the topic of 我が友, you might have realized this already but it works on the same principle as Aglaea's 我が師: using the reverent pronoun 我 followed by a single kanji, this time 友 (which is the first kanji of 友達/tomodachi). It kind of speaks volumes about Phainon's appreciation for the Trailblazer.

Interestingly enough, he addresses the Tribios by sensei and Castorice with the suffix さん (-san), but he simply calls Aglaea by name alone.

Castorice

Just like Aglaea, her first and second person pronouns are watakushi and anata, and she uses gendered pronouns for third person. The only difference is sometimes she addresses people by 方 (kata), which is remarkably polite of her.

Yes, she's polite. Very polite. No, I kid you not, she's the most polite character I've seen in years. I talked a little about keigo with Aglaea, but it seems Castorice speaks in 尊敬語 (sonkeigo) specifically, which is just Japanese Customer Service Voice™ . As a result, her sentences are at the very least twice as long as anyone else's would. The only time she breaks character is while translating Oronyx's words (which was hilarious because Oronyx was being ultra condescending the whole time).

Castorice makes ample use of honorifics. In fact, I can't remember a single time she didn't address someone by -san or 様 (-sama). She's incredibly consistent in that regard.

Mydei

First person pronoun is 俺 (ore): masculine and rude as hell. Second person is お前 (omae), which is also rude as hell. Third person is コイツ/koitsu (this person) and アイツ/aitsu (that person), which are gender-neutral and incredibly casual. As you can see, he doesn't give a fuck about consideration.

Despite the pronouns, Mydei can actually be formal and even flowery in his speech, as expected of an Amphorean. He's very much not polite at all, though. His speech is also very masculine and gives the overall vibe of a very arrogant royal (almost like a certain golden king of a certain franchise, huh). Sometimes he gets a little... Indulgent, I'd say, and that's when he's on something like a good mood.

He did the 我が thing at least once too; in his case, it was with Chrysos Leo, who he called 我が師匠/waga shishou (my master). Note that he used 師匠 normally, unlike Aglaea who only used 師.

He rarely addresses people by name. Usually, it's either titles (like with the Tribios and Phainon), or a rude-ass "you".

And that's all for now! Corrections and additions are welcomed, as I am not a leading expert in Japanese or anything like that.

[choujinx]

FUKUROU-KUN TO KARE (2010-2012) by yamamoto kotetsuko