#senpai this can't be love!

[inkedberries]

after patrolling, unwinding in a diner somewhere ...

throw the man a bone batman geez

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

Wound care - a good reason to get close to one another and express that you care (Part 3/?)

Semantic Error

About Youth

Fish Upon The Sky

21 Day Theory

Bed Friend

Some More

KinnPorsche

Bad Buddy

My Ride

Senpai, This Can't Be Love

Part of my favorite bl-tropes collection, as always in no particular order.

[respectthepetty]

Give your boss just a smidge of love, and this is how he acts ON THE CLOCK!

All professionalism goes right out the damn window.

Forgot about those work trips.

Men are so messy.

Thank God for Nozue who at least waited until he was in the alley after the workday was done.

[bengiyo]

We are headed into our final Drama Shower show of the season. How do you rank the shows we got this season and how are you feeling about the direction of the project?

What is Drama Shower and Why Does It Matter?

Before we get into rating these shows, I want to do a breakdown of what this is. To give you a sense of how big a deal Drama Shower is, fans are regularly updating a Wikipedia page for it with relevant links to follow the project. Also, there is a dedicated MDL page for it.

Drama Shower is a dedicated half-hour programming block on MBS, a Japanese broadcaster that is over 70 years old, in conjunction with Kadokawa, a Japanese publisher and holding group, that plays BL content at 1:30 am on Fridays. The project's main producer is Kaoru Azuma, who is a self-described long-time BL fan. He wants to show that BL can do a variety of stories in genre, and has recently stated that he wants to produce original content through the project as well.

We originally had six shows air through year one: Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But to Kiss!, Senpai, This Can't Be Love!, Takara-kun to Amagi-kun, Eternal Yesterday, Candy Color Paradox, and Jack o' Frost.

I originally reviewed these shows as overall a mixed bag, but showing great promise. I liked that they got more comfortable with depictions of m/m intimacy over time. I thought Mr. Unlucky was legitimately funny (9), Senpai never found its footing (6), Takara and Amagi mildly squandered their premise (8), Eternal Yesterday was extremely poignant (10), Candy Color Paradox had ambitions that exceeded its talent pool (7), and Jack o' Frost was a really strong finish (9.5).

MBS seemed to enjoy the performance of this project enough to continue it for another year.

For me, I think it's very significant to give BL itself a time slot to see how audiences are responding to BL as a concept compared to the pitch of individual shows. I'm really encouraged by MBS doing this. Even if you don't care about the name MBS, you have interacted with their content, because they are also behind Full Metal Alchemist and Haikyuu! anime adaptations.

Rating Year 2

I actually liked the way year 2 started, even if I'm a bit mixed on the end. I really loved opening with Tokyo in April is... I liked that they had BL trying to be topical. I think the show unfortunately conflates some things it shouldn't, but I loved TIAI and I loved Ren and Ryunosuke's experience being gay men. I liked the changes they made to the source material. This show was dark in a way that it owned, and I really like that. I gave it a 9.

We then moved to My Personal Weatherman, and that went over well for the people who like to see really hot people go at it with each other. I actually enjoyed how much Yoh and Segasaki actively misunderstood each other even as they were speaking to each other. I don't know that they exactly completed their story, and I suspect that there may be a future outing for this show. Despite enjoying it, I think it didn't get all of its pieces together fully and gave it an 8.5.

We then crossed over into uncertain territory with One Room Angel. Despite enjoying a lot of what was going on in this show, I don't actually think it's a romance. It's my understanding that the angel character is a lot younger in the source material, and so they may have been a little shy about how much they did with these characters on screen. I also don't think the storytelling was balanced between the leads. However, because I am susceptible to complex stories about grief, I gave this show an 8.

Now, we have Sahara-sensei to Toki-kun. I hated this show so much. I think it makes the unfortunate mistake of asking me to care about how homophobia and public perceptions impacts people through its flashback drama, but then does nothing with that in the front. It sucked so hard, and I'm really disappointed because I thought this show had some of the most potential, and I thought Toki was one of the most watchable characters Drama Shower had produced. I ended up giving it a 4.

Our next and final show (I think) for this outing is called My Strawberry Film. This one will also be in a high school, but I know little about it, other than we may have a GL plot in it.

So, overall I'd give Drama Shower an 8. I think fans of BL, and especially Japanese BL, should continue to show up and support it. The fact that we have a dedicated programming block is important. The fact that none of these shows has felt like a retread so far is super important. Drama Shower is varied. There is something in here for almost everyone. Drama Shower is the biggest commitment to BL we've had from a distributor other than GMMTV's ongoing BL slate. Taiwan has Vidol doing is four projects, but Drama Shower is the first time I know of that a Japanese distributor has focused on BL in a meaningful, ongoing way. We should stick with it.

[blmpff]

SETO TOSHIKI for DAZED KOREA 03.06.24

[withered-rose-unbreakable-lotus]

Someone asked if we think our fav has ever stalked our page. Well stalked no, I don't think. Checked out of curiosity, yes. He's rather curious I've been told and he's checking stuff even when you go at his store and during instores. I think 2 favorites have actually checked my account before, but again just check.

From what I've heard, those who stalk usually do it if you are there and they can recognize you. Like, they have seen you at their lives several times, maybe they've talked to you too during instores or meet and greets, and the stalking is mostly a way to either see if you talk about them ooor in order to check what their fans like and apply to it. In others words, big bands don't do that unless you have done sth to draw their attention. For example, if someone is artistic and you offer them sth they find up to their taste, they might check your account wondering if they can hire you. Another reason I could imagine a big band member stalking your account is if they are interested in you for other reasons, but I doubt that happens easily. But yeah smaller name musicians do that, sometimes, visit fan accounts. And you will be surprised how many smaller name musicians get happy when you choose them over sb else. I've been told by someone that their favorite for example is getting so happy with being remembered after disbands, or being told they are sb's favorite (especially if you are also a fan of a senpai of theirs and you choose them over the senpai? mindblown, they really don't believe it when there's sb they consider better musician than them and you still choose them over the senpai). And there is competition too, still, and that surprised me to hear cause I thought we were past that joke; Even seeing your lockscreen being another jrocker they might joke about who that guy is and wanting to know what makes them cooler. xD When I got into vkei, it was sth I heard from a few bands actually xD...they were telling fans that we are theirs, like your heart's mine you are not allowed to give it to another band xD. Yeah those were the days. xD But to hear this lowkey happens to this day...boy oh boy.

[laurelslegacy]

Naming of the kits

Not dead! have NOT stopped working on Zeb trying to get ready for con next weekend. New Zeb mask, old Zeb armor but modified to fit my cooling vest. ordered proper boots to do the right feet but they've never shown up... TWICE. all that, moving, dealing with personal issues. Been hiding away and relaxing with a story I'll likely never post and never thought I WOULD write but the thoughts on it the challenge was nice. But I am going to share with you the last part just written cause I'm in TEARS. summery: Yep Lasat males can get Pregnant, but only a very rare few and the odds of carrying to term is only 40%. it's a war, it's stressful. With the Death Star destroyed they have to evacuate to Hoth. The entire time Zeb is plagued by fear and anxiety over losing not just one but two Lasat kits. Kallus is the always comforting always reassuring, Have faith- he would say. Hera would add Have hope.

“What are their names?” Sabine spoke up quickly, looking from one father to the other.

Zeb looked dumbfounded for a moment before his eyes rested on Kallus, a sort of ‘help’ look.

Kallus started to chuckle “We haven’t chosen yet, we were following some Lasat traditions.”

“Are you going to go for Lasat names or Human?” Rex asked idly curious.

“Not sure, good question.” Kallus replied.

“I’d like them ta have meaning, my name does, Alexandr does. Both fit us.”

Hera looked to Zeb and tilted her head, perhaps she could get more Lasanese from him “What does your name mean Zeb?”

Put on the spot the lasat’s fur started to rise in a blush “Araseb, a hard consonant in front o’ male names so Garazeb, we the people or of the people. Aureli, meaning gold, oosh fer a last name. Looked it up, Alexandr means protector of the people.”

“Hope.” it pulled the attention off of Zeb and Kallus smiled “One of them should be named hope.” A blush spread across his cheeks as Zeb looked at his husband with adoration nodding in agreement. “Nadia.” Zeb perked his ears and Kallus went on, “it was my mother’s name.”

Zeb looked moved to tears and reached out to let the small Lasat female grab ahold of his claw “Nadia, yeah, l love it.”

“What of him Garazeb?”

“Ah…” Zeb was thinking about it.

“Saul. Start with Saul Garazeb.” The old voice came from Chava as she hobbled in with her staff, Grom right behind her. “Ohhh they’re so precious! SO BIIG” She laughed delighted, Sabine handing over Nadia to the old Lasat woman’s arms, Grom taking her staff so she could hold the new Kit. “Nadia Ashla ashlas ulanakra nashna uraka mo.” (Nadia, the light of Ashla bless your life.)

A sniffle pulled everyone’s eyes to Zeb, he wrung a hand over his face “Saulkal.”

Grom grinned and looked at the faces of the others in the room “Name means roughly Faith in my or the Sire.” And he gestured to Kallus.

Now it was Kallus’s turn to begin turning red and eyes welling with tears, wiped at them aggressively only making his eyes more red. “Suitable.” nodding, clearly a bigger more passionate word on his tongue but allowed this one to slip out.

“There now…” the lady drawled out and handed Nadia to Kallus reaching out for Saulkal. Repeating the same phrase “Saulkal, Ashla ashlas ulanakra nashna uraka mo.” She handed the little boy back to Zeb. “Well Visiting hours and over and they better still have hot Caff in the mess, these old bones are too cold!” She turned, was handed her staff and she and Grom made their way out.

Hera squeezed Zeb’s arm and smiled, tears in her own eyes “We’ll let you Kallus, Nadia and Saulkal rest. They’re lovely as their fathers.”

“Thanks” is all Zeb could get out waiting till they left before leaning as much as he could on Kallus, crying to release all the anxiety, stress, worry and fear and let in the tears of love, joy and being complete fill him instead.

[thenostalgiadepartment]

Here is my reading list for December 2024. I read more digitally this month than I usually do. There were several titles I wasn't ready to commit to purchasing physically (and some that I'm glad I didn't) 🧵

Home Office Romance by Kintetsu Yamada

The newest one-shot by Kintetsu Yamada (the mangaka of Sweat and Soap) is about two people who meet during the COVID-19 Pandemic. This slice-of-life romcom is adorable and sweet in all the right ways. Rating: ★★★★☆

Senpai, This Can’t Be Love! by Shinta Harekawa

This single volume story is a workplace romance about a senior CG designer that mentors a new hire who shows nothing but indifference towards him. That is until he finds out underneath that frosty exterior this new hire is his biggest fan.  I think this story needed more time to develop its characters to have the emotional pay off. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to go out of their way to read this title. I think there are a lot of better manga to read in this genre. Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Let’s Eat Together, Aki and Haru by Makoto Taji

Two roommates share a love of cooking and eating together. The art style is very adorable and goes great with the slice of life theme. Don’t be hungry when you read this though or it’ll make you salivate.  This manga was very similar to She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat if genderswapped and the two main leads started out as two best friends but a little lighter on overall store depth. With only three volumes it's worth reading if you’re looking for some cozy manga. Rating: ★★★☆☆

H.P. Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu by Gou Tanabe

“In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.” After the death of his grand-uncle, a young man stumbles upon a link to a disturbing cult and a mystery that changes his life forever. Tanabe captures the unhinged and terrifying themes from these Lovecraftian stories just as they’ve done in previous adaptations. The full page spreads, the dark ink background, the expressions of these characters, all shown in an art style perfectly befitting these eldritch horrors. Rating: ★★★★☆

This Wolf is Not Scary by Riko Sakura

A story about two half-human, half-animal guys on the opposite ends of the food chain. I didn’t really get what I wanted from this manga. The story has no depth or character development even for a single volume, but the art is nice. Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Solo Leveling vol. 10 by Chu-Gong, So-Ryeong Gi and Hyeon-Gun

This volume picked up towards the tail end with the start of a fight that's been simmering since volume 2 of this series, quickly escalating into a heavy hitter duel. Beru is one of my favorite characters despite his origins. His chibi form is adorable. Rating: ★★★☆☆

Colette Decides to Die by Alto Yukimura

Overworked apothecary Colette decides to jump into a well one day to avoid her never ending droves of patients. She unknowingly travels to the underworld to discover not even the underworld can keep her from work when Lord Hades is in need of an apothecary as well. I love this story so far and the artwork. It has a surprising amount of depth I wasn’t expecting. This series is emotional and caught me off guard a few times with how introspective this story is. Rating: ★★★★★

All or Nothing by Shikke

A four man friend group is suddenly split when two of them reveal they are dating. The two outcasts then decide to try a physical relationship to see what the big deal is. There really is nothing here for readers. No story or character development. Rating: ★☆☆☆☆

The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary vol. 1 by Mine and Area Ikemiya

A broke mercenary is forced to join an incompetent new party for funds. After a disastrous first mission, he learns one of his companions is more than she seems. This manga is based on a Light Novel. The artwork is good and the main character was interesting enough. The end of the volume started to develop the story more. Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Confession by Nobuyuki Fukumoto and Kaji Kawaguchi

After a hiking accident, two friends become lost in a blizzard. Thinking his death is imminent, the injured man confesses to a murder. However, instead of dying, they both find shelter. The problem is now that their rescue is on the way, the secret hangs heavily over them both. The premise of this story was interesting but the execution was comically bad. Rating: ★★☆☆☆

The Second Alpha by Shibue Yofune

On his first day of his new job an alpha meets his fated mate only to discover the omega of his dreams is already wearing a wedding ring.  Finally an actual STORY in an omegaverse manga, and a good and unique premise too! I would give it 4 stars but there’s a dubcon heat scene at the start of the manga. Other than that the story is actually quite heartwarming and deals with what happens when you get a second chance at love. Rating: ★★★☆☆

I Hear the Sunspot: Four Seasons vol. 2 by Yuki Fumino

The cliffhanger from the last volume is finally explored, bringing with it the amount of drama you would expect from this series. I’m curious to see how all the plot threads evolve as the story continues. Especially with the troublesome new hire. The romance is still going at a snail's pace, but the story and side characters make this series worthwhile. The last section of this volume was a short story titled My Little Boy. This story in particular showcased just how wonderful Taichi’s grandparents are. His grandfather is 10/10. Rating: ★★★★☆

Thunder 3 vol. 1 by Yuki Ikeda

Three friends travel to a parallel universe to save one friend’s sister. The retro gag manga style cover first drew my interest however the story isn't that deep so far. The art style transitioning from gag manga to hyperrealism does a lot of the heavy lifting for this story. Rating: ★★★☆☆

[dzv2]

Japanese BL Lockscreens

hope you like it!

<3 or rb if u save, pls :)

- d

[selfkaiharness]

wtf lmao i love it Trunks, i need to tell you something: Why did you...um...uhhh...?!

[lordtocco]

At the first scenes you think it's the same old story.

Then you hear the second character's internal dialogue and you scream!

Definitely a 10!

P.S. I only write the 10, I don't give it to everyone...

[yoosung-ah]

You've been matched with: Ray! Are you interested? ♡

(Mystic Matchmaker ™ cannot be held legally responsible for anything that happens after meeting a match)

[koukouture]

Idk what it is but like fanfics have really opened my eyes to Aymeric. Like in the MSQ I was like "Oh yeah I like him but idk I like Haurchefant more" but in the Dragonsong War questline + fanfics made me like him a lot. Like he's actually a prince I love him so very dearly. Plus he's yk actually alive so he has more fanfic potential (sorry Haurchefant you were my first love tho)

[emotionallychargedtowel]

For the tokusatsu ask game!

1 and 19 :)

Oh, those are good ones. Thanks, @nieves-de-sugui!

How did you get into toku?

When my kids were three or four (they're twins so they always share the same age), my son saw a toy Godzilla and got obsessed with it. So we started showing my kids Godzilla movies, then branched out into other Toho kaiju like Mothra, King Ghidorah, etc. Just to give you an idea of how deep this got, at one point my kids were both obsessed with Biollante, a monster that was created when scientists fused some of Godzilla's DNA with a rose and the soul of a young girl that looks kind of like the thing from Little Shop of Horrors on steroids. This continued for a while. Then we watched Godzilla vs. Megalon, which features Jet Jaguar, a kaiju-fighting robot who they immediately adored. We were already tracking down toys of the various monsters they liked and they wanted a Jet Jaguar one really bad, but when my partner went looking, there weren't any options out there. (I think since then a JJ figure has been issued, but it wasn't around at the time.)

Then a fateful moment occurred: my spouse saw an Ultraman toy someplace, though it kind of resembled Jet Jaguar, and got it for the kids to see if they'd like it. They were immediately obsessed and wanted to know all about Ultraman, but we barely knew anything about it. I'd seen a little bit of the weirdly dubbed version of Tiga that aired on the WB on Saturday mornings at one point, but that was it. So we started looking things up and checking out shows, which led to more shows and more toys and so on. Our first series was Tiga and we just kept going from there. This was also around the start of the pandemic, so we were in desperate need of an exciting new collective obsession. Actually, I don't know how we would have gotten through that period without Ultraman.

So we mainlined Ultraman for months (maybe even a year or more?) before we checked out any other toku stuff. Then we were talking to a friend who's knowledgeable about this stuff and he suggested we try branching out into other tokusatsu franchises. Our first Super Sentai series was Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, which we all loved right away. I think our first Kamen Rider series was actually Ex-Aid, so it’s kind of a miracle that we kept going with it, because I really dislike that series--I never even finished watching it. Our second Kamen Rider was Saber, which was a way better fit for us (if not exactly representative of the franchise) and remains one of my favorite Kamen Rider series.

Kamen Rider Ryuki was a kind of milestone because it was the first tokusatsu show that my spouse and I watched without having to have kids present and paying attention all the time. It's a bit on the mature side so they only wanted to watch it intermittently. That's when we figured out that some toku shows filled that niche really well--things that we could watch without worrying about kids feeling left out but that we didn't have to refrain from watching in their presence or censor somehow (at least, most of the time). Which led to even more tokusatsu-watching since things you can watch in that way can be hard to come by.

Incidentally, a big part of the reason I first got into BLs was because of my tokusatsu fandom. Before I saw my first BL, my twin sister had already seen KinnPorsche and told me about it, so maybe she would have continued with BLs and eventually gotten me into them anyway. It's hard to say. But as it happened, I was looking for something short and not too gut-wrenching to watch on Viki one day when I saw the listing for Senpai, This Can't Be Love and got curious about it because the leads were played by Naito Shuichiro from Saber and Seto Toshiki from Ex-Aid. I talk about the tokusatsu to BL pipeline for actors, but I myself traveled down the viewer equivalent of that pipeline.

19. If you could go back and change one show, what would you change?

My first thought was something relatively small. If I could, I’d change the fact that Takano Hassei’s character in Kamen Rider Ryuki was (spoiler!) killed off so quickly. I get that the battle royale premise of the series necessitated some painful character deaths but he was so likable and made the story so much more compelling as soon as he showed up and then suddenly he was gone. They should have let him stick around at least a while longer.

But the main series I’d change is Kamen Rider Kiva. I have such mixed feelings about that series in a number of areas, but the main thing I’d change is its treatment of women characters. It's kind of confusing, though. I keep thinking over how things turn out for the women in Kiva and trying to figure out exactly what my problem is with it and what I think should have been done differently. Basically, the women in Kiva face a lot of sexism in different forms, and the show makes this pretty explicit. Women in Kiva can be incredibly competent and smart, much more than their male counterparts, and they still don't get the same opportunities. Whenever men in the show are interested in a woman romantically and/or sexually, tons of sexism also comes into play, usually in the forms of benevolent sexism and/or objectification. In one arc, for example, two men fight over a woman as if she's a prize to be won and she doesn't have a say in the matter. Otoya often insists on rescuing Yuri from situations that she's arguably better equipped to deal with than he is, with occasionally disastrous effects. These things aren't portrayed as neutral. At times, sexism is called out explicitly. At others, it's shown in a way that seems clearly designed to make it visible.

I'm used to media texts that highlight sexism giving me some kind of catharsis about it. It would be ridiculous for a story to solve the problem of sexism completely, but there's usually some kind of progress that's made, or at least a character removes herself from a sexist situation if it doesn't improve. But Kiva doesn't do that. Not really, anyway. Both of the women who want to be Riders do get to do that, briefly, which was pretty remarkable when the series aired in 2008/2009. Unlike in some Kamen Rider series in which characters always have their own distinct Rider identity, a bunch of the people (basically, all of the human beings) who become Riders in Kiva use the same tool, the Ixa System, and become variations on the same Rider. Both Yuri and Megumi, a mother and daughter shown in different time periods, become Kamen Rider Ixa at some point. But their time as Riders is short-lived, and only happens after they've proven themselves again and again while watching the dopiest men imaginable get to become Ixa first. So that doesn't constitute much progress. (Did I mention that Yuri's deceased mother/Megumi's grandmotherdesigned the Ixa System? And they each still have to fight tooth and nail for a brief chance to use it!)

Watching Kiva actually made me notice the extent to which I expect some kind of catharsis once a piece of media foregrounds sexism somehow. And as soon as I noticed it, I questioned it. Does that kind of catharsis really need to happen? Might it not be better for us to have to sit with that discomfort? Catharsis discharges tension, but maybe it's better not to do that. But I don't think the uniformly shitty outcomes faced by the women on Kiva serve any sort of useful purpose in that way. (I'm including Megumi marrying Nago as a shitty outcome. The show may treat it as cause for celebration but that guy sucks and she's totally settling.)

So what would I change? First, I'd make the sexism the women face more explicit, with more characters labeling it as such more often. Since the show features two timelines, one taking place in 1986 and one in 2008, it would make sense and provide at least a little bit of hope if the 2008 storyline involved a bit less sexism or a bit more progress toward counteracting it. Maybe some individual characters could even learn something from their experiences and become a bit less sexist. At the very least, the leaders of the Wonderful Blue Sky Organization should have learned from their mistakes since they were present for the events of both 1986 and 2008 (the other 2008 characters are too young to have been present then except as small chidren).

When the two Kurenais, Otoya and Wataru, go through a body-swap situation across time and Otoya finds himself in 2008, his attitudes seem even more egregious in the context of 2008. I'd look for other ways to use the differences and similarities between attitudes in the two time periods to make a similar type of point.

I'd definitely give Yuri and Megumi more of a chance to be Ixa. Especially Megumi, since she's in 2008 when people should be at least a little bit less sexist. And for fuck's sake, I wouldn't have Megumi marry a douchey clod like Nago in a million years.

Well, that ended up being longer than I expected! Thanks again for the questions, nieves!

[shoceted]

[my-boys-love-boys]

Japanese BL boys