#the dynamic. the tropes. the doomed yaoi.

[bixels]

I like Aki x Angel Devil a lot……

[raystriker]

the heartbreaking reality of kyomasagin is complex and anguishing. misery takes and she never gives.

unless they're chaotic friends, then it's sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows

[saph-yells-into-the-void]

have i ever mentioned on here that i watched alien stage in its entirety a few days ago :3

[14dayswithyou]

Olivia fell asleep in one of the aisles again...

Hello im here to push my REDACTED x River agenda✊

No seriously the brainrot is REAL i need more of them together...that dynamic is immaculate (Rivren winning against Rengel canon?!?!?)

The good ending of 14dwy should be ren getting in an unhinged yandere relationship with river fr😔

P.S i loooove the game and the way you write and your art and characters nnnnggg im just so invested i cant wait to see more!! Honestly its amazing that you're working on it by yourself you're so talented!! Im salivating at the mouth for the next update frfr (no pressure tho take all the time you need to rest!!! Greatness takes time🫡)

⌞♥⌝ JKSDJGKDS Canonically, it'd be the Doomed Toxic Yaoi™ trope because Ren would gladly kill River in a heartbeat just to be with Angel T_T But in my head and in my heart, rivren could totally canon!!

River "stand in the middle of the road for me real quick" Acosta and Ren "fine, but why are you getting in my car" 14DWY my beloveds <3 Mr. "why aren't you visiting me in hospital... are you with someone else?" and Mx. "why aren't you eating the tablets I give you... don't you trust me?" my loves <3 Pastel Pink "you love me more than everyone else, right?" and Baby Blue "you won't leave me for anyone else, right?" my behateds <3

Your honour, I love these horrible blorbos

[a-star-that-burns-brightly]

What Your Favorite Milgram Ship Says About You!

if you saw this posted earlier, no you didn't ^-^ Disclaimer: Everything in this post is a joke. Politely, please do not turn it into a genuine ship discourse post. Would you really do that to me? a silly little guy who simply wishes to be silly?

Haruka/Muu: You are constantly in a trenches defending your commonly misinterpreted favorite characters with your fucking life.

Haruka/Fuuta: Your ideal relationship dynamic is the "His pronouns are they/them!" meme, with a side of Doomed Yaoi for flavor.

Yuno/Kotoko: You think that both of them would be fixed if they just kissed a girl.

Yuno/Mahiru: This is the same joke as Yuno and Kotoko, but with the added factor that you desperately want your future partner to take you out to a cute cafe.

Fuuta/Mikoto: In every fandom you join you, without fail, start shipping the first two male characters with a somewhat interesting dynamic.

Fuuta/Kotoko: You would let a woman physically abuse you if she looked hot while doing it. It's alright, this is a safe space.

Fuuta/Yuno: You are severely disappointed in the lack of male tsunderes.

Muu/Rei: You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of a lesbian situationship.

Muu/Yuno: Your ideal relationship dynamic is just…girls being friends. Gals being pals. Besties, historians would say.

Muu/Es: Your favorite romance trope in fiction is when the usually calm and serious one gets flustered and blushy over their crush

Shidou/Mahiru: You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of saving someone's life, and your ideal relationship dynamic is MEN 👏 GETTING 👏 PEGGED 👏

Shidou/His Wife: You have on at least one occasion called Shidou a malewife. Shidou/Mikoto: Your favorite male character in any media you watch is always the older working man who doesn't look like he's gotten a day of sleep in his life and also probably gets called a sopping wet cat.

Mahiru/Kotoko: Your ideal relationship dynamic is that one scene from Class of 09 ("you wanna be sexed up abusive lesbians?").

Mahiru/Fuuta: You think that every anger issues-riddled boy needs a ray of sunshine to balance them out.

Mahiru/Mikoto: You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of horoscopes. Mahiru/Mikoto/Fuuta: You fucking eat slice of life college AUs like they're a full course meal.

Mahiru/John: You like the dynamic of Mahiru/Fuuta, but you like John more. Kazui/Hinako: You just want good things for Hinako, and really, who wouldn't?

Kazui/Shidou: You just want good things for Kazui, and really, who wouldn't?

Kazui/Mikoto: I think you just want to fuck Kazui.

Kazui/Fuuta: Oh you REALLY want to fuck Kazui. Kazui/Shidou/Mikoto: You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of smoke breaks.

Kazui/Mahiru: Your ideal relationship dynamic is Team Mom / Team Dad.

Amane/Anyone: https://youtu.be/wf9k3heENYc?si=xhcAjtzpnqOts-1f

Mikoto/John: You just want good things for John, which in all fairness, probably could've saved us a lot of trouble.

Mikoto/Kotoko: You either want one of them to put you on a leash, or you want both of them to put you on a leash. There's no in-between. John/Kotoko: You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of beating each other's asses.

Milgram/Therapy: You are the only correct person in this fandom.

[paperandhis-paper]

What your favorite Re:Zero Ship says about You!

(Obviously inspired by Eldena Doubleca5t's videos)

Emilia/Subaru: you've always had a thing for the "knight who's willing to die for his lady" trope, but one day you said to yourself "you know what's better? A knight who HAS died for his lady, and will happily continue to do so".

Rem/Subaru: your heart shatters every time the phrases "I love Emilia" and "Who's Rem?" are uttered. You are desperate to get Sloth IF animated, but not desperate enough to actually read it.

Ram/Subaru: you are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of getting dunked on.

Priscilla/Subaru: you want Priscilla to step on you. Moving on.

Crusch/Subaru: you want Crusch to step on you. Moving on.

Reinhardt/Subaru: you love the idea of the strongest man in the universe being weak for the literal weakest. Pride IF is your jam.

Julius/Subaru: you liked the aesthetics of Reinhardt/Subaru, but you thought it'd be hotter if they fucking hated each other.

Otto/Subaru: your favorite relationship dynamic is BoxXBoytoy.

Felix|Ferris/Subaru: you have very politically-incorrect thoughts about Bridget from Guilty Gear.

Julius/Anastasia: you liked the knight and lady dynamic of Subaemi, you just thought the knight should...you know...actually act like a knight (also, you like the color purple)

Geese/Fortuna: you wish Emilia grew up with a happy family. You probably like SAO.

(Spoiler Ships after the Read More)

Al/Priscilla: you would've shipped Subaru/Emilia, but you didn't think he'd died for her ENOUGH.

Vincent/Chisha: you are always down for Yaoi so doomed any attempt at undooming it just makes it even more doomed.

Wilhelm/Theresia (technically not a spoiler, but most info remains to be in the anime, so throwing it here just in case): their scenes make you weep uncontrollably. The Wilhem EXs are the single greatest thing Tappei's written in your mind.

Carol/Theresia: you are always down for gals being pals.

Carol/Grimm: you just want to enjoy a perfectly healthy relationship in this series for once.

Crusch/Fourier: you just want good things for Fourier. And really, who wouldn't.

[victimsofyaoipoll]

Round 1

Propaganda under the cut

Christine Canigula

This has enraged me for YEARS. She is constantly sidelined in the fandom in favor of the main m/m ship which itself its fine but the way people treat her drives me NUTS. When I actually was in the fandom, Consistently! her crush on the main character which is a CENTRAL fucking plot point is just explained away to make room for yaoi. If they even have that kind of decency. Like 99% of the fics just say "oh! she's a lesbian actually totally this was comphet im not a misogynist" or "she's Actually Aroace" and not ponder on the optics of sanitizing the CANON fucking attraction of a chubby easian girl. It's sososo transparent and another fucking example of she's actually the Mom friend! or other annoying racist and misogynistic tropes.

She likes play rehearsal. She's the love interest of the main character, Jeremy. Jeremy also has a best friend, Michael, whom he's usually shipped with. And since she's the canonical love interest and as such often gets in the way of their beloved ship. They are very creative in finding the ways to get rid of her to ship Michael with Jeremy, ranging from making her asexual(because ace people can't date apparently), completely kicking her out of the last two songs of the musical and putting Michael in her place, to vilifying her and claiming she was never interested in Jeremy in the first place, despite musical explicitly saying the opposite.

Love interest of the main character Jeremy Heere and therefore stands in the way of the fandom's most popular ship, boyf reinds. Being specifically a love interest we don't get. A whole lot of her but she's fun! She's a theatre kid. She is silly and goofy. Also has a one off line in one of the songs that mentions she has ADD. Idk what I'm supposed to say really and I'm always bad at talking about characters so.

Han Sooyoung

han sooyoung is one of the main trio protagonists yet people constantly ignore her in order to ship the other two males despite the fact that they are all doomed by the narrative TOGETHER!!! fanon content is even worse because it either slaps a lesbian sticker onto her to shittily write her off in fanfic OR they make her so one dimensional its like a cardboard stand in. han sooyoung arguably has a more important/interesting dynamic with the main male protagonist yet everyone ignores her because they want their uwu gay babies IM SO SICK OF ORV FANS

Dokja and Joonghyuk are a very popular ship (rightfully so, i get it) but usually Sooyoung is seen as in the way of their relationship or not as valued as the other two even though her place in the story and relationship with the other characters is just as strong. Recently there was a post on twitter being rude about people who ship her and Joonghyuk (which is a super valid ship) and i saw a lot of hate that i believe just stems from her getting “in the way” of a yaoi ship. 

99% of that kind of symbolic fanart REFUSES. to acknowledge her existence man. even though she is part of the main TRIO man

[numercnnightingale]

10 Reasons to Consider Shipping Numeron

( astral x don thousand )

1; Why Not

.

Established connection that was never utilized:

These two dueled one another for up to one thousand days, fought each other for the Numeron Code, and was the whole reason Astral was created in the very first place. 

Despite that, the show never went into anything with their cosmic dynamic. Or even acknowledged it much.

But think of all the missing scenes, or even canon compliant Added scenes, in fics you could produce by brainstorming even a little bit about them. 

There’s a variety of fun tropes to play with;

enemies-to-lovers, forbidden attraction, pure angel x fallen angel, garden of eden symbolisms, second chance, secret attraction, doomed yaoi, “was never meant to be, but became anyway”. 

To name just a potential few.

There’s a lot they could teach each other:

Astral’s arc through the series involved learning the slow acceptance of chaos, but a lot of it was surface level and from a very young / emotionally immature point of view. Don Thousand is the self proclaimed deity of chaos, its harbinger. Embracing it cost him his entire home. Think of the new emotions Astral could experience from learning about his early home world if he was forced to listen to Don Thousand’s perspective of it. Especially now that Astral has opened that connection to chaos again in their world . . .

On the other side, think of how Don Thousand might be affected by being forced to understand Astral’s innocent but earnest perspective. Astral represents everything Don Thousand lost when he was cast out and banished. To then have this same being allow your side to be told, for once, and defy its programming to do so . . . 

Make Shit Up. No one can stop you.

The ship doesn’t exist right now. You have the power to forge their dynamic using all the creative liberties you desire.

And again, it’s not like there’s nothing in-canon tying them together. There’s actually a lot. So you can either have a fun blast digging for it, or just make up your own stuff from scratch. 

Creatively, its an untapped well.

5; They Look Good Together

text not needed

Angst.

Like but imagine.

The first time Astral ever experiences such an emotion of heat? And its towards his sworn enemy? The one he was made to destroy? The literally god of whom represents everything he was wired to believe is defiling?

And for that god, to find desire in a creation of light and perfection, who was made for him? But also who stands in his way? Who represents everything he’s abandoned and been abandoned by?

But 

what if despite everything they were tender to each other

Movies The Ship Could AU

Beauty and the Beast

Pride and Prejudice Strange Magic

The Sound of Music

Howl’s Moving Castle

Secret of Nimh 

The Last Unicorn

And Lastly

Thanks for reading. If those didn’t convince you, maybe these might

Fanfic 1: “i will travel far beyond the path of reason”  (fanfic) (not romantic)

Fanfic 2: “i don’t believe in god“  (fanfic) (sort of romantic)

AMV: “back to eden” 

Ship tag to browse: #numeronshipping

Thank U Goodnight

[habizuh-studios]

Hello 👋 So, I saw that your main fandoms are : TGCF, SVSSS, Guardian, Link Click, and Love Bullet. Are those 5 in your top 10 favorite media ever? Can I ask what made these series special to you (that made you love them)?

Hi!! Thank you so much for the ask!! Yes, as for right now, you're right- those are my top 5 favorite media at the moment :)

I'll go in order with this, hold on (Tl;DR beneath every part :>)-

TGCF was the first danmei fandom i've ever got into. it helped me connect with my friends more since they introduced it to me which i think changed the timeline LMAO- and it's such a good story!! i think it's slightly different from mxtx's other works? but that's alright, because without spoilers, there's so many interesting characters/character concepts, settings, backstories, and a very good romance!! t is quite long so you get a few revelations before the final boss (and the plot twist for that is SO GOOD!!) and it leads for a big payoff in the end. it's totally worth re-reading for the sake of foreshadowing and re-living all the funny/angsty/whatever moments

SVSSS is SOO FUCKING GOOD. the most rereadable danmei ever, imo. it's so hilarious and tragic and tragically misunderstood... the characters are to die for and the fandom is wonderful. there are so many tropes and opportunities for the fans to explore it more and i think that's really beautiful........

Guardian is also so good imo!! it's probably in my top 3 w/ tgcf & svsss- i love the themes of humanity, i'm always a sucker for those, and guo changcheng is SOOO AMAZING. it's really lore-heavy and political, but the small moments are so cute toooo,,, and it's so rereadable! the extras were amazing, probably my fav extras ever, and i really enjoy the way the sid work together- like found family, hehe

LINK CLICK. holyy shit link click. rahhh.. IT'S SOO GOOD!!! tragic doomed yaoi, time travel, murder mystery, found family, deeath, time loops, exploring abuse, noodle lesbians, AUGH. it's so amazing i could ramble about it forever but im soo tired rn but omg you should watch link click it's so fucking good anon it destroyed me

Love Bullet; although it's new, i REALLY LOVE THE CONCEPT!! the characters are so intruiguing and there's so much potential for lore, themes of moving on, grief, love, etc.... the artstyle is soo wonderful and the manga artist did such a good job,,,, seriously everyone's dynamic is so fun and it's just a really good read :D totally re-readable too, and available online if you need! but i reccommend supporting it. it's arhhajehthjteh

that's all i feel like typing rn but thanks for the ask :>

[biggie-chcese]

So uh,, what's your thoughts about Viviakou and Kokobolt?

ohhh ok so im of the rare breed that kinda only likes vivakou as a one-sided romance, if a romance at all, because they are so Doomed Yaoi to me.

i think it's very sweet that vivia finds a reason to live because yakou has shown how much he cares. i think yakou looking out for vivia's health is also extremely sweet. but i also just think that Yakou "i threw the entire NDA (including vivia) under the bus, into the heart of enemy territory, with no way to escape the peacekeepers, for a revenge plot" Furio just isn't open to loving anyone romantically other than his dead wife. he'd need a long time to get over her, and he doesn't even live long enough to do it. i like the angst potential. it makes vivia's arc in ch 4 all the more tragic, yet also cathartic when he lets yakou go and helps yuma find the truth.

TD;DR: not a fav, but i 100% understand it and think it's narratively interesting when one-sided on vivia's part.

now onto kokobolt.

ok. look. i get it. i see their gumshoe gabs. i see their bromance. i see desuhiko basically outright saying he'd fuck yuma while yuma is dressed as a high school girl but shhhh details, details and i see why it's popular. but i... i'm a hard neutral on it. like, i like it a little? but for the most part i just kinda feel nothing about them. i think they're at their best in memes and jokes. they're a really solid comedic duo and have a funny, enjoyable dynamic. but i dont care for kokobolt fluff nor do i really see myself enjoying angst of them. like i don't even see them doing the awkward slowburn "i dont wanna ruin our friendship" pining that usually comes with the "best bro friends to lovers" trope because desuhiko would just outright ask yuma if he could hit. which he has already done in canon. the only slowburn would just be yuma saying no thanks until eventually he just says "sure whatever you can hit." like, yuma may be a cringefail loser, but he could do better.

TL;DR: neutral on them but i get it. they're funny tho.

[frostfires-blog]

Thanks for your reply to this ask of mine : https://www.tumblr.com/frostfires-blog/768942492027682816/hello-tgcf-lover-i-found-you-from-your-post-of-4?source=share

I have sent the MXTX Ask Game, sorry if the questions is a bit much. 😅

No, I don't think you're hypocritical. I totally get it and can relate to you. It's hard to suddenly love m/m ships from something that we love since young age, when what we love mostly are m/f ships from that series, right?

See, I watched anime since childhood and my first anime were One Piece and Detective Conan. Guess the most famous m/m ship from One Piece? ZoSan (Zoro/Sanji) and fyi that ship have inspired real life BL mangaka with that ship's dynamics (including one of my fav BL mangaka). From Conan, it's Kid/Shinichi (for me now, this series have too many het romance, I mean everybody end up with somebody?)

One of my moots asked, how come I don't ship them. And my answer is, sorry those series are my childhood's beloved series. At that time, I still love m/f ships only and don't read any BL/GL media or even ship any same sex characters. So, I just can't see them romantically.

Then as I grew up, I began to love more the dynamics of same sex characters (especially between male ones) compared to het ones.

For your top 3 favorite anime/manga : Naruto, Gintama, & Attack on Titan, I started them because of my friends who love their otps. So, I knew a few people who wrote fanfics and drew fanarts for those ships. They asked me to start those series and asked who are my fav ships. I did and I do have favorite otps from those series.

From Naruto : NaruSasu (one of my fav non-canon ship until now, my friend's no 1 otp), MinaKushi (yes, somehow I love this ship even when they're m/f bcs they're so good together), and HashiMada (old man yaoi, enough said).

From Gintama : GinHiji (love their dynamic, you can't imagine how many doujins they had, also my other friend's no 1 otp), I love Kagura so much, but I don't really ship her with anyone (sorry)

From AoT : Please don't hate me, especially now that I know you love Levi. My fav ship is Levi/Eren (love their dynamic, potential for fics and one of my friend's otp).

See, in BL a few of my fav tropes are age gap and height difference, and we have them both!

Sorry for this long ask. Feel free to ignore them. I hope you don't mind with me (BL lover & multishipper of m/m ships) as one of your fan/ follower. I really do learn a lot from your blog and I love when you wrote something that you're passionate with.

I know I've said I love non-canon m/m ships, but I do love BL media, too, with their canon ships. So, thanks for listed 4 canon m/m ones in your fav ships (HuaLian, WangXian, SasaMiya, MafuYama), it means a lot to me....

P.s. Akatsuki no Yona is also one of my all time fav series ever! So excited that you love them, too.... Oh from this series, I ship Jae Ha/Kija (sorry for this random ship)

Anime/manga recs!

- Haikyuu (amazing story, great characters, mostly male characters, some of the most awesome male duos ever)

- SK8 The Infinity (short and amazing story, great characters, mostly male characters, you must have at least 1 fav ship after finished this 12 episodes)

- Buddy Daddies (2 hitmen/ 2 room mates/ 2 guys have to take care of little girl, one of my all time fav series ever)

- Bungou Stray Dogs (guys with super power + mafia, mostly male characters, amazing story)

- Death Note (best tragedy ever, great story, can't help but love this doom ship)

- Moriarty the Patriot (one or the best Holmes adaptation ever, amazing cast, love the plot, mostly male characters)

- Idolish7 (great songs, amazing story, for me Idolish7 >>> Oshi no Ko, primarily male characters)

Sorry if you have knew these series and don't like them. Also, sorry again because mostly I love series with primarily male characters (that's where m/m shippers got their fuel)...

No problem! Hi once again! Thanks for your continued support. I posted my answers to the MXTX Ask Game yesterday. Sorry, it took so long; I've been dealing with a lot. I also wanted to apologise for it being so long—I rambled too much again. I hope that my answers met your expectations. Since every MXTX work is exceptional in its own way, it's difficult to compare them. I totally get where there's no unanimous standout in the fandom and everyone has their own favourite.

Yeah, I totally agree. As sad as it is, I'll never be able to ship M/M ships from the shows I watched in my childhood before I became conscious of BL/GL shipping. Thankfully, not many anime fit under that umbrella because most of my formative years were spent obsessing over Naruto and not giving any other anime a chance—embarrassing, I know. For me, Naruto, Bleach, Angel Beats, Charlotte, Ouran High School Host Club, Made In Abyss, and Attack on Titan fall into that bracket. It was actually BNHA that made me start shipping BL pairings. While I don't ship BL/GL ships in those aforementioned series, I can see value in some of the well-founded ones and know if I had started them today, then I would most likely have shipped those pairings wholeheartedly. P.S. I love MinaKushi too. They deserve more screentime! I started Gintama in late 2019/early 2020 as was in my BL phase at the time. So I do like GinHiji, I just slightly prefer the dynamics of GinTsu and GinTaka. I read a lot of GinHiji doujins too lol (they make up pretty much 90% of Gintama doujins available, lmao)... I totally get why people wouldn't ship Kagura with anyone; as for most of the series, she's still young and uninterested in romance. I'm just a fan of the enemies to lovers/rivals to lovers/friends to lovers trope. So I ship her with Sougo since I like their synergy. Though I don't condone people using OkiKagu to sexualise her character pre-time skip.

The great thing about Gintama is that it's quite self-aware; so, they throw bones to practically every group of shippers while they simultaneously avoid verifying anything. So the fandom is much more inclusive than any other shounen fandom. Levi and Eren are my favourite AoT characters, and I used to have a friend who was very into Levi/Eren so I get it. I almost had a phase myself since at first I wasn't a fan of EreMika. However, around late season 3, my best friend had gotten me sold on EreMika and they've really grown on me. I'd like to think that I've matured enough to be amicable about ships. So I wouldn't hate someone who had a different opinion from me so long as they didn't harass me about it. There have been times when my best friend and I have disagreed about ships, but it hasn't come in between our friendship.

Thanks once again for all of the asks you've sent. I'm glad you've been enjoying my posts, and I hope you continue to enjoy them. Admittedly, the content of my blog will gradually shift since Naruto, Gintama, and Attack on Titan are over—so there isn't much content to post about... I'm not artistically talented—so I can't contribute with fanart and animatics—therefore I rely on reposting, editing, and analysing canon content. I'll continue to do my best, though—especially in new fandoms that have currently captivated me. Wow, another Akatsuki no Yona fan! They need to give us season 2—I swear the manga is so good! I don't think Kija x Jaeha is that random. I could see it... I just honestly never put much thought into shipping other than Hak x Yona since I had a long-standing premonition the dragons would die somehow.

As for your recs, I've actually seen many of them lol... So I'll do a quick run-through of my thoughts and ships in each:

➜ Haikyuu is actually my 3rd favourite sports anime. I used to post about it and read a lot of fics back when season 4 was airing. I went to see the movie in cinemas last year too. While I like most of the fan-favourite pairs—KageHina, BokuAka, and KenHina were featured in a Valentine's Day Ship Post I made 3 years ago.

➜ I'm fond of SK8 The Infinity as well and am excited for the upcoming OVA. I ship both RenGa and MatchBlossom! (P.S. Matchblossom is such a good shipname.) The SK8 dub is one of the only anime dubs I like—it's so unhinged.

➜ I watched Buddy Daddies back when it aired. At first, I thought it was a simpler ripoff of SpyxFamily, but it really grew into its own thing towards the end—and I grew to like it more and more. I quite like how concise yet open-ended its ending was. Not everything needs to drag on, you know...

➜ I've seen BSD too... Though I have quite complex, contradicting feelings about it. While the powers and setting are cool, it's one of the only series that has ever consistently confused me. Like, what is the actual plot of the series? What are the characters trying to achieve? Its lack of consistency both intrigues and frustrates me. I feel like my lack of knowledge of classical literature doesn't help either. Since I'm not fond of the art stystyle, Idly don't fangirl over anyone from BSD. Ironically, my favourite ship/duo from the series would probably be Shin Soukoku.

➜ I've only seen half of Death Note. Sadly, my first introduction to the series was that awful live-action movie... So I didn't bother watching the anime for several years...When I finally did start the anime, it was decently good—but I stopped midway since an AoT fic I'd read years before came rushing back to me and had spoilt most of the upcoming plot points for me. So all the tension and stakes were ruined for me.

➜ Moriarty The Patriot is one of my favourite anime series. I really liked that it delved into deep topics like classism, morality, and social justice. Sherliam is one of my favourite BL ships. Hopefully, they'll continue the anime series someday. I don't think I've ever done any posts on the series... But I will if I ever think of something appropriate.

➜ A year or 2 ago, after finishing the Given manga, I was motivated to start a couple of music-centric anime... I typically try out a few episodes of 3-4 shows and then choose between them. I know I ended up going with Kono Oto Tomare and Uta No Prince-sama. So I think the one I ended up not going with might have been Idolish...Or no scratch that I think it might have been Ensemble Stars... I'd have to go watch episode 1 again and see. So I'll have to get back to you on this.

Thanks for all the recommendations though. Sorry, I've seen most of them already. If you were looking for recommendations yourself, then I'd recommend the following (based on what you've said and recommended):

⦁ Link Click/Shiguang Dailiren really toes the line between canon and non-canon well with its main duo—in part due to China's censorship laws. I don't want to spoil anything since it's very suspenseful, but the show falls into the mystery, drama, and time-travel genres. It's available in three languages, and the latest season has introduced even more intriguing characters. (P.S. The music in this show is absolutely amazing.)

⦁ Ron Kamonohashi's Forbidden Deductions is something I'd recommend to all Moriarty The Patriot fans since its MC is a descendant of both the Holmes and Moriarty bloodlines. It's more episodic and lighter in tone than MTP but no less intriguing.

⦁ Tsurune is sports anime centred around Kyudo—a traditional Japanese form of archery. Just like with Haikyuu and Sk8, it focuses on a lot of M/M duos and rivalries. Its animation is stunning, and the themes it touches on are insightful.

⦁ Owari No Seraph/Seraph of the End is a shounen anime that heavily centres around the ambiguous bond between its two leads—Yuu and Mika. There is an array of other complex relationship dynamics between its other characters as well. Its post-apocalyptic setting, music, and action sequences are somewhat reminiscent of Attack on Titan's earlier seasons, given that both series were animated by Wit Studio.

⦁ Windbreaker is a shounen anime centred around a group of delinquents at an all-boys school that have banded together to protect their town and its people from nearby thugs. Its characters and their interactions with one another are really endearing. While the fights aren't as flashy as other battle shounen, the series covers various significant themes and has significant character depth. The character design and character interactions are my favourite part of the series.

Anyways, thanks once again for reading through all my ramblings...

[crehador]

brother crab's winter 2024 parting thoughts: high card s2

WHAT THE HELL

HIGH CARD IS GOOD?!

tl;dr very flashy and aesthetic, consistently good in that regard, but the story was not always gripping to me. however, with the ultimate payoff in the last three eps, totally worth it imo

full review:

wow wow wow i'm kind of glad i fell way behind on anime and had the last three eps of s2 to binge all at once because hoooly shit i enjoyed that immensely

at no point did i think high card was bad, but it definitely had moments where it didn't fully grab me. there were times when it felt like all flash, no substance

and it's definitely not perfect, i have some serious and fairly significant gripes with it. mainly i'm really bummed that leo, wendy, and vijay never really got fully fleshed out. i mean i get it, finn's the main character and chris is the thinly veiled love interest also important so obviously they're going to take up most of the time, but i really feel like the other members of the crew had so much unexplored potential (especially wendy and vijay, because leo did sort of get his moment as a factor in the old man yaoi situation)

speaking of which THE OLD MAN YAOI!! man there were a lot of moving pieces in this show, and sometimes they came together in messy ways (or didn't really come together at all... some bits do still feel pretty disjointed and jumpy to me, tbh)

but overall the payoff of the s2 finale was absolutely worth it to me, particularly since it dealt with my favorites of those moving pieces: the old man yaoi and the sudden YANDERE ONIISAN ARC

i find myself really wishing the show had gone harder on both of those threads sooner, but like... honestly i'm not disappointed with how they played out. the whole theodore and ban thing could not have been more tropey (YEARS of loathing only for a "the one i wanted to protect all along was... you" and then dying for each other like HELLO yes an absolute tropefest BUT TROPES THAT I LOVE. GOOD FOR THOSE TOXIC DOOMED YAOI MFERS)

tilt has always been fascinating to me right from the character design and i am more or less satisfied with how things played out for him too, though i kind of wish we'd had more of this development spread throughout the series. i guess it was there, but... i dunno. in some ways feels like there could have been More (but i may be biased)

like you gotta feel bad for him, it's a sad story, but also that extreeemely creepy unhinged yandere oniisan "i have been stalking you i literally have a wall with giant blown up photos of you i hate the other guy who is calling himself your brother" sequence was SO FUCKING DELICIOUS LIKE WTF??? stunned and absolutely blown away by how hard they went on that, what a delight

(ironically it makes me think about how unhinged matakara in bucchigiri?! just doesn't work while unhinged tilt in high card works super well, but this is not about bucchigiri?! so i won't get too into that)

i am still admittedly just. kind of like. idk. i go back and forth on finn and chris, as characters and as partners. i don't dislike them but they aren't always all that compelling to me. sometimes they definitely are, but sometimes they just fall a bit flat to me. this probably isn't an issue with them as characters, though, just a matter of taste. i occasionally found the chemistry between them lacking as well, but sometimes it was really on point

same feeling about the crew dynamics in general. i looove a good like heist crew or spy agency crew, whatever it is, when the dynamics just click. and sometimes they didn't, here. i am too sleepy to articulate it properly right now but it just felt like there was something missing, some pieces not really fitting together. i didn't dislike any of the characters, but just... i guess wanted more team shenanigans? maybe there was no time for that but it would have been nice (like this is one show that could have done with a few filler and/or fluff episodes, imo!)

anyway. christ. my eye emoji-ing at tilt based solely on his character design finally paid off after two gay ass seasons lmao. good night

[callmegaith]

Hey! I'm just wondering where you got the idea to start shipping Dale and David? (Cool art btw!) As far as I know they've met thru Birthday but are they related in any other way?

Oh boy. Okay. This is gonna be all over the place.

So birthday, you get the letter from David saying he's sorry and all that. Yeah. Dale and David are connected, we just don't know how yet. Something important to David was for whatever reason in Dale's home.

But really the appeal just comes from what if scenarios. Both Dale and David are victims of their circumstances. David made Dale the person he is. He set him on the path of the lake, doom pretty much. And seeing he was remorseful for that in his letter, I like to imagine a world where David is doing his best to undo the damage he's done....

And so Down the Rabbit Hole is born. (If you haven't read it, I feel like it explores my idea for their dynamic better than my rambly post can. It's a comic series I'm working on exploring Dale and David's relationship during David's own paradox journey)

To me they are like two people chasing each other for opposite reasons. David just wants forgiveness so he can let go of the guilt of what he has done to Dale, and Dale wants peace of mind and an end to the trauma that the events of that day caused him... Or revenge even.

The potential of those two just... Meeting again, talking, and David finally having the chance to clear everything up to Dale can make for something so beautifully tragic. There's a story to be told here, not necessarily romantic. But a good tragic story about healing and moving on which is what I want for both of them more than anything. David has turned his back on the Lake. He has betrayed his gods and ran away unlike the rest of the souls at the bottom of the lake, and Jakob wanted to hunt him down and kill him for that. He's been up to something we don't know since then and that eventually led him to Dale. And I just imagine a world where the two of them become the characters that break the cycle of the Lake.

It's the star crossed trope really. With all the jumping around and changing pasts and futures in this game, the idea of them being doomed in every loop, every universe, every recreation. It's appealing to me. Just two people who are broken, running circles around one another but never being able to reach out to finally break the loop. And so they're stuck, never being able to move on while desperately wanting to. And there's just something so MWAH, chef kiss, about the tragedy of them.

So TLDR??? Makebelieve and doomed yaoi :)

It's really hard to explain and I do it better with art than words. I'm not very good with explaining things so I'm sorry if this made 0 sense. But hope it answered your question well enough or that at least Down the Rabbit Hole gave you a better idea than this xD (tho Down the Rabbit Hole is not a ship comic, it just shows the dynamic and idea I have for them)

Generally, the ideas I have for them aren't specifically romantic. I just like dudes kissing :)

(which I never even drew them doing except for a meme)

So yeah, gay, not gay, I just want the two of them to meet again and reconcile.

[ask-teamplayer]

Author: What are your favorite ships

// i think seth and fate should kiss under the moonlight after a dramatic love confession and then marry and grow old together forever. i think about lyrerose constantly. it haunts my every waking moment. i am deeply deeply obsessed with them and their dynamic and all the angst around it, and i think they should make out nastily and symbolically. they're like orpheus and eurydice. they're red and blue, they're childhood friends, optimist and pessimist, they're everything to me. it's the ultimate teamplayer ship, the only one that i get emo about when i think about it too hard. they mean everything to me, all of the symbolism and all of the lore and backstory and their deep devotion to each other. you've only gotten tastes of the complexities in their dynamic- they are the doomed yaoi trope people joke about on twitter. they are gentle and passionate. they think about the other ceaselessly and worship each other. it's hard to say when the love really started, but you know at least one of them is deep in it's trenches and they refuse to claw their way out. they ride the tides of admiration and they welcome the opportunity to drown. seth held fate in his darkest and most terrifying moments, where he thought he would shatter apart without those arms around him- held him like he was fragile, and precious, and in the moment fate's world was in the gentle hand in his.

// i also like fate x enzo i think its cute

[pansyfemme]

hey lol i am! prob gonna delete this one and turn off rbs because. uhhhhh. so there are countless posts about doomed yaoi and messy situationships and dynamics we love to see in fiction. but it’s not like. a real judgment. by saying you love when guys fight eachother to hide their feelings it isn’t an actual judgement on anything, its recognizing a trope and talking about it. for me! i fucking love love triangles and i love messy love triangles. and polyamory is one way to explore that in fiction. what this post is not and never had been is ‘place to take out my personal grievances with the polyamorous community’ or ‘place to describe how all polyam relationships are inherintly abusive’. i think if you can reblog a doomed yaoi post without putting to air your personal issues with angry twinks you can handle a jokey polyamory post without talking about how you are the only queer person in your radius who wants a long term monog relationship (also if you believe this. can you tell me exactly where you are living because. hello) anyway. polyam people, you rule, i love you, hope you are doing just swell, sorry my posts attract annoying people like flies to honey sometimes. also this post is about archie andrews, veronica lodge and betty cooper. original comics version, not riverdale. we’re not talking about anything deep here i prommy

polyamory would not always fix the love triangle. sometimes it would make it much, much worse. but they should do it anyway

[absolutebl]

Until We Meet Again

This is going to be a watch along starting in Oct 2022, right before Between Us (the spin off) airs. But since I have never done a proper analysis or review of UWMA, I'll start with that. 

Until We Meet Again is a 2019 Thai BL from Studio Wabi Sabi directed by New Siwaj. 

It is an adaptation of the y-novel The Red Thread by LazySheep. I watched shortly after it aired in late 2019. You can currently (still) watch it on YouTube. Trigger warning. 

Quick Pitch  

UWMA is, without question, a work of narrative genius with a powerful and cohesive romantic backbone and stellar performances. It is (to date) the only Thai BL (of c.170 watched) that I’ve rated a 10/10 predominantly on the basis of story structure. That said, it is also very well cast (and it’s a BIG cast), with solid production values, and enduring pair branding as well as being the best Thai BL from a storytelling perspective. It is one of my favorite BLs of all time and I have probably rewatched at least some parts of it over 20x. 

Narrative Frameworks 

UWMA is long for a Thai BL at 17 ep of c.45 min of fresh content which means it comes in at around 13 hours total. It’s tropes include fated mates (or soulmates), past love/tragedy, sins of the fathers, and family drama. It has a strong seme/uke structure and multiple couples (both hallmarks of Thai BL). Leads are grumpy/sunshine pairings, with a side dish of sunshine/tsundere. It’s medium heat but still rather sweet, because while all couples are followed into the bedroom, there’s a very strong emotional chemistry component that renders the physical chemistry somewhat background to the pure love connection driving the relationships. As a series, it is paced well, but is perhaps not the best one to binge watch. To me it feels like a show that needs room to breathe. 

The production values are high but workmanlike. There are some flaws in sound, wardrobe, makeup, and repeated establishing shots. But the crew and cast were clearly bigger and better funded than any Thai BL production since. I would hazard a guess that this was one of Thailands most expensive BLs (with the possible exception of KinnPorsche). 

Thai Language Corner

From a Thai linguistics perspective it’s pretty standard for a college set BL. I do use both DeamPharm and WinTeam as examples when talking about basic and more complicated linguistic couple dynamics (more here). OhmFluke, however, are a bit more interesting IRL. 

New uses staggered couple framing, central aperture faming, peekaboo framing, and lighting to contrast the secretive and doomed nature of the past relationship against the attempted recovery and reformation of the modern day. He paid very little attention to manga style or BL’s yaoi roots, possibly because his style as a director is evidently not at all influenced by it. 

This show stars Fluke Natouch as Pharm [reincarnated In] and Ohm Thitiwat as Dean [reincarnated Korn] AKA OhmFluke. They are a branded pair who since UWMA have done Close Friend 1 & 2, and Oh My Sunshine Night and have more BLs scheduled for 2023. 

It also stars Earth Katsamonnat (AKA Smol Earth or CooHeart) as Intouch or In [Pharm’s past self] and Kao Noppakao as Korn [Dean's past self]. Earth has gone on to co-brand as SantaEarth starring in 7 Project and My Only 12%. He had acted in several BL shows prior to UWMA, although Fluke would have been the most experienced lead actor on that set. Kao would go on to star in Lovely Writer. Both Fluke and Earth are openly gay and were out at time of filming and promotion. 

The support couple (or side dish) featured Prem Warut as Team [Pharm's best friend] and Boun Noppanut as Win [Dean's best friend]. BounPrem are strongly cobranded and have since co-lead 7 Project, Even Sun, Long Kong, and guest-coupled in Cutie Pie and You Never Eat Alone. They will anchor Between Us the spin off of UWMA (an adaptation of Hemp Rope) reprising their roles of Win and Team. In UWMA their couple has relatively little screen time but they absolutely stole fan attention and adoration. 

UWMA also featured Samantha Coates (AKA Sammy) as Manow [Pharm's best friend] and Pineare Pannin as Del [Dean's sister]. Sammy is a staple of many BLs, being an active member of Wabi Sabi’s stable. Del is best known for playing Yuri in 2014′s Love Sick, Thailand’s first big hit BL. These two starred together in Wabi Sabi’s only GL (part of 7 Project.) (Don’t bother, it’s still all about the boy.) 

I am telling you all this up front because I will make mistakes and refer to everyone by their character or actor name all the time. Sorry. Also I want you to know how biased I am. 

I LOVE this show.

And now....

the watch along. 

Episode 1 - Oh, I Forgot...

It has probably been about a year since I did a rewatch of UWMA. And I think I’ve only ever watched the first installment of the first episode one time through. I didn’t forget how dark it was, but I am reminded why I always say ‘original trigger warning” on UWMA.

I can see why I like to the show from the start, because it does open on a crying kiss. I am an absolute sucker for a crying kiss. This time around, I noticed the intrusiveness of the music a lot more, especially in KornIn’s stuff. 

Earth turns in a killer opening performance (in the great cry off between him and Fluke that is this show). In that moment before he picks up the gun, Earth almost does look like Fluke will later on. It’s a really interesting bit of facial performance and acting. 

I got to say, barring some of the darker Japanese BL, this is probably the most powerful opening sequence we’ve gotten in the genre. Honestly, if this show we’re being released right now I don’t think it would’ve had this opening. They would’ve kept the trigger, but it would’ve appeared more chronologically towards the end.

Is this a pleasant way to start a BL? No. 

Is it powerful? Yep.

Manaow and Del are still 2 of my favorites. We were robbed with their GL.

Oh my God Prem looks like such a baby.

I like that there are these extra bits with extra characters in UWMA, like in the cooking club. We don’t get a vast ensemble casts like this anymore. Not even from Thailand, not with this attention to detail. I kind of miss it. The little extra bits set in different parts of the university, they remind me a bit of origin yaoi.

Honestly Fluke is one of the best blushing maidens to ever blush. It’s still not my favorite archetype but he does do it beautifully. The part where Team jokingly says he’ll protect his two friends, is pretty telling actually. Since he’s going to have to step up to the plate later and try against and older boy. I do adore this friendship group. In the end, perhaps Pete & Kao’s friends (Kiss series) beat them out slightly. But not by very much.

And the set up for the whole show:

I will keep searching until I find you. 

30 years later... 

(You know, when I was first watching this show I always called it Until You Again, in my head.) 

I wonder how hard it was for Fluke to cry on command like that, all the time. Here watch this AMAZING FMV of Fluke and Gun (Theory of Love) having a cry off. 

WinTeam and the towel in the locker room is still one of the best early couple moments ever.

The end of the first episode and we haven’t even had a proper meet cute. And yet the pacing feels. I think because the show opens so top-heavy with the deadly drama at the beginning of the episode. 

Honestly, I forgot how sort elegant and well executed to show was. I’ve grown to no longer expect that from New. It just goes to show that he’s one of those directors that really excels and thrives when he has a very strong script.

Episode 2 - The High Beans! 

I love this meet cute. LOVE IT. Can’t wait to watch it again. But first the library (not quite) assignation. 

One of the best prevailing themes of UWMA is this idea that making food, and specifically Thai desserts, is meditative and important for the cook. But also that preparing food is about the love and affection that you sprinkle feelings into the dish like seasoning, so that people can taste it when they eat.

Note the only other guy in the cooking club? That’s Best Vittawin from Check Out and a bunch of other higher heat BL. Also some of you who are paying attention to the language might notice that Luk Choup is mentioned quite a bit. Yes that is the same name as the character in La Cuisine. It’s also the desert that In makes with his Maa, and that Pharm makes into special star shapes for Dean in Ep 3.

Honestly KaoEarth never much resonated with me, but on this rewatch I am liking them so much better than I ever have before. It that @heretherebedork​ ‘ss influence? Possibly. I think it’s also because of both My Only 12% (which is making me like Earth more as an actor) and Lovely Writer (which made me like Kao more).

One of my favorite character development threads in the show is Dean’s relationship with his siblings. I love how austere and cold he is at the beginning of the show. But how, after being with Parm for a while, he mellows around Don & Del. It is Pharm who brings a family to Dean in the end.

The note passing in the secret smiles and the spitting of the orange juice remains very cute.

I am quietly obsessed, well not quietly (because I’ve never quiet), about Dean with his hand in his pocket.

Honestly, the only time Dean takes his hand out of his pocket is to touch Pharm.

And there it is, FINALLY, the mung bean meat cute! 

Best ever. 

This is such a GREAT romance. 

Pharm starts to cry and Dean immediately touches his face. There is a reason I call Dean the most handsy seme in BL. He is pretty much never not touching Pharm from this moment on. It’s glorious (and very unlike KBL and JBL). 

And you can see him look at his own hand and surprise, because he is clearly not a touchy-feely person. But being then he just accepts this about himself and will do everything he can to be close to Pharm from here on out. 

I love how New does this dirty screen peekaboo shot on DeanPharm right before he cuts back and forth to KornIn, it’s like framing foreshadow since normally this style of short is used with KornIn so highlight the secrecy of their relationship. 

Episode 3 - Wabi Sabi Shows Off The Stable

I just realized one of In’s friends (played by Title Tanatorn) is also in Remember Me and My Only 12% airing right now. Boy needs a series. He v cute. Also “HI DR SING!” (Sorry, due to Triage, Tonnam will always be Dr Sing. Although he is also a side character in LITA right now. Honestly my brain is becoming an MDL for Thai actors in BLs. Of course, Perth is great in this role, a foreshadow for all the crying he’ll do in LBC2. I am sorry we never got to meet his character older. It would’ve been nice for him to have gotten closure with the Pharm as reincarnated In. I wonder if his character got to meat Pharm did in the book?

And Win’s Patented move the casual arm throw. Honestly, Win gets all of the best lines in this show. No wonder we all like him so much. I hope he stays a witty and snarky in Between Us. 

I have to say, Dean’s soft voice is one of the best in the biz, thank you Ohm. Almost as good as Solo’s (Oxygen).

And so Dean learns about Pharm’s panic attacks and the after effects that his past self’s actions have wrought on the person he loved the most. And he reacts in the most seme way possible. Honestly he is such a poster child seme in this series. 

Also he flirts. 

In a VERY Dean fashion.

Dean: I’m still single.

Pharm: I am single too.

Dean: Not for long.

This is the show where I first learned that in Thailand do you say “bur” when you want someone’s digits. This makes me unreasonably happy.

Meanwhile back in the past selves, In is so brave. The worst consequence of the tragedy that lead to their reincarnation is that his future self is so timid and afraid because of what was done to In in the past. It’s really the only reason I forgive Pharm’s blushing maiden actions. I think of that fact of his personality as somewhat dictated by the past, much like his panic attacks. 

The bit where Pharm is serving Dean breakfast in his condo for the first time and he puts out a carafe of water and there are little flowers floating in it? What are those flowers?

Meanwhile, he way Dean fixes Pharm’s hair and tie and then Phram misspeaks “gin” gets me every time. Although I gotta say if a boy cried like that every time he met me, I’d probably have backed off my now. 

Episode 4 - Bisexual Rep & Stereotyping. Are we happy or sad? 

Does one get pleased to see bisexual rep or annoyed by the stereotyping? At the time, because it was so rare in BL (still is, actually), I was pleased. But now with Mame busting in on the bi/pan=predatory slut trope regularly I’m just annoyed. 

P’Alex (Mean in his best role, fight me Tin stans) as a sleazy bi actor won over by food. Honestly? Been there done that, been that done there, and fucked that. Oo, I’m three for three!

OK so in LITA when Payu says/implies that he wants Rain to talk like a good boy, really he wants him to talk the way Pharm does to Dean (all the time). Pharm is so bloody polite. 

So cute that Dean won’t allow Pharm to be jealous for one second. Dean has no interest in playing any of the normal BL games. These two are fated, gay, and into each other and he has no interest in pretending otherwise. Oh he will tease his uke like a proper seme, but only because Pharm lacks faith in Dean’s constancy.

The scene with Pharm and the girls carving the dumplings is one of my favorites. It’s so cute the way Manaow teases Pharm with Del’s sibling connection. Also it’s really sweet the way that Pharm instantly understands the complexities of Dean’s familial relationships, and immediately sets out to heal them.

Win and Dean racing. 

Look, competition is how 2 semes show their love for each other. 

And then the most famous scene in a BL that’s full of famous scenes.

Does anyone one in BL execute the feeding trope better? I think not. And if you can name one, leave a comment and make a case for it. 

In addition to having one of the best soft commanding voices in Thai BL, Ohm has got to have one of the best side eyes as well.

I love that Del is already protective of her brother’s boyfriend.

Happy clap hands we get the first date and the penguin walk next! 

Episode 5 - The Ping-guine Walk! 

I would like to stress from this moment on that we, the collective BLers, do not talk about Dean’s driving in this show. Or we did at the time, but that time has passed. Just ignore, okay? Cause it cray cray. 

Del cooking for her brothers is so cute. Also the way she gently teases Dean about Pharm. Love her! 

And now the first date. 

The bus trip so Make it Right. Just FYI Thailand and Korea LOVE a bus trip in romance (BL or otherwise). They tend to do it the most. Japan has done it a few times too. But the others not so much. 

Also sharing earbuds = MIR again. 

I do love P’Sorn. 

Yes, that’s Na from Kinnporseche but we knew him when (also forthcoming Wish Me Luck).

I love the aquarium visit. 

Pharm doing the penguin walk. 

Dean’s expression when Pharm does a penguin walk. 

Dean secretly taking photographs of his cutie. It’s just wonderful. Pharm is so bouncy and cute and Dean is so soft and indulgent. And it’s one of the few times where we get to see Pharm be a little bit more like In. Dean spends the whole time looking at Pharm rather than the fish. He’s so doting. 

It’s so good. 

The story about the sea ogress and what to do with a traitorous lover. Pharm’s response is actually typical uke, as possessive as seme are, it is usually the uke in yaoi & BL who ends up being the most fierce about ownership in a relationship. Because the uke has, in many ways, sacrificed part of their identity to the seme (in In’s case, all of it), their’s is the more powerful claim by right of sacrifice. It’s very old gods, ancient instincts. 

Meanwhile there’s Dean always making his intentions crystal clear. 

That hand hold. 

But also... 

No Dean, he doesn’t trust you, and for a very good reason.

And finally we have everybody’s least favorite character in UWMA: Ja’s wig.

There’s a wild speculation around this wig. 

Perhaps he had just finished Ror Dor and had no hair? Or had just come back from serving in the military? No matter wha,t it’s totally unacceptable. 

Thailand is never allowed to use wigs. It’s one of the sacred rules of BL. It’s a bummer because Sorn & Sin are fab minor characters. (They will rep for the “elder gay advice giver” archetype. One of my favorites.) 

Episode 6 - The Read Thread Kiss

This rewatch I really feel a lot more for Korn than I ever did before. He really did try to warn In that it wasn’t a good idea for them to date, like he knew he wasn’t gonna be brave enough, even for love. But In is so relentless and so cute, who could resist? 

Everyone eating lunch together and teasing each other and Del finally relaxing around Dean is one of my favorite little vignettes. Also, everybody laughing at Dean rgr “forgetting to swallow.” And my boys holding hands under the table. It’s glorious.

I also like how we get to see Dean reacting to the past negatively too, finally. And his siblings are so worried about him. This crack in his stoic armor. 

I do love Pharm standing up to Alex before the play. And the fact that Del records it and sends it to Dean is just so good. Especially knowing what happens next. 

The fated mates of the red thread. 

Dean’s faculty cohorts are all such frat boy type dicks. I kinda love their sleazy mame-ish little ways.

Honestly there’s nothing carnal when these two kiss but it’s so beautifully romantic and soft. 

I love love love the way Dean checks in on Pharm and tidies him up, afterwards. It’s so sweetly caring and careful. 

And then the big realization about reincarnation over shabu shabu. 

I gotta say, as a chronic rewatcher, this show stands up to a rewatch better than pretty much any other Thai BL I could name. Probably because it has so many character vignettes, and little moments of side affection between friends as well as lovers. There’s a lot of meat and sweetness to revisit. 

Episode 7 - Possibly my Favorite Episode 

The tiny snippet where Dean sees Pharm as In is actually one of the saddest bits of this whole show. It’s rough watching DeanPram figure everything out. 

I do love the scene where Pharm meets Dean’s younger brother. Don tricks Dean into coming over, and everybody teases them. 

I feel like every episode I say “this is one of my favorite scenes.” Which just goes to show why this is my favorite Thai BL ever. 

Meanwhile, sitting on the couch crying, DeanPharm finally figure out that they promised to find each other and that they are both experiencing the same feelings of reincarnation. This particular exchange of gifts is so significant actually talk about it as an example in my blog post on the trope. Gift exchange is not a trope I love but it has a lot of meaning in this particular instance. 

Public claiming of a relationship is one of my more favorite tropes on the other hand, which means the next scene where Dean has to run Alex off is just too good. When I talk about Thailand in the context of age dynamics as part of culture, I use the example of how hard it is for Team to protect Pharm under these circumstances - where he is fighting against Alex who is not only older but from a different department. It’s such an important insight into Team’s character, that he’s willing to stand against Alex even though the whole social structure is against him. Dean sweeping in and running Alex off is just so powerful as a result. Also I really love the way Dean is always touching Pharm and tidying/playing with his hair and clothes - it’s so proprietary and boyfriend. It also shows that Dean is never not thinking about him, his eyes are always on Pharm whenever they are together. 

And this ep ends with WinTeam and the forehead kiss in the convenience store. Finally there’s some movement on their romance. This really is one of my favorite episodes. 

Other Stuff Related to this Show

Why Until We Meet Again is special among Thai BLs

Thai Desserts in Until We Meet Again 

BL With the Highest Chance of Breaking Into The West - Until We Meet Again (I wrote this before KinnPorsche) 

Sex negativity as part of the seme/uke dynamic 

Thai Food You Should Eat Because of BL 

(source)

So I will try to updated this original doc as much as possible, but sometimes Tumblr just stops me from editing, in which case I have to repost and add. So I’ll be putting a rough date here, please don’t get mad if something is out of date and I can no longer fix it. October 2022.