BL Drama Lovers Club

Day 5: Favorite new break out BL actor

It seems most of my answer have been Top Form or Revenged love themed so I guess I am doing it again and the actor I picked was  Zi Yu. There is many other people i could have picked but he really stood out to me a lot. 

(He is so adorable)

Honorable Mention (I think I might make this a common thing now because I just can never chose one answer)

Peterpan Tadsapon Wiwitawan.

BL Challenge
Day 6: The most underrated BL of 2025 so far

I have no idea. Looked through the BL released this year and landed on Secrets Happened on the Litchi Island. But it has a rating > 8 and over 2k watchers so it can't be underrated. I think that maybe something else should take its place but I haven't seen those titles. The ones I didn't like very much like Futtara Doshaburi, I can't really say they're overrated. So Litchi it is.

 dora:

I found a short vertical drama on YouTube with UpPoom but I can’t find it listed on MDL. Does anyone know anything about this? I’ve watched this video which says it’s episodes 1-5.
https://youtu.be/brkfbTDrEg8?si=IuVFGyzIkRm5PNBj

As Dora subsequently posted, this is a teaser to encourage folks to download and try the new Swipedrama app. 

So I tried it. My conclusions:
(1) In principle it's like Shortime, except that the currency is "coins" instead of "popcorn".
(2) Like Shortime, it's very expensive if one just wants to pay for content with money. (I'm willing to pay for my subscriptions, but I'm not willing to feel ripped off.)
(3) It's new, so there isn't much BL content. In fact, "You Are My Present" seems to be the only BL which is exclusive to Swipedrama.
(4) Unlike Shortime, where one can pretty easily collect enough popcorn to watch BLs, e.g. by letting ads run, and where each micro-episode costs only 20 popcorns, Swipedrama is really stingy: It's hard to collect coins, and each micro-episode costs a whopping 150 popcorns.

So in sum: Shortime is usable, but Swipedrama sucks.

 YamaKen:

Found the soundtrack of Revenged Love just now.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7LicZaVS5GKOkIlOHom0hf?si=fd65bc656d164356

I am not okay. /crying

I have been listening to this on a daily. I'm Sorry  by Bruce Maginnis and Blooming Freely by Zi Yu are my two favourites rn. I really want to see tonight's episode but i also don't want it to end

BL Challenge Day 6: The most underrated BL of 2025 so far

thats a hard question, depending how you look at it. lol like depending on the mdl rating? or just my personal feeling? anyways, I will only go with completed BL, so here are my choices.

from mdl rating, which I feel like are too low:

- Mission to the Moon 

- The Boy Next World

 ani07:

BL Challenge Day 6: The most underrated BL of 2025 so far

thats a hard question, depending how you look at it.

Yes, exactly. I'm struggling with this one, too. There are some trainwrecks such as "Flirt Milk" and "Eye Contact" which I really enjoyed, and likewise now "Dogbro", but I can hardly say they're "underrated" when I know perfectly well they're trainwrecks.

I'll assume that an MDL rating over 8 is very high and thus can hardly be called "underrated". @YamaKen: Yeah, I thought "Litchi Island" was a masterpiece that came out of nowhere, but it quickly earned a big following and glowing reviews and ratings, despite being such a low-budget indie ... so as you say, I can't really call it "underrated".

One that comes to mind is "I'll Turn Back This Time", which was sad but good (and really good, not "trainwreck good"). I gave it 10 stars. The average MDL rating is 7.2. But I'm not sure that's my final answer yet. I still need to systematically look through everything with a 2025 release date.

Another that comes to mind is "Fight For Love", but it's from Vietnam and thus not even on MDL - so strictly speaking, it's not "underrated" but rather "unfairly neglected". Cute 'n fluffy - I loved it!

+++

ETA: OK, I systematically looked through my entire watchlist and found three more 2025 releases which I would say are "unambiguously underrated", all of them Korean: "Something's Not Right" (avg. MDL rating 7.2), "Heart Stain" (7.3), and "FC Soldout" (7.4). While I can criticise each in its own way, I very much enjoyed all three, not least because of the cuties (and isn't that the point?).

 p43425:

but it's from Vietnam

You watch dramas from Vietnam as well? Which ones would you recommend?

 LueurArcane:

BL Challenge Day 6: The most underrated BL of 2025 so far 

this one is easy for me, because there is already one series in my mind which im currently watching rn, The Promise of the Soul

I haven't watched this one yet, but Dora (with whom I seem to have a lot of overlap in BL taste) was quite enthusiastic about it, so I definitely plan to.