I'm Gabriel, a ginger, gay, demi American guy who has a deep and enthusiastic passion for the Asian BL drama genre(especially Thai) and international LGBTQ+ short films. I'm a little late to making an introduction post since I joined MDL about 3 months ago, but I'm so happy to be here and make new friends that love BL dramas as much as I do.
My BL genre origin story for those interested:
For a long time it felt like something was missing for me that wasn't getting met with what has existed in media in the west. I struggled to find LGBTQ+ media that fulfilled me. The LGBTQ+ series that have only been available here are mostly all vapid slop, almost always shallow and cartoonish stereotype representations of gay culture and relationships and personalities, limited show/series options overall, always with main LGBTQ+ characters that are developed with forced hetero-normative frameworks or just squeezed into a show/series as support characters for "representation" and little else. While I appreciate the strides overall that have been made in LGBTQ+ media in the west, as it's been important and those steps are meaningful societally, from a quality of media perspective, it's so desperately lacking for me as a gay guy in the west.
Historically up until 2019, aside from the lackluster shows/series I described above, I have enjoyed LGBTQ+ short films mainly from the EU, some from North America and South America. Although I really appreciated most of them, they were always very short(under20 minutes), they tended to be more on the avant garde, experimental, and artsy side. They are usually very well done, beautiful cinematography, thought provoking, well acted, sometimes elicit strong emotions, but they lacked the fullness and depth in character development, story, romance, drama that was missing for me. I'm an extremely deeply romantic guy. I craved LGBTQ+ media that had stories that were beautiful, touching, endearing, romantic.
I was aware of Asian dramas existing in general, but wasn't interested in the hetero versions and I was not well exposed to Asian BL dramas as an entire genre yet as there was little available before 2020, and then my only exposure source was the obscure upload by a random person on YouTube and the algorithm presented it to me. One of the first presented to me on YT was Advance Bravely, which was nice and I enjoyed it, but it was more of a censored bromance secret love type of story that didn't give me what I was searching for.
The pandemic had hit in early 2020, life priorities changed drastically for me, and I had not kept up with continuing to look for LGBTQ+ media on YT for about 4 years until recently in May of 2024. I went back to my usual search for LGBTQ+ short films thinking that that's just all I'll ever find and that one day I might find something meaningful to watch eventually. Until ... one day the YT algorithm suggested the trailer for the Taiwanese BL About Youth to me after an Icelandic LGBTQ+ short film that I had just watched. Out of curiosity, I clicked and watched it and was immediately interested in watching this to check it out. For the first time I was excited!! This was my first actual BL and my entry point into the modern productions of Asian BLs. It was one the most adorable, sweet, cute, wholesome series that i had ever seen. I know, now, this is known as a super "fluffy" series(as I was still learning all the BL terms/lingo) that doesn't appeal to everyone, but I'm absolutely happy that this was my entry point into the genre. It's a favorite of mine, and something to watch(among others like it) when you want to watch something that's not heavy between much heavier BL series. I love just about any and every type of BL from pure sickeningly sweet fluffy to the most intensely tragic and emotionally heavy and everything in between. But, Stay With Me and I Feel You Linger In The Air both equally share in the #1 top spot for me amongst all the BLs I have watched. Those two will give you a general idea of what types of BLs that I like the most.
That said, from there I discovered that there were SO MANY more — and so many kinds of BLs. I was caught completely off guard and I was completely unaware that there was a massive explosion of Asian BL series that had been produced in these past 4 years. I suddenly found myself swimming in an endless ocean of BL series from Thailand, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Japan. It was EVERYTHING that I had even been hoping for, searching for, wanted and needed. Since May to present, I have watched nearly 70 BL dramas in just 3 months. It's like I found a hidden treasure trove the size of the Grand Canyon — it's overwhelming. As much as 70 sounds, it's hardly even scratching the surface. There are more BLs yet to watch than I can even count. So many just to catch up with that I missed when they were airing in the last 4 years, let alone what's out now and yet to come.
I just immersed myself completely and eventually I found MDL and a thriving community. I have also since joined and become a very active member in the Reddit r/boyslove, r/ThaiBL, r/GMMTV communities. I have found my tribe, a beautiful global community, and I'm the happiest I have been in a long time. Now all I need is to find a boyfriend to watch them with together <3
Side Note: My foundation isn't from BL manga novels as is the case for most people here. I come to the BL genre from a purely online series based foundation, so I don't approach BL dramas considering the adaptation relevance, accuracy quality, etc. from a manga novel. I was aware of the existence of BL manga novels and it's roots from Yaoi manga, but I never was a manga enjoyer.
FileLife:
KnightBlossom:
