Lyson

Alright, so the end scene of ep 11 (before the credits) pulled the show back into focus, and in ep 12, it stayed in focus (thankfully), even the conversations were more focused on the point of the show. There was still filler, but not nearly as much as previous episodes. The acting, especially in the emotional scenes, were done really well and the scenes of SW's attraction further dawning on him were all very nicely done, and also funny.

If they make a s02, I will watch it (because the acting is really good), but I do hope they drop the excess filler and keep the story in focus, even if it means a lower episode count.

In the end, episode 12 was fine, and as to the whole show, considering this is a high school (and falling for their step bro 'complicated') teenage romance, the whole thing more or less adds up to a sensible, passable ending, but only if there is a sequel, otherwise, the ending is open ended in a totally pointless way.

I can't rate it more than a 7.5/10 though, because personally, the drawbacks were not compensated for, even by the great acting. For example, too much wasted time/filler which was skippable without affecting the over all story. And the 'second pairing' teacher focus was boring af, I do see how they helped SW to come to his realization about his feelings, but they could have still had that scene, while making the second couple focus Gao Tian Yang and Little Pepper, or not having a second couple focus as all. (Is it following the novel? I don't know, But ALL BLs would be taking a step forward if they drop the second couple trope all together). And finally, and the biggest ick for me, was JT's continually increasing level of simpage. It was off putting, I mean, having a mini emotional episode because his crush moved to a different classroom is just, well, sad. And not in the 'aw sweet' way, in the 'ugh, seriously?' way.

Over all, it was not a waste of time to watch this, but it took some patience. It'll suit some viewers tastes and press the patience buttons of others, but whether you skip through filler or watch every scene, it is worth a one time watch.

REVIEWED

Three eps in, not bad, I get a little bored here and there since it feels kinda' too safe too early, like there isn't any suspense since everyone important who is a good guy will, by default, have everything work out. That said, I don't want to drop it yet.

Hi. So, I'm Switzerland here right, neutral, because while this show is well acted, it's not blowing my mind or anything and I see no reason to sing unnecessary praises about it. I just want to help clarify, The Only One is a romantic story, hence it's BL. The relationship between the MLs is a (very) slowly (and sometimes wandering tale) about a somewhat complicated unfolding teenage attraction, so it has not (and will likely not) be depicted as a physical relationship even by ep 12. But the show is not having to cover up anything or trying to pretend that the MLs are just friends, the intention and realization of romantic feelings has been made clear enough thus far.

Unlike in censored BLs, where bromance is a forced tag, literally by legal obligation, showrunners have to do their best to toe the line between gay and straight so the censors don't throw their toys out of their cots. No censored BL is actually bromance. Censored BLs would not be tagged as bromance if they weren't forced to, as the MLs are gay and everyone who knows the source materials of those censored BLs knows it.

Bromance (I feel bad that this word has had its own important and unique meaning for close male friendship misdirected and misused) is defined as: a close but non-sexual relationship between two men/males. Just friendship. Only friendship. Best bros. Brosefs. Homies for life. Brothers from other mothers, BFFs, besties, and so on. Totally straight dudes though.

The Only One is not a censored BL and it is not a bromance. It is a high school based BL.

This show really creeps up on a person, huh? Like, start watching out of curiosity then be like, 'oh, I'm enjoying this weird-ass show'.

It didn't ruin the scene, I just feel like the emotion and intensity would have been louder than music, if there'd been silence.

Really? Damn. I didn't notice that, I guess I wouldn't though, I watched Brokeback Mountain when it came out back in 05' and I only watched it once. No way I'd remember those names.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the song, I just think it's used at the wrong time, for the wrong scene.

I saw the word Birdy and my brain did the association and screamed TSENG JINGHUA with little pop up hearts (as is the standard for me 😂), so I immediately noticed the other names too. Nice how they slipped that in there.

That final scene (before the credits) was done REALLY well, if ONLY they hadn't had that music playing the whole time, I personally would have found it a 100% serve (for that scene specifically, since I skipped a lot of the filler in this ep). I've always felt music in series /movies needs to be well timed, and the music playing so loudly and continuously in that scene took away the intensity of what realistic, tense silence could have done for it. In that close space, needing to be quiet, not wanting to wake anyone up while SW is having this whole important realization. Just breathing and muted natural sounds around them. That kind of thing. Eh. Pity about the loss of intensity there, but still, a good scene, it kind of dragged the point of the show back into focus.

The final final seen (after the credits) was the opening of an unexpected can of worms (for me, as someone who didn't read the book and assumed his dad was just an abusive or neglectful prick). I'm not sure how unveiling this, so late into things, is going to impact the final ep. I mean, JT doesn't seem traumatized by what happened, he just seemed to grow up to be a reserved, emotionally mature and self aware teen. And he definitely caught onto his feelings for SW several eps back already, so I don't feel like he's filled with 'no-homo' issues. So I'm curious as to what that reveal is meant to mean with regards to JT's whole shtick, I expect the next ep will address it.

I don't personally like the one sided simp trend in BLs, which is what JT has been progressively becoming more and more characterized as, but it's a staple in most BLs, so I just have to overlook it (very often).

The acting continues to carry this BL for me above all else, it really is the stand out quality of this show. Let's see what the final ep does to close this series.

Tell me someone else noticed 'Yobirdy', 'En9raved', 'here1n' and 'AHAN' in the chat names at the beggining of ep11??? Nice! They did a shout out to the fantastic YNEH! And reminded me of how I need stunning Tseng Jinghua in a new drama NAOW.

Still a fun watch! And still not taking itself too seriously. I think that's what will continue to save this show from being considered ridiculous (to me). I do think whoever wrote the script definitely misuses Joker's 'calling card'. Joke putting Joker on that fake ring instead of the name Jack (which would have been the inconspicuous criminal thing to do so he could draw NO attention to himself) was not smart. lol He literally sabotaged his own plan.

I'm also still impressed by the actor of Joker, he actually applies nuance to his acting which is rare from Thai actors. It makes him stand out in a great way.

Yeah, unfortunately the more popular actors/actresses become, the more Cn fans (and some other countries fans) can't separate fiction from reality and they can't deal with their faves acting in darker genres. It's not the actors who don't choose it, many of them say they want to act as a 'villain' when they start out, but once they became famous, that is never heard of again, rip😂 Happy watching ✌️😁 The Spirealm is right up there with The Untamed imo.

Considering what you've said here, if the genre of horror/supernatural interests you, you might enjoy The Spirealm, it's also 'censored' BL from China based on a BL novel. Fully plot based with MLs censored romance. https://kisskh.at/681049-death-kaleidoscope

I agree, I like Reese and Orca as characters, but I don't care about them getting together.

The hollow heart statue is ep36 @40.40 and Room217 starts at about 29.51 in episode 34.

Reading between the lines of the mixed comments on the final 2 eps, I'm opting to drop this. As it was I struggled over several days to get through the first six episodes. I do hope they make more BLs with darker/real life issue themes in future though, it's a nice change of pace.

This episode felt a little out of focus after the previous ep, but only in certain places, otherwise there were some important scenes to move the story forward. It'll be good to see Sea gain more confidence musically, it'll also probably make him feel equal to Neil on more than one level, which will be good for their relationship development. Feeling like a 'fan' adds somewhat of an imbalance to their dynamic rn. As for the mix up of languages, for me it was just noticeable that some of the actors have a better handle on English than others. I do think it's better that they're not making everyone unrealistically fluent in their non-native languages when listening to each other and using English as a middle ground.

I also like that the preview shows Amasawa as asking Isumi to wait little longer for his answer to Isumi admitting he likes him, because I feel like he's been walking the line of being attracted to Isumi, but outright ignoring it probably due to the age gap, so maybe he needs to process what it means for them now that Isumi has broken down that boundary and things can change between them.

This series, for all that it's fluff and being so basic in storyline, has not yet set a foot wrong. Every episode has been a pleasure to watch. The pacing of developing attraction has been really great.

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