spunkless

Not that strict in recent years. I am aware of how the Addicted (2016) boys were treated but China has become lenient since then. Probably censoring BLs would be all they can do now (like what they did to Spirealm and Blue Canvas). Nonetheless several magazines in China are flying in a LOT of BL stars recently for photoshoots and they have not been censored. They started to recognize the growing popularity of the genre.

They're not exactly crucifying LGBT people in the country, they just turn a blind eye on them I guess.

Finally finished it... I guess some of the reviews here are true, the latter episodes are better than the first ones. but still it's nowhere near the good JBLs out there.

This is Yoji Iwase's show without a doubt, his presence alone carries the whole series. Taishin, though well meaning, can get quite annoying with his slow-ass talking. I don't have a lick of knowledge of Japanese, but I can recite every word spoken by Taishin after he speaks with 100% accuracy... that's how SLOW he speaks lmao.

I also felt that the editing was quite choppy and should have been polished further post-production. But all in all, there really is nothing to see here except for Takara's visuals

Ep. 8... at least we got rid of Neil's godAWFUL wig in Ep. 3, but when do they finally rip off those repulsive extensions from Orca's head?

So as I've said before, the production design, hair & makeup, OST, and cinematography are all topnotch -- even made me want to go back to Kaohsiung despite it being too deserted for my taste -- but the story really needs a strong push forward. We are already in Episode 8 and things are still taking time to manifest. Two absolute BANGERS that I loved in this episode though --- Orca's song and Reese's body... I mean DAMN, I did not see that coming.

I liked how gritty and un-fabulous this drama was, more BLs should be like this. The only BL that had the same grittiness as this one was My Tee (Cause You're My Boy).

@MiHile nailed it --- collaborative projects with China usually involves a mainland Chinese actor playing one of the leads. This also happened in My Engineer.

I feel that Benjamin will do an S2 100%. He loves the role. not so sure about Dongqin though since he's always so booked. but along with many of the other cast, Dongqin did not actually say goodbye, but wrote a long post on IG ending with "we will see each other again"

I loved this, it's not strictly a love story --- it's a story about youth, the pangs of growing up, friends and family, academic pressures, and whatnot. For someone who grew up in Asia, I find it extremely relatable. The only issue I found with it was the side plot involving the teachers because I felt that it was leading the whole story astray (I also read from some comments that this subplot does not exist in the novel). And as I have commented before, this drama shows than an actor's skill is wayyyy more important than his/her age -- both Dongqin and Benjamin, and a lot of the supporting cast playing their classmates, are way past the school age but their performances really delivered. I can go as far as saying that I find Only One as the best-acted high school BL drama I've seen at this point. The actor playing Gao Tianyang was such a scene stealer.

But I agree with the majority -- this demands a Season 2. They just can't pull another "Stay with Me" and leave us blueballed.

I was really annoyed by how Taishin speaks, I had to look up the actor's IG to check if he really speaks like that for real lol

Dongqin is booked. his absence has nothing to do with the mainland China's attitude toward BL, contrary to the claims being spread on Twitter/X. if that was the actual reason he wouldn't have signed up for this drama in the first place.

I raised a similar point before but I gradually realized that it's better to have older, experienced actors to play these parts instead of young, inexperienced ones. I feel that the latter would not be able to show the nuances in Dongqin and Ben's performances that I really liked.

I feel that the critics from Weibo have already crossed over to this platform lol

Hangyeom and Jungha really had it going, even offscreen. I felt that this show would have been much better if they were the leads and the actual leads were just side characters lol

I'm sorry, but this isn't Addicted Heroin. It felt like it was stripped off all the qualities that made the original known for what it is... The producers should have repackaged this one under a different title, it might have been received by the audience much better that way

I honestly felt nothing from this one, maybe annoyed because it played on every single Japan BL trope out there? it feels like one of those one-time consumable Japan BLs that you completely forget days after finishing it. not bad, not good either.

Not bad, there’s good acting here and there, though I felt it kinda dragged on at the later eps. Also got frustrated by the poor communication between the two boys, but what is a BL without a miscommunication trope?

Absolutely beautiful! My favorite was the development of the character of Donghee, who I felt was too one-dimensional in ULS. personally I couldn't stand Donghee in ULS but I absolutely loved how fleshed out he was here in the prequel. and Dowoo KILLED his part --- I also didn't expect that since his acting in ULS was quite subpar. And Taemin was just fun to watch as always.

Though I feel that The Time of Fever would work better as a whole movie, there was no need to break it into small pieces...

damn. damn damn damn. that was so beautiful. this is THE bl drama of 2024, I'm claiming it.

truly solid, A-grade production value, I'll give it that. But the pacing needs a whole lot of improvement... when the last three episodes ended I was like, "that's it?" because it felt like little to nothing happened in the whole ep?

I think those two are just hiding it given the fact that they are teachers surrounded by young students, and one of them was flirting with Jenny just to make his partner jealous (couples do that sometimes to test each other). Jenny was just completely oblivious to the situation yet already hinted (by her remarks on that teacher's rainbow mug) that if these two guys are in fact in a relationship, she won't oppose it.

I just started this... my god color me OBSESSED. Why did I put this aside for so long

Taiwanese BLs definitely have the best OSTs. "First Note of Love" has the best I've heard this year so far. I'm still not sold though on the pairing between Charles and Michael.

The sudden appearance of Orca in that live performance was so weird though. Did he literally just appear out of nowhere??