-Aprillen-

I may have misinterpreted the whole discussion since I wasn't here for the original kerfuffle, but did anyone say someone else couldn't write stuff here? I thought they just asked them to put it under a spoiler tag if it contained spoilers? If they told someone they couldn't write things here, that was definitely out of order, but if they just asked them politely to put spoilers under a spoiler tag, that's a rather different matter.

It's not very hard to do, and you can easily do it even after you've posted by editing your comment. I have done it after being asked to, it's not a big thing. It's easy to get excited and want to share things, and we all have different takes on what is spoilery. But there's no need to delete an entire comment because someone asked you to put it under spoiler tags. (Again, maybe I missed an instance of someone telling them to delete the comment or being very aggressive and rude about it, in which case I agree that it was uncalled for. )

But I want to stress that spoiler tags aren't some kind of censorship, they just collapse the comment until you actively click reveal. That is also not very hard to do. I routinely reveal all spoiler-tagged comments when I come here after watching the latest episode, and I often engage with them. You can't really miss them, and it's not really much of a hardship.

Also, I'm wondering why we shouldn't be considerate of new fans or users? Don't we want this wonderful show to be known and loved by as many people as possible? Don't we want to be welcoming and friendly when they come here?

I love how Rokkaku isn't just a c*ckblocking , oblivious comical character, but also a true and loyal friend who will not hesitate to stand up for his homies.

AHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA OMFG XD <3

CM is so good at giving us all those little hints, facial expressions, body language, stuttering, eye contact, shy smiles, innocuous but intimate touches (the rice grain!) that show us the depth of their feelings for each other, that I haven't noticed the "lack" of kissing at all. Those things are so much more expressive than the forced, stiff lip bumps we get in other BLs. The actors make those budding feelings so utterly believable anyway. (And this is also why I didn't miss the kissing at all in SOTUS but *did* miss it in 2Gether.)

Yes, I've already reported one a couple of days ago. We'll ahve to stay vigilant!

This drama waters our crops and clears our skin!

Kurosawa's fantasies are the cheesiest and best!

I generally don't reawatch things a lot, but somehow this series loses nothing even when you know what will happen. It's amazingly rewatchable!

Thank you so much for reminding me of SKAM! I had never watched it (despite being a Scandinavian), but now I have (well, season 3), and it was amazing!

I didn't mean to be rude, my sincere apologies. I'm very grateful for everyone who makes these amazing series available to us non-speakers; without you we would live in ignorance of these gems. Thank you for your hard work and I'm very sorry if I offended you.

I especially liked that you translated the song lyrics and the text messages, that is something that often frustrates me with translations.

I agree, I felt like fast forwarding through all of their scenes. They just annoyed me, and (except for Khem) were just stupid people who kept doing stupid things.

I wish I had had that when I was younger! I spent so many years thinking there was something wrong with me, because the terms ace and aro weren't even around then.

It was such an innocuous thing to do and yet so intimate!

Thank you! It's not quite as good as Irozukusubs, but beggars can't be choosers!

I liked that we saw a different dynamic with Tsuge and Minato.
And I think (or that's how I read it anyway) that the real difference is that Adachi was a virgin because he is a shy, unconfident introvert AND demisexual, while Tsuge was a virgin only because of the first reason.

My feeling exactly! How can it just keep getting better and better? There are literally no filler episodes!

Grey Ace/Grey Aro here!

I am half happy for Keita and Eiji because they are gaining such popularity, and half afraid for them, because they are going to see so much toxic behaviour from new "fans". :\

And people who gladly watch BL but are actual homophobes -- that just makes me want to bash my head against the wall, Adachi and Tsuge style.

Great post!
I watch BL for the romance, because that's what I need right now, sweet escapist fantasies of love and happy endings. But I hate the way there's so much contrived conflict and stereotyping and toxicity in BL, and a weirdly large percentage of super toxic female characters (considering that a lot of BL is, as you say, written by and for women). LGBTQ+ content, on the other hand, is often much less contrived and more realistic, and focusses more on the struggles and realities of being LGBTQ+ in our time, but isn't necessarily romantic or even hopeful.

So few of these dramas manage to combine real representation and realistic struggles with hopeful romance in a non-toxic, non-stereotypical way. ITSAY did it, but I hesitate to call it a BL -- for me it's rather an exquisite but heartwrenching coming-of-age LGBTQ+ drama, and none of us dared even hope for a happy ending until we saw it with our own eyes. I adored it, but it kind of destroyed me.

I see a big difference in all the "BL" coming out of the Philippines now, and one of the fundamental differences is that unlike the Thai BLs, a lot of the PH dramas are written by men, who are themselves LGBTQ+, and they strive to be inclusive in the casting and the way they tell the stories, and some of them manage to walk that line between representation/respect for the community and romance, but they do lean more toward being LGBTQ+ dramas. They vary wildly in quality, from amateurish low-budget kitchen-sink dramas to polished gems like Gaya Sa Pelikula, and some of them are also problematic, though in different ways from the Thai BL dramas. (I wrote "BL" in quotes because some of them seem like they are just riding on the BL trend but are in fact sending a different message.)

Cherry Magic is the only one I've seen so far that has given us everything I want in terms of sweet fluffy romance, with no contrived conflict and toxicity attached (not even from the side characters), with characters that are perhaps idealised (as they are in all romance) but not fetishised, and really trying to be aware and respectful toward the community while doing it -- and being so incredibly well-made, too. It's something I can enjoy wholeheartedly and unabashedly without feeling uncomfortable or guilty about it. It just... buoys me. As Tamago Onigiri said, it's like a dream come true.

We can only hope that its success makes the rest of the BL industry sit up and take notice.

I just went and retroactively rated all the past episodes, and they all have consistently high ratings, none below 9.6, most of them higher. So how can the overall rating be so low? It's infuriating.