Charbonnel

I know plenty of people who obsess over both. I just suspect it’s about the aspect of red flag shows catering more heavily to viewer fantasy.

Cherry Magic and Kieta Hatsukoi are great examples of shows that prove you don’t have to have any reg flags to be popular, and are very much comfort shows for a lot of people. HIStory: Trapped also doesn’t have any red flags within the relationships, and that was the peak of popularity when it came out. Personally I have more friends who rewatch these types of show than red flag shows.

Japan has at 7 BL currently airing and the most popular of them by a landslide is the wholesome one with no red flags.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and numbers may not lie, but if you aren’t engaging equally with red and green flag shows (and viewers of both) I would be inclined to say the bias is heavy here.

Green flag x green flag can still tell stories just as interesting as any other combo. The difference is finding suitable ways to create tension and conflict - which either demands events outside the relationship or personal circumstances of the leads to play a part.

Personally I think red flags are an easy win because you can get away with A LOT of mediocre writing (and sometimes delivery) because nothing’s stopping writers from going “Hey look! One lead kidnapped the other!” and this will distract the viewers from wondering how the heck they both hold down full time jobs.

Green flag x green flag pretty much forces conflict out of the relationship, meaning the writers can’t just distract you with some random insanity in the relationship. This is where you need to showcase the struggles of say, one lead failing horribly while the other keeps succeeding, and how it may affect their dynamic at home.

This is not to say I don’t enjoy red flag shows, but to say I think green flags aren’t boring, they’re just harder to execute because the writing and delivery HAS to be good. A red flag show could be horribly written with terrible audio and still garner more attention than a reasonably written green flag show with good audio. (I have currently airing examples of this too.)

Debating what to do with this one. It’s a solid show but apparently life stresses hitting me hard rn so I’m not appreciating it as much as I would otherwise 🫠

I don’t want to watch while worrying about other things so may put it on hold, as much as I don’t want to be behind either.

AE said “There’s a person I like”
And NOT
“My heart belongs to someone else.”

The original Japanese being 「好きな子がいます」which literally translates to “There exists a person that I like”.

Again with the wildly misleading preview subtitles.

EDIT: Updated the Subtitle Error-Correcting Post to include episodes 6 & 7 as there were some weird inconsistencies and another MAJOR instance of subtitles putting words into a character’s mouth that he did not say.

Totally fair, and from your description, that sounds a bit like the same situation A Round Trip With Love has. The side couple is kinda there in the films, but not well integrated. In the novels, they’re hardly in the main couple’s volumes because they have two books entirely of their own.

Well, here I am surprised to read this…then again, it’s different? Most CBL stories like this I know of basically have two main couples or a main couple + prevalent side couple. I’d take this to mean that To My Shore will very much be devoted to the story of the main leads, without much reprise from their heavier atmosphere, which I can also appreciate.

There’s also the possibility of some differences from the novel, so perhaps we may get a surprise in there somewhere?

That’s the golden rule right there. Don’t like? Don’t watch. It’s a work of fiction intended to be enjoyed, so why watch it if it isn’t your cup of tea?

I’m also quite excited for this one. It seems like this season, the BL producers have all gone in a darker direction, which is a refreshing and intriguing change of pace from the majority usually being bubblier rom-coms.

As you shouldn’t. I might point you to the Thundercloud Rainstorm trailer and MDL page if you haven’t seen it yet, looking for something more hopeful on the dark side~
A week or two out but I’m excited for that one personally

What’s interesting to me is that Fan Xiao’s Thai sounds well-pronounced, so I’m wondering if his voice actor is bilingual or if he has two voice actors. Don’t know about Thai actors but this is set in Thailand, so there likely are some.

Welp, to those of us already juggling 7+ shows, we are cooked. I’m so excited for more of this.

If it isn’t on Viki in your region, try GagaOOlala, and vice versa.

I don’t know why GagaOOlala isn’t included in the streaming services list here on MDL since it streams A LOT of queer content from relevant regions. Unfortunately, on both GagaOOlala and Viki this is unavailable in Japan for now.

On GagaOOlala this will be unavailable in Japan, South Korea, the Middle East, India, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas. I’m quoting their post, although this list is both extensive and vague at the same time.

That was….not good. Obvious continuity issues, and some very bad audio dubbing and audio generally. Will this stop me from watching? Probably not.

Totally fair! I’m holding off on reading the manga until after finishing the series, because I would like to read it too~

I don’t think he could ever truly love AE in a romantic way because AE is his oshi. The entire point of an oshi or celebrity crush is that it is a fantasy, so the delivery would almost never work out if you see someone in that way, because at the end of the day they’re both humans. Chiaki sees AE on a pedestal, and could never truly see their dynamic on a level where romance could make sense.

The only example of this dynamic working out in BL dramaland that I’ve seen is Utsukushii Kare, where Hira effectively sees Kiyoi as a god, but throughout the seasons, it gradually improves. But even then, it takes a certain level of twisted (stalkerish) from Hira to begin with that Chiaki doesn’t have and a certain level of stubborn aggression (not quite the right word) that Kiyoi has that Enaga/AE doesn’t have either.

He thought of Enaga because Enaga is on his level in his mind. So there isn’t a major imbalance of power in the relationship, and as they’ve gotten closer, he even finds Enaga’s weak points to be charming. I think Chiaki will then see for himself that they’re the same person and IF the writing is good, he’ll feel embarrassment, of course, but he’ll also realise AE is just as human as he is, and that will bring both a good conversation and cause the wall of celebrity fantasy to come crashing down.

Edit: Excuse me jumping in here, I just thought it’s interesting to think about!

What a wild ride of an episode. The subtitles are very weird but there aren’t that many totally wrong ones this week. Reason the subtitles are weird is because clearly there’s a human involved because Chiaki be saying or thinking one name and the subtitles will use the other, and machine translation can’t do that kind of thing. So there’s….definitely a human involved in there somewhere. Still a lot of small slips that lower the quality though

Well, it’d be misleading to say I got all the way to where I am now from dramas alone, since I studied the language at a Japanese university for a year and now live here (in Japan). HOWEVER I watched dramas before I started learning Japanese and was able to pick up a lot that made my learning much faster when I did get the chance to study!

It’s definitely possible since in my peak Kdrama watching days I could watch standard romance shows with minimal technical language without subtitles and get 80% of it.

Cheering you on!

Not a spoiler, but due to access issues, I’m just watching raws for this and my comprehension is improving a lot more than it usually does from just watching dramas. There were only about 2 sentences in episode 6 I had to check! Just a linguist thing but it makes me happy.

Honestly a very good show so far with lots of originality and good characters. If anything, the weakest part of the whole thing so far is just the strange and contrived father-villain situation, which I know will likely have more answers in later episodes.

That little bit with the influencers in episode 6 was unexpectedly sweet. Really enjoying this show and can’t think of anything like it.

I cannot wait for this one! Been excited ever since it was announced, but now that wait is even more painful