While it does indeed suck when an outstanding show like Cupcake gets less attention than other shows, we just…
Definitely not just J-BLs!
It's unfortunate but J-Dramas to this day still rely quite heavily on fansubbers. So many shows would go unwatched without them, because they'd simply never get subbed otherwise.
The Japanese entertainment industry is so interesting to me because on one hand, they have the anime industry which is massive and caters quite largely to international viewers. Anime can be found both subbed and dubbed (officially) almost anywhere these days.
But then you have the J-Dramas / J-Movies industry which rarely get officially subbed unless they're a Netflix production or something. They could easily be as big as K-Dramas have become, but the interest to expand just isn't really there for some reason.
Even their music industry has been quite slow to adapt. I think it wasn't until a few years ago that the trend to upload full music videos became more of a common thing for Japan. Before that, I think fans of J-Pop all knew the struggle of "Music Video (Short Ver.)" or "This video is region restricted to only Japan" haha.
There are currently 3 new JBL's on Blparadise and none got any promotion, Cupcake included. All are produced by…
While it does indeed suck when an outstanding show like Cupcake gets less attention than other shows, we just have to accept that the Thai BL industry operates on a whole different level than Japan's.
Thailand's BL industry has expanded and exploded in very much the same way that K-Pop has internationally. Not only do they churn out new shows practically every month, they heavily cater to their international fans. Tweets, interviews, behind-the-scenes videos, cast reaction videos, tours, magazine photoshoots… These are readily available to fans throughout the airing of each series and almost always with English subtitles provided. Thailand makes it extremely easy for fans to consume their material.
Japan on the other hand has always been about local promotion and local success. Tweets, interviews, press and the like… they’re all Japanese only. You don’t often see much translated to English unless fans who know Japanese translate it for others. This makes it harder for fan engagement because without an understanding of Japanese, we’re left with only the episodes themselves to talk about. Whereas fans of Thai and Korean BLs not only have the episodes to talk about, they have all the added content of behind the scenes and cast interviews and etc to talk about after each episode airs. Japan has this kind of content for some shows, but again, they're usually Japanese only and not readily available unless you have a subscription to the Japanese streaming platform.
With the other 2 shows you mentioned, 8.2 Byo No Hosoku is a YouTube series that only recently had official English subs added. Though they’re a bit lazy in comparison to the fansub. I want to say their marketing team missed the chance to at least tweet that the series is now available in English, but it doesn’t even seem they have a Twitter or anything for the show. It’s pretty much just a lowkey YouTube production.
With Fudanshi Bartender on the other hand, there’s only English subs because Furritsu fansubbed it.
Why are they taking so long to finish the ep 3 subs 😭
If you're talking about the Viki subs, they're essentially already done. The only changes between 85% and 100% is usually just the inclusion of the OP song lyrics and correcting some minor mistakes.
Really looking forward to the rest of the season after having watched Episode 1. It's giving off strong "Girl from Nowhere" vibes and I'm loving it. Can't wait to see all the chaos the main character creates.
The page goes back to being so much cleaner without all the spam.
It's unfortunate but J-Dramas to this day still rely quite heavily on fansubbers. So many shows would go unwatched without them, because they'd simply never get subbed otherwise.
The Japanese entertainment industry is so interesting to me because on one hand, they have the anime industry which is massive and caters quite largely to international viewers. Anime can be found both subbed and dubbed (officially) almost anywhere these days.
But then you have the J-Dramas / J-Movies industry which rarely get officially subbed unless they're a Netflix production or something. They could easily be as big as K-Dramas have become, but the interest to expand just isn't really there for some reason.
Even their music industry has been quite slow to adapt. I think it wasn't until a few years ago that the trend to upload full music videos became more of a common thing for Japan. Before that, I think fans of J-Pop all knew the struggle of "Music Video (Short Ver.)" or "This video is region restricted to only Japan" haha.
Thailand's BL industry has expanded and exploded in very much the same way that K-Pop has internationally. Not only do they churn out new shows practically every month, they heavily cater to their international fans. Tweets, interviews, behind-the-scenes videos, cast reaction videos, tours, magazine photoshoots… These are readily available to fans throughout the airing of each series and almost always with English subtitles provided. Thailand makes it extremely easy for fans to consume their material.
Japan on the other hand has always been about local promotion and local success. Tweets, interviews, press and the like… they’re all Japanese only. You don’t often see much translated to English unless fans who know Japanese translate it for others. This makes it harder for fan engagement because without an understanding of Japanese, we’re left with only the episodes themselves to talk about. Whereas fans of Thai and Korean BLs not only have the episodes to talk about, they have all the added content of behind the scenes and cast interviews and etc to talk about after each episode airs. Japan has this kind of content for some shows, but again, they're usually Japanese only and not readily available unless you have a subscription to the Japanese streaming platform.
With the other 2 shows you mentioned, 8.2 Byo No Hosoku is a YouTube series that only recently had official English subs added. Though they’re a bit lazy in comparison to the fansub. I want to say their marketing team missed the chance to at least tweet that the series is now available in English, but it doesn’t even seem they have a Twitter or anything for the show. It’s pretty much just a lowkey YouTube production.
With Fudanshi Bartender on the other hand, there’s only English subs because Furritsu fansubbed it.
Thank you Furritsu for subbing it!
Furritsu has proper subs available.