Maggi64

I agree, but then again, you and I always agree, right? LOL. As for the Koreans kicking ass with BLs this year, I just read that they have slated 31 BL's for the year 2022 alone. Not all are great, but many have been stellar. Semantic Error and Blueming are among my all time faves for any year, not just 2022. I no longer bother with the Thais. I look to see where a BL was produced, and if it says Thailand, I pass it by without watching a minute.

I only gave "180 Degrees Longitude" a shot because you had recommended it. Otherwise, I had skipped that the moment I read it was Thai. I had also automatically skipped "Kinn/Porshe" until a person I respected said it was good. But those 2 are the only Thai BL's I watched this year, and only after personal recommendations.

Funny, the Thai BL's are the worse, yet they put out the most. They make approx 60 BL's a year. That's about 5 a month. And only 2 of the 60 this year were worth watching . As I said, the Koreans have 31 BL's slated for 2022, and half are already out, some of which have been misses. But the majority were are terrific, so I look forward to rest of the 2022 ones that aren't out yet. Oh, and it must be said that unlike the Thai's, there are no frigging product placements in K-BL's.

Exactly, the only good one she listed was Kabe-Koji-Nekoyashiki-Kun. As for her description of this being bland and full of BL cliches, well, that description fits "My Tooth Your Love" exactly. MTYL even had a Slip-And-Catch (aka, SAC), in the first 15 minutes of ep 1. And ALL the Thai BL's are packed full of SAC's. Yet she listed mostly Thai-BL's. Hence, I don't think this person is a proper judge of what constitutes cliches.

Yes, I had specifically said that 3 of the BL's on my list are from Japan. And 3 are from Korea. I ranked the J-BL's higher on the list, but I also said that K-BL's will soon catch up. In other words, I explained this, so I am not sure what you mean????

At any rate, what's interesting is that Korea has already surpassed Japan in terms of sheer volume. According to the website Kpopmap, Korea has produced 31 new BL's for 2022 alone. Wow, 31! I find it fascinating that Korea now has more BL's than Japan and Taiwan, because Korea is still pretty homophobic by comparison. However, I suspect that the increase in K-BL's will alter public perceptions for the better. Here's hoping! :)

I also loved how Kiyoi told him to relax, and that he'd wait for him. Kiyoi also never calls him "Stutz" like the other kids do. He understands the stuttering, which is why he was soooo jealous when Hira stuttered at the play and Kayomo caressed Hira's back. Man, that look on Kiyio's face was priceless! That was in the middle of ep 4 before we got Kiyoi's internal monologue in ep 5, but it was such a strong hint that I knew right there Kiyoi was in love with Hira too!

LOL, it's their love language. Also, see my comment above where I explained that "disgusting" was a mistranslation of the Japanese word "kimo." It actually means "creepy." The movie site Viki had the correct translation, but most of the versions on Youtube had the incorrect translation. It makes a big difference when Kiyoi calls Hira "creepy" and not "disgusting" cuz it's less mean and cuz, well, Hira truly IS creepy! lol

Yep, and you can also see how he is always defending Hira against the bullies. And he is clearly paying attention to Hira -- eg, he gets them all to go to Hira's house; then he follows Hira to his bedroom; he shows interest in Hira's photography hobby; he follows Hira on the bike; he tells Hira that he doesn't mind when Hira stalks him to the back of the school after graduation; and then he even kisses Hira! When they are in college he makes it even more obvious by telling Hira that he tried to call him but the number was changed. He asks whom Hira likes, him or Koyoma. Hell, after Hira sucks his finger, he flat out tells him, "Did it ever occur to you that I like you too?" And yet Hira still -- still! -- asks Kioyi whom he likes in that final scene in the classroom. Kiyoi is like, "It's you, you freaking moron!" LOL.

BTW, I am enjoying another terrific J-BL right now where a manga writer is almost as clueless as Hira that his beloved loves him right back. I don't know how to say the title in Japanese but it's "Shiny Smile" in English.

LOL, some of the subtitles incorrectly translated Kiyoi's word "kimo" to be "disgusting," when what it really means idiomatically is "creepy." Viki had translated the word correctly, and it made a HUGE difference. Because, of course, Hira truly is creepy! lol. The word "disgusting," on the other hand, made Kiyoi seem meaner than he really was. That's why subtitles are so important in such shows.

Oh, and you are spot on with your comment about how the sexually hysterical SJW's correspond with the waning of the Church and other religious influences in contemporary society. There is a theory that liberals simply replaced a puritanical religious code with a puritanical social code. In other words, where the conservatives admittedly rely on religion to judge sinners, the liberals kid themselves that they are being atheist free thinkers while, in fact, being just as judgemental. But instead of using the term "sinner" to shame others, they use the terms "rapist, racists, sexist" to do the trick. Indeed, some critics refer to the SJW Movement as "The Cathedral." I just love that.

As usual, I agree with you 100%. The reporter is not guilty of grooming or sexual assault. All he's really guilty of is being an asshole. I mean, he tells Martin that his shirt is "loud" and then he makes Martin pay for the coffees even though he's the one who asked Martin on the date (rule of dating: the one who invites, is the one who pays). By time he asks Martin into the bathroom with him, the signals were clear that he's a douchebag. Martin is only a couple of years younger so there's no excuse for him not picking up on the signals. And then when the reporter wanted to compare pubes, Martin should've simply said, "Um, dude, you're acting like a 12 year old boy comparing size. I'm outta here." But no, Martin proceeds to get in the car with him, and even more stunningly, he's surprised that the reporter groped his junk.

Although at least the actor expressed some discomfort with getting groped, because he evinced no such discomfort when getting the hand job in a later scene. Instead, he is full of regret AFTER the consensual hand job because he realizes his date was just using him for sex. I constantly see SJW's confuse regret after sex with sexual assault. Sure, it sucks to regret having been used by your date, but no kiddies, regret is not sexual assault.

As for people saying the reporter "groomed" Martin, they reveal an utter misconception of the term. Like so many other terms in the great wave of the SJW Movement, it has lost all meaning via overuse. Words are like currency, and if we overuse them then they lose all value. The reporter is not guilty of "grooming." Rather, he's guilty of being an asshole with an inflated ego because he had more career success than his date, and this success gave him the bravado to put the moves on his date. Are we now accusing all prospective partners who have better careers than us of "grooming"? Lastly, I'm appalled (but not surprised), that some compare this character's experience with the character in Kalel 15. Kalel was freaking raped! Flat-out, butt-fuck raped by his uncle, who was twice his age! Yet some viewers couldn't tell the difference between a guy's hand skimming his date's genitals and rape. Christ.

I know! That blew me away. I am dying for someone who's read the manga to give me some spoilers about this. It's not translated into English so I haven't found anyone here yet who's read it.

I know! But I can't wait 4 more weeks for that. I hope he says it sooner. And I also can't wait to see what happens with "Bearded BL Boy" who cracked me up last week when he passed out from love with hearts in his eyes! This show is just too damned cute and creative. It's zany, but somehow still manages to make the characters feel so, well, real. I mean, the expressions on Issei's and Mamoru's faces during that phone call were genuinely tender and heartfelt.

I thought that was Issei's screen pix but now I gotta watch again to check. Maybe they both used the same pix on their phone screen! That would be divine! lol.

Wait, what is the 3rd one? Your first one is this show, Kabe Sa Doujin, and the other is that BL about the ghost boyfriend, Eternal something or other. But what is the third?

SLOWLY, SLOWLY, BIT BY BIT

Wonderful episode with our boys inching toward each other, and revealing themselves to each other slowly, slowly, bit by bit. We saw Mamoru finally taking the initiative to contact Issei (heretofore it had always been Issei showing up at ComicKing; Issie showing up at his family's house; and Issei even following him disguised as a trash can, lol). This was the first time that Mamoru had contacted Issie of his own volition, which made Momoru vulnerable. And we know by now that gloomy Mamoru dreads being vulnerable.

But it's precisely such vulnerability that's going to make it soooo yummy when he finally confesses to Issie. Who, let's face it, has been confessing to clueless Mamoru since high school. In fact, can we take the "Blinded by Low Self Esteem Award" away from clueless Hira and give it to Mamoru?

Yes, but what a phone call it was! It was significant cuz it was also the first time Mamoru had contacted Issei freely and of his own volition. Otherwise, Issei had gone to see him at ComicKing twice, followed him disguised as a trash can (lol) or showed up at his family's house. So that call with Mamoru finally taking initiative must have felt AMAZING to Issie!!!!

Actually, you can pump up a rating by giving a perfect 10 to each of the individual episodes. So go into the "Episode Guide" page and rank each of the 4 eps so far.

Yep, we agree again. It's odd, but just as the Taiwanese BL's are starting to get formulaic like the Thai's, we see the Korean BL's getting better and better! The 1st K-BL was "Long Time No See" in 2017, but it was "Where Your Eyes Linger" in 2020 that got the ball rolling. Even though Korea is still notoriously homophobic, WYEL was such a smash hit that the industry simply could not deny the wisdom of making more BL's. Sure, some of the new K-BL's are just as silly and formulaic as the Thai BL's (eg, Behind the Cut), but even a mediocre K-BL like "First Love Again" or "Kissable Lips" was better than the average Thai BL.

This is because they hire better actors, whereas the Thai BL's just go to some local high school, pull a couple of cute boys out of homeroom, drag them to a studio and direct them to read from a teleprompter. Then they pack the show with product placement. Compared to this, the Koreans have vastly surpassed the Thais.

In fact, 3 of my "Top 10 BL's of All Time" are Korean.

1. My Beautiful Man
2. Blueming
3. Old Fashioned Cupcake
4. Where Your Eyes Linger
5. We Best Love
6. HIStory: Crossing the Line
7. Cherry Magic
8. Semantic Error
9. Like Love
10. Follow My Sunshine

My list has 2 from Taiwan, 1 from China, 1 from Vietnam, 3 from Japan and 3 from Korea. So yea, the Koreans are catching up to Japan!

You are 100% correct that it's way better than the average Thai BL. Thai BL's are manufactured off a factory assembly line. Truly, I read that they manufacture over 60 year -- that's 5 new BL's a month! They are so profitable that Thailand's Ministry of Finance ranks BL's as one of their Gross National Products. So they are just cranking them out like products with little thought to creativity or quality. With the exception of Kinn/Porsche, I no longer expect anything good to come out of Thailand.

However, I used to have very high expectations from Taiwan. Indeed, I think I judged this show harshly because I hold the Taiwanese to a higher standard based on the excellence of shows like "We Best Love" and the HIStory series. That is why I was so disappointed to witness the Taiwanese BL industry begin to coast on old formulas, like the SAC and the enemies to lovers tropes. Now, those tropes can be inspired if they are executed well. I agree with you about this too. After all, we saw the enemies-to-lovers trope get a fabulously inspired reworking with "Semantic Error." But I am not sensing anything inspired in "My Tooth, Your Love." Nor in any of the recent spate of Taiwanese BL's for that matter.

Oh, and it's not just "Semantic Error" that gave us an inspired version of an old trope. An example of an inspired SAC was in Minato's Laundromat when Minato tripped on a sheet and Shinn fell on top of him. Instead of silently staring at Minato interminably like they do in bad BL's, Shin licked his lips and began to sniff at Minato like a dog in heat. It was funny and original. Alas, the Thais and now the Taiwanese, do every SAC the same exact way. You know, a guy will slip and fall into the others arms, then they'll stare at each other silently and awkwardly for an overly long and utterly unnatural period of time. The whole thing always feels so contrived that I just roll my eyes and groan.

Yep, the Japanese have a rep for over the top "zaniness." It's odd, because on the one hand they'll have that zany kind of style in BL's such as Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But to Kiss, Senpai I Love Your, etc, while on the other hand they'll have BL's that are known for having a perverse and sexually extreme plot like The Pornographer or even flat out nihilistic like Dangerous Drugs of Sex. The Japanese seem to fly from one extreme or the other.

Incidentally, The Pornographer and My Beautiful Man both got ratings of under 8 here and yet both got sequels cuz they did well in Japan itself. In short, the Japanese don't care what we viewers abroad think, as long as the show does well in Japan it will get a sequel.

I realize that ratings on MDL rarely exceed an 8, but even so, the rating of 7.8 here is low. The two newest Taiwanese BL's got higher ratings of 7.9 and they were both very formulaic while this show is wildly inventive and original. Hence, I am wondering if the rating and the viewership here is very low because the Japanese do not promote internationally.

Conversely, the Thais, Koreans and Taiwanese all promote their BL's internationally. In fact, the Thais make so many BL's that they are even among their Gross National Products. Thai BL's like Kinn/Porsche paid for promotions in Western venues such as Rolling Stone Magazine and Vogue. The Japanese, however, are very insular and don't care about foreign audiences even if it means making less money. Funny, but the Japanese have had a reputation for being insular like this for centuries. It's certainly the only explanation I have for the low rating here.