Maggi64

Thank you so much! You are now my official Japanese Cultural Interpreter, lol.

Also, since you read the manga, can you give me a spoiler and tell me if the predeceased Angel and his classmate were boyfriends? It looks like something is going on with them in next week's preview. I am intrigued by this because the show is categorized as a BL, yet I sense no sexual connection between Koki and the Angel. It's a spiritual connection instead.

I also know that the Angel and Koki don't have a physical relationship in the manga cuz the Angel is in middle-school, making him only 13-14. So if there was any BL element it had to have been between the Angel and his fellow middle-school friend. Or did the manga have no BL element at all?

To be clear, I don't even need a BL element in this show because I am happy with its unique sensibility. But I'm still curious because it is, after all, categorized as a BL.

Thank you for explaining what Rakugo is. I take it that "The Scary Manju" is the bit that the Angel keeps performing, but not finishing. He just says "If ten people walk into a room, they will have ten different personalities." So what's the eventual punchline to this joke?

And it finally happened........... Koki smiled!

Sure, it was only a faint smile while hugging the Angel, who'd just said he was pleased that Koki's opening up to new things. But after watching 4 eps of that consistently gloomy expression, this teensy smile struck me as enormous!

Interestingly, those are all by the same director, who is a gay man. I imagine that a gay person, in general, is less likely to depict gay life as all pink and fluffy. As a man, he would be more realistic about sex because a man knows first hand that teenage boys have raging hormones and constant erections. There's even a line in Bokura no Micro na Shuumatsu where they guy says "We went at it like monkeys and had sex constantly. After all, we were 20 year old guys." lol

I think this can be looked at 2 ways. On the one hand etoks21 makes a good point about teenage boys and the hormonal reality that they want sex 24/7. I mean, you can research this and find that adolescent boys have erections dozens of times a day. So yes, it would've been more realistic to depict the boys more sexually heated. That's not to say we need to see the sex scenes, it's more that the director could've implied it.

Then again, perhaps the director did not want to the boys to behave with too much sexual energy because Kakeru was still shy about the whole thing. He's not only a virgin, but he's also grown up assuming that when he lost his virginity it would be with a girl. So he still has some emotional/psychological walls when it comes to male-on-male sex. Yamato, of course, had been imagining sex with a boy for years, so he just dove right into it. For example, he dove into it in that scene when he threw Kakeru onto the bed and lunged for a kiss. Hell, he was so heated that he'd even slid his hand up Kakeru's shirt to feel his belly.

That scene depicted the sort of raging teen hormones that etoks21 speaks of, so I could see why such a viewer such as he would expect the same level of heat to be there again when the 2 boys finally share a kiss that's mutual. Then again, I could also see how it is in character for Yamato to restrain himself with Kakeru for their first mutual kiss in the nurse's office. Kakeru might have balked if Yamato went at it too passionately.

So, ok, those are two ways of looking at it. But I don't think that the issue aroace is relevant in either case. That's an intensely rare condition. Nor do I think it matters if the actor was only 18 cuz I've seen kids younger than that kiss in films. Frankly, I think that this actor was just plain not into kissing a boy. The actor playing Yamato really went for it and opened his mouth, but the other actor was not really opening his. I don't mind that it was a gentle kiss because, after all, it was their first kiss. But people open their mouths even while gently kissing.

Yea, this person's anger finally just compelled me to drop off the convo. Besides, gender ageism is not exactly a new topic that should make anyone irate. The discussion about this problem has been around since we began making movies, so why does this girl act as if it's something new and frightening to discuss? BTW, your comment about suspension of disbelief was spot on.

Holy fucking shit, did you really just write the sentence:

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"Old ppl are the stubborness ppl ive ever met. They can be dying and still refuse to take their pills and shit. They have such thick skulls after living so many years idk how they age backwards or something. "

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And yet you still want to have a discussion pretending you have enlightened things to say about age discrimination? Wow. Just wow.

I don't even think the show's casting director did great harm, so much as caved to expectations for a younger female face when it was logistically unlikely for a woman that young to be the mom. I can let that go because I am enjoying the show overall. However, your sentence about old people DID do great harm. It was vile, disgusting and offensive. Not just to me, but to humanity at large, because all of humanity experiences old age. I know you are stupid, but even someone as stupid as you knows that you will one day grow old, right?

I am watching the show because I like it. However, I had one caveat with the casting of an actress who appears to be unrealistically young for the role. With what I know about casting directors, this is commensurate with gender ageism.

Oh, and sexism is actually far worse in the Caribbean than in America (indeed, massively worse). Frankly, women's rights and age-equality are better in America than in most of the world (Congress passed E.R.A. in the 1970's, long before most countries were even dealing with gender rights). Alas, it would've required reading comprehension for a person to have gleaned this point from my comment (but I'll give you a hint: go back to the Meryl Streep example).

Good point. But being a hot, young mom is different than casting someone only 14 years older.

I don't even mind her young age so much as I mind your rude reply. To begin, I am also middle aged and, thus, quite in tune to the fact that casting directors are loathe to casting middle-aged women for roles. This is not my opinion, but a documented fact known to actresses in both Hollywood and in Asia. Just google the plight of any older actress, and you will find that this is true. It's this disgusting rule by which men are allowed to age, but we women are not.

It's actually better for women in America (my country), where at least older women like Meryl Streep can get roles, but it's notoriously bad for older women in Asia. And, let's face it, if you're not an Oscar winner like Meryl Streep, then it's still pretty bad for women even in America. If you doubt me, then google "Gender and Age Discrimination in Movies" and you will find that the median age for male actors is 61.3 years and 39.8 for female actors. In short, casting directors are fine with older men, but not with older women.

But, hey, why do I need to even point this out? You watch movies/shows and you live in this world, don't you? Thus, no matter how young you are ( and you are OBVIOUSLY young), then you can still see the age bias between how men are allowed to age while women are not.

And allow me to make one more guess: as a fan of BL's you are critical of homophobia, right? But as a young woman you are somehow sympathetic toward gay men while oblivious to discrimination when it afflicts your own group (ie, fellow women). This is because you get a kick out of fantasizing about gay little boys whose experience is utterly foreign to you (and always shall be), but still have no fucking clue how the world shall discriminate against YOU in a decade or two.

Goddamn, I love this show. If for no other reason than for dialogue such as, "You want it don't you, kind words?" But while such a line elevates the show with its lovely simplicity, I'm surprised by how the actor playing Koki is 31 and the actress playing his mother is 45. I get that she's supposed to be a young, hot mom, but a mere 14 yr age gap? Seems like another case of ageist casting wherein they simply could not bring themselves to cast a woman over 50.

Who did he play in this? You said 5th guy in the cast, but there were only 4 guys. There were the 2 leads, the ex-boyfriend and the intern. But SeoBin was not any of those, right?

Ep 6 -- Slight Spoiler

Anyone else catch that Do Hoon took a quick peek downward to see the goods when Yoon Soo was naked in the shower? lol

I know. I adore this show, but actually think the director has been relying too much on these coincidental interruptions throughout eps 1-7. But, hey, it's not as bad as Minato's Laundry season 1 where he got interrupted about 2 dozen times when trying to tell his old teacher he used to be in love w/him. lol

Who is Seobin? What other show was he in?

I adore how the cinematographer applied a shimmering mist of stars over Yamato's face every time he gazed at Kakeru in eps 1-6. Then, in ep 7, the same shimmering mist of stars appeared for the very 1st time over Kakeru's face when he gazed at Yamato. What a wonderful visual to convey that Kakeru had finally fallen in love too! And how about that bit with Yamato so gobsmacked with joy over Kakeru's gift that he couldn't even stand up! He literally collapsed his body to squat down and smile to himself.

I'm enjoying the depiction of the age old scenario of 2 people who ostensibly make no sense together, but whose opposite qualities, instead, make them magnets to each other. Kakeru is a vaguely goofy innocent with an infectious smile and golden heart, whose good nature allows him to make friends easily. The sort of guy you can't help but to laugh at lovingly when he fails a test, instead of looking down on him. Yamato is academically and athletically superior, with a model's good looks. As a result, he's beloved by all the girls and envied by the boys, yet simultaneously so uneasy with people that he has no friends. Except Kakeru, whose easy nature and golden heart made him the one person with whom Yamato could feel comfortable since childhood. And with whom, of course, he'd also fallen in love.

I don't even care if there are some tiny flaws (in Ep 6 Yamato's talking to Glasses-Guy in the library when a second later Glasses-Guy vanishes and Blondie and his pal are there instead). With characters and chemistry this good, I'm all in anyway.

Now that's a shame. A show that had been near perfection for eps 1-7 went so off the rails in eps 8-9 that it was as if a new team of writers had been bought in. What had been a charming, whimsical, tender story of 3 friends learning how to find their identities turned into a thriller with an evil psychopath smirking and lurking behind every corner.

It's out on KissKh without subs. Now, while I usually don't watch shows raw, I did watch the opening 5 min. And Yamato in a white turtleneck and apron peeling vegetables was a such a sight to behold that, really, who cares if I had no idea what he was saying. Wow, what a beauty!

Thank you so much for your reply. Someone had actually told me about oshiroen a couple of days ago, so I was lucky enough to see eps 1-6 with her terrific subs. Having proper subs made it a whole new show for me! Truly, so many scenes had made no sense with the other subs.

As for Netflix Japan likely releasing it once it finishes there, I am glad to hear it. This show is so good that it deserves to be seen by a wider audience.

That's fascinating, because it explains why ratings for Thai BLs are always inordinately high. Thai productions are bigger budget cuz they have $ from their obnoxious product placement, and they spend massive $ on promotions too. They make so many BLs (100+ a year) and promote them so heavily internationally for export, that BLs are one of their country's Gross National Products. Conversely, the Japanese do little marketing outside their own country.

Considering how much effort the Thais put into promoting their BLs, I'm convinced that their marketing companies also employ bots to boost ratings on sites such as this. I mean, why not? If you're a big marketing company and have the tech to use bots to boost ratings all over online, of course that shall be one of your company's functions.