Maggi64

Check out my review, which I also posted as a comment above, and that will give you a reason to watch it. :)

This show proves why it's wrong to make assumptions based on a show's promotional descriptions. Because I went into this show with very low expectations, assuming it was just another flimsy, fluffy BL with a silly supernatural plot about a cutesy angel. Then, in the very 1st scene, I met our lead and that put my prior perceptions to rest. This dude's not merely a morose, depressed cynic -- he's a flat out nihilist who talks about living a meaningless life in a godless, meaningless world.

In other words, this shit is dark. And then, out of nowhere, the angel appears and brings light. Yes, the appearance of an angel is absurd, but if you simply accept this absurd premise, and how the angel's lightness poses a perfect contrast to the nihilist's darkness, then the show really works.

To be clear, when I say "lightness" I only mean in terms of bringing energy and companionship to the morose lead, Koki. It's not like the angel starts preaching peppy, positive happy-talk to Koki. Instead, the dialogue when they first meet is full of clever, dry humor. For instance, Koki tells the angel, "Listen, if you're dressed like that cuz you're a burglar who's into cosplay, then go to Shibuya, because I have nothing of value to steal." I laughed out loud cuz I know that Shibuya is Tokyo's hot-spot for shopping and clubbing, and teeming with trendy hipsters and tourists with money to spare.

The dialogue continued in this dryly humorous fashion, such that by the end of episode one I'd fallen into the vibe of the funny surrealism the director had intended for the viewer. Meaning, my friends, that I'm all in for the future eps too.

Lastly, I must I add that the guy playing Koki, Uesugi Shuhei, is an accomplished actor with many movie/drama credits over the past decade (unlike most BL actors, who are either idols with no experience, or newbies with little experience). Uesugi Shuhei was even in the critically acclaimed 2018 film, "River's Edge." This film did so well in Japan that it was subsequently picked for international distribution by Netflix, where you can currently catch it (but be advised: it's a serious LGBT film, not a BL). In short, the guy has impressive acting chops, and this is just one more reason to watch "One Room Angel."

Thank you so much! I truly appreciate it.

I just read a passage in the manga where Kakeru complains about being only 5'5. Yamato thinks to himself, "Humm, that's 7 inches shorter than me," and then proceeds to google "How to kiss someone 7 inches shorter." I loved this cuz we can see him really bending his back down to kiss cute little Kakeru on the bridge. But now that I know he actually googled it, that bending down is twice as adorable!

Where are you guys watching this with Eng subs? I know it's on Gaga, but I let my subscription there expire so I tried Kissasian. Well, they have it there, but there are no subs.

Yo, if you are part of the Baby Boomer generation then say it loud and say it proud! Because they truly were a remarkable generation who seismically shifted our country's cultural and political sympathies to the left. They gave us the Civil Rights Movement for black people, the Equal Rights Amendment for women, and the Gay Rights Movement for LGBT people.

I actually appreciated this person's comment. I don't think they were being pompous toward my generation so much as recognizing that societal attitudes evolve over generations, whereby neither generation is entirely right or wrong but, rather, different.

Now, if they had dropped that odious phrase, "Thanks Boomer" I would have eviscerated them. But I genuinely think they were trying to understand where I was coming from rather than dismissing my generation's perspective outright.

Incidentally, I freaking loathe the term, "Thanks Boomer," so please allow me a little rant as to why. One, it truly does reek of the pomposity of which you speak. Two, the kids usually don't even know which era Boomers actually belong to and just toss that term at anyone who's more than a decade older than them (ie, at 55 I was born ten years after the Boomers were). Three, they are suggesting that the Baby Boomer generation was somehow useless and passe when, in fact, the Boomers are the ones who created the entire social justice culture in which the 20-somethings are now engaged.

After all, the Boomers ignited national Vietnam War protests that were successful in altering public perceptions of that war which, in turn, effected an earlier end to the war than we'd have otherwise gotten. The Boomers were also the generation that ignited the 1960's Civil Rights Movement that resulted in massive improvements for black people, women and gays. I could go on, but suffice it to say that we should all respect the Baby Boomer generation. And those who claim to care about "social justice" should not only respect, but thank Baby Boomers for creating the seeds of the very ideology which they now practice.

At any rate, I agree that some younger people display a gross ignorance of what prior generations have accomplished, but I don't think the poster oddsare was doing that.

Otherwise, I am with you 100% on how that scene of Yamato provided the show with terrific dramatic conflict and the sort of tension that is required to give a narrative energy and drive. Let's face it, the scene left every viewer hanging on their seats waiting to see how Kakeru will respond to it next week.

Thank you so much for not only reading the rather long exchange between me and Ryn_333, but for giving it such a constructive analysis. I am so glad you are able to appreciate the generational differences vis-a-vis social policy in a way that accepts how neither generation is wrong or right but, rather, simply rooted in different cultural perspectives.

Most people see an argument with 2 differing standpoints and their default mechanism is to side with one or the other, rather than recognize that most truth lies in the gray zone between.

Lastly, I am so in love with your comment, "It’s not about who wins the argument, but what we learn along the way," that I want to post it above the door to every classroom where the dialectics of persuasive argument are taught. Thank you so much for saying this!

BTW, I do like GL's as well. In fact, I have some recommendations for you if you like that genre. The movie "Carol" with Cate Blanchet is wonderful (it's currently on Netflix, but you can also find it free on Fshare). I also adored the Korean movie, "The Handmaiden" (available on Kissasian). Both films were critically praised, and for good reason. If you like GL drama series, then check out BLparadise, because it began to include GL's a couple of months ago. Of course, there are not as many GL's as BL's because the market for them is smaller, but Korea put out a couple that were pretty good.

Love this comment! Thx!

I think I do owe you an apology for talking down to you about the Straw Man Fallacy. It's a problem of my profession where I get "teachy" with people. Even my friends tell me to watch this "teachy tone" I sometimes get. So I sincerely apologize.

But it's also endemic to my age. I am 55 and, hence, assume most people on MDL are younger than me (the stats for this site say that the majority of BL viewers are 15-30). So I talk to people with the assumption that they are all young enough to be my kids, lol.

Incidentally, it's also my age that makes me see the question of consent so differently. I simply was not raised to view the standards of consent as severely as your generation does. For example, my alma mater, Columbia, now charges boys with sexual assault if the girl was drunk when they had sex, but not if the boy was drunk. I think that this places too much of the onus on the boy, while removing all responsibility from the girl. Trust me, young people ALWAYS disagree with me on this. But I reply that if being drunk means I had given "dubious consent" then I was sexually assaulted at least once a week when I was a student there in the late 80's and 90's. Because, yea, I had a lot of drunken sex! lol.

There's also an enormous difference between how your generation sees Speech Codes as good, while my generation thinks Speech Codes are a form of censorship and violate the First Amendment for Free Speech. I constantly come into opposition with my students and younger colleagues over this because they simply were not raised to revere Free Speech the way my generation was. Instead, they insist that we must have Speech Codes that police discourse in order to avoid Hate Speech. In short, the ideas with which we are raised are deeply ingrained in us and hard to shake.

So when it comes to things like Speech Codes and the standards for Sexual Consent, I suppose we will always differ. But I respect your position and, again, apologize for taking a teachy tone with you. You've actually been very polite and conducted an interesting conversation both here and on the other thread we are both on. Thank you.

Wow, thank you for the recommendations. Before discovering Asian cinema 3 years ago (and BL's 2 years ago), I had never read mangas or graphic novels. I am an English Professor and must confess to having been a snob about that genre. I simply dismissed them as "comics for adults." Then I started to watch Asian movies and realized that I was being culturally ignorant, because mangas are the primary literary genre in that culture. In fact, mangas fuel about 80% of the Japanese publishing industry.

So I decided to check out mangas. I found that I had to open my mind to this new literary form, but once I did, I began to get it. And to respect it. I really liked the manga for Double Mints, and the Pornographer, but I also read American graphic novels like The Road to Perdition and Maus. Those were both serious stories, told via illustrations and dialogue. Now, I still prefer novels which give us long, descriptive passages in between dialogue, but I also now respect mangas and graphic novels too. So thanks for your recommendations.

LOL, "American 13 year old weebs." I hear you on how many BL's reflect some little girl fantasy about one man being a strong, stoic seme and the other a cartoonishly weak uke. There's a guy on MDL called JPny who always cites a show where the uke was so weak that he actually cut himself using a butter knife. A butter knife! lol.

The thing is, this construct exists primarily in Asian BL's. Before your comment, I never even knew that American girls wrote BL webcomics at all. There are very few BL shows in the West in general. England had "Young Royals" and America had "Love Victor." But both of those BLs were very different than Asian BL's and did not rely on any of the same tropes. Moreover, BL's did not catch on here to such an extent that they'd become a veritable industry the way they have in Asia. So I am fascinated to find that you used to read BL's by American girls. Did the American girls write BL's that exclusively included Asian boys? Because it's rather messed up for them to presume they know enough about Asian culture to make their characters Asian.

The term "Contract for Consent" is always used sarcastically. Nobody actually thinks something this outlandish would ever become a true legal requirement. Hence, it's never a Straw Man when used in an argument about consent. I taught the Straw Man Fallacy every semester in Freshman English when students had to write papers with a persuasive argument. Then, for some reason, they'd get giddy over the term and accuse anyone who takes an opposing position of using a Straw Man Fallacy.

A Straw Man is when your opponent in an argument tries to make it seem as if you were arguing something different than that which you were. I did not do that. To the contrary, I remained utterly on point. You were arguing that a person sexually attacked another without proper consent. Then I argued that your standard for consent was extreme. I did so by using the sarcastic term "contract for consent." Hence, I simply presented a counter argument. This is not a Straw Man.

As for consent, I care about that too . Why would any woman applaud the use of unwanted, unrelenting force in sexual contact? It's not that you care about it more than I do. Rather, it's that we define the standard differently, and your standard is more extreme than mine. For instance, I thought the character in this show relented quickly when told to stop. You did not think he relented quickly enough. We saw this differently. That's all. And I shall respectfully leave it at that.

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. I don't agree with all of it, but I must agree that the seme/uke stereotype is overly in play. I mean, Kakeru keeps freaking falling down and Yamato keeps having to save him, lol. But I let it slide cuz overall I like the show. I simply enjoy stories where a character has been in love with his BFF since childhood, and has been forced to hide it while secretly longing and yearning. I also think the guy playing Yamato is particularly good at expressing longing and yearning. The kid playing Kakeru is not as good, but at least the actor is truly an 18 year old playing an 18 year old. I am so tired of seeing 30+ year old men playing high school boys!

You clearly have strong and heated feelings about this, so I shan't presume to change them. I will simply say that I, myself, did not see this scene as sexual assault. Of course, I agreed when people complained about the scene in "Addicted" where Gu Ha truly forced Buy Lui Yin onto the bed for a hand-job. But I tend to disagree when people find far lighter scenes of attempted sexual contact to be sexual assault. This is one such case.

Oh, and you must go back and learn the meaning of the "Straw Man Fallacy" in logic. Because my reference to a "contract for consent" was sarcasm, and not an attempt to replace the argument's elementary focus with another focus. My comment was entirely in the realm of the argument at hand because it suggested (albeit sarcastically), that your standard for consent is extreme. A Straw Man Fallacy would be if I had tried to make it seem as if you were discussing something different. I don't know what it is about the term "Straw Man" but my students tend to overuse and misuse this term in their papers as well.

But aren't sawasdeeplus' subs originally Spanish and merely auto-translated to Eng? Which is why they are so bad?

I won't even respond to the OP cuz they dislike the entire genre of BL, which makes discussing a particular BL with them pointless. But since you are a BL fan I am interested in knowing why you think this show is "trash." I noticed that all the BL's you recommended are Thai BL's, which are drastically different in tone and style from Japanese BLs. Do you, perhaps, just not have a taste for Japanese BL's in general?

If so, that's fair. I mean, we all have different tastes. I am just curious, because I found the directing/writing/acting for this show to all be very well executed. My only complaint is that it relies too heavily on the old Slip-And-Catch (SAC) trope. But, dang, Thai BL's are so freaking stuffed with SACs that I've concluded it's mandatory for Thai BL screenwriters to include them, lol.

I must disagree with you on this. The guy got on top of the other to lunge for a kiss, and when he was rejected he apologized, got up and left. Now, I would agree if this were a scene where somebody was wrestling and pushing an aggressor to get off him while the aggressor refused. But that was not the case. Sure, he did not present a written Contract for Consent before attempting sexual contact, but that does not make it sexual assault. Please watch the scene again, because you will see that the absolute instant Kakeru said, "Stop it," Yamato immediately stopped. In other words, he understood that "No means no," just as he should have.

Your comment actually IS helpful, so don't apologize, lol. I joined MDL 2 years ago and since then I have often heard people say what you just said about the Japanese disinterest in international distribution of its BL's. It's pretty clear that they are not like the Thais, who export so many BL's (eg, over 100 a year), that BL's are among their nation's top Gross National Products . I've even seen BL's like Kinn/Porsche promoted in American magazines like Rolling Stone and Vogue. The Thai BL production companies, moreover, provide subtitles themselves to make international consumption easier (ie, Thai BL's are not fan-subbed). The Koreans and the Taiwanese seem to be following suit because they are making more and more BL's each year. At any rate, it's ironic that the Japanese BL industry does not push international distribution since Japan is the Asian country that started the whole BL craze in the first place (and, like you, I happen to think they also make the best ones).