Maggi64

What's the difference between a webtoon and a manga? Is a webtoon action animation?

I know, I groaned when they introduced her as a love interest. The show really doesn't need an obnoxious girl in this role. I had hoped it would only be the trio of besties knocking out bad guys and getting closer to each other.

Good point. But then I don't know what the hell the point is of having the baby recur in the plot.

Based on the preview for Ep 7 it looks like you were right with this theory. It shows Kiochi holding his baby brother and telling him to love Mitchan. I don't mind age differences, but it's easier to believe in a living corpse than in a young man having no sex for 17 years until his intended boyfriend grows up.

It doesn't need a spoiler tag because the show's entire premise is that one character starts off dead. It's what happens thereon that surprises the audience.

Well, they became a couple which is a happy ending in terms of a love story. But we know one cannot survive if he is, well, already dead! lol

He totally stole that show. He was infinitely better than either lead in Takara & Amagi. Those 2 actors were shockingly bad, which is unusual for a Japanese BL (it's usually Thai BL's that use cute-but-bad actors).

I loved how the boy tenderly touched his beloved's face at the end of this episode. I thought it relevant because there was so much talk on the thread for Shiny Smile about how J-BL's never show physical intimacy. Well, this show proves that wrong. There's been tender touching, kissing, hand holding, and, yes, even ear nibbling.

Everyone here is saying the Japanese don't have kisses in their BL's, but I just watched a not very good J-BL called Sing in Love and it was very sexually explicit. So was the Pornographer. The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese was also sexually explicit and even showed the guy pouring lube on the other's anus. When not as explicit, the Japanese BL's like My Beautiful Man still have a kiss. As did Minato's Laundry. There have been 2 kisses in Eternal Yesterday. All in all, I wonder why people keep saying that J-BL's don't have kissing????

Exactly. It's absurd to suggest that Westerners cannot have opinions on shows when, the fact is, all creative media is marketed globally these days. Oh, you know, because of that little thing called the Internet. To suggest that a person from the West cannot have an opinion is absurd because they comprise an enormous and profitable market. Asians know this, just as Hollywood knows that the Asian market matters to them. Again, it's all global now. So those telling Western audiences to shut up need to get used to having our opinions.

Thanks. I gotta say, sometimes I feel badly arguing with these girls because I know most are very young. Indeed, most are the same age as my college students (whereas you and I are over 50). I also have an upper hand because I had taught Freshmen English, which is all about the art of persuasion and rhetoric. In short, I know how to compose an argument.

All in all, I suppose I should just lay off them because the points we make elude them anyway. Or, just as bad, they feel threatened and call us "arrogant." I saw that word tossed at you and me a couple of times. I think they mistake argumentative rhetoric for arrogance. At any rate, winning arguments here is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel and, hence, it's not even fun.

Thank you for a rationale response. I am one of the people who think gays should be portrayed just like heteros in romances, but I also happened to like this show despite the absence of demonstrative affection between the two guys.

It was highly original, had a quirky vibe and wonderful visual flourishes -- such as hearts throbbing on Bearded BL Boy's eyes. It was very clever in how it depicted certain scenes as the pages of a manga, making it feel fresh and relevant to a manga writer as a character. The support characters of Bearded BL boy and the fujoshi were a delight. Indeed, the fujoshi got the best line in the show when she said, "Every fujoshi has a penis growing in her heart." All in all, there are ways of defending this show without defending its fear showing gay affection.

I know, what the fuck is she talking about? They avoided the kiss at the end cuz they heard a noise in the alleyway. Togawa forced a kiss but it was closed mouth. Now, if she wants to raise Pornographer, yes, that was steamy. But no, not Cupcake. And why shouldn't I bring it up as a perfect example in an argument if it works? Her only rebuttal is "You used that example already. It works, but hey it's working too well for my brain to handle." Moreover, the example that I keep using here on this page is His, with no kiss, not Cupcake.

Oh, and note that she did not address any other of my points. Such as that gay writers can be just as fearful of showing sex as any hetero woman cuz they don't want to reduce their profits. Nor has she addressed my central argument, which has consistently been that human love is manifest physically, and it is done so with sex, kissing and caressing. To deny that primary manifestation in portrayals of gay couples is to portray them as less human. Period.

You called naysayers "Karens." Maybe you should try reading your own comments and as well as understanding that "Karen" has a negative connotation. In short, you were critiquing fans rather than the show.

Yes, the show was fresh and funny. However, the characters had expressed that they were gay twice and thus it was not out of the norm to show emotional intimacy. I realize that the manga did not have a kiss and that the Japanese are highly faithful to source material (Old Fashioned Cupcake replayed the manga line by line, frame by frame). However, one can portray emotional intimacy with things other than kissing. There is hugging, or staring into each other's eyes, or stroking your partner's cheek. These characters, instead, behaved as mere buddies.

We naysayers are using this comment section correctly when we critique the show. You, however, are using it incorrectly because you are not critiquing the show but, rather, us, the fans.

Totally agree that I'd rather watch something creative like this than a plotless, badly acted, Thai BL with tons of skinship. BTW, I also loved the bear, aka, "Bearded BL Boy."

Come on, it's a BL pitched to audiences who are gay friendly and, hence profits off gays. A gay writer could profit off gay people too. A gay writer may even avoid portraying physical affection because it would sell better. Especially in Japan where they are still fearful of homosexuality. But all of that just means producers have a greater responsibility to break those barriers and portray gays as normal romantic couples who show some sort of physical affection. In Old Fashioned Cupcake Togawa at the end touched Nozue's face in a very tender way. That would've worked for me. But nothing? Sorry, that only happens in gay dramas

BTW, I pay for Viki and Gagaloola. Your assumption that I pirate shows is rude.

Seriously, even old fashioned hetero romances with squeaky clean Doris Day had kisses. I can't think of any hetero love story where the characters showed no physical affection at all.

I also thought it was fresh and original. But come on, people who are in a couple touch each other! I didn't need to see a kiss in His cuz those were 2 little 16 year olds. But these are adult men. Such people would express some kind of affection. Even the boys in His at least hugged at the end.