RandomUsagi

It's a special scene that was only included on the blu-ray DVD of the show.

agreed

I think I have a theory for this now.
So who possessed Dongbaek? It was the god of that universe, the same one who cursed the director for naming Dongbaek. He was giving a warning that the director will face challenges (aka psycho Dennis is coming soon)

Lets go back and remember the original curse:
''You need to fall in love with each other or die''
But why would that be a major ''curse'', its never even really resolved with sparkles or anything like that when they do fall in love? Because the curse was only part of the plan to finish this reincarnations-long struggle of Dongbaek getting killed. We know the director and Dongbaek do actually fall in love quite quickly so the curse is kinda forgotten. But they fell in love in the original life too so this isn't some miraculous overcoming of a curse.

The real goal is essentially letting go of the past. With Dongbaek accepting the director and the director loving Dongbaek enough to sacrifice his memories, his part of the curse is over and Dongbaek is essentially let go off by that universe god. The director paid the ultimate price of a generations-long love to be able to have Dongbaek to himself. But through that he would not have Dongbaek to himself by losing his memories, its a cruel twist but it also allows Dongbaek to make his own choice. Essentially through these events the god of that universe decided it was enough and ended things.

So how does Dennis play into this? We know he was the assassin of Dongbaek in his past life. He most likely was employed as a warrior by the historical-directors family same as the director employing him now as an idol. This is why he mentions being used as a tool and truly he is used as a tool by even the god of this universe to set things in motion for the final sacrifice. Dennis vaguely remembering Dongbaek happens after the warning (ML possession) and he warms up to ML wayy too quickly through a vague guilt he probably feels. I do think Dennis is a tragic figure just there to finish a reincarnations-long struggle for ML and director.

And why? Lets not forget Dongbaek is that universes gods favorite despite him gaining a name of the director and who shot him? Dennis. That would be enough grounds to also curse Dennis. But now that Dongbaek is let go off, I assume Dennis should be ok too.

In te webtoon it makes more sense, in the show its left up to interpretation so I'll try to work with that. I can only assume Dennis thought his obsession caused by his past life memories of Dongbaek was love.

As in ''why can't I get this guy off my mind'', he must have assumed he loved dongbaek when actually it was just his past life memories and guilt. A lot of people want to give meaning to their lives and for Dennis this was probably his life meaning and he must have translated those memories that haunted him into ''I probably love him''.

Then director/Youdam comes along and the meaning he found in his life is destroyed because Dongbaek has his eyes on director dude already. Dennis makes up excuses to himself to justify what he feels he needs to do to ''resolve'' his guilt and ''keep Dongbaek safe''.

It was okay, enough was left open for interpretaton that I can just wing it and make my own version/''theory'' up of how this show ended based on info from the webtoon. Bit of a short ending yes but not unexpected

In the manwha there is a whole different storyline regarding Dennis. He's sent there to protect Dongbaek and he beliefs the only way to do so is to keep him away from the director. In that version he also ends up killing Dongbaek. Dongbaek is revived without memories and the director is waiting for him to regain his memories in the webtoon, which he does.

It's cause he's the reincarnated killer (he shot the arrow) of Dongbaek. So he's living out his own curse thing

I agree this seems likely based on developments in episode 4.

They mention in the article as examples:
Ningen Shikkaku (1994)
Nobuta wo Produce (2005)
Yamada Taro Monogatari (2007)

Honestly deserves more attention, it was fun overall due to the strangeness.

So I read an interview by the director and I think that answered some of my questions. Unfortunately though, not the goat questions.

This movie was produced by Japanese company OP PICTURES, for anyone unaware, they have produced a lot of pink films and also specifically gay pink films in the past and this was their first BL project aimed at women instead of the usual audience of theirs which is (gay) men. This idea is also shown by them doing a two-week limited screening in Ikebukuro for the movie, specifically aimed at female BL fans.

Little bit of trivia but in the 80s-90s gay pink films were very popular for screenings in small Japanese cinemas catering to an audience of gay men and a handful of those cinemas exist in Japan to this day. You can kinda summarize the gay pink film genre with the words: ''Adult content toned down with a unique storyline and artsy stuff added, 90% including tragedy themes''. But it was a way of expressing gay-themes that just didn't often occur in regular films/series of Japan at the time, so it definitely had an importance for this niche community of fans.

Back to this movie. Apparently, the person the director chose for supervision surrounding this huge change in intended audience was an adult-video actress who liked BL and who was befriended with the main actor. The director did mention he learned a lot about BL during this project but he mainly mentioned that he learned the world of seme-uke dynamics.

Essentially the result is that any BL aspects that did make it in, seem very minimal. The gay pink film influence is definitely there with Japanese gay terms being used. I don't think I've ever heard ''Nonke'' (Meaning: Straight guy) used in a regular BL show or movie and BL tends to shy away from the adult-work industry exploitation as a topic. But I will say, in comparison to the gay pink films I know about, this movie used a lot less runtime (less than 40%) on intimate scenes and more on plot. So I guess that was a change they made and it seemingly was still popular enough since there were 2 sequels.

I did like some reveals in the movie but overall it doesn't really feel like anything majorly new but definitely more detailed. But like some people said in the comments, this also can add some boredom to the story due to the lower-quality overall.

Considering the actors, a quote from the director: ''Mukai-kun had a lot of experience (he does AV), but the others were new to dealing with men. There were only actors like that, so it was a shoot while saying, ''Do it with the feeling that you really like men.''
So with them being completely new to this, they did alright.

(Source: 深読みCINEMAコラム【パンドラ映画館】vol.538 向理来主演の新感覚BL映画『最短距離は回りくどくて、』)

Alright so I actually went to get official confirmation on whether this was BL or not. Here are some quotes:

''Since Ten still has the habits of the dog lifetime, it is predicted that there will be scenes such as ''On Kotaro's lap '', `` Hugging Kotaro '', and `` Staring at each other at close range '', and in the official video , although he asserts that it is not BL, the sentence "I want to lick" in the PR video this time makes us imagine such a development.''

''The announcement video also uses BL-like nuanced inciting phrases such as "Yuta Kishi falls in love!?" Regarding this, the writer of the entertainment magazine who sent it emphasized, " From the beginning, Johnny 's works well with works that depict exquisite relationships between men."''

“Recently, BL dramas are popular, including overseas such as Thailand, and the TV Asahi drama “Kieta Hatsukoi” (2021) has been attracting attention as a “love romance” by Naniwa Boys Shunsuke Michieda and Snow Man Ren Meguro. Johnny's is also actively advancing in such things. However, in fact, Johnny's has been in dramas depicting the so-called bromance-like relationships between men that are "more than friendship but less than lovers", which are not as direct as BL works.''

Source article: 岸優太に浮所飛貴が「ぺろぺろしたい」 非BL宣言も… 『すきすきワンワン！』はブロマンス系新機軸か

So from this I would conclude its bromance, I suspect the male lead will have a female romantic interest though a lot of the main plotline will be the platonic relationship with his reincarnated dog. Aka, as far as I know its not a BL.

Edit: I got further confirmation in another article.

''When Kishi joked, "Maybe there's a kiss?", Ukidokoro replied, "No!" Both of them emphasized that "it's not BL", but it seems that there will be many scenes that will make female fans faint in agony. The two are co-starring in " VS Spirit " ( Fuji TV ), so it seems that they can enjoy a perfect match, but in the announcement video, there is also a provocative phrase, " Kishi Yuta falls in love!?" There is a high possibility that the content will be “Nearly BL” (strictly speaking, it is not BL, but it contains a lot of BL-like elements).''

Source article: 岸優太が浮所飛貴に恋する？　『すきすきワンワン！』は“ニアリーBLのイチャラブ”で新境地か

Quite nostalgic show, unfortunate there's no English sub in 2023.

Its an interesting movie with also some vague elements to it, the actors did well.

This is actually extremely good thriller storytelling, great stuff.

Hmm wait let me lay out the progress of this convo again:

Me-> ''A lot of those negative reviews were from Western men offended at the idea of seeing a pregnant male show on their Netflix.''

You-> ''Can you link me to your research on this review thing? Thanks. I'd guess a LOT of those negative reviews are from people with brains and taste and standards too.''

Me-> Sends links of dudes who don't like the idea of seeing a pregnant male show on their Netflix as I mentioned.

You-> ''So out of the entire universe/Internet, you're sending me links to SEVEN dudes who don't like it cause it's "woke?" ''

It was about wokeness from the beginning with the ''dudes who don't like the idea of seeing a pregnant male show'' thing I mentioned. I do value valid criticism but like I mentioned before a hatred for the show born from hatred of wokeness was something I found odd to witness.

Sorry to hear that your higher standards don't allow for liking this show. But it is the way it is, I hope you find a better suited show for your standards next time!

I don't really care what Netflix shows are doing well or not. I watch stuff because I like it myself and not because others like it. But yea unfortunate that it isn't doing well, but I won't lay awake at night from it thankfully

Reviews of men solely hating on the show for being about a pregnant male and pushing ''woke ideologies''? Sure

Rotten Tomatoes, Audience Reviews of He's Expecting: ''Brian M'' Apr 23, 2022.

IMDb, User Reviews of He's Expecting:
jk653823 April 2022
jayxy24 April 2022
InsightfulCritic5 May 2022
acedout25 April 2022
OrganicallyGrown21 May 2022
mzdvmtjr23 April 2022
fqjnypdc24 April 2022

I tried to find only the reviews where they weren't just ''this is bad'' but where they made it clear that it was the ''woke'' part of seeing a pregnant male storyline that they hated. I hope you are able to find them on your own using their respective sites as I prefer not to link stuff on MDL.

A lot of those negative reviews were from Western men offended at the idea of seeing a pregnant male show on their Netflix. It's not a perfect show by far but the hate for it was so odd to witness. Its just a small show about a social issue in Japan surrounding pregnancy using a slight fantasy-setting.

I don't think it's lazy writing perse as sometimes the scientific part isn't the focus but the commentary on social issues in our own world is. Some of us can enjoy a show despite the lack of scientific logic to it and others can't.