Saffron_Milk

What do you mean "these days"? Japan has always used weekly episodes because they run their shows on TV. And isn't it nice - having something to look forward to and discuss every week, instead of watching everything in one go and having to hunt for a next dose of dopamine the day after.

Where are all these Japanese school dramas where the underdog literally kisses the feet of the school king/queen and it's shown in the romantic light? :)

Off the top of my head:
Both series have a king of the school and a boy who gladly runs errands, but only actually for that king, not for everyone else.
The king actually does not have any close friends.
The errand boy stumbles upon the king sleeping on something long and narrow in the class.
The errand boy licks the foot of the king (in the original novel for My Beautiful Man it was a toe, not a finger, like they did in the drama).
The king doesn't treat the errand boy nicely, but in private likes being in his company.
The king actually have never even kissed anyone else, other than the errand boy, and only have sex with him. During that sex the king is the bottom.
For the errand boy, the king's orders are absolute to the point of it being disturbing, but at the same time he can interpret them in weird ways.
The errand boy is quite weird and probably seems autistic to many Western viewers.

And I'm sure there's at least one more similar point between the two dramas that I forgot. But even these are a bit too much. I wouldn't even minded the similarness, had The Servant Prince not been such a downgrade in every aspect when compared to MBM.

I agree. The first episode felt like Utsukare-ripoff, and not a good one. I really liked Seto Toshiki in The End of the World With You, too...
For me, I think, it's the director. This is the 4th BL series of his that I'm trying, and I have the same issues with each and every one of them

You have only yourself to blame for not watching it in the right order. This is not some superficial flick that you can tune in right in the finale and expect everything to be spoonfed and explained to you ad nauseam.

I didn't even realize it was the end until I checked here and saw that the drama was only 8 episodes, not 10. It didn't feel like a closure at all.

Hey! Sorry for not replying sooner - I've just seen the notification. And thank you for you kind words <3 I'm happy if my work can get people interested in UtsuKare books.
Hira in the end of the movie is not exactly the same as Hira in the books, but he's not totally different either. He did ask Kiyoi to stay with him forever in the books too, for example. The movie tries to not leave a lot of loose ends, and there's a lot of finality in the ending, while in the books Hira's character is a work in progress, and the author can go deeper with his evolution. Besides, a whole new book came out since then, and Hira's character progressed in some unexpected ways in it, so it's really hard to tell now.

As for the diagnosis, nothing is ever mentioned in the books, and, honestly, I'm not convinced that the author actually considers him to be neurodivergent. From the reviews, I got the impression that Japanese readers or drama viewers usually don't perseive him as someone on the spectrum either.

Hira doesn't love Koyama romantically and would've only hurt him in the end with his half-hearted attempt at reciprocation. Koyama is an understandable safe choice, but would Hira's life really be better with him rather than with Kiyoi?

Mainly the MC's acting (it's like "Senpai, this can't be love", only worse) and a ton of overused cliches.

Well, I didn't really like the first episode acting and production-wise, but for me, Punks Triangle was even worse. So in a way, you're right - this is not on that level so far :)

Yes, this is Drama Otaku, the one with the very complicated registration process. So you'll have to wait for fansubs, most likely.
But I have to say that the ending was... controversial. I wouldn't call it anticlimactic, but it wasn't satisfying for me either. I even went ahead and read reviews for the novel this drama is based on, and looks like the novel has the same ending, so you can't even blame the scriptwriter for it.
Basically, I don't think it's worth it to hunt for the raws in this case. But Drama-Otaku registration is worth the pain - some raws there never gets fansubbed and won't surface on public torrents, especially for various spin-offs.

I watch raws from D-O. If you aren't registered there or don't know Japanese, there's a link to English fansubs in the comments below.

4 episodes in and I love the mystery. One of the rare cases where you get annoyed by things you see as logical fallacies, but then it turns out all of them were made so for a reason. Hope the ending won't disappoint.

Again, take your own advice and pay attention. Hira's dad was transferred to some other city or maybe country, which is not uncommon in Japan. Hira decided not to move cities with them because he was already finishing school. He wasn't abandoned in another city, as you were saying. He is living in his house and in the same city where he grew up.
Kiyoi didn't invent the name "Hi-kun", as you were saying. Shirota did that. Kiyoi never ever called him like that - it's a big plot point, actually.

Oh, don't worry, after about 5 rewatches I know the details of this drama pretty well. But you should take your own advice and "bay attention" because no one's parents left no one in another city, and the male lead didn't make any names for the main character. He got angry at some people at some point but for different reasons.

Are you sure? Because My Beautiful Man has none of the things you're writing about.

This comment looks like it was meant for some other drama.

Season 1, then season 2, then the movie.

Yes, it has actual kissing and more. Just not always on the lips. and some of the hotter stuff is in the second season and the movie.

Considering that the first season wasn't toxic, it depends on what you label as such.