BL Compilations

Funny and sweet (we need season 2)

Overall: This high school BL has a mixture of realistic, sweet, cringey and funny moments. I have not read the manga so I can't comment on similarities/differences there. Watched on Viki (My Love Mix-Up)

Content Warnings: two slaps not between m/m, homophobia

What I Liked
- subverted tropes, surprising moments (I won't go into details and ruin things but I rarely get pleasantly surprised watching BL and I was when watching this)
- Ida being honest and considerate, thinking about things seriously
- the look on the high schoolers faces when the military guy talks to them is priceless and universal
- supportive friends on both Ida's and Aoki's side, also that Ida's friends weren't stupid
- communication (yes there was also miscommunication, but there were several instances of good communication)
- characters apologizing for mistakes made
- I'm totally fine with the ending but we need a season 2 to see the continuation
- even some really minor side characters were fun to watch

Room For Improvement
- (neutral) Aoki is very energetic/exaggerated which I've noticed in quite a few manga adaptations, luckily the other protagonist is chill so it balances it out. Aoki does have some pretty funny moments.
- the slaps were not needed
- "gay for you" adjacent
- that first volleyball teacher side plot, though I was happy how he handled it
- I almost vomited when that tutor/student teacher asked things those invasive personal questions, no teacher is asking their student those questions

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look elsewhere for a fluffy/steamy merman romance

Overall: I did not enjoy the aggressive pursuit/reluctant pursuee trope that happened nor the love triangles. Based on a web novel which I haven't read and I am reviewing the series on its own merits. 8 episodes about 45 minutes each. Aired uncut on GagaOOLala https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/5806/lover-merman-2025-e01 (not in the Americas, Europe, Australia, Oceania, India, Japan and South Korea); uncut on Viki https://www.viki.com/videos/1263454v and cut on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb6_2JamS9iNQ_fRO37dRCtHX-QWgsQjE (available in some African countries, Southeast Asia, Japan & South Korea).

Content Warnings: sexual harassment, held against will, beaten up, past (murders/blood, child abuse), manipulation, murder, suicide/sacrifice, prejudice

What I Liked
- visuals
- merman premise

Room for Improvement
- started with an exposition/world building dump
- flashback to a recent scene
- long pauses between talking
- love rivals/love triangles
- a ton of characters for 8 episodes and then 3 new characters introduced in episode 4 who left shortly thereafter (also a step brother romance tossed in)
- our supposed hero gave serial killer vibes while the other lead was wishy-washy and stupid
- terrible mom redemption arc, I can't believe the character apologized to her
- nonsense stuff, a character had no security, another character believed someone who had every reason to lie

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gritty yakuza story with romance

Overall: this was a darker story and I didn't review it against fluffy stuff. 6 episodes about 25 minutes each. Adapted from the manga "Anata wo Korosu Tabi " by Asai Sai which I haven't read and I reviewed the series on its own merits. Aired on GagaOOLala https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/5800/the-journey-to-killing-you-2025-e01 (not available in Thailand, Japan, Korea or Taiwan)

Content Warnings: past (murders, incest, assisted suicide, blood, domestic abuse/violence, child abuse); rape (see the spoiler comment for more info), violence, blood, animal death, attempted murder, threatened/near suicide

What I Liked
- a darker premise
- acting
- styling
- caring moments
- production value

Room For Improvement
- nonsense stuff: in the past why didn't he call for help in episode 2, why did 1 character wait 7 years to make a move on the other character, miraculous healing power, not wearing something in episode 5

Spoiler for the type of ending:
it's a happily ever after for the leads

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better as it went on

Overall: I enjoyed seeing two people working thru their relationship and life challenges. 12 episodes about 23 minutes each. Aired on GagaOOLala (not in Japan, Korea or Thailand) https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/5473/stay-by-my-side-after-the-rain-2025-e01

Content Warnings: past death, past abuse, vomiting, emotional abuse from a parent

Watch Suggestions from 3 on (will try to go back to episodes 1 & 2 later) focuses more on the main leads
- stop episode 3 at 12:10
- skip episode 4
- episode 5 watch 18:20-end
- episode 6 watch 6-10:15 (though I did chuckle at some of the jealousy afterwards) and 20-end
- stop episode 7 at 20:55
- episode 8 watch 6:30-7:45 and 14-end
- watch episode 9
- episode 10 watch beginning-9:10 and 12:20-19:45
- episode 11 watch 5-end
- watch episode 12

What I Liked
- clear premise
- a reserved worrier and an open fly by the seat of his pants dynamic
- communicated/were honest in several episodes, the check in
- sweet moments
- supportive co-workers*
- laughed a couple times
- a supportive grandma
- a supportive mom and sister
- production value

Room For Improvement
- voicing internal thoughts frequently
- threatening stalking/ignoring boundaries was not romantic
- cared nothing for the mom or the co-workers* (did not like how he was forced to come out and he was grateful that they didn't mind their own business)
- not reassuring if the talk was good news or bad news in episode 4
- dead fish lip presses
- (neutral) a character refused to communicate in the beginning but at least it didn't last too long

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all over the place (watch suggestions)

Overall: the series swung from comedy (most of which I didn't find funny), to slice of life, to random steamy parts, to melodrama and ended up not being a cohesive series. 8 episodes about 50 minutes each. Aired cut on Glory Day Ent Official YouTube channel https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLE_mMXNJViWUKaXdkT7ZgBEaTk35wYbZg&si=tB7zzhUJmFIHnvuD and uncut (longer steamy scenes) on iQIYI https://www.iq.com/play/sangmin-dinneaw-episode-1-xmk7546rfw

Content Warnings: past death, non con/dub con, violence, blood, manipulation, non con touching played off as comedy, slap played as comedy, past child abuse (shown), depression, sexual harassment, slaps, attempted murder, murder?

Watch Suggestions (focus on sweet/steamy moments)
- watch episode 1
- episode 2 skip 25:40-35:45
- episode 3 watch 7:30-13:50, 19:35-40:50 and 44:50-end
- episode 4 watch 3:15-8, 10:25-12:30, 14-18:40, 28:15-31 and 47:10-end
- episode 5 watch beginning-4:40, 14-14 and 19:45-25
- episode 6 watch 21-22:15, 29:30-31 and 40:45-44:30
- episode 7 watch 31:40-37:45
- episode 8 watch 12:20-14:05, 36:20-38:20, 40-42:40 and 47-end

What I Liked
- countryside setting
- visuals
- the dream massage
- the mom talked to her son and then the apology in ep 1 and the mom overall
- sweet/caring moments
- an established couple
- the language aspect felt realistic, it's not as if every character magically understood the other person's language like we've seen before
- the traditional outfits were beautiful
- non cliche female friend
- good consent in episode 5
- glad the established couple communicated and found a happy medium, though their use of normal irked me (incorrectly implying that people who have sex frequently or have no sex are abnormal)

Room For Improvement
- did a character just murder someone?!!!! he could have gathered evidence and brought it to the police
- the near constant comedy sound effects didn't make things funny
- episode 2 had the fictional so drunk didn't recognize a person but still able to be an active participant in sex
- episode 3 and the manager was cringey instead of funny
- nonsense plan in episode 5/cliche plot point
- exposition dump in episode 6
- two more random characters in episode 6
- a character acted like a toddler in episode 7
- western/cowboy music and white underwear
- the leads only had 4 minutes together of almost 55 minutes in the finale
- nonsense plot stuff: never really explained the reason for not communicating at all even when he was an adult,why didn't he do something first and then re-connect with the alleged love of his life (the order he went in in the series made him look extremely selfish)

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short but packs an emotional punch (watch suggestions)

Overall: from the title alone we know this isn't going to be a typical romcom. I would have rated it higher if they had taken out the needless drama and just centered it on the two characters. 40 episodes about 2 minutes each on the Vigloo app. Episodes 1-3 are here https://www.vigloo.com/video/15000018?season=15000018&episode=1 ; 1-5 are free in the app but on August 5th 2024 Vigloo made all 40 episodes free to watch for 24 hours which is when I watched it (did not need to make an account, just downloaded the app and watched it, there weren't any ads).

Watch Suggestions (if you want to remove most violence/in my opinion needless drama)
- stop watching at episode 11 1m55s
- skip episodes 12-13
- watch 14-15 if you'd like to see one protagonist fight otherwise skip
- skip episodes 26-28
- episodes 29-30 are flashbacks
- skip episode 31-32
- end episode 34 at 1m30s
- skip episode 35
- skip episode 39
- watch episode 40 at 44s to the end

Content Warnings (if you watch all episodes): attempted murder, kidnapping/held against will, violence, past trauma

What I Liked
- the mom was awesome
- their relationship development/sweet moments

Room For Improvement
- needless drama, they should have just focused it on the 2 protagonists as there was enough drama with the set up
- it pulled me out of the realism that there were almost never any other people around
- open ending

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a heartfelt reality dating series

Overall: my goal for reality dating series is always for them to make friends and have minimal heartbreak, any couples are icing on the cake. 10 episodes about 45 minutes each. Aired on GagaOOLala.

Content Warnings: ep 1 briefly mentioned a partner's death

What I Liked
- the friendships
- guys were genuine
- dinner conversation starters where they all answered (such as hobbies) but they also were free to ask their own questions (such as how one guy asked how many exes everyone had although I personally think that's an irrelevant/not good question to ask in the very beginning)
- how they had a date that was both kind of their choice but kind of up to fate
- smart decision to not let them say their age or occupation right away. I think people get fixated on those things when in reality personality, values and goals are much more important compatibility-wise
- the country/mountain setting
- the episode with the guest
- episode 9 was very heartfelt
- production value

Room For Improvement
- felt very similar to His Man (with the phone calls) and I would have liked if they had forged their own path
- dragged out the whole eliminating someone for too many episodes

Comparison to other m/m dating shows
1. Boy Romance (Taiwan, currently airing)
2. His Man seasons 1 & 2 (South Korea). Excellent production value though a bit repetitive with the number of phone calls.
3. Bromance (Thailand) is also on Gagaoolala. This is the typical Bachelor/Bachelorette set up with a bunch of people competing against one another to be with the 1 bachelor. I didn't like this because they could have all been hitting on each other and we have multiple couples! I got kind of bored and skipped a bunch.
4. Love House seasons 1 & 2 (Vietnam) on YouTube (most have English subs, this is ep 1 of season 2 no subs though https://youtu.be/TKzT_nHfVTA ). I liked this set up more than Bromance because the guys could all pursue one another. I didn't like the "secret couple" aspect and dividing them up based on sexual position seemed odd (can't they discuss that in private???) Season 1 was also the most brutal "rose ceremony" I've ever seen in any dating reality show. Season 2 was better.

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another solid entry in the What Did You Eat Yesterday franchise

Overall: Shiro and Kenji returned with a familiar cast of supporting characters. 12 episodes 30 minutes each. Aired on GagaOOLala. The suggested watch order for the franchise (all on GagaOOLala now) is: What Did You Eat Yesterday season 1, What Did You Eat Yesterday New Year's special, What Did You Eat Yesterday movie and What Did You Eat Yesterday season 2.

Content Warnings: mention of past death

What I Liked
- very similar vibe to the past installments, talked about finances, shopping and cooking food, life issues that they work through
- enjoyed Gilbert's character again (several characters from past installments in the franchise), episode 6 was one of my favorites
- funny parts (like when they first learned about Gilbert's age lmao)
- Kenji's supportive mom and sisters
- that the other parents came around, would have been nice to see a final scene with all 4 of them though
- talked about the partnership system, and difficulty of getting the same rights as other couples

Room For Improvement
- that younger guy at the hair salon irritated me and the owner guy (didn't feel empathy for him)
- wanted to see a tad more explicit physical affection (even a quick kiss on the cheek would have been awesome)
- unrealistic that Shiro's grocery store friend wouldn't have met Kenji in 5 years

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promising start let down by the writing

Overall: I enjoyed the more realistic vibe, but the writing didn't work for me. Aired on Team Campy Entertainment YouTube channel. 7 episodes broken up into two parts each, each episode was about 20 minutes long.

Content Warnings: racism, beaten up off screen

What I Liked
- realistic parts (being annoyed at someone talking on the phone in the bathroom)
- funny parts, like that he wore a suit (although who wouldn't ask what the job was???)
- sweet/cute moments

Room For Improvement
- that was too harsh of a way to start a series
- too much overlap/showing old scenes between the parts and the episodes
- Andre was an unlikable character (especially in episode 6) and I didn't really like Joshua either, I didn't feel their chemistry/relationship build up
- story threads/characters dropped like the dad
- the sister exposition dump
- loud, constant background music (and mostly the same music)

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too much bullying (archery vertical series)

Overall: I wish we had more sweet moments in the past and the present, as I did not enjoy the duration and amount of bullying. 51 episodes about 2 minutes each, first 8 episodes free to watch. Aired on Shortime (my referral link is https://playground.shortime.en/invite/NKNIWI (all letters) and it should get you a bonus) & iQIYI app

Content Warnings: bullying, abuse, non con kissing, manhandling, non con kissing turned consensual, manipulation, drugging, held against will, torture

What I Liked
- archery integration
- visuals
- finally stood up to his dad
- sweet/caring moments
- watch episode 46-51

Room For Improvement
- brief montage did not establish their relationship enough in the past so it wasn't enough for me to root for them in the present
- love rivals
- cliche wannabe wife
- a character was so mad at another character who gave a very valid reason of not wanting to be a secret
- could have easily figured out what happened in the past
- noble idiot trope (twice!)

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