BL Compilations

anthology series

Episodes are 6-12 minutes each. Airing on Strongberry's YouTube channel https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNd7BhdAz80qUNA7TbUwA-nsD3o9T94_3&si=68-U3UiuA7a966wJ (not in correct watch order)

Story 1: A Ghost’s First Love (GL = ghost and her love (per the title)) 7.5
2 episodes
Content Warning: non con kiss.
Some scenes were too dark. I don't understand what the last scene meant.

Story 2: Look at Me (BL = introvert x optician) 7.5
2 episodes
odd angles for the camerawork
did not like how the optician said he looked better without glasses

Story 3: A Killer Recipe: The Red (BL = cafe owner x contract killer)
4 episodes
Content Warnings: murders (can start part 1 at 1:40 and part 3 skip 2:15-4:55), past death
This is a prequel to the story in the first anthology. I really wish it had been a sequel, but I enjoyed it for what it was. It was odd with the retcon (seemed to just starting a relationship vs they were a long term established couple) and why didn't a character go to the police?

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what was even solved???

Overall: follows a couple who dated for 5 years and then broke up. Aired on Shortime as part 1 with 3 episodes about 8 minutes each and part 2 the same length. My referral link is https://playground.shortime.en/invite/NKNIWI (all letters) which should get you a bonus.

Content Warning: vomiting in episode 3

What I Liked
- visuals
- acting

Room For Improvement
- Ji Hun needs to leave his ex in the dust and get with a nice boyfriend. When he ex filmed them having sex and then left right afterwards it was so gross. His ex couldn't even say "I love you" when he knew it was important to Ji Hun? Trash behavior.
- in part 2 both seemed hot and cold, they didn't appear to solve their problems and I have zero faith they would stay together

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it's fine for what it is

Overall: an okay way to spend 2 hours. Episodes are about 15 minutes each. Aired on iQIYI https://www.iq.com/album/play-me-2026-223c45wlxrp?lang=en_us and Viu (Thailand).

Content Warnings: past death, near suicide (can start episode 1 at 2 min to skip), past abusive parent with injury/blood, non/dub con kiss, not con picture taking

Watch Suggestions (to cut out content warnings and cliches)
- episode 1 start at 2 min and skip 7:55-8:10
- episode 2 you're on your own
- episode 3 watch 3-6:50 and 9:35-13:45
- episode 4 watch 9-end
- episode 5 watch 3:30-10
- episode 6 watch 2-11
- episode 7 watch 1:30-3:10
- episode 8 watch 2:10-end

What I Liked
- visuals
- easy to understand premise

Room For Improvement
- a 2 minute conversation would have solved a misunderstanding that led to years long ghosting
- several coincidental meetings, a horn at a certain time
- love rival
- comedy sound effects didn't maket things funny
- noble idiot trope
- side couple shoehorned in

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First Impression: Peach and Me

Overall: solid continuation so far. 4 episodes about an hour each. Airing on iQIYI https://www.iq.com/play/peach-and-me-episode-1-bi0gqb6fds?lang=en_us and GMMTV YouTube channel (not available in the Americas except a few countries in Central America, not available in Japan, Korea or Thailand)

What I Liked
- good continuation that so far is avoiding sequel/special episode cliches
- I chuckled a few times*
- tattoo was awesome

Room For Improvement
- *comedy sound effects did not make things funny
- odd that a head on a shoulder was too much in front of kids

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a 'turn off your brain' series

Overall: this is an indie series that I think was funded by the resort where the series takes place. 10 minute episodes. Aired on YouTube https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLahF_xqZb9Rd_iJjXDY2bVZPgFe4-KVeT&si=uqx1HxsoK-qh3WGc

Content Warning: manipulation

What I Liked
- nice to turn your brain off
- it ended well with both couples

Room For Improvement
- choppy, they ended episode 2 indoors and then suddenly at the beginning of episode 3 were eating (again) outside?
- did not feel chemistry/relationship development before the kiss in episode 3
- they shouldn't have had more than 1 couple with the short run time
- episode 7 was skippable

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one of my favorite BL series with a sci-fi element

Overall: wish they would have explained a few more things. 8 episodes about 25 minutes each. Aired on iQIYI https://www.iq.com/play/always-meet-again-episode-1-1d04lztvma8?lang=en_us ; GagaOOLala https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/6303/always-meet-again-2026 (not available in U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, U.K., Mexico, Spain, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan); Heavenly (S. Korea) and FOD (Japan)

Content Warnings: (a major one but it's complicated), blood, punch

What I Liked
- different situation where time travel happened
- protagonist had a believable amount of disbelief, then acceptance
- flirty protagonist
- how a character acted on the information he had and when he gained new information he changed his actions realistically

Room For Improvement
- a character punched another character (which seemed like an overreaction) and then suddenly all was fine and dandy, a few nonsense things happened
- there were aspects of world building that they never explained

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Love Triangles, part 2 (more triangles and a worse plot)

Overall: the writers thought that they didn't have enough characters/love triangles so they threw in another triangle and then made them into rectangles? Am I in geometry class? If you want to watch idiots and jerks totally mess up their love lives, then this is the show for you. I slogged thru ep 1, 2, 6 and 8 and cannot bring myself to watch the rest. Watched on Gagaoolala.

What I Liked
- Valen's awkward attempts at moving their relationship forward in the beginning was kind of adorable
- overall production value was good, a few errors with the English subs but not bad
- the enjoyable OST is by Jeff Satur
- the kissing scene was fairly well done in ep 1, at least no dead fish lip press kiss
- I did appreciate that there was an apology from Mr. Goldfish Memory

Room For Improvement
- characters were really stupid and unlikable, I'm not even going to get into all the ways that they were awful
- a 16 minute recap of season 1 out of a 45min episode, 16 minutes! I like a short recap to center what happened before but this was way too long. And it wasn't clear where it ended. Weren't they lying in the sand/water at the end of season 1, that's where it should have started.
- a third love triangle, you've got to be kidding me (update they got even worse with even more characters added in to create love rectangles)
- Kaitoon is the stupidest protagonist, he has both the memory and brain of a gold fish. He can't figure out that either guy is romantically interested in him? And why can't they just tell him directly? Kaitoon and Valen stupidly started back at square 1 when I thought they were going to advance their relationship in season 2.

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power and control

Overall: instead of love, I felt a character's obsession stemmed from power and control (i.e. abuse). Note that the series and my review may have triggering content. 12 episodes about 40 minutes each. I have not read the book this series is based on, I have watched the two one hour movies from 2016 (A Round Trip to Love) and I tried to review the series based on its own merits.

Content Warnings: rape multiple times*, sexual assault/non con kissing/non con touching, intimate partner abuse and violence including choking, internal and external homophobia, deaths, grief, drugging, held against will, attempted suicide?, held against will, attempted murder, blood, punches, mental health struggles, I might be missing some content warnings

*episode 2 felt more like internalized homophobia, episode 4 was rape (it's not just fight or flight, there is also freeze, flop and friend and a person's brain can choose automatically how to respond https://rapecrisis.org.uk/get-help/tools-for-victims-and-survivors/understanding-your-response/
and episode 9/10 (not sure if it was a flashback) was also rape)

What I Liked
- acting
- sweet moments
- I did appreciate the apology in episode 2
- not a cliched woman character

Room For Improvement
- the wealthy/powerful aggressive pursuer and the not wealthy/not powerful reluctant pursuee dynamic didn't work for me because the pursuee felt more like an abuse victim most of the time
- characters were a bit stupid to realize that there could have been family interference
- after what happened in episode 9 and the first half of episode 10 it was unrealistic how everything was fine and dandy between them
- him having bipolar disorder seemed like a cop out and adds to mental health disorder stereotypes

Question: I'm not sure when this is supposed to take place. I saw landlines but also iPhones (first created in 2007). If it's set a couple decades ago, then the other students freaking out at school would make a bit more sense because I can't see that happening now.

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quirky comedy, romance, crime series

Overall: though I did like the main couple and several side characters, the tone was all over the place. 12 episodes about 25 minutes each. Aired on Connecting to You YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA97yNFVRehg ; GagaOOLala https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/8579/connecting-to-you-2026-e01 ; iQIYI https://www.iq.com/album/connecting-to-you-2026-2fbr7b78pud?lang=en_us ; Viki viki.com/tv/41629c-connecting-to-you ; Rakuten TV ; MyVideo and friDay

Content Warnings: near suicide (ep 1 skip 2:30-5), bloody nose, child abuse (ep 3 skip 8:45-17:20), manipulation, fight, held against will, attempted murders past death

What I Liked
- unique premise
- different personalities
- caring moments/relationship
- supportive friend and grandmother

Room For Improvement
- exposition/world building dump to start
- some of the humor didn't work for me
- the balance was off, it's as if the series couldn't decide what it wanted to be: comedy, romance or detective/serious cases and then didn't do any of them really well
- that pos dad should have had more consequences
- needed more confirmation of their relationship status in the finale

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voice actor and his fan

Overall: this was cute. 6 episodes about 6 minutes each. Aired on QueerDeep's YouTube channels (they had issues with YouTube so all episodes might not be online) https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5eYOvIOJXrPrwsI-ciq-Vc-BMgOpG5mO&si=BvlV7RC-8ruVTr4p and https://youtu.be/cgW7W4I6RCU?si=gIEvehYxndlKuprK

Content Warnings: mental health struggles, cyberbullying/disinformation

What I Liked
- easy to understand premise
- focused on 2 characters
- a character was crushing so hard
- I laughed at the empty coffee cup in ep 2

Room For Improvement
- odd that he immediately moved in
- therapy was needed

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a darker revenge short series

Overall: this was not a fluffy romance but I didn't judge it by fluffy romance standards. 6 episodes about 10 minutes each. Aired on Secret of Us YouTube channel https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7BSona1dmx4ez-PNNMmmFsAt8zwjDhsj&si=tbfb1Upl2OXvxJGa

Content Warnings: sexual assault, violence, blood, non con recording, stalking, manhandling, blackmail, deaths/murders, non con kissing turned consensual, drugging, past bullying, threatened suicide

Notes:
- to skip most of the content warnings start episode 1 at 2:15 and episode 4 at 4:45, then end it at episode 5 9m30s
- the subtitles say half brother but it might mean step brothers (i.e. not biologically related)

What I Liked
- bath tub scene
- the BL manga
- when a character decided to change (in ep 4 after 4:45)

Room For Improvement
- flash forward/present and then went back to start
- seemed needlessly dark with the third guy
- no consequence shown for a terrible character

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hope to see the actors in something else

Overall: did not vibe with the plot. 6 episodes about 8 minutes each. Aired on Secret of Us YouTube Official https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7BSona1dmx5qAPZpNNjT9XEv_wyP_HzT&si=ouK5zhi2gVdEigwN

Note: in the trailer a character said they weren't related by blood, so they are step brothers who appear to have been raised together since elementary school aged based on that picture

Content Warning: manipulation

What I Liked
- the dreams
- visuals
- the younger character's plotting in the beginning*

Room For Improvement
- *he was way too manipulative later on, even when he came clean I didn't trust him
- the older guy was shown to be extremely straight and then the sudden 180 turn and open ending did not work for me

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a nice way to spend time

Overall: though I'm generally not a fan of manipulation, I was happy with how things progressed/ended. 29 episodes, about 2 minutes each. First 3 episodes are on YouTube here https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-UwHhkbex8oOO_F3qasjlzStoabjnG9-&si=DnorKiMj2k5f8O1I - rest of the episodes are on the BUMP app which is not available in all countries. Later available at https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/8283/my-other-half-2024

Content Warnings: manipulation, trespassing, non con touching, victim blaming

What I Liked
- sweet moments
- the perspective switch
- that a character immediately apologized for victim blaming

Room For Improvement
- some odd music choices that didn't fit the vibe of the scene
- the cat blocked shot at the very end
- the BUMP app is not available in all countries but they haven't released the rest on any other official platform

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