BL Compilations

feels dated (and not a BL)

Overall: this is a sitcom about two guys who pretend to be a couple for views/money. I did not interpret this as a BL or censored BL. There are maybe hints with one guy towards the other but it did not feel mutual. 12 episodes about 10 minutes each, on GagaOOLala.

Content Warnings: attempted self harm played as comedy, mentions of stalking, harassment, fight

What I Liked
- laughed 3 times
- abs
- the innuendo in the title (and at one point they cooked eggplant so maybe that was on purpose)
- translator notes

Room For Improvement
- did not see mutual attraction/love, definitely didn't see the same kind of hints/chemistry like in other censored things from China
- the laugh track, didn't find majority of their jokes funny
- making fun of masculine woman and effeminate men
- making fun of abusive contracts
- bad sound quality in episode 3

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sweet and fluffy moments from two couples of Coffee Melody

Overall: this is a follow up 1 year later of two couples from Coffee Melody the series. I rate the 1st episode 7 and 2nd 8 for an average of 7.5. Each episode is about 30 minutes long. Aired on YouTube.

Content Warnings: none

What I Liked
- the fluffy, domestic bliss and sweet moments (and there were quite a few)
- the teaching moments in episode 2
- same sex marriage advocacy in both episodes

Room For Improvement
- in both of these it felt like their dialogue and physical affection is what we'd see at the start of dating, not after 1 year, episode 1 had more physical affection but they felt unnaturally shy about it
- particularly in episode 1, scenes jumped around and lacked a coherent story line, episode 2 was less jumpy
- the road noise was a bit loud over some of the talking scenes outside
- the intro has a bunch of characters that aren't in either episode which seems strange (they were characters from the full series)
- a bit too slow paced for me which is reminiscent of the series

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A sweet, slice of life high school story

Overall: a nice, short (35min) realistic movie about two high schoolers, one of whom is trying to figure out who he is and what he wants

Content Warning: homophobia (mainly from 1 teacher, bleh)

What I Liked
- the theme of being true to yourself and pursuing your dreams
- a confident, out gay guy (and his friends were fine with his sexual orientation)
- the pairing of a goofy extrovert and a quiet introvert (this reminds me of MODC)
- how both apologize for pushing each other (both physically and mentally)

Room For Improvement
- no sense of how much time passed when they were getting to know each other or after the incident
- the night scenes are too dark and need a bit more lighting
- the two female students were intrusive and were not being as supportive as they thought
- the female teacher telling him not to pursue art and then being terrible at classroom management
- the male teacher for being homophobic (slight redemption after the incident)
- the ending was fine, but it would have been nice to have a super short scene (or even pics) during/after the credits with them meeting up later
- having both small hard coded and soft coded English subs, they were actually a bit different but I couldn't tell which was better (watched on gagaoolala)

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A beautiful story about family, love, self-acceptance, regret & atonement

Content Warnings: (not between m/m) character death, suicide (not shown and not sure if that's what happened)

Overall: I was moved to tears by a beautiful story about what it really means to be family (it's more than biology), how to accept oneself, and trying to right past wrongs. FYI the title on GagaOOLala is "On The Way Home."

What I Liked
- the themes of the story that I mentioned: family, love, self-acceptance, regret, atonement/2nd chances
- the friend's reactions were realistic, almost like going through stages of grief such as disbelief, anger, sadness and acceptance

Room For Improvement
- the m/m relationship was too off screen for me. It was a major factor of what happened, but if I hadn't read the synopsis, I wouldn't have even known anything until too far into the movie. I'm not saying that I wanted NSFW scenes, just to show the love between the characters and how the daughter was feeling left out (see below point)
- I realize the daughter was going through quite a lot, but there could have been additional motivation (like showing what was happening at school for example, was she being bullied? did she see classmates display homophobia and it made her worried?) to give her actions more reasoning behind them

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coming of age romance

Overall: I enjoyed this coming of age series. 12 episodes about 45 minutes each. Aired on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLszepnkojZI76sf0RYGPm5m5JfLRhlpmI

Content Warnings: bullying/fight/punches

What I Liked
- dynamics with the pairs
- friend group
- caring moments
- they felt like 10th graders*
- color grading helped make it feel it was set not in the present day

Room For Improvement
- *wasn't into the 4 eyes comment by a protagonist but it did feel immature/10th grader-ish
- though I know it was a coming of age/slice of life, it did feel slow to me in some parts, you could start this at episode 8 part 1 to focus more on the lead pair's romantic relationship
- one character was absent in the finale which was odd
- voice over narration

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opposing forces (watch suggestions)

Overall: I liked their dynamic, but the writing fell into cliches with a frustrating ending. 10 episodes about 25 minutes each. Aired on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/@%E8%B5%B4%E6%B5%B7KissOrKill and GagaOOLala https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/8746/kiss-or-kill-2026-e01 (not in Japan or Korea)

Content Warnngs: past death, child trafficking mentioned, blood, past murders/violence/blood, held against will, beaten up, murders, blood, manipulation, torture, coerced sex (it's complicated)

Watch Suggestions (to take out most content warnings and focus more on the relationship)
- episode 1 watch 13-end
- episode 2 watch 3-6:30, 7:30-13:30, 14:30-end
- episode 3 watch 8-18, 19-20:30
- episode 4 watch 4:15-7:15, 13-15:30, 15:55-end
- episode 5 watch beginning-7:10, 14:45-19:20
- episode 6 watch 11:50-18:20
- episode 7 watch 3:15-4:30, 17-endep
- episode 8 watch beginning-10:20
- skip episode 9
- episode 10 watch 20-end

What I Liked
- tension
- fight sequences
- unique premise

Room For Improvement
- use of ai especially with the flashbacks it made me feel zero emotion
- needed more relationship development and less focus on illegal activities
- noble idiot trope
- poor communication
- the supposed good guy mass murdered a bunch of brainwashed teens???!!!
- nonsense in the finale and ambiguous ending (could have been a dream)
- too many flashbacks in the finale
- odd camera work (like close ups of 1 part of the body like an ear)

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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?

Story 4: President's Secret Mark 7.5
Had the odd appeared totally drunk and the next second was sober. Abrupt ending.

Story 5: Rec Off, Kiss O 6
Content Warnings: manipulation
I felt terrible for the voice actor. Not a HEA (cheating).

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better as it went on

Overall: the beginning was cringey; however, the series kept getting better and better. 12 episodes about 50 minutes each. https://www.iq.com/play/mr-fanboy-episode-1-1dyrv206y2o?lang=en_us

Content Warning: panic attack, manipulation, slap, intimate partner abuse (not between the main or side couple)

Watch Suggestions (to cut out a lot of the manager/show drama and focus on the romantic relationships)
- I might go back and re-watch episodes 1 & 2 for timings
- episode 3 watch 18-24:30, 41-49, 53-58
- episode 4 watch 4 3:40-4:11, 17:15-22, 43-45:20, 49-end
- episode 5 watch 16-end
- episode 6 watch 18:10-22:30, 43:45-end
- episode 7 watch beginning -7:30, 33:45-37:20, 1hr-1hr 6
- episode 8 watch beginning-35:50, 40:45-end 8

What I Liked
- showed other acting pairs with cameos
- acting, James in particular was fantastic
- sweet moments
- intimacy (good consent in episode 8)
- chaos gremlin

Room For Improvement
- the stalking thing in episode 1, he was in the wrong but then threatened to drag the company on social media so then the company caved
- fan stuff was a bit cringey
- too much with catty managers (felt like stereotypes of effeminate men/trans women)

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can start at episode 5

Overall: there wasn't anything terrible, but nothing drew me in either. I suggest starting at episode 5 if you're not hooked in the first episode. I watched the Thai Your Sky series, but am reviewing this series based on its own merits. 9 episodes about 25 minutes each. Aired on GagaOOLala https://www.gagaoolala.com/en/videos/8455/your-sky-hare-nochi-koi-2026 (not in Thailand, Japan, Taiwan, Korea) and TVer (Japan).

Content Warnings: drugging?, non con touching, punches, dub/non con kisses, homophobia

Watch Suggestions (to focus more on their sweet relationship moments)
- watch episode 5
- episode 6 watch 16:15-19:30
- start episode 7 at 9 minutes
- start episode 8 at 7 minutes
- episode 9 watch 16-end

What I Liked
- easy to understand premise
- visuals
- his family (except for the dad towards the end who annoyed me)

Room For Improvement
- the pacing was slow, you could start at episode 5, watch the montage and be up to speed on their relationship
- love rivals (at least she was fine once everything was clearly explained)
- the low affect made chemistry difficult

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fans of the series will enjoy it

Overall: solid continuation. 4 episodes about an hour each. Aired 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)

Content Warning: murders

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
- the murders in episode 3 were brushed over, they were 100% no needed

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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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