etoks21

Not many MDLers take my comments as even slightly "passive." :)

Yay! :)

In reference to another show, I wrote recently something like "THIS is how you do tropes right." Because with creativity and imagination, there is an unlimited number of ways to portray interactions/situations we've seen on screen 500 times before, and that show did just that.

THIS show, not so much.

And you're right...Hioki's been told and Watarai has confirmed, multiple times, that he LIKES him, goddammit. So, when Hioki goes "huh?...eh...You mean you...LIKE me..." yet again in the sixth episode, he comes off as on the spectrum, and I don't think that's meant to be part of the story.

"But let’s not act like the other extreme fujoshis and fudanshis who only show up when there’s sex to fetishize are any better."

I'm NOT acting like that. I didn't address that issue at all.
What's your meaning of the word "fetishize" here? There are way too many people on MDL who see any appreciation or enjoyment of sex in BLs (and I challenge you to name one BL in which indications or depictions of sex are truly graphic or explicit) as the "fetishization" of it. They like to throw the word around without understanding what it means.

I'm a gay man too, and I know exactly what you mean about the richness and value inherent for us in shows that depict versions of my young self in romantic situations I never experienced. When I first discovered BL six or seven years ago, I spent weeks bingeing old shows, often sobbing over scenes that made me feel seen...by myself, for the first time. I imagined myself in those scenarios, and wept with joy at what I was seeing and with sorrow at what I had missed.

Which is yet another factor in why this kind of show annoys me. REAL high school boys don't act like this. REAL high school boys in love for the first time experience intense romantic emotion right alongside sexual desire. They don't spend weeks on end acting like they don't understand that another guy who has told them 50 times that he likes them, actually, you know, LIKES them.

They don't tremble and hem and haw nervously for weeks and weeks, coyly pretending not to know what's going on, far past the point where what is going on has been made clear, both verbally and physically. The vast majority of real people don't do that. The version of young gay male romance we see here is the sexless Panda Bear version that the "teen girls" to whom I refer ooh and aah over because it's like cotton candy melting in their mouths...there's nothing there. And they like it that way.

It's the "fetishization" of gay romance, twisted into something soft, silky, without weight or edges, and nearly unrecognizable, for these "teen girls"' enjoyment.

If you want a long list of BLs that do an infinitely better job of portraying young gay men experiencing first-time love than this show, just let me know.

I repeat: "I've invested four hours to this series, so I'll stick with it to the bitter end. I've always found Hioki to be cute, but he's trying my patience now. :)"

Don't mind me, I'll be fine. You go ahead and enjoy this to your heart's content.

Sure, you were...girl.

Clearly, SOMEONE needs to give you English lessons, since you're attempting to use it to communicate here and failing. I thought I'd do you a favor and step in. oopsie

I don't care what color you are.
No one assumed your nationality.
I don't care if you're Asian, either.

"...then please leave Asian media alone." lol And you, of course, represent all of "Asian media." You know, now that I think of it, "Asian media" is a fairly racist/xenophobic term to use. There are many different countries, ethnicities, and regions in Asia, yet you lumped everyone into one category as though they're all the same. NE Asia, SE Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, West Asia (Middle East), and North Asia (Siberia). Each has distinctive peoples, countries, cultures, and traditions. It saddens me that you live with this burden of internalized racism against yourself.

No one mentioned "white people."
No one mentioned "superiority."
However, your comment drips with the internalized racism/inferiority complex towards white people that has you hearing voices in your head that whisper, "I'm inferior," "I'm not enough," "I must write stupid, revealing things about myself on the Internet." Sad. Try to love yourself. Rudolf does.

"...white ppl is insane, this is why no one likes yall."
RACIST asf.

Nowhere did I state or imply that anyone had to "have sex like rabbits." That inference took root of its own accord in your little, sex-phobic brain.
As for the lame "misogynistic" accusation, I refer you to my reply to another moronic MDLer's comment posted just above yours.

I realize "misogynistic" is a go-to, trendy label tossed around loosely these days, but your ignorant abuse of the term only disempowers it.

Your comment is non-responsive to anything I actually wrote, and your exceedingly lame and lazy use of the misogynist accusation is typical of a certain type of MDLer.

Nowhere did I write that ALL women are "teen girls," or that ALL teen girls fit my description.

"...teen girls who love to watch two boys pretend to be homo, as long as the homo part isn't at all realistic..." Are you suggesting this statement asserts ALL teen girls "...love to watch two boys pretend to be homo, as long as the homo part isn't at all realistic...?" If it did so, it might be "misogynist," but it doesn't. It very clearly refers to a certain subset of teen girls, those who "...love to watch two boys pretend to be homo, as long as the homo part isn't at all realistic..." Did I repeat that qualifier enough times for it to sink in?

Teen girls who "love to watch two boys pretend to be homo, as long as the homo part isn't at all realistic..." are a tiny minority of all teen girls on the planet, or even of the teen girls on MDL. But they are a large majority of the "teen girls" in this comment thread. In this descriptor, "teen girls" refers to all humans with this mindset, be they male, female, or otherwise.

Furthermore, I went on to refer to "...THESE teen girls..." twice, meaning the teen girls who fit my description. Not once did I indicate that ALL teen girls fit my description, yet you thoughtlessly leapt at the chance to throw around the word "misogynist" as though you know how to read. You don't.

My comment is the opposite of real misogyny, because it credits the vast majority of teen girls with NOT doing what I described. Please work on reading comprehension and apply it when reading my comments. Or scroll on by, or block me.

Thanks.

Interesting.
I'm perfectly "chill."
Any assumption otherwise is of your invention, not mine.

Oh, thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. :)

Just read through a bunch of comments below, and doing so helped me understand more fully why this show is a drag for me: It's a love-fest for teen girls who love to watch two boys pretend to be homo, as long as the homo part isn't at all realistic, and the boys don't do any of that icky homo stuff that real homos do.

I believe "comfortable" is used 27 times in comments below. The teen girls are "comfortable" with homos as long as they don't take things too far into homo-stuff.

Hioki and Watarai exist only as puffy, sexless Teddy Bears these teen girls can squeeze, hug, and slobber over for 25 minutes per week, kicking their teen girl legs and squealing with delight as the two pretend gay boys pretend to fall in love and act all nervous and hesitant and overwhelmed, even if it goes on for eight episodes and not much of anything really happens.

It's the uncomfortable, repressed nervousness, eyelid-batting, and stammering these teen girls thrill to, as long as it doesn't really go anywhere, and the climax is a dead fish kiss.

Ep. 8:
It took the entire episode for Hioki to utter two or three sentences.
I know the stuttering and stammering is supposed to indicate his insecurities and disbelief that this is happening to him, but all the ummmms and hmmmms and ehhhh?s every week make the whole thing drag.
At this point, his acting surprised that Watarai likes him is just ridiculous. He's heard it, like, 50 times.
Also, what's with acting surprised that Watarai kissed him? He's come close to doing so also 50 times, plus having confessed 50 times. Makes Hioki seem mentally slow.
Also, Watarai's a stalker.
Also, if Hioki doesn't relax and let his personality emerge, this relationship won't last long. Loving a mouse is hard work.
The three friends are kind of stalker-ish, too.
And oh god, the trope of school girls being ditzy, boy-crazy airheads who spend half their time composing confession letters that will only be rejected by obvious homosexuals is exhausting, at least as portrayed in this series. I suppose a lot of viewers who haven't seen every f**king BL like I have may find it amusing, but for me it's tired.
But then, this series wouldn't exist without tired tropes, so that's the way it is.
I've invested four hours to this series, so I'll stick with it to the bitter end. I've always found Hioki to be cute, but he's trying my patience now. :)

hahaha
Please explain the "racist" slam. I'm dying to hear this...

:D You are so right.

I should have known far earlier than now, that I haven't "seen" an excellent Korean thriller until I've seen it at least three times.
I thought I'd "seen" this one after just one watch, and now I sit, bawling my eyes out after a second watch, having caught all manner of important details I missed the first time.
As I'm sure I will do again after my third watch.

Kim Jung Hyun is tremendous in the lead, but veteran actress Kil Hae Yeon steals the film as the mother. Outstanding.

I'm bumping this up a full point from my first rating.

9/10

I'll pass, thanks.

When it finally debuts, and you sit down to watch it, take five slow, easy, deep breaths, exhale gently, and expect nothing. That's the best mindset for me to take on any film. :) I don't always succeed, of course.

You are one hundred percent correct.
The shipper/fangirls aren't watching characters anymore either, but they haven't the discernment to know or the wit to care.

lol
Says the fan-service loving, super-shipper BL fangirl, the kind the Thai BL industry loves.

The person who put together the trailer deserves an Academy Award.
I came twice.

The trailer looks so epic, and the actors so magnificent, I'm going to make a conscious effort to downplay my expectations. I am always open to being blown away.