jpny01

That was strange. I'm with Gene's father - it's weird for a kid to hang out all the time and sleep with someone that much younger, especially when he has his own brother to play with. I have to think about this episode a little, but that whole relationship was odd and didn't really illuminate anything. I get why Sib would worhip the older boy showing him affection and attention, but I didn't really see Gene's motivation. What was he lacking that he turned to Sib for, and what did he get out of the relationship?

Also, a kid that young forgets - I don't even remember who I was friends with at that age. And more confusing, there's really no reason for Sib not to have told Gene who he was - he doesn't exactly look like a little kid anymore. Are you going to view a guy that big, muscly and handsome as some little kid brother? After that much time, you're resetting your relationship, except you're likely to have some trust and warm feelings due to nostalgia and family relations, so he threw away his best advantage.

And now Gene's reaction to the truth seems way OTT. I assumed there was something deeper that was hidden, like when they were a little older - maybe some sexual expirimentation, or romantic feelings on Gene's part that were crushed somehow (given how young Sib was, I'm really glad they didn't go there). I could get him being grumpy and irritated about it, but totally crushed and sobbing doesn't feel like the right reaction.

I'm still trying to figure out what this series is about. Is it a straightforward romance? There's nothing wrong with that, but it doesn't feel like that was the setup or marketing. Is it a parody of the BL culture and/or industry? It's barely touched that. Maybe there's a theme of pretending to be something other than yourself, but Gene's the main character and he doesn't do that (there's denial in there, but no pretense). I feel like there's something I'm missing, but I don't know what.

Aey told Gene that he liked Nubsib, and asked Gene if he was into Nubsib - and he lied. Aey is not in the wrong. Gene isn't really either, but he did encourage Aey to pursue Sib, which is strange and I don't blame Aey for not being happy about it.

When I watched Make It Right I was so into Tee, but I think Peak may have pulled ahead a bit in the intervening 4 years. When he had that cameo in Why RU, it took me a moment to recognize him he looked so beautiful. I couldn't sit through Never Eat Alone, but in that yellow outfit in the first episode Peak looked so cute it was actually painful. I hope we get to see him in a real BL soon.

I think it's the sudden change from enemies to lovers. There was no arc to it, so nothing to invest in. They hated each other so viscerally that I thought it was OTT and unpleasant to watch - and then they turned 180 degrees for no apparent reason and with no warning.

If they had at least started with hate sex it might have been more convincing - besides how funny it would have been, it would have explained their hatred as sublimated sexual attraction.

The "enemies" part was totally psycho - so much so that I didn't think anyone would care if they got together, but the "lovers" part was so sudden and OTT that I forgot this was the same story, so I bought into it. Mostly due to what Tue looks like.

And the 1970s porn music whenever they looked at each other - if it isn't a satire, there are some people involved that should consider a change of careers. If it is a satire, what was the point being made?

Is this a parody? I can't tell. The porn music every time they look at each other - porn music is really funny when it doesn't go anywhere - was that meant to be funny, or was it a metaphor for sexual attraction?

So this was enemies to lovers - with the enemies part psychotic hatred, then after an instant flip for no apparent reason, the lovers part was so sweet that I have diabetes now. The change was too sudden and too unmotivated. You need an arc to the relationship so that the viewers invest in it.

I was commenting to someone else that it would have worked better if they'd started out with hate sex, which would fit their personalities and show that their OTT animosity was sublimated sexual desire and at least explained the transition.

Is each story going to be a trope on steroids? Like someone has a girlfriend in the way of the ship that's so evil it turns out she's actually Hitler in disguise?

I did like that they wanted to touch each other and cuddle a lot, behaving like people actually in love.

A lot of people didn't like the ending, but it was perfect! That revolving shot on the rooftop - that was so funny.

I love it how the sound for his flashbacks start while he's still in the "present" and he doesn't know what's going on.

This isn't a shallow parody of BL - it's a meta parody, but there are underlying themes. I don't even how this ended up on my radar, but I'm glad it did.

The product placement in Ep 3 nearly killed me. Whoever wrote this is a genius.

The main one hasn't done anything really creepy yet - maybe by American standards where nobody is allowed to touch he's been mildly 'not quite right' - but I predict he'll be fine. Or he'll be bad and will be punished. This show has never normalized bad behavior.

You heard right - that was deliberate.

I think it's a misunderstand that the point of this is to make fun of the tropes - it is, but in a meta way, in that Mobu has to avoid the tropes so he can remain an "extra". If he trips and someone catches him, he has to turn gay (and is an uke). He's constantly having to make decisions - is the danger in the drinking invitation going and getting drunk, or is it not going and becoming the Lone Wolf?

Making fun of the tropes isn't what's clever - it's that they're a minefield that Mobu has to navigate, because if he gets caught in one, then he's a main character and so he has to turn gay. If he can avoid them, he can safely remain an "extra" - one of the characters in the background not important enough to end up in a pairing.

The cleverness is not from the tropes, it's from Mobu's struggle to remain an extra. The way everything he does is calculated to avoid tropes, because if he is caught in one, he's no longer an extra and has to turn gay. The tropes are like a minefield he's wending his way through. Like when he rejects his friend's invitation to go drinking as too risky, but then realizes he's put himself in danger of becoming the lone wolf character. In BLs, people deny their feelings until a trope - that's why he's avoiding them. Like in 90% of BLs, someone trips and is caught, and they stare at each other for super long. From that point it's inevitable.

OMG, this is so funny - it's the series I've been desperately needing for years. The scene where the blond guy walks in and the light shining from him blinds Mobu - this is so cleverly written.

And his desperation to remain an "extra" - when he turns down the drinking invitation - "Wait, that could make me a lone wolf!"

YNEH Was wonderful - I've been meaning to watch it again, but it was on the heavy side so I've been waiting to be in the right mood. It's a little close to home, so I need to feel optimistic about the future before I watch something that makes me regret all my might-have-beens.

HIStory 4 is polarizing because of one issue that Xing Si is the only person qualified to judge, and he does not agree with the harsher judgments I've seen here.

I enjoy the cute BLs too, where perfect people that never make mistakes are cute to each other, but they're in the end forgettable - things like this series that make you think stay with me. I need to go rewatch it before the next ep to pick up everything I missed.

Gaya Sa Pelikua and ITSAY were layered with symbolism & visual metaphor too - that and the overall quality of both put them on my favorites list.

Actually I think the ending was largely a literal cartoon as well as a figurative one. I really wish I'd stopped just before "5 months later", which would have been a perfect ending. The series might have been stronger as well if the thing that happens that the title is from didn't happen - a little ambiguity would have given it more poignancy. Not everyone is a believer, and this was bash you over the head-type religious.

I grew up Catholic, and I love the idea of an angel behind you smacking you in the head to keep you awake through a Rosary.

Another brilliant analysis! That's why I love shows like this that are so laden with visual symbolism - you can watch it several times and still be picking up things you missed. I'm 100% certain you're right about this - that is absolutely what that means. Of course now that I said that it will end up being the other thing.

Nobody is looking for sex. We're looking for the characters to actually interact. The first kiss was not welcome, and the last one was only necessary because the first one wasn't welcomed.. It was fine - in fact it could just was well have been done verbally, or a hug, or just the hand-holding.

What we want is to see the "L" in the BL. The couple didn't really meet until over a third of the way though the series, and they had only a few minutes of interaction which was never overtly romantic.

The movie version did fix the problem by actually showing them working on the song together, then after the rejected kiss there's a scene of In Soo alone at home thinking of Sang Yi which shows us how he feels and makes it a love story, as opposed to what it was before, which was one-sided pining until the last 30 seconds.

The problem is almost never lack of sex or even kissing - it's a lack of anything to make it a love story instead of just a bromance with a romantic ending stapled to the end of the last scene.

Everyone always says that, so I loaded the entire comments section for this series, and the only people who even mention the word sex are you and flypsyde, and there are zero occurences of "love scene". And Crescent Moon sort of said it but said "bed". It's actually always someone saying "See? BLs don't need sex!" Yes, obviously, because almost none of them have any, nor is anyone really clamoring for it. It's frankly bordering on homophobia to insist on further desexualizing a genre that's already usually one chaste kiss from being bromance. And by desexualizing, I mean stripping the characters of their sexuality. We're people, you know, who have to suffer and fight for basic rights, not a fetish to squeal over.

I mean isn't it sort of strange to congratulate a gay love story for having no gay love in it? Other than one apparently unwelcome chaste kiss near the end and another in the last few seconds, which is when you finally find out feelings are mutual.

However... while the webseries didn't work for me, the movie version had one crucial extra scene which tied it all together - it was just a few seconds, with In Soo imagining Sang Yi there with him singing, before the scene in the offices. If that had been in the series, I'll bet 90% of the negative comments below would not be there. And no kiss, no imagined kiss - just a brief flash into In Soo's head which made this a love story. We already knew it was, but that's tell, not show, whereas this is show, not tell.

I think it's time to stop assuming everyone is complaining about a lack of sex. That's a big assumption to make about people you don't know with no data to back it up. We're complaining about a lack of overt romance in a genre that is by definition about love between boys. Almost all the complaints below are about the lack of interaction between the couple, not calls for sex. The main characters didn't even really meet until a third of the way through the story.

Yes, they sort of have bargain-basement versions of the missing characters - it feels like it was written with them in it.