Honglou Meng

I mean, I have no idea what the fuck Sugar Dog Life means. Again, it is just the same three English words written in Katakana. I've been asking everyone who read the manga, and no one has a clue. If it's a Japanese idiom, I don't know it. It's driving me nuts.

But then, Mitsuya-sensei no Keitokutekina Ezuke does not sound good in English or Japanese, so, just ignore the titles! If I didn't, Old Fashion(ed) Cupcake would not be my favourite BL!

Or did you mean "Sugar Dog Life"?

In Japanese, the title is literally "Happy of the End" written in Katakana. Because Japanese grammar is so distinct from English grammar, and Japanese does not do prepositions, I presume they just put the wrong preposition "of", instead of "in". Very common. When Japanese speakers add English lines to their songs or titles, they find gerunds very difficult as well. Not to portray this as any deficiency on the part of the Japanese speakers: English speakers find everything about Japanese grammar difficult!

The other possibility is The Happiness of the End, as in, the happiness you feel when something (bad) comes to an end (I'm looking at you "Takara"), though it does not quite work in English as it might in Japanese.

It seems as if things at least happen in the manga. Nothing happens in the show. The only thing I learned from it is how far I would go just to look at the face of a gorgeous man.

Very well said. Except I'd take issue with the word "cliffhanger", because there is nothing so dramatic as a cliff from which to hang this plot. Textbook example of a damp squib, maybe.

You're wasting your breath, my friend. Few people here are willing to respond to criticism well, and change their minds if they have gotten something wrong. Everyone doubles down, because it is easier to set emotion do the work of the intellect.

Anyway, no, S2 has not been confirmed. I checked. And my instinct strongly tells me one isn't coming. Also, completely with you on watching this illegally. I beg people to go and subscribe to GagaOOLala, because, although the platform is small, flawed, and its subtitles leave a lot to be desired, it is the only global LGBT streaming platform, and it is run by two gay dads, who fought hard for and won marriage equality in Taiwan. What's more, if you're anywhere in the West, or any country with a good standard of living, it's going to cost you less than a cup of coffee per month. But no...

Of course, there's the other problem of institutional homophobia on MDL, which refuses to add GagaOOLala as a streaming platform, and refuses to promote LGBT content as official policy. But I've already vented my heart about it below, and no one cares. Easier to sign petitions, I suppose.

Haha, fair enough.

I don't think it's just JBL though. BLs from every country have been, for me, dreadful this year.

Happy of the End was great, though, at least for the first 6 episodes. Smells like Green Spirit is promising. And Love Like Poison is ridiculous, but entertaining.

Let me save you the trouble. This has all the chemistry of rubbing chilli powder into your eyes.

I'm curious. Can you give a few examples of the changes they have made from the manga? It has to be, by default, more interesting than this show.

Oh, wait till you see "Takara no Vidro". Sugar Dog Life is like an action movie by comparison. (I suffered through it for Iwase Yoji, and to write an amusing review about it -- but even my sense of humour struggled to conjure up anything substantial. It is that dull.)

Did you see "Happy of the End"? I reviewed it, and the first 6 episodes are almost perfect. I've also seen the first two episodes of Smells Like Green Spirit, which is very promising.

I'm also enjoying Love is Poison, which is very ridiculous, but very entertaining.

This is the kindest thing anyone's ever said to me here! Thank you! ❤️

I think it very telling that gay men like us find this show quite troubling, whereas the straight audiences seem to find it to be beautiful, queer-affirming and "realistic". (Boy do they love the word "realistic", as if they themselves grew up gay in Taiwan in 2012.)

I also think it very telling that gay voices tend to get drowned out here -- and sometimes actively suppressed -- by straight people who appoint themselves the arbiters of what is or isn't authentic about stories of LGBT people. Oh, hang on a moment... I'm going to get my dictionary and check the definition of homophobia.

I'm nearly 40, Jiyuda, and I was born and raised in a very homophobic Asian country. Trust me. I know what it was like for gay people then. I know what it is like for gay people now.

Awww... Thank you! This gladdens my heart -- especially in the light of a few upsetting comments below! ❤️

Awww. You just made my evening! Thank you! It was great fun writing this, I won't lie. :)

No, no, no. It doesn't honour this queer person. And most queer persons I have spoken with don't think it honours them either. (Some might, but most of us don't.) Many of us happen to think it sold us out. I don't know whether you meant to or not -- but please do not speak for (all of) us.

I am gay, and I found this series unimaginably awful, and borderline homophobic. You can see my reply to jojoce below. If you scroll down further, you will find that *many* members of the LGBT community (if not most) think this show awful: it capitalises on internalised homophobia for plot, while doing nothing to engage with it.

I'll leave it at that. Make of it what you will. I don't know your sexuality, though I understand you respect the LGBT community. Good on you. But, I don't want any straight person speaking on behalf of us.

I'm with you. Thank you! I had a discussion with John Masters and etoks below, and we are all gay men. We think this show trades on internalised homophobia to further the plot, without doing it justice. Which is tasteless, to say the least. Worse still, people here are describing Tian's father being gay as "traumatic" for the child -- because, you know, gay sex is "traumatising". I dare not reply to the people below, because I get hounded for it. But I find it ironic that straight people here -- who dominate BL viewership -- always seem to think they understand homophobia better than we do.

In the words of Mrs Krabappel: "Ha!"

I dropped it within 15 minutes of trying this series. Thank you for this spectacular review, which ought to be better value per minute than this series.

Also: "Dad"? Seriously? Are we sure it's not a mistranslation? If not, yuck!