Honglou Meng

Well said! This series could have been sharper, sexier, and smarter, had they trimmed each episode down to 30 minutes, and the whole series to 8 episodes, and ended it when the couple move together into the dorm. But no... They had to introduce the sudden elaboration of a weird threesome, kidnapping plots and banditry, a whole episode for just a school sports day. The whole series became so bloated that, as I said elsewhere, I became convinced the writers had forgotten to take their Dulcolax.

Such a pity. Though it was a trope-fest, it has beautiful actors, who were able to conjure between them something of a quiet, intimate chemistry. Then they had to go and ruin everything. The director does seem to have a thing for tearing gay couples apart, to go by the ending of Your Name Engraved Herein. Catholic upbringing, I'm told.

https://www.reddit.com/r/boyslove/comments/1frs98q/japan_smells_like_green_spirit_ep2/

I *love* Pinku Eiga. Unapologetically. :) They are the last remnants of the Art Porn movement -- like Score (1974), which I also love -- and almost (almost) prefer "Beautiful Mystery" to "Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters", because it didn't have the claws of the Mishima estate on it, censoring the gay stuff.

I didn't realise MDL listed Pinku Eiga as well. I'll check this one out!

It is a very cute series. The inadequate kiss at the end was just the *chef's kiss* (geddit?). :)

I-su-mi-kun. I-su-mi-kun. Somebody should create a musical edit just for that!

I notice you're Swedish. So, in the little Swedish I know: Glad tittning!

Thanks, Shugo, for your unfailing support! But don't engage with this person. It's a waste of time, and clearly, they are a racist. Let's leave them to their company of unfortunates.

This is a brilliant series so far. Truly.

"It is not my fault that I'm more beautiful than all the girls, that my body's more graceful than Snow White. I can't help it." I wondered for a moment if Mishima was just oblivious, but no, that's pure self-possession. Love him.

I also loved the subtle mechanisms through which gender ambiguities reveal themselves. The lipstick and the haircut are just the more visible ones. Language, however, gives away more. Mishima never uses the pronouns Japanese insists on allocating to women. So far, he is a man who dresses up like a woman. Kirino, on the other hand, does. It seems to go deeper for him. (The subber helpfully pointed out the difference between atashi and ore, but there are more than a few of these in Japanese, and in the show.)

I don't care at all for the cliché that homophobic bullies bully because they are secretly gay. No, most homophobic bullies are just that. Homophobic. And bullies. (There are exceptions, of course.) Most of the kids who bullied me at school are happily married to women -- not that I envy them for it, though I rather resent their happiness -- and would rather see me dead. And even if it turned out they preferred men, I am not inclined to forgive them for it, let alone fall for them.

Anyway, Yanagida is suitably creepy, and makes me worry about what's coming. Also, for a show that is all about wigs, they should have invested more in wigs. The curly blond wig on one of Kayo's friends was unbelievably awful. It's like L'Oreal died in Paris and went to Stockholm. However, I *will* put up with it if the girls include me in their club. They seem fun.

That was a sweet final episode. Wrapped up with a perfectly inadequate kiss.

Isumi is adorable, and the best thing about the show. His camp flourish at the end is to die for.

I still don't know what Sugar Dog Life means. So, might I suggest an alternative title? "How to trap a man in 9 easy meals..."

Oh, thanks for drawing my attention to the music bit. It is a mistake. Corrected it to 5.5. The music is nice, but not great. HOTE, on the other hand, I gave a perfect score for music. HOTE could have been the greatest JBL of all time -- but the last two episodes, alas, made that impossible!

But you are right, MDL and fandom generally can't cope with qualified opinions. But I seldom really hate or love things. I can only think of a handful of exceptions.

Lol. I wish JBL titles would start making sense. Mind you, Isumi is very sweet and does look like a golden retriever you'd want to pet all day long... So maybe it works?

Thank you! This made my day! And of course we can!

Oh? Do you know why the title is Sugar Dog Life, then?

I get where you're coming from: the thing is, most of my reviews aren't on the front page of a show, or even in the first or second page of reviews for a show. I am aware of and comfortable with that, and with what people want. The fact that, unusually, mine is the top review here is what's gotten me into trouble. Believe me, in a day or two, that won't be the case.

So, if people want more straightforward information, there is no shortage of access. At the same time, I don't like writing reviews as myself, or in the form of a linear list of pros and cons, (a) because every other review is going to do so, and (b) because I have complicated opinions about most shows, and I need a bit of back and forth to tease them out. Hence my preference for dialogue. Believe it or not, most reviews used to be written this way until the 20th century.

My humour comes from an acknowledgement of the fact that BLs are, like soap operas, mostly silly and ridiculous. Much of the fun goes out if you take them too seriosuly. I wanted to offer a counterpoint to this attitude. In any event, I don't think my reviews are uninformative. But yes, they are not straightforward, and I do ask more of my readers. I don't apologise for that.

I'm not disappointed with the BL market so much as with the BL fandom. The fact that so few come to my defence here, when popular commentators think it perfectly fine to respond to a silly little review with racist generalisations, tells me a lot. (Though those who do are the salt of the earth.)

Thank you! I knew that degree in mathematics would come in handy one day! :)

I wouldn't have cared so much if it hadn't been for the national/ethnic profiling. If a person criticises my ideas, or suggests I revise my rating because I have overlooked or got something wrong -- or even gently asks me to just revisit the series -- I take it on board gladly. That's why we are here. But the implication that I specifically hate anything out of Japan (when my lists speak otherwise), and that I must therefore be Chinese or American, is just... Anyway, that's why I took the bait and responded forcefully.

Glad to hear you liked the review. I've just put up one for Cosmetic Playover, which I enjoyed writing, and which I'm sure will piss off J100 even more. :)

Oh god, you do realise that people here with no sense of humour, and no sense of geography, will take this literally and come for me? :)

That said, I'm actually from planet Fripton, and I hate all Earthlings. Hence my ratings!

Can you please stop with the ethnic profiling? Your comments on my review are egregious enough. But this is flirting with racism.

People are allowed to dislike shows you like, and review them as they see fit. That doesn't mean that they must come from China or be Chinese. By all means, engage with and attack my ideas. But please stop racially profiling me and maligning me personally. Anyone with a sense of humour can see that my review is tongue-in-cheek. And anyone who sees my best-of lists can see JBLs are my absolute favourite.

Most BLs are average. Hence the average ratings. And most of the BLs I watch are Japanese (I don't watch much Thai BLs anymore). Hence their preponderance in the reviews. Lastly, I just joined MDL. All the shows here are from the past 2 months. To extrapolate statements about me as a person from these simple truths is just grotesque.

Does this series mean so much to you that you have to resort to this sort of behaviour to a stranger online?

MDL audience: do you really think this kind of behaviour here is okay?

It seems very strange to me that you insist on profiling people by their ethnicity or nationality who like or dislike a particular show. And no, I'm not American either. I would ask where you were from: but that would be pandering to your prejudices, and I don't want to do that.

I'm new to MDL. I'm reviewing shows as I watch them. HOTE is the best I've seen so far. So it gets a better rating. Most BLs are average at best. So they get an average score.

Again, in plain English, go look at my best-of lists. Then ask yourself if your stereotyping of me is "objective or reasonable". JBLs are my favourites. Finally, I reserve the right to watch whatever I want, whether or not I enjoy them. There is no rule anywhere that says I can't watch something I don't enjoy. Nor need I justify that right, or my ratings and reviews, to you, or to anyone else. You, on the other hand, are welcome not to read my reviews anymore. I don't know why it offends you so much that I might dislike a show you are religiously devoted to. But that's life.

I've been very polite in engaging with you so far. But I don't wish to any further.

I'm sorry, but what exactly are you implying? Are you suggesting that I must be Chinese because I don't *apparently* like Japanese BLs?

Not that I owe you an explanation for such an insane question: but no, I'm not Chinese. As it happens, I love Japanese BLs and speak Japanese. If you go through my favourite lists, most of them are Japanese. Nor do I suffer through these shows. There is such a thing as watching shows that aren't necessarily good, just to enjoy oneself. It's a legitimate thing. Like people who watch soap operas.

Lastly, the reviews are written for those with a sense of humour. (They are not to be taken seriously or literally.) If you have a sense of humour, you'll get them. If you don't, you won't.

Please don't make assumptions about someone you do not know, and without fully checking out their profile. Above all, don't make assumptions about someone's ethnicity this way. There's a word for someone who does that.

This is a ridiculous show -- which I found surprisingly enjoyable. A review here:

https://kisskh.at/profile/sasameyuki1950/reviews/393270

Missing the point... But never mind.

Whatever your motives for the petition, I truly hope you succeed! Good luck.