solipsism5

It’s just role-playing. Again, not my scene, but I think that’s nothing like rape

I like this behind the scenes footage. Look at those back muscles on Sunny - he's really been hitting the gym https://youtu.be/wa86eL_z7Tw?t=776. I can see Mame drooling in the background.

I wasn't that excited by this episode. Its more like a bridge episode than anything else. I'm not sure I buy why Ren can't reveal anything to Kozuma because he's hiding from Sanada. It's not like Sanada has the secret police behind him and would be able to track Ren through his connection with Kozuma. At best, this plot is very confusing at this point. I went ahead and read the manga to see if it could clarify why this part was so inexplicable - I really don't think Ren should make Kozuma relive his past trauma of being separated from him. They are definitely a close couple at this point and any partner in a given couple in love would be frantic if they had no idea where their partner was. Unfortunately, the manga was no better at explaining this separation than the series. The series might diverge from the manga [not likely as this series follows the manga pretty closely],so I'm not going to judge it yet.

Speaking of the manga, it pretty much verges on being pornographic, but I think that the main story we witness is still pretty much the same, so if you want pornos with a good story-line, there are some good mangas out there for you. And I should mention that Kozuma has a log in his pants in the manga and he's putting it to good use with Ren. I like the ending where Ren asks Kozuma to rip his clothes off, and abuse him in various ways, lol. Not my normal scene but it seemed pretty hot in this case.

Sometimes Mame does new things and she has a little growth spurt. I see she's actually helping to direct this one. I'm hoping for the best here. Mame does know how to entertain even if her ideas are redundant, and heavy handed.

Ugh, it's Mame. I just want to know when and how the rape is going to happen, and if it's going to be a gangbang. Will the rapist also kidnap and torture the ML, and how many episodes before the ML forgives him, and becomes his one true love? I'm watching to see what variation Mame chooses here - like one of the 32 Goldberg variations. I'm just here for Sunny, and he's certainly looking very buff in this one. I've missed him since Top Secret Together [one of the worst BL's ever made], and am just incredibly pleased that he showed up in this looking even more beautiful than ever.

This is a little too OTT. I'm watching this for Ja but his character is just so one-dimensional, and is too child-like in almost every way. He's like a 10 year old going after the signature of some movie star, who he also wants to make out with. Why are the movies portrayed in these weird caricatures? I think they are supposed to be comic relief, but they are really just annoying, and miss the mark as far as humor - they are just visual garbage with no redeeming qualities. This is just barely passable even with my low standards for Thai BL. I like the second couple but Bosston's character is so snide that it makes him unappealing. I'm not sure what I'm watching but I'm here for Ja and the hot doctor. Hopefully it gets better.

I couldn't agree more. Sorry for the delayed response - busy work schedule. I would react the same way in their position and that is set up so well by the plot.

This is really so brilliant. Really so much happened in this episode that I'm surprised it was only a little more than 20 minutes long. I like it when BL's get beyond the tribulations of the BL couple and tackle some other issues like sexual harassment in the workplace. It's done so convincingly here. Sanada's acting is perfect for this role - he's totally slimy and reprehensible feeling and I might just slap him if I ever met him. Ren is looking out for his fellow employees and it makes his character admirable and very sympathetic. What do normal BL couples do other than fight off an evil-ex? Even if they do something like in Together With Me, or Bed Friends, it just feels corny and illegitimate. I love the actress who played the victim in the workplace - she was so believable and perfect for her role. Aren't these things swept under the rug in Japan? It is is such a totally male dominated workplace with few women ever getting to any position of authority [research this if you want- it's definitely the case].

I love how they portrayed Ren when he was young. As his friend said, first loves always hit pretty hard, and I love how they portray Ren as someone who is totally consumed by that love. He's also been shunned by his family, and just thrown to the wolves by them. He doesn't even speak French, and the kids bully him [a reminder of what pieces of shit young kids are when dealing with people different from them]. Finally his only solace, an empty phone call where the recipient never responds, is taken away from him. I could really feel how devastated a person in Ren's position would be if this happened to him and kudos to the actor who captured this feeling of stark desolation. I also love the friend he found in France who is a model of compassion.

Going back to the present, I must say that the small moments captured between the couples is truly wonderful. I've never seen someone just button someone else's shirt in a BL in such a sexy and enticing way - this was far better for me than virtually any kiss I've seen in other series. This is such a great BL with so much going for it. I like the drama of it which is so understated yet always compelling.

They are transitioning from FWB to lovers. I believe it’s because Ren realizes Kozuma has been looking for him this whole time. He was just not certain enough of Kozuma’s feelings for him to move on to the next stage. I believe a slight transition also occurred at the end of the last episode because Ren felt stressed out from his difficult work assignment with the Nitto firm and needed Kozuma to comfort him, sensing he was a real friend. I think the transition is clear and was well done.

We’ve had a discussion below about Kozuma being straight. The subs for Gaga are always terrible and the whole thing could have been a mistranslation. Kozuma has never had a girlfriend and is just most likely a late bloomer rather than being straight.

I have always hated that trope the most. I have no idea where that comes from. I'm not sure if it comes from Yaoi literature, but I suspect it comes from Thailand. Rather odd, since the Japanese have invented this whole genre but are letting the Thai's take the lead in some aspects of BL development, probably because of their dominance in this business.

I think they achieved that transition really well. Ren was overworked and probably stressed out with his last assignment with the Nitto client, making him more vulnerable. Then he finds Kozuma's files revealing how Kozuma was searching the globe for him. Even though he could probably sense how much Kozuma cared for him, he needed some proof of his love to move beyond the friends with benefits stage. I think they both initially fell into that because they both felt, intrinsically, that they had to have some contact with each other, and it was a natural stepping stone into a full blown relationship. With all that physical intimacy it's really easy to go to the next stage. I like how they displayed that with all the signs you talk about here - really a nuanced and effective way of showing us how the relationship evolved.

I find this series has become one of my all time favorites. There are so many delightful things like the insatiable sexual urges of young gay men being portrayed realistically, and the casual domestic intimacy of a gay couple that is totally in love - I don't think I've seen either in virtually any BL, and never this well. I also like the unexpected stark realism in a lot of this, like a study in contrasts with the hyperbolic love of the main leads. Perhaps that is why their love comes off as seeming like a "miracle", which is also why Ren will desperately cling to it in the next episode.

I really empathize with these characters so much so that I wish I could be one of them. I would love to be like Ren with some hot man, especially one as beautiful and sexy as Kozuma, chasing me all over the planet, and loving me like I was the embodiment of all the goodness that was left in the world. I like the desperate quality of their love which started with incredibly bad luck and incubated over 10 years till it became overwhelming for both of them. This is really a very interesting plot that has a lot of quirks that make it singular and captivating without being too experimental and cerebral. There are a few plot flaws but none that can't be easily overlooked. This really is an exceptional BL and one of the best I've ever seen.

Yes. One of the usual issues with writing comments before the end of a series, though I had thought this was going to reliably remain one of those obnoxious impossible reunions. I’m actually glad I was wrong because I like this series.

This is another enjoyable Japanese BL with a lot more overt sexuality than the norm. I also like the openness of this with things like young Ren trying to have sex when he was a teenager like a normal teenager - what a breakthrough! I don't really like the plot because someone that is as infatuated as Kozuma should have at least sought Ren out, and the idea he just bumps into him at work is ludicrous given that there are a million office jobs in Tokyo. This part of the plot just takes me out of the story but I've seen a lot worse so I'm doing my usual suspension of disbelief for the sake of BL lazy writing syndrome awareness month. I really love the relationship between the ML's in this. There is something far more natural between them than hardly any other BL couple - like I can see these two being in love completely. This series also seems to be somewhere between a BL and a gay drama with less fluff, and more realism - definitely a little darker than normal.

This was excellent all the way through. I like the whole idea of the dining table, as a place where the connections in Yutaka's life were made. It was also the place where he had a misunderstanding with his older brother that caused him trauma for many years. The drama of this series was not really any hollywood-like drama but a kind of self-inflicted wound that Yutaka had created for himself. This series is really just very realistic, and I wish more series would take this approach rather than walking down the same path of artificial conflicts. Without any fake drama the touching moments between the ML's is far more real and impactful, and this was magnified by the flawless acting by the leads. The acting is just amazing from all the side cast members as well, especially the glowing, incandescent acting of little Tane, who brought a kind of radiance to this whole show that makes it the most appealing gay family drama I've ever seen. The whole sense of family in this series is executed perfectly. The sense of healing brought by a family, and the delightful warmth of a family connection, missing from virtually any gay drama, is brought out beautifully in this series. This is really one of the best BL's I've ever watched, and is also quite unique. It was very light but steady and the impact of the emotions hit really well even though hardly anything happened. It's just that I could see myself in Yutaka and Minoru because they were so vividly drawn, and little Tana as well. I felt like their pain and happiness was really my own. I can only hope to see more of this kind of drama sometime in the future because this is a new and better way to make BL's with more honesty and depth.

It’s really bad. The plot holes are much worse after episode 5. If you can’t take it now, you’ll never make it, lol

It was a pretty enjoyable series. I don't look for anything spectacular in BL's and sometimes it's just enough to have good pacing, and a semi-enjoyable plot without too many fake conflicts that drag on for several episodes. They resolved conflicts quickly enough that we didn't have to feel all the angst for several weeks at a time like in Bed Friends. I thought Cher was a light-hearted and enjoyable character that was perfect for Friday nights, and Gun had inhumanly good-looks to carry any scene that he was in. Both Force and Book captured their characters really well, and I think they really made the series. I'm surprised they ever got another series after Enchante but it was good that GMMTV took a chance on them despite that disaster. Some people blame Force and Book for that mess, but I don't think it had anything to do with them. The plot was just pure garbage and I would say that a monkey wrote it, but that would be insulting to monkeys. I don't think Marlon Brando and Sir Lawrence Olivier could have saved that script. This series shows that ForceBook are actually a very good couple with a solid dynamic, and they have some range as actors. I hear everyone's complaints about the plot holes, but they were able to piece together enough interesting and entertaining scenes in virtually every episode, and I think that's what made the difference. I would recommend this series to anyone interested in just a light-hearted, and fluffy series that would keep you entertained and lift your spirits after a tedious, and/or grueling work week.

Well this is the same old issue in episode 11 that always happens in a dozen different variations: the sudden unintelligible angsty breakup that will be resolved in the first few minutes of the next episode because it was all an illusion that everyone saw through in a millisecond except for the main leads. The only saving grace for this series is that Cher knows he will get back with Gun and there isn't even a lingering mystery as to what will happen in the next episode, even though everyone already knows there was no real mystery. There isn't even anything wrong with the drama that happened this episode because meddling parents really don't give up so easily. Gun's mom should have come back to force these two apart because that is most certainly what would have happened in the real world. There's nothing wrong with that, but we've all had too much trauma from episode 11's from the past, so just as a suggestion to writers of Thai BL's in the future: we don't even want the appearance, or even a hint of trouble in episode 11 anymore. You are given full freedom to not provide us any drama in this episode and to continue on with unlimited fluff after episode 10. Please focus on giving us lots of unbridled sex a la KinnPorsche, or lots of hugs and shower scenes in lieu of that. I hope GMMTV screenwriters/directors read MDL comments so they can understand this critical advice that will break the glass ceiling of their turgid writing style and make our wildest BL fantasies come to life [ok, hyperbole, but I'm half serious, lol].

Jeng is like boss of the year. I think if you were reasonable and didn't want a boss that was going to be nice to you all the time, you would want someone like him. I think Pat is written in a rather naive way, as if he could just criticize the boss like he was an intern, needing to be constantly improved. It's this weird role reversal that I don't get, especially since Jeng is already doing everything right. I'm just surprised that he also doesn't seem to know how to do any better than Pat on presentations - this is also a little sloppy, as far as the characterization. Why is Pat always right? Doesn't Jeng have far more experience, and knowledge about the industry? I'm curious as to why the last clients shown in this episode don't like Pat's performance when he finally gets to do something on his own without the boss micromanaging him, but now he's not successful. It's just all pretty confusing. I'm guessing Jeng will now have to impart some wisdom about the biz to Pat, and Pat will have to learn that Jeng does actually do something [even if he's always wrong]. I just feel the writing is just very confusing, and I don't think we all need to struggle so hard to understand a BL, especially when they are not really striving to make cutting edge, complex scenarios.

Overall I still like the show, and it feels like a nice slice of life series that accurately depicts a lot of office environments. All the characters are pretty well done for the most part, and there is something even positive about the extended, long episodes that feel kind of luxurious. I think they do well enough with the pacing that you don't feel like it's a bunch of padding. I can see the relevance of most every scene. This is a show that is really very different, and shows a level of maturity that is greater than most. I feel like we are dealing with grown-up scenarios and issues in this series which I find to be rare in BL's.

This is nauseatingly stupid. Dr. Kiew was going to fuck the amnesia away - what a brilliant cure. This episode had about the same level of annoying and tortuous writing as the last one. Almost every character is out of character - the mother was never that nice, Franc was never that charming, and Soda was never that evil. The writing has just degenerated into something totally ad hoc. I'm also confused why Baiwan is stringing along two guys like it's totally normal. I like how they begged the priest to cure Bamee's dimentia. I don't even think that's a mistranslation, because they have no idea what word would cover amnesia and a complete personality transformation. This is just a slophouse of a script at this point. No matter what memory impairment someone might have in an accident, they don't think of things like sharing your brother's boyfriend, because dad told them to share EVERYTHING. Good luck getting through this. This is truly aweful, and is taking the award for worst script of the year. Congratulations, guys!