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tofuplusbeastOver the past year, recently, I've gotten into watching live action BL dramas.
Granted, I've watched JP drama adaptations of BL manga before, and watched some JP dramas that tokusatsu/Live 2.5D actors were in, but I've only really gotten into actual dramas from all over the world now. I tend to watch only one long-running series at a time these days (usually whatever season of Sentai or Rider that's on), and I haven't been keeping up with any recent anime (except Tiger&Bunny 2--god, has it really been ELEVEN YEARS since season one?)
If anything, the time I don't spend working, I spend streaming or working on art+art assets for streaming. As streaming often involves gaming, sometimes I can't play as many games as much as I like offstream. I don't mind it, but sometimes I just want to unwind and sort of lose myself in a story without thinking about having to talk about it.
What with work, the stress of the state of goings-on in the world, and everything, I've been turned to BL dramas. Not as a comfort food, or safe thing (I don't like using the words "wholesome" or "comfort" when it comes to consuming media) , but almost as sort of like a vacation to another place. I don't fully understand the fandom sometimes, and I'm not fully committed to following the idol aspects with the actors (okay, maybe I watched all of EarthMix Space AND all of the ZeeNew clips I could find AND all of the promo material for every single Taiwanese drama I've watched and liked), but I'm enjoying my time here right now.I think as someone who's a longtime boomer ass BL fan, it's been interesting to see how more recent BL dramas from all over the world take elements and trends from BL manga (both old and recent) and evolve from there. At least, as an outsider to the whole actual BL Live Action drama fandom.
Anyway, here's a list of BL dramas I've been watching right now! I'm also gonna add a couple of danmei novels in because uhhhhhhh I can.I'm skipping dramas I've finished, but I'm quickly going to say that I've enjoyed almost every HIStory season I've watched (yes, even Make Our Days Count, no, I wasn't strong enough to watch the last episode). My favorite season so far is HIStory 3: Trapped!
I really also enjoyed Not Me. This show hooked me into Thai BL thanks to OffGun and First's acting, and from there, I was down a pit.
1000 Stars is classic drama/telenovela stuff. A very sweet, beautifully shot show, and this is how I became a fan of Earth and Mix. As someone not familiar with North Thai/Hill Tribe/Hmong culture, I also learned a little bit about that part of the world, too!
Zettai BL and Cherry Magic were cute watches. I do wish JP BL would be a bit more adventurous now though, now that I know Thai/Taiwanese dramas go all in with kissing and love scenes...
Semantic Error was also very adorable. Korean BL tends to be kind of hit or miss for me, as I'm not into the extremely pretty idol style drama (which seems to be popular right now). I read the SE webtoon, and I enjoyed it lots. Even though the BL drama adaptation is tamer, I think it fit perfectly. The chemistry between the actors is a standout!
ok ok let me actually get to the list of What I'm Watching Right Now:
KinnPorsche The Series: Thai BL tends to have the spiciest scenes, but overall I found the majority of the series to be very sweet, with college drama plots. I don't mind eating that kind of candy every once in a while, but I'm not interested in "healthy" stories or ships. Thank god for KinnPorsche, who comes in swinging with a slightly older lead couple, Yakuza/RGG style plot, decent fight choreo, and promises of unhealthy codependent ships. Also, Porsche bites Kinn's neck during their fight and you just know they're going to have the angriest sex. Fuck yeah. I've watched both the first and second episode, along with the behind the scenes, and it's great to see something where everyone is just having tons of fun.
Def watch the trailer and The Hidden Messages, and then go right in to the available episodes. If you like tokusatsu, you'll love this, even if you're not into BL!
Also this is the most expensive Thai BL drama rn but apparently they couldn't afford buttons for all of the shirts everyone wears LMFAO
Cutie Pie The Series: OK so at first I wasn't so sure about it, but I'm into true indulgent BL/shojo romantic comedy trope stuff, so I buckled down and prepared to eat candy.
Then the show took a hard right into noncon "I'm going to lock you up and keep you to myself" stuff and HELL YEAH GIMME MORE OF THAT PLEASE. That along with the age gap is A+. The cast also looks like they've been having fun working on the show, and the reaction videos and BTS videos--I can't stop eating this sugar. I can't. It's a major problem at this point.
Also I do think that Zee (Lian) and NuNew (Kuea) have ridiculous chemistry. I truly feel like I'm the air or grass or a passing by ant whenever they're together onscreen, in-show or not.
DNA Says Love You: This was billed as Taiwan's big comeback to BL dramas. I've enjoyed almost every Taiwanese BL drama I've watched, so I went and decided to chew on this for a while. It's--interesting so far. Plot is moving at a chill place, the cinematography is very dreamy and evocative of the ocean/commercial work. The characters are kind of straightforward and the love triangle between the main couple and the one girl character is a bit unfortunate (I usually don't mind love triangle nonsense but this one I'm kinda eh about) but I'm liking the overarching story about reincarnation. I'm predicting it's gonna go a HIStory3 Make Our Lives Count route with the ending, which, eh, but I'll see it through to the end.
Mew Ears Up!: This is a Thai web drama that I think is based off of a webtoon, or a manga. This is silly as fuck. I think this was made for like five dollars and a working copy of adobe aftereffects. I can only watch this drunk. The plot is: twink catboys. There's also a lesbian couple and one of them is also a cat, or maybe a dog? The second episode is out rn so I'll go watch it on the weekend when I can get real blitzed. Is this good? I think so.
BL Novels (Danmei specifically) What I'm Reading Right Now:
Little Mushroom: I bought this book on a whim and I really do want to get around to reading it, but I unfortunately don't have much time...I really want to dig into it. I read the original fan translation, so I know it's good. I just gotta set like a solid block of time aside to read it!
Scum Villain Self-Saving System Volume 2: dumbass isekai man continues to be confused over the fact that he's in a BL world 2, electric boogaloo. I have the 7Seas english edition. I have been enjoying the translation and love MXTX's work--it's kind of unfortunate that the artist for the eng release is apparently an anti (how can you be a puritan when you're a fan of danmei?!?!?!?!) but I'll just. try to only focus on the text.
Being An Extra Actor In An Escape Game: This is a fan translation. I stumbled onto it after I ate all I could of Meatbun's works, and then ate my way through The Antelope and Night Wolf, and all of Yi Xiu Luo's stuff. Since I was craving a very specific mix of gaming/streaming/transported to a game world BL universe thing, I kind of rolled into that next. BAEAIAEG is interesting, as it's got a very tired slightly older lead with a stubborn tunnel-vision high spec love interest, and mystery elements. I've been going through it pretty slowly--the fan translator is a bit obnoxious with the side-comments, as they over explain EVERYTHING (I think you can trust your readers to understand why characters are acting suspicious or lying! The world is set in a death game universe! We aren't that dumb!) but I'll keep plodding through it.
Anyway, that's what I've been inhaling for now. I'm really looking forward to the next episodes of these shows, as they help stave off the hunger in between waiting for the newest episode of Donbrothers (lol).
What have you all been watching?
