#Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice but to Kiss!

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

Like Ying & Yang (Part 1/?)

A little Christmas gift for the lovely @lurkingshan 🎄

Last Twilight

My Engineer

3 Will Be Free

The Eighth Sense

He's Coming To Me

You Are Mine

Big Dragon

Kiseki: Dear To Me

KinnPorsche

Fukou-kun wa Kiss Suru Shikanai! aka Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice but to Kiss!

My favorite bl-tropes collection, as most of the times in no particular order.

[negrowhat]

Have we ever discussed how Japanese BLs ALWAYS have the sweetest dates?

Exhibit A:

Exhibi B and C:

Exhibit D:

Exhibit E:

Exhibit F:

Exhibit G:

Sign me up.

[respectthepetty]

The Black and White are dating btw (a companion piece to the Green x Blue are dating, and the Red x Blue are dating)

Bonus:

[bengiyo]

We are headed into our final Drama Shower show of the season. How do you rank the shows we got this season and how are you feeling about the direction of the project?

What is Drama Shower and Why Does It Matter?

Before we get into rating these shows, I want to do a breakdown of what this is. To give you a sense of how big a deal Drama Shower is, fans are regularly updating a Wikipedia page for it with relevant links to follow the project. Also, there is a dedicated MDL page for it.

Drama Shower is a dedicated half-hour programming block on MBS, a Japanese broadcaster that is over 70 years old, in conjunction with Kadokawa, a Japanese publisher and holding group, that plays BL content at 1:30 am on Fridays. The project's main producer is Kaoru Azuma, who is a self-described long-time BL fan. He wants to show that BL can do a variety of stories in genre, and has recently stated that he wants to produce original content through the project as well.

We originally had six shows air through year one: Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But to Kiss!, Senpai, This Can't Be Love!, Takara-kun to Amagi-kun, Eternal Yesterday, Candy Color Paradox, and Jack o' Frost.

I originally reviewed these shows as overall a mixed bag, but showing great promise. I liked that they got more comfortable with depictions of m/m intimacy over time. I thought Mr. Unlucky was legitimately funny (9), Senpai never found its footing (6), Takara and Amagi mildly squandered their premise (8), Eternal Yesterday was extremely poignant (10), Candy Color Paradox had ambitions that exceeded its talent pool (7), and Jack o' Frost was a really strong finish (9.5).

MBS seemed to enjoy the performance of this project enough to continue it for another year.

For me, I think it's very significant to give BL itself a time slot to see how audiences are responding to BL as a concept compared to the pitch of individual shows. I'm really encouraged by MBS doing this. Even if you don't care about the name MBS, you have interacted with their content, because they are also behind Full Metal Alchemist and Haikyuu! anime adaptations.

Rating Year 2

I actually liked the way year 2 started, even if I'm a bit mixed on the end. I really loved opening with Tokyo in April is... I liked that they had BL trying to be topical. I think the show unfortunately conflates some things it shouldn't, but I loved TIAI and I loved Ren and Ryunosuke's experience being gay men. I liked the changes they made to the source material. This show was dark in a way that it owned, and I really like that. I gave it a 9.

We then moved to My Personal Weatherman, and that went over well for the people who like to see really hot people go at it with each other. I actually enjoyed how much Yoh and Segasaki actively misunderstood each other even as they were speaking to each other. I don't know that they exactly completed their story, and I suspect that there may be a future outing for this show. Despite enjoying it, I think it didn't get all of its pieces together fully and gave it an 8.5.

We then crossed over into uncertain territory with One Room Angel. Despite enjoying a lot of what was going on in this show, I don't actually think it's a romance. It's my understanding that the angel character is a lot younger in the source material, and so they may have been a little shy about how much they did with these characters on screen. I also don't think the storytelling was balanced between the leads. However, because I am susceptible to complex stories about grief, I gave this show an 8.

Now, we have Sahara-sensei to Toki-kun. I hated this show so much. I think it makes the unfortunate mistake of asking me to care about how homophobia and public perceptions impacts people through its flashback drama, but then does nothing with that in the front. It sucked so hard, and I'm really disappointed because I thought this show had some of the most potential, and I thought Toki was one of the most watchable characters Drama Shower had produced. I ended up giving it a 4.

Our next and final show (I think) for this outing is called My Strawberry Film. This one will also be in a high school, but I know little about it, other than we may have a GL plot in it.

So, overall I'd give Drama Shower an 8. I think fans of BL, and especially Japanese BL, should continue to show up and support it. The fact that we have a dedicated programming block is important. The fact that none of these shows has felt like a retread so far is super important. Drama Shower is varied. There is something in here for almost everyone. Drama Shower is the biggest commitment to BL we've had from a distributor other than GMMTV's ongoing BL slate. Taiwan has Vidol doing is four projects, but Drama Shower is the first time I know of that a Japanese distributor has focused on BL in a meaningful, ongoing way. We should stick with it.

[guzhufuren]

Pride Month Celebration: LGBTQ actors from asian queer shows

Holland (Ocean Likes Me) Copter Panuwat (Close Friend, That’s My Candy, Gen Y) Zorzo Natharuetai (Lovely Writer) Ex Piya (KinnPorsche) PP Krit (I Told Sunset About You) Jennie Panhan (3 Will Be Free, The Shipper, Drag, I Love You) Fluke Natouch (Until We Meet Again, Close Friend, Oh! My Sunshine Night) Earth Katsamonnat (Until We Meet Again, 7 Project, My Only 12%) Sprite Patteerat (KinnPorsche) Bruce Sirikorn (Lovely Writer)

+ 2 in 1, Nakayama Satsuki (Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice but to Kiss!)

[kexing]

Japanese BL men running to their men for @khunvegas

Cherry Magic: 30-sai made Dotei Da to Mahotsukai ni Nareru rashii (2020)

Ossan's Love (2018)

Kei × Yaku: Abunai Aibou (2022) — Considered a Bromance for now but I’m including it.

Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko (2021)

Kieta Hatsukoi (2021)

Life: Senjou no Bokura (2020)

Fukou-kun wa Kiss Suru Shikanai! (2022)

Old Fashion Cupcake (2022)

[gabrielokun]

[niaoniaos]

[liyazaki]

trust me- he's looking, naoya 👀

mr. unlucky has no choice but to kiss! | ep. 6

[cherrymaho]

Why go to all that trouble?  Because I want you to be happy. I like it when you smile. 

[joblessquinoa]

wow me too

[25shadesoffebruary]

Naoya being protective  + Kota not being able to handle it.

[negrowhat]

Is it really a Japanese BL if one of the guys isn't doing a full on trackstar run to the other?

[respectthepetty]

Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice but to Balance

Kota and Naoya of Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice but to Kiss! are color-coded boys in love providing balance to each other while being the epitome of Japan's standard Brooding Boy and Happy Human dynamic. However, these two put their own spin on this classic tale.

Kota is a college junior whose name means joy and good fortune, but unfortunately, he is is unfortunate.

Naoya is his classmate, and his name means improvement (to mend or fix) and honesty, and luckily, he's lucky.

So you're probably thinking Kota, Mr. Unlucky, is the Brooding Boy and Naoya, My. Lucky, is the Happy Human, right?

Well, if so, you'd be wrong because the colors mean things and tell us a different story!

Kota, Mr. Unlucky, is the Happy Human always dressed in light colors, while Naoya, Mr. Lucky, is the Brooding Boy always dressed in dark colors.

Even their friend groups correlate their colors to match their respective color-coded boy.

Kota is the Happy Human because he tries to see the silver-lining of his misfortune. Everything constantly goes wrong, so when something goes right, he is delighted. He also doesn't want anyone to pity him. Naoya is the Brooding Boy because people use him for his luck, so he never knows when someone is being genuine. He closes himself off because he cannot trust others.

But once they begin to orbit around each other (due to Kota's scheming), they begin to balance each other out, literally and figuratively. Kota usually wears a black backpack over his light-colored clothes, and Naoya wears a white shirt underneath all of his dark-colored colors. The balance has already began.

Naoya's luck transfers to Kota, and Kota's luckless affects Naoya's. We start to visually see this through objects beyond their clothes. When drinking coffee, both have cups that align to their color (Naoya = black, Kota = white), but when eating ice cream, the colors shift (Naoya = white, Kota = swirl).

This color exchange also passes on to their friend groups. Naoya's friends, Mugi and Saku, start wearing more pops of colors, and Kota's friends, Minato and Itsuki, start wearing darker colors.

The friend groups also provide another level of balance. When paired up, one friend is usually warm colored and the other is cool colored, yet they hold onto the color scheme of the other. Anna is wearing a blue cardigan, but holding a red pen, while Miki is wearing an orange top with a blue skirt.

But by the end of the series, the friends apply the light versus dark color scheme that Kota and Naoya use.

Once Kota and Naoya become more acquainted with each other, they continue to use the light versus dark color scheme, but begin to share colors. At first, it's brown, but then it turns into a gray blue (Naoya's shirt and Kota's hoodie under his vest).

Because they are taking after their favorite stuffed animal, Rui the penguin, who is black and white on top, but merges the colors on the bottom to a dark and light gray.

As they continue to merge and balance each other out, it is revealed that Kota is the more serious of the two, while Naoya is really only serious about loving Kota. This is also shown through positioning. Even though Naoya is taller, as their loves unfolds, Naoya tends to be positioned lower than Kota because Kota really holds the power in their relationship.

As our Happy Human states, unlike popular belief, he is not the passive type.

A person who has to deal with as much adversity as he has and still comes out on the other side bright and cheerful is far more active than Naoya who has had his fortune handed to him.

Kota provides that additional layer of balance to Naoya since Naoya now has to put in a great deal of effort to make this relationship work and can't rely simply on his good luck to win over Kota.

However, since they both give what the other lacks, they work it out, also literally and figuratively.

Because at the end of the day (or at the beginning of it), Naoya in his all black outfit with white hoodie ties, and Kota in his all white outfit with black stripes, truly balance each other out.

Oh and Rui! Rui provides the balance too!

[bengiyo]

Hello! Hope your day is going well.

So I love Kieta Hatsukoi. And am very nervous about the thai adaptation because I love it so much. And you've talked about your views on that here. So I was wondering...

Do you feel the same way about the thai adaptation of Cherry Magic? I've been rewatching it and although I like TayNew and think they could do a good job at playing these characters, I'm still not sure. I don't know if I should even be making comparisons but I'm gonna do it anyway, because it'd be impossible not to. The voice overs are so funny and endearing in the japanese version that I don't know if the thai version will be on the same level. And also the side characters, I love Rokkaku. Anyway... What are your thoughts? Thanks💜

Hello, again!

So, I guess I'll come public and say that I have some qualms with Cherry Magic, which are similar to my issues with Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But To Kiss! Both shows ask us to care about the role of sexual intimacy in human relationships, and yet both shows end up being super precious about it.

In Mr. Unlucky, they don't kiss! I think it's mostly fine because Fukahara learns that he likes Shinomiya in a real way, but still...it's in the name! I think it would have been nice to see him kissing on his own terms, especially since we know Sota Ryosuke is down after watching Grand Guignol.

In Cherry Magic, I didn't really like that the movie had Adachi still running around with the powers. I think the movie covered some really great ground and topics, but that show gets caught between the social awkwardness that Adachi has and the sexual tension it wants us to feel from Kurosawa. It doesn't exactly want to release it, because that means we'll lose the powers and all the conceits that brings.

So, for the GMMTV attempt at this, I'm actually interested in what Tay and New do with this because we know they can and will play into the sexual chemistry between their characters, and I think there's an opportunity to deal with that properly here in a way that the Japanese show didn't do.

Also, because Thai shows tend to be longer, they might adapt more of the source material than the Japanese adaptation.

[guzhufuren]

Pride Month Celebration: asian queer shows + rainbows 🌈

Not Me Bad Buddy Still 2gether Cutie Pie Fish Upon the Sky Until We Meet Again Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But To Kiss!