#problematic content in bl

[absolutebl]

When it comes to problematic content in QL, everyone has different tolerance levels, and different definitions for it. For you personally, how much is too much? And given that some of your faves/constant rewatches may not have aged well, do you adjust your tolerance as you go, do you just ignore it/tune it out, or do you watch, cringe, and carry on? Does problematic content make you lose love for something with time?

Hum, complex question.

I guess it's usually context and origin for me. Like I forgive Japan stuff I won't take from Thailand because it's... Japan, kinky and boundary pushing is what they do. I don't always like it, but I will usually watch it. I understand their POV and style. And more importantly, so do they.

Certainly that has to do with how well established Japan is both in BL and as a film industry. But there's something more going on. They usually have something to say when they trigger, something thoughtful and provoking about culture, or queerness, or the BL genre.

Where as Thailand doing something similar will come off as clumsy and puerile, like they are teens who don't know any better and are just poking at their audience to see what kind of reaction they get. Or worse, don't even realize when they make a misstep - they just needed it for plot or are executing a tired trope.

I want finesse with my abuse!

I don't mind being manipulated, but I can't catch it in the act. I need to notice it after, and then I make tiny clapping noises.

For me too much is often when it's too predictable in the wrong way, or when it's poorly executed. Like rape just for a plot point. Or lack of consent when it makes no sense for either character or story arc.

I don't like it when poor writing hits me up side the head. Like (and I will harp on this forever) did he have to steal that key and break into his hotel room? Did we all have to overlook it and think, for some reason, that was okay? It wasn't necessary for the plot. It was lazy writing.

I hate lazy writing.

I'd rather bad writing.

How do I put this?

If Japan had done that, it would have been some weird creepy edgy stalker aspect to the seme's character and it would have been purposeful. The dirtiness of it would have been part of characterization. Undies would have been stolen. The lens would have told us to find it off-putting. It would have been done with intent.

Thailand's lens often makes bad/stalker/creep behavior seem normal or acceptable.

If Japan reads your private journal we, the audience, will all know how gross that feels. The grossness will be part of the creepy kinky plot. If Thailand does it... it's just passed over as fine. Or worse, romantic.

Japan does its violations with intent. Because they like the edge. They want to make us a little bit uncomfortable... at all times.

Thailand does it with a blunt butter knife and expects us to overlook a character flaw.

Back to your question...

So given it's a BL producing country that I know is clumsy about this (like Thailand) sometimes I notice and get annoyed, and sometimes I sigh and it doesn't bother me. Often that has to do with my mood. Sometimes it's the chaos of the show. Like with say Pit Babe, or The Sign, eventually I'm just overwhelmed by the absurd crazy of it all. Probably because they clearly aren't taking themselves seriously, the whole darn show: cast, crew, production, everybody.

Sometimes the violation in question is simply not a trigger for me so I don't mind.

Sometimes it reads as a kink and then I kinda like it (Taiwan will do this a lot).

Sometimes I don't even notice.

Yes, certainly I have dropped show or moved on from rewatching older stuff because now it bothered me, where once it did not (cough cough TharnType).

But others I still understand (if not love) because they say something about the time they were made and what the genre was then, like Takumi-kun.

Some stuff I loved so much when it first aired and still love with such nostalgia that I don't really see its flaws. UWMA is likely one of those. It's always great to me, even on rewatch, even after 810 other shows.

But I think UWMA might not be great to someone who started watching BL in 2022 or comes to the genre out of Korean BL, for example.

Does problematic content make you lose love for something with time?

Sometimes but not always.

It's all in the nuance, I guess. Mine, what I bring to the show, my willingness to understand its origin and forgive it its sins, but also the show's nuance and its execution of story.

(source)

[hypermascbishounen]

Honestly, even more than not being into goth music, I think if you like goth fashion and aesthetics but then get angry at any of the "problematic" tropes common to gothic horror fiction, you are a fucking poser, lol.

[the-n109-zone]

TW: racism, ableism, homophobia, stalking, bullying, problematic developer

I didn't originally intend to publish this, but after seeing one specific post made by galacticglados, I felt it was time to speak out.

queenlilithprime / restartheartvn is a horrible person and you should not support them.

I have documented and provided screenshots of every post linked here. This means that even if Lilith deletes something, I will still have evidence. I have also screen recorded their entire vent blog, racism blog, and some of the other blogs they've engaged with for future reference. So there will be no excuse for faking screenshots if the original source can no longer be found. For even more security it might be good to reblog posts you find important to preserve them as well.

First, proof "princessofhollowness" is their venting side blog.

Here is Lilith's post talking about creating a new blog to vent on.

Most of the reblogged posts on princessofhollowness have been liked by their main blog, queenlilithprime. This proves it's a side blog since you can only like posts from your main blog. Similar to that, Lilith interacts with the same group of friends on their vent blog.

Below are screenshots of reblogged posts that have been liked by Lilith's main blog. You can find so much more than the ones I listed by visiting princessofhollowness and looking through each individual post yourself. (one two three four)

According to former friends of Lilith, many of the personal experiences shared on their vent blog can be backed up by personal events shared on their discord and main blog. Out of respect for their privacy, since these posts are personal, I will not share screenshots. But you can still find them on their vent blog.

With that out of the way I want you to remember that whenever you see "princessofhollowness" in any of the screenshots, it's one of Lilith's side blogs.

Proof "galacticglados" is another side blog.

Another thing I need to establish is that "galacticglados" is another side blog created by Lilith, as I will be referencing it periodically.

I want to highlight that Lilith's typing style and formatting are similar to those used on their second and third side blogs.

Going a step further, Lilith has previously interacted with the creators of the blog "creatingblackcharacters" on their main account and is familiar with the owners. This will be relevant later. (one two)

Furthermore, all the posts found on galacticglados align with the stalkerish intentions directed toward the creator of the blog "14dayswithyou," which I will elaborate on later.

They showed ignorance as a developer and made homophobia accusations towards the developers of Love & Deepspace.

Lilith has labeled the developers of L&DS (Papergames and subsequently Infold Games) and its fandom as homophobic and shitty without conducting any research or providing evidence of their claims. They made most of these claims on their developer accounts, which has many impressionable followers. (link)

If they did their due diligence as a developer with a published game of their own, they would know that China has significant censorship issues, especially regarding LGBT+ relationships and queer men. Games will be blacklisted and unplayable in China if they don't meet specific conditions. It is absurd to condemn an entire studio and call them homophobic simply for adhering to the laws of their country and not allowing BL content to jeopardize everything they have built.

Additionally, it's well known that L&DS is an otome game designed primarily for women. Lilith expects a massive company to violate Chinese laws by allowing BL content, which would then undermine the intent of the game and take away from a product created for women. If L&DS were a BL game instead, it would not be appropriate to make the main character a woman to be more inclusive.

They have spoken poorly about the developer of YOU and HIM behind their back.

UnknownHermit is the creator of YOU and HIM and was originally part of Florescent Red Studios, a developer studio co-owned by Lilith and @stnaf-vn. I don't have much to say except that discussing a friend's or employee's issues behind their back in a public setting is a shady practice for a developer. (link)

The second screenshot is proof that YOU and HIM had ties to Florescent Red Studios. The context of the tweet is unrelated.

They have shown stalkerish behavior regarding 14 D ays With You.

Lilith has an obsession with digging up old posts made by 14dayswithyou and scrutinizing them for any flaws. Some of 14dayswithyou's posts date back several days to over a year, yet Lilith continues to stalk their socials daily and scroll through hundreds of posts just to find any kind of infraction they can complain about. I recommend looking at princessofhollowness and any other blogs they've interacted with to understand what I'm talking about. (one two three four)

They are obsessed with the downfall of 14dayswithyou to the point where they weaponized and used creatingblackcharacters to reach their goal.

Now that I've provided evidence that princessofhollowness belongs to Lilith and highlighted their stalker-like behavior towards 14dayswithyou, it gives more context to the posts found on galacticglados.

As I mentioned above, Lilith actively criticizes everything the creator of 14dayswithyou does on princessofhollowness and has even commented on their inability to draw Black people accurately, despite two of the characters not actually being Black. It's no coincidence that they raised the same issue on galacticglados and attempted to launch a smear campaign to avoid facing backlash on their main blog. (one two three four)

Lilith has complained about the 14dayswithyou server on princessofhollowness and again on galacticglados, which is even more proof they run both accounts. They have also interacted with this post a few hours prior to posting something related on galacticglados, which is interesting. (link link)

They're a racist who assumes all dark-skinned people are Black.

Two characters mentioned in this post were mistakenly assumed to be Black despite their ethnicities never having been officially confirmed anywhere. Although they have non-Black features, such as their eye color and hair texture, Lilith still claimed they were 100% Black and submitted this information to the creatingblackcharacters blog with harmful intent.

A friend sent me a screenshot of the creator confirming that the characters are actually intended to be South Asian. So there is no excuse for Lilith trying to perpetuate racial stereotypes about Black people.

They're ableist and made a horrible joke about cancer.

Lilith jokingly remarked that people who are racist should get skin cancer. They later apologized for this comment, but in the big year of 2025, making such a joke is simply not acceptable. Ironically, while Lilith spoke about immediately calling out racism in their original post, they lacked the courage to actually do so on their main blog and instead addressed it on galacticglados. Below is the cropped and full version of the same post since it is lengthy. (link)

They're a virtue signaller who tries to get in the good graces of mainstream accounts despite being a hypocrite.

Lilith supported proshipping after reblogging a statement from @fantasia-kitt, despite stating "no proshipping" on their blog and not apologizing for banning my friend on discord for liking similar proshipper content found in fantasia-kitt's game, The Kid At The Back. (one two)

Lilith only interacts with developers who are popular or have a large following, and never smaller developers. This is seen with fantasia-kitt above as well as @sourmiiiilk. (link)

As said earlier, they also publicly shared a post that demanded better Black representation and justice for characters that were actually dark-skinned Asians.

I will add more once additional information comes forward. For now, do not support queenlilithprime / restartheartvn.

Testimonies from other people

These will be from aggrieved discord members since that is where most of my friends are active, but I can add anonymous tumblr testimonies too.

Person 1:

Person 2:

[luckytriplesevens]

i really truly do not know how you can be a fujoshi and anti-ship... i spend the majority of my online time on twitter and everyday i see self proclaimed fujoshis & BL enjoyers and im like "yes!! people to follow!!!" and i go to their profile, and i see 'proship dni'...? fujos and proshippers are brothers!!!! we are flesh and bone, blood and brick all built from the same material!! i really dont understand how someone can be a fujo and not profic or at least neutral on shipcourse as a whole.

[happypotato48]

This Is A Gay Asian Rant About BL Comments Made By Some Queer Westerners I See Sometimes.

So you know of those gays (usually white) that made dumb tiktok dancing to list of countries that legalized same sex marriage and list of countries that discriminate against LGBTQIA+ poeple as a way to say something racist. yeah i kinda got the same vibes from some comments regard how asian BL is homophobic just cause they don't live up to queer western standard. look, i'm not saying that some BLs and their creators don't deserve criticism regard how they capitalized/exploited queerness for an easy cash grab.

But people need to understand that Asian countries despite recent progress are still very much culturally conservatives. so when people says that thai bl is homophobic and all the characters looks like bunch of straight guys, which is true for some olders thai BLs i'm not gonna denied that. but after all this time and newer BLs generally being very queer and most of creators being out queer themself and poeple still making these comments, i'm annoyed.

And don't get me start on the actors. you don't know them! why are you making assumption and calling them queerbaiter just cause they acts in bl. like maybe they're straight, maybe they're not but what they're definitely doing is making queer content for you know, queer people here. so when you made halfass comments about their sexuality what do you think that made other queer people who still in the closet feels. and when you add the nationality to that, "these thai bl pair are this and that, this korean actor is so ungrateful for his bl past", etc. when our societies are still very much still in progress regard LGBTQIA+ acceptance. it make us living here feels fucking awful like somehow we're lesser queer than people in the west just cause we don't have citibank at pride or some shit.

And the shittiest in my humbled opinion are comments regard censored chinese bls. people do know like, that the creators making these bls are risking their livelihoods for this. that these shows getting make at all are miracles. yes it sucked that they're censored but they're still very much queer shows making by queer people who want to express thier queerness despite the chinese government being the chinese government. when people dimissing these shows as not belonging in queer media, you're also dimissing their creators and audiences as not belonging in the community.

Look what i want to say is that we're trying our best over here, and maybe our best are not up to your liking. the ways we talk and express our queerness maybe still can be perceived as problematic by western queer standard. but these media are our house and you're the guests. for people aren't shitty we appreciated that you're here engaging and loving our media, this is your home too and you're welcome in it. i can speak for myself that i very much love being here on tumblr and interacting with people from all over the world who love BL. but for people who are being shitty sometimes about asian bl.

YOU'RE THE GUESTS, BEHAVE!

[maybe-boys-do-love]

It's wild that the whole global trend of gay-focused happy ending romance shows and movies has only been going on for *looks at calendar* a measly ten years!

Just ten years ago. 2014. That's when you get the discovery of a market for queer romance series and films with happy endings. That year the OG Love Sick in Thailand came out. Brazil puts out The Way He Looks, which deserves so much more credit than it receives for influencing the aeshtetics of the genre. Looking premieres on HBO, and although it had low ratings, it's an important touchstone. And, despite Nickelodeon’s censorship and shifting the program from tv to its website, the Legend of Korra confirms Korrasami in its season finale.

The next year, in 2015, we get Love Sick season 2, and China, pre-censorship laws has a few options: Happy Together (not the Wong Kar Wai one lol), Mr. X and I, and Falling In Love with a Rival. Canada, premieres Schitt's Creek. In the US, Steven Universe reveals Garnet as a romantic fusion between two female characters, and will proceed to just be so sapphic. Norwegian web series Skam premieres and sets up a gay protagonist for its third season, which will drop in 2016 and entirely change the global media landscape.

Then, 2016! This is the MOMENT. That aforementioned Skam season happens. Japan puts out the film version of Ossan's Love and anime series Yuri!!! on Ice. China has the impactful Addicted Heroine, which directly leads to increased censorship. The US has Moonlight come out and take home the Oscar. In Thailand, GMMTV enters the BL game and Thai BL explodes: Puppy Honey, SOTUS, Water Boyy, Make It Right, plus, the Thai Gay OK Bangkok, which, like its influence, Looking, is more in the queer tradition but introduces two dramatically important directors to the Thai BL industry, Aof and Jojo.

By 2017, Taiwan enters the game with its History series. Korea’s BL industry actually kicks off with Method and Long Time No See. Thailand’s got too many BLs to mention. Call Me By Your Name, though not a happy ending, makes a big splash that will send ripples through the whole genre, and God's Own Country offers a gruff counter-argument to problematic age differences and twink obsessions. This is also the year of Netflix reboot of One Day At a Time bringing some wlw to the screen, and the Disney Channel has a main character come out as ‘gay’ on Andi Mack ( I’m am ready to throw fists with anyone who thinks the Disney Channel aesthetic isn’t a part of current queer culture). And I'd be remiss not to mention the influential cult-following of chaotic web-series The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo: "Sometimes things that are expensive...are worse."

All this happened, and we hadn’t even gotten to Love, Simon, Elite, or ITSAY, yet.

Prior to all this there are some major precursors some of which signaled and primed a receptive market, others influenced the people who'd go on to create the QLs. Japan has a sputtering start in the 2010s with a few BL films (Takumi-Kun, Boys Love, and Jujoun Pure Heart). Most significantly in the American context, you have Glee, and its ending really makes way for the new era that can center gay young people in a world where queerness, due to easy access to digital information, is less novel to the characters. And the QL book and graphic novel landscape was way ahead of the television and film industries, directly creating many of the stories that the latter industries used.

There's plenty of the traditional queer media content (tragic melodramas and independent camp comedies) going on prior to and alongside QL, and there are some outlying queer romance films with happy endings that precede the era but feel very much akin to QL genre tropes and goals, many with a focus on postcolonial and multicultural perspectives (Saving Face, The Wedding Banquet, Big Eden, Maurice, My Beautiful Launderette, and Weekend). I don't mean to suggest that everything I’ve listed ought to be categorized as QL.

Rather, I want to point out how all of these new-era queer romance works are in a big queer global conversation together, in the creation of a new contemporary genre, a genre that has more capacity and thematic interest to include digital technology and normalize cross-cultural relationships than other genres (there's a reason fansubs and web platforms are so easily accepted and integrated to the proliferation of these series).

You're not too late to be part of the conversation. Imagine being alive in the 1960s and 70s and participating in the blossoming of the sci-fi genre. That flowering is where gay romance sits now. Join the party.

[lurkingshan]

Helloooo, Shan! This is a bit out of left field but it’s something I’ve been wondering for a while. BL has developed more as a genre and shown itself to be increasingly sociopolitically aware (whether or not it effectively engages with that awareness beyond marketing is another thing), do you have thoughts on any sort of progression of how women and girls have been portrayed? Or observations on the general state of women and girls in BL? It seems to me their roles have become meatier, not just one-dimensional femme fatales or fujoshi. Or am I projecting a false narrative of genre evolution? 🤔

Hey Megan, thanks for sending! I love an out of left field ask. And I agree with you, I do think there has been a clear evolution in the way women characters are portrayed in BL, and I have been making note of it where I see it.

It used to be that female characters in BL were mostly just there to be antagonists, either as villainous femme fatales trying to break up the couple (like Plern Pleng in TWM) or fujoshis inserting themselves into the main couple's relationship in really inappropriate and fetishizing ways (like Pang in Love Sick). Even the precious few decent women characters from early BL (like Manow from UWMA) are still really only there as side characters who provide support to the boys and/or a bit of comic relief. Women in early BL were either problematic or kind of an afterthought in the narrative.

But more recently there have been BL dramas featuring women who are more fully fleshed out and actually a crucial part of the story. This is not linear and consistent, of course--there are BLs airing as we speak, like Knock Knock Boys and Blue Boys, that are still relying on women as primary antagonists--but there has been some growth. Here are some of the characters I find particularly notable in regards to the role they play in the narrative:

Ae Ri, The Eighth Sense

Ae Ri was a notable character because the narrative set us up to think she was going to be a typical femme fatale. She seemed to like Ji Hyun and we were naturally inclined to assume she would be an obstacle to him pursuing Jae Won, until the show completely turned that on its head and made her a knowing ally instead. It was a delightful surprise and she remained an important support and get a grip friend for Ji Hyun throughout the story.

Nara, La Pluie

Nara is another in the category of the subverted femme fatale trope, but this show took that much further by writing her with so much empathy and making her a fully fleshed out character with her own arc and even the start of a new romance by the end. It is still the best treatment of an ex-girlfriend character I have ever seen in a BL.

Fujisaki/Pai, Cherry Magic

Speaking of trope subversion, let's give a shoutout to these two corrective takes on the fujoshi archetype. Each version of this story did it a bit differently, but the common thread was that Fujisaki and Pai only wanted the best for their friends, and kept a firm line on how much to interfere in their relationship. Fujisaki is gentle and kind, offering small encouragements and nice gestures. Pai is much more of an enthusiastic fangirl so I was a bit weary at the start of her story, but the show used her fannish interests as an opportunity to model respectful fan behavior and I was quite pleased in the end.

Yiwa, Wedding Plan

And of course, I have to mention the current title holder for best female character in a BL, Wedding Plan's Yiwa. She is not only a great character in terms of having a fully formed personality, clear motivations, and a great set of relationships, she is also the engine that drives the entire narrative. I am still kinda amazed she exists.

This is separate but related to the recent increase in GL content and GL side couples in BLs, which is also getting steadily better. And I want both! I want solid GL dramas where the girls own the narrative, and I want BLs to write women better when they choose to include them in the story. I'm encouraged by the progress we've already seen.

[olderthannetfic]

https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/780829729734393856/modern-tumblr-users-like-isnt-it-sooooo?source=share

Not just modern tumblr issue. I remember around ten years ago, I follow a blog that list "Vanilla BL with nonproblematic content" (idk if problematic was an accurate word) and it was one of the blogs I used if I want to read fluff. But I sometimes notice this kind of blogs would talk about "has great female character", which was okay, but the more that I think about it, it is so weird that people care a lot of that thing.

--

[ineffable-opinions]

BL “Censorship” & Commercialization

Content: 1. ubiquitous censorship - special focus on Japanese BL 2. commercial viability of live action BL & generalizations 3. solutions - special focus on state support of Thai BL 4. [update state-supported production of Love in the Big City series]

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Censorship is a sensitive topic. I have tried my best. Please feel free to comment and critique.

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History of Korean BL is one of censorship and commercialization and Korean fu-people has struggled against both. There have been different victors at different points in time. Aljosa Puzar’s "BL"(Boy Love), "GL"(Girl Love) and Female Communities of Practice and Affect in South Korea chronicles that struggle. (Highly recommended.)

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I have tried to problematize BL commercialization before. But that was in the context of fu-culture and the commodity fetishism associated with the consumption of BL, particularly in live action form which is probably its most capitalist rendition for many many reasons.

Here I would like to look at it from another angle: censorship. This is a continuation of my earlier post (Why so many shonen ai live-action?) motivated by the live action adaptation of ‘조폭인 내가 고등학생이 되었습니다’ (I, A Gangster, Became a High School Student) by 호롤 (Ho Rol).

The live action has jumped genres switching from BL to 판타스틱 휴먼 드라마 (lit. fantasy human drama). This switch got it tagged as ‘Censored Adaptation of Same-sex Original Work’ on My Drama List. I personally don’t like that tag. Almost all BL adaptation is a censored adaptation, with notable exceptions like Sei no Gekiyaku. But no one uses that tag for, say, 25 Ji, Akasaka de (2024) which censored all sexual content, especially from the volume 1 of the manga which was critical to the story and the couple’s development in the original manga series’ and its multiple adaptations’ popularity. Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka (2024) went as far as removing the more sexual second couple from the live action adaptation all together, yet it does not get a "censored" tag.

An interesting question that the controversy surrounding High School Return of a Gangster (2024) has sparked is that of BL media’s commercial viability, especially in live action form. Here’s what producers told the Korean newspaper, Hankook Ilbo, about the genre-jumping:

"BL 장르는 제작비 투자나 리쿱(제작비 회수)에 한계가 있는 게 사실이다. 그러다 보니 처음부터 이 작품은 브로맨스로 해보고 싶었다"

“The BL genre is limited in terms of investment in production costs and recoup (recovery of production costs). So, from the beginning, we planned it as a bromance (beulomaenseu).”

The author of this article cites examples of works that enjoyed success on OTT platforms, namely Watcha’s Semantic Error and TVing's Unintentional Love Story (2023). However, the article also highlights the fact that BL continues to be a niche genre and live action adaptations don’t guarantee success.

이성택 (Lee Seong Taek), the director of High School Return of a Gangster, previously directed the BL Love Class (2022). The producer 넘버쓰리픽쳐스 (Number Three Pictures Co., Ltd.) have BL works like Unintentional Love Story under its belt.

'Unintentional Love Story' Director Jang Eui-soon (장의순) | source

If the producer of one of the two most popular live action BL is admitting to it, then it is not easy to dismiss the issue of commercial viability of live action BL.

Very famous BL publishing houses (starting with JUNE) and hosting platforms with relatively lower expenses have struggled. Some of them are no more. It is also difficult for authors to survive merely on earnings from publishing houses and hosting platforms, especially when those platforms are not very rich. So, it is not difficult to imagine that live action production houses also struggle to survive.

Take GMMTV for example. They are probably one of the most successful BL producers. According to their managing director, BL content (series) is not a profitable business in itself. They rely on khujin (branded pairs) of actors to bring in advertisement revenue, merchandize sales, and pull crowds to concerts and fan-meets. It is not enough for actors to just act. They are expected to sing, dance and perform. Meanwhile, GMMTV is forced to keep working with these actor pairs and stick to templates that suit them. While it works for now, it remains to be seen how long the business model can last.

Now there is also investment from Mainland China that has migrated to other BL producers following dangai ban. But those who invest already burned themselves pretty bad with all the money they poured in during the short-lived but explosive dangai boom. It is sunk cost at this point. Another crack down could be the death knell for Chinese investments in BL. 

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More generally, it is likely that commercial viability of a live action BL project hinges on the following:

#1 Target demographic

Like all other BL content, live action too is primarily targeted at fu-people (BL audience) – both queer and non-queer. The target demography is further sub-divided based on the type of BL and purchasing power.

Sweeter ones are supposed to appeal to all ages and that’s the area Thailand and GMMTV in particular are focused on. Most of Japanese BL series are sweet. Korea too produces sweet BL. However, they are unlikely to bring in explosive success the way odo BL (those following royal road narrative progression – wherein characters face significant challenges, interpersonal or otherwise, to reach happy ending).

Older and, perhaps more hard-core fans, are likely to support jado works (BL that follow the evil path where neither happy ending nor resolution to challenges are guaranteed) with surprising frequency. This might be partly due to the erotic content in jado works.

Purchasing power of BL fans vary widely. There are those who are

“sending gifts to their actors in Thailand, sending food trucks to their shooting locations, putting up billboard advertisements and doing charity events [as well as] ordering merchandise in bulk.”

They also travel to BL producing nations [on fan pilgrimages] and attend fan meetings, concerts and other events regularly.

(Source: The Print)

The other group of BL fans who are probably younger and/or can’t afford to show support in the above-mentioned ways. BL commercially benefits from being appealing to those with higher purchasing power.

#2 Popularity of original work in case of adaptation  

Popular BL novels, manhwa, etc. bring in a set of fans who are interested in the live action. Longer and more-acclaimed works are likely to ensure success of the live action given decent making and reasonable changes during adaptation. Semantic Error is a case in point. However, missteps during adaptation can have the opposite effect.

#3 Cost of production

It is difficult to get investment in the first place, especially with how niche the genre is. Moreover, higher cost of production sets the bar for success higher too.

On the other hand, high production quality and better cast and crew (likely more expensive too) makes the viewing more pleasurable and increases the likelihood of success.

There are other factors which influence the success of BL producers. The most popular BL live action from China, Addicted, was produced by the author, Chai JiDan, with a tiny budget. Its dangai family drama remake, Stay with Me, also has an interesting producer.

Source | Mame with her Japanese fans

Orawan Vichayawannakul’s MeMindY is another BL author led production company that has enjoyed considerable success.

OP Pictures’ entry into BL genre has also been successful.

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Solutions

#1 Let’s start with the worst

BL as money laundering vehicle. It is probably the most obvious, sort of win-win until it isn’t. Sustainability depends how much skin the ruling class have in the game.

#2 State sponsorship

(or better yet, tax payer supported BL production)

State sponsorship is what Thailand has perfected.

source | 2023 seminar on "Beyond Borders: Exploring the Global Appeal and Diversity of Thailand's Boys' Love Contents" by 9 companies from Thailand organized by Department of International Trade Promotion under Thailand’s Ministry of Trade.

The eleven speakers, including an official from the Office of Commercial Affairs, Royal Thai Embassy in Japan, vigorously pitched partnerships with Japanese content companies [at the above-mentioned seminar.]

Also, several of the companies pitching at the seminar, such as Star Hunter Entertainment […] were plumping for BL not as a niche product but rather a core element of their corporate strategy.

Halo Productions representative Tewarat Supunnium [trumpeted] the vertical integration of his company, from talent representation to contents distribution.

source

Thai BL has been big hits in China, South Korea, Japan, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and beyond, which has motivated Thailand’s government to ‘deploy Boys Love as its latest soft power weapon to promote the country on the global stage’. In an article published in The Nation, BL director, Bundit Sintanaparadee, explains how that affects production.

He pointed out that the international popularity of Thai shows can boost tourism and generate interest in the featured locations – a vital aspect of soft power. The government can facilitate this process by providing support and streamlining the bureaucratic obstacles to filming in attractive locations like Bangkok’s Chinatown district of Yaowarat.

Filming in iconic places such as Yaowarat can be costly and complicated due to the need to coordinate with multiple government agencies and pay location fees. Bundit said the government could simplify the process to benefit not just filmmakers but also tourist revenue in the locations.

Bundit also cautioned against a top-down approach to soft power, where the government dictates what represents Thailand on the world stage. He emphasises the need for industry professionals to have their say.

source

In a 2022 article, Bangkok Post explores the impact of BL on Thailand’s economy ‘as export products that can draw lucrative revenue streams and foster business opportunities in other areas, including tourism.’

[According to government estimates from 2021,] Thailand's Y content market was worth more than 1 billion baht... In June that year, the Department of International Trade Promotion held an online Y content business matching event to boost the industry, with the participation of 10 Thai content creators. More than 360 million baht was generated from the purchase of the Thai content, with the top three buyers coming from Japan, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Noppharnach Chaiyahwimhon, GMMTV's senior director of content production, said [that the] business ecosystem linked to Y Series in Thailand shows a growth of 30-40% per year. [He also said that] Y Series can also be a boon for other businesses, such as films, artist management and merchandise. [He mentioned] Y Series from Thailand [getting] translated into several languages [and one of their Y Series having received theatrical adaptation in South Korea.]

[According to] Kanokporn Prachayaset, chief commercial officer and country manager of WeTV Thailand, … Y Series from Thailand is one of the most popular content genres on its platform. [Half of all the BL content on the platform was Thai.] WeTV [was] sourcing Y Series from Asia as well as having its own WeTV original shows by working with various local production houses, such as GMMTV, TV Thunder, Dee Hup House, M Choice Studio and All This Entertainment. [She also highlighted the contribution of the fan base, which is] active in organising activities and campaigns for their idols.

Seksan Sripraiwan, director of the Tourism Authority of Thailand's (TAT) Tokyo office, said the TAT and the Royal Thai Embassy have actively promoted the country by using Thai entertainment [and that] Thai BL content is considered one of the most popular recent cultural exports to Japan. Japan's market for Thai BL is around 1 million viewers, of which 20,000-30,000 are heavily active on social media sites for renowned BL actors, led by Bright-Win and Krist-Singto. He said Japanese tour operators already offered tailor-made tour packages which contain elements related to BL TV series, such as shooting locations like universities, cafes, Wat Arun or the Amphawa floating market.

Kanokkittika Kritwutikon, director of the TAT Chengdu office, said Thai BL TV shows have gained popularity in China, such as the coming-of-age series "I Told Sunset About You", which helped drive tourists to Phuket, the main location of the story.

"Most Chinese BL fans are millennial females who can offer long-term support for their favourite actors," Mrs Kanokkittika said. [Recognizing the 3 million strong queer population of Chongqing,] she said the LGBT segment could be categorised as luxury travellers as they are high-income earners, live in key cities, and want to spend more for travel experiences.

source

Earlier this year Ministry of Commerce have partnered with Be On Cloud and Idol Factory to promote ‘Thai products, services, tourism, and culture by incorporating them seamlessly into’ their new series “Shine” and “Pin Phak” aka “The Loyal Pin” respectively.

“This will help create around 2 billion in value for Thailand’s economy,” said Commerce Minister Phumtham.

Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister Phumtham Wechayachai and two actresses, Becky and Freen, witness the signing ceremony between the Ministry of Commerce and Idol Factory Co., Ltd. on February 28, 2024....

According to the Department of International Trade Promotion, the Thai movie and series sector and related industries will generate 8,000 million baht in exports by 2023. In 2024, it will likely reach 10,000 million baht, particularly in the Y-movie and Y-series, which are expected to expand in value from 1,000 million baht to 2,000 million baht as a result of the Ministry of Commerce’s proactive cooperation with the private sector.

source

The Thai government’s efforts are paying off.

Oramon Sapthaweetham, director-general of the Department of Business Development, revealed that the Boys’ Love series had helped revitalise the film production industry, generating substantial profits and extending economic benefits to allied sectors, such as advertising, leveraging actors as influencers, event organisation, and tourism. 

"Over the past 10 years, Thailand has produced over 177 Boys’ Love [series], continuously gaining popularity and expanding its customer base, eventually leading to exports to international markets," Oramon added.

The film production industry in Thailand is witnessing substantial growth. In the first four months of 2024, 56 new businesses were registered, marking a 12% increase from 2023. The total registered capital also saw a significant rise of 146.44% to 195.18 million baht. In 2023, the industry grew by 20% with 137 businesses and a capital of 258 million baht. The total revenue in 2022 was 12.895 billion baht, indicating a continuous growth trend.

source

-

#3 Diversification

Ok, so this is based on my limited knowledge and imagination. Feel free to skip.

There are two production companies that I have ever been interested in - Bhavana Studios and Mammootty Kampany. Both of them have produced experimental Malayalam movies while managing to remain commercially successful. While is partially attributable to these companies being brands, I think their overall strategy of diversification have worked in their favour.

Mammootty Kampany could produce art-house movie Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam for award circuits and with no expectation of commercial performance by banking on their other production Kannur Squad which was action entertainer sure to bring in the big bucks. Their queer family drama Kaathal – The Core and neo-noir psychological thriller Rorschach did exceptionally well in the box office as well as garnered critical acclaim. Bhavana Studios has similar track record of their commercially successful projects kind of cross subsidizing their experimental and unique projects and lifting the heat off in case of flops.

Having production companies which are aspirational in their approach to BL while having the economics sorted out help where government support is not forth coming.

Censorship as No-thing

When sometime is truly censored, we wouldn’t know. Unless we ask. Here’s what Jooyin Saejang learned from asking.

Conclusion

I have a strong preference for live action adaptations that are willing to go the last mile in terms of sexual content, social critiques and addressing real-life issues. That’s the reason why the header image for this BL side blog is from Moothon (2019).

But realistically this isn’t always possible. And I prefer having more production companies offering variety. I don’t want them to sink under the weight of BL that didn’t do well commercially and me being left at the mercy of media conglomerates with seemingly bottomless funds and monopsony over BL authors, original works and the culture that creates them.

Also, there is queer content from Korean that is neither mainstream nor from fu-culture. Support those. Unfortunately, Cheers by Cheers 짠!하면 알 수 있어 has been removed from their YouTube channel which is now called Cheer Up. While the series is gone, there are interviews with English subtitles.

Love in the Big City

Love in the Big City, the series and the movie are based on Park Sang-young's novel of the same name that was published in 2019. In Korea, it sold over 100,000 copies. Ever since, it has been translated into 15 languages, including English. The English translation by Anton Hur was published in 2021. The book has been longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2022 and the Dublin Literary Award in 2023.

The movie secured an investor early on. The film was produced by Showbox and Tale Farming (고래와유기농). Michigan Venture Capital, a key investor, was responsible for 2 billion won out of the net production cost of about 6 billion won. Plus M Entertainment, a subsidiary of the JoongAng Group took care of its distribution. (source)

State-sponsorship for Korean BL !

The series, on the other hand, faced difficulty attracting investment as well as had trouble finding OTT platforms willing to air the show. It was co-produced by MerryChristmas, a subsidiary of WYSIWYG Studio' a KOSDAQ-listed company, along with Big Stone Studio. Mbrella Films provided production services in Thailand. They have received the state-support through Korea Creative Content Agency under Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism amounting to 3 billion won as production costs support aimed at strengthening the global competitiveness of K-content through OTT.

Finally, TVING, a platform that has aired multiple BL projects previously (such as Unintentional Love Story, Jazz for Two, To My Star 2, The Eighth Sense and High School Return of a Gangster), aired the series in South Korea and the streaming platform Rakuten Viki promoted it as a BL.

An iconic scene from bonus chapter 2 of The New Employee aka The New Recruit manhwa adaptation (web novel written by Moscareto and illustrated by Zec) ahead that didn't make it into the live action adaptation.

Gong comes home to find su in a sexy position at the doorway, fingering himself according to gong's instructions over phone.

[kdrama-mama]

Just sitting here thinking about how I don’t understand why Wedding Plan wasn’t more popular. The story was sweet, chemistry was excellent between the couples, it highlighted a real world issue many queer folks have to navigate, the NC scenes were sexy as hell - it was up there with one of the best BLs I’ve watched honestly.

I find it so weird how people shit on Mame so often for being “problematic” and yet they didn’t want to watch a series she put out that was totally unproblematic? The worst thing is Lom misleading Nuea and his mother, but if you listen, you realize he was very carefully *not* lying, and simply skirting the truth because he was in a very difficult situation. (Do they really love the “problematic” content but feel the need to publicly loudly pretend otherwise? Maybe)

Or they wrote it off completely because they didn’t like the kiss between the GL couple? It makes zero sense to me, and I have seen many people say that. There was a whole discussion on one Reddit thread I saw. And yeah, I agree that Katheryn did not do a good job with the kissing - Aya was clearly trying, but wasn’t given much to work with. But they weren’t the main couple, the main couple had excellent kisses, and they were so freaking adorable in all their other scenes. I really want to see Aya in a GL where she’s the lead.

Whenever I tried to engage on Twitter or a bit on here, it was like nobody was talking about it. Aya liked some of my tweets, and I honestly think she saw it just because so few people were tweeting about the episodes!

Or there’s people who wouldn’t watch it bc they thought Mame was using Boss, Noeul, Fort, and Peat for “clout,” when their cameos made perfect sense and were incredibly sweet moments for two of my favorite BL couples! I was so happy to have those sweet moments of closure for their stories.

Anyway, if you didn’t watch Wedding Plan for whatever reason, I highly encourage you to watch it! I’m sad I can’t get the special episode legally in the US, I would have bought it. I suspect she didn’t have it available in as many countries as Love in the Air because it was less popular.

[twig-tea]

Some background on Dear Dakanda for the TOL rewatch

Thanks to @bengiyo's idea and @lurkingshan's incredible energy and skill for organization, I joined the Theory of Love Romcom Rewatch starting this week, alongside @solitaryandwandering and @neuroticbookworm. It was really interesting starting with an older Thai film–this was one of the reasons I was immediately drawn to this project, I wanted to get exposure to some of the older Thai media that has been a shared touchstone of these content creators, in order to get more of the references. Theory of Love does a lot of the work laying out which films it’s referencing for the audience, which makes this easier; plus I just love that show so you don't need to twist my arm to get me to start a rewatch. 

The first film was Dear Dakanda (2005); in Thai, the name is puen sanit i.e. best friend (or close friend), which is also the name of the first episode of TOL. Shan already wrote about the film itself, and how it relates to the first episode, but as we were watching I was noticing a lot of ties to QL and so I wanted to capture some of that here. What follows is what I was able to find on this film based on internet searches, MyDramaList, and my own knowledge of QL from having been watching it for a decade. I'm by no means a Thai media expert, and coming at this film twenty years later, so if anyone else has context they want to add, please do!

Side note: Why is this interesting? There is something I really like about how identifiably queer people are just around in Thai media, both behind and in front of the camera, and it was interesting to see that in something 20 years old. It’s also just neat to see how small the industry is, and to notice similarities between the work these people produce. I’m well aware that we can’t conflate working on queer stories with being out, and that, especially back in the early 2000s, being out was often a barrier to creating queer media and would mean you could not get work, and that the on-screen opportunities for queer people were often very stereotyped and problematic, so I’m not trying to glamourize the past here. I just think it’s all worth noticing and thinking about. 

This film is based on a bestselling and award-winning short novel, The Red Mailbox (2000).

The producer, Keng, puts a lot of what follows in context. Keng was a screenwriter for the film The Iron Ladies (2000) (shout-out once again to @happypotato48 for putting that one on my radar), and started his own production house which was absorbed by GMM and was the predecessor to GDH 559. He’s produced a bunch of QL over the years, including Friend Zone, Tootsies and the Fake (2019), and most recently Flat Girls (2025). He also produced How To Make Millions before Grandma Dies (2024) and co-executive produced The Paradise of Thorns (2024). And, relevant to what's about to follow, he produced My Girl (2003).

The director, S, has also directed several works with queer elements, including Girl from Nowhere, Wake Up Ladies 2: Very Complicated, and the original Club Friday. This was his first solo directing gig, and folks were anticipatory of it after his work as one of the six co-screenwriter/directors of My Girl (2003), for which he co-won a Thailand National Film Association award for best director (this was the first of any of the six's solo efforts). He didn't win that award again for this film, but he was nominated, which is pretty impressive for a first solo outing. The other screenwriter/directors for My Girl have cameos in Dear Dakanda as seniors at university. It's worth noting that there is a character in this film that is apparently reprised from My Girl (the barber), so those following along should be on the lookout for that!

The cinematographer, Beat, won a Thailand National Film Association award for this film. He has also worked regularly with S since, on Girl from Nowhere and Wake Up Ladies 2, and he was the cinematographer for the BL Not Me (as well as several other GMMTV shows folks in this space might recognize, like F4).

One of the two ADs, Petch, also directed an episode of Girl from Nowhere and has since become a director for Konghtup; he’s co-directed both Two Worlds (BL) and Apple My Love (GL).

The other AD Nontra was one of the screenwriters for the original Hormones (2008) film [which I will be honest I haven't seen and don't know if it has any queer elements the way the show does]. The screenwriter for this film, Nitis, was another co-writer for the original Hormones film, and also won a Thailand National Film Association award for this film. 

And finally, the composer Vichaya works regularly with GDH and composed the original score for I Told Sunset About You and I Promised You the Moon, as well as Paradise of Thorns, Cutie Pie, Tootsies and the Fake, The Stranded, Friend Zone, and more. The score felt like a familiar friend while we were watching this film.

The actors were also familiar faces. The lead actor playing Moo/Khaiyoi, Sunny, was the het romance lead in My Ambulance (which is the Nadao Bangkok series that first included Bilikin and PP as a paired side couple–one that was so popular, they used the demand to see them again to fund the creation of ITSAY). 

The actor playing the eponymous Dakanda, Noon, had a bit part in Gay Ok Bangkok s2

The actor playing Nui the rival love interest, Ae, had a supporting role in Mhom Ped Sawan (GL); before that she was the inappropriately flirty client in The Trainee (shoutout to @my-rose-tinted-glasses for noting that she tried to come between Off and Gun in that, which is a very hilarious coincidence); she was also in Vice Versa (which is extra funny because Gun appeared as Third the character from Theory of Love in that show). [Also, Vice Versa people feel free to correct me because I haven’t rewatched that show, but wasn’t her character sapphic? There was definitely something between her character Joob and Jeab’s character Dol, though I can’t remember if it went anywhere.] 

All three of these main actors were nominated for a best actor, best actress, and best supporting actress award from the Thailand National Film Association respectively.

Knowing that all of these people were involved in this film and then moved on to work on these shows and films that many of us have seen and loved helps give credence to the parallels we noticed while watching (e.g. the way visuals and characters from this film clearly influenced ITSAY as Shan mentioned in her post; there were also definitely jokes about Ae’s role in this film in Vice Versa that I did not get at the time). 

[animefeminist]

Curses and True Forms: Reading Fruits Basket as a lesbian

Content warning: discussion of homophobia, both societal and internalized; familial abuse

Spoilers for Fruits Basket (manga and 2019 anime)

Though its name is fruity by nature, the best-selling and beloved Fruits Basketisn’t necessarily the first title that comes to mind when I think “queer manga.”

The first time I read the series, this wasn’t exactly a surprise to me. Despite shoujo manga serving as the foundation for both early BL (boys’ love) and early yuri, collective memory of 90s/early 2000s shoujo manga tends to center zany, at times melodramatic, and above all very straight plotlines. Even when these stories are riddled with queer subtext, it’s most likely by accident or intentionally played for laughs. The main or “serious” aspects of these stories always stay within the safety of cisheteronormativity… or do they?

In the article “The Transient Queerness of Fruits Basket,” Garrick Shultz gave an excellent critique of the problematic handling of queerness within Fruits Basket. Her analysis is thought-provoking and solid, and I offer my perspective not in opposition, but as a reclamation of sorts.

As a lesbian, Fruits Basket was not written for me. Even so, the romance between Kyo and Tohru resonates deeply with my experience of queerness. 

Read it at Anime Feminist!

[chiralheart]

half assed intro post yay !!!

heyyy! this is @whimsysys ‘s sideblog dedicated to yaoi and other gay ass happenings. this blog will mostly focus on DMMD, slow damage, and any BL’s we might read or watch in the future … we might also reblog some other insane shit /silly /sx

we’ve only played the demo for DMMD unfortunately, we are broke as FUCK !!! but we love koujaku x aoba very very much as well as noiz x aoba. as for slow damage i know almost nothing about it but i’ve seen CGs and i like the idea of it and towa is hot as fuck so we ball !!! other interests that will likely be posted here are alien stage and otome games, epecially blooming panic... my other fav otome games are delicious date, killer chat!, and that's pretty much it!! I NEED MORE RECCOMMENDATIONS !!! :D

i’ll add tag information as needed, but for now there’s no special tagging system for this blog!

dni criteria !!!!!!!!!

main blog’s criteria

this blog is strictly 16+ only

fujoshis are on thin ice for comfort reasons, same with himedanshis. if you aren’t overly fetishy about it, im fine with it. i’ve just had very weird experiences with fujos as a gay man /lh

believe being a fudanshi or himejoshi is problematic?? (surely people dont believe this.. right!)

if you dont want to see suggestive content, please feel free to block us. we don’t tag anything explicit unless its very extreme, since that’s the general nature of this blog

if you are against selfcest (further referred to as mirrorshipping) or if it makes you uncomfortable. nothing personal, that's completely valid! but this blog will probably include that sometimes & i enjoy it

basic criteria

NOTE: due to the nature of DMMD and slow damage, this blog will sometimes reblog art that contains blood/gore. this will usually be tagged but we have memory problems and it might slip our mind sometimes. if that would be triggering for you, it might be best to stay away from this page! /lh click images for cred!

[thelunarfairy]

Thinking about how the type of relationship between Amane and Tsukasa is written and shown, like Aidairo they really like to play and, evidently, they do it on purpose: is it just something brotherly or is there something more? (Always interpreting the content they give us and never affirming [or denying] something)

It can also be said (and from what I have seen, it is something that does happen) that part of the jshk fandom rejects and ignores the theories that the interactions between the twins hide something beyond the fraternal because they're brothers and shouldn't be seen as such.

So,

Using the analogy of "If character A were the opposite gender of character B, then everyone would support their romantic relationship, but since A and B are the same gender that makes them just good friends and 'romantic' is just a thing." part of the community", one could deduce that if instead of brothers, Aidairo had chosen to be childhood friends, would the majority of the fandom more easily accept their interaction as something more than brotherly?

If they were just childhood friends who grew up together and their relationship is the same as it is currently in the manga, perhaps the entire fandom would say, and it wouldn't be something crazy or misplaced, that there's not just friendship between the two; perhaps a one-sided love, or a childhood love that ended badly. Maybe there would even be more posts of parallels between hananene and amane and tsukasa.

I would like to know your opinion ^ . ^

Just thoughts derived from insomnia and how I love to find three feet for the cat. And since I love to see the relationships of some characters in another light to see if it's just my interpretation or if there is something more.

P.D.: ilove your theories and analysis.

Do you want me to be completely honest?

I have been very cautious when talking about this subject precisely because it is such a taboo.

It's not about gender, but about being brothers, it's not something natural or accepted, it's strange to think or talk about it in a general context, most people have brothers and know that the love they feel for them is fraternal.

So this forbidden love causes a lot of strangeness, even if it is in fiction.

But yes, I'm happy that the fandom is finally seeing that there is SOMETHING STRANGE in their relationship, it's not just brotherly love, right?

It does not seem.

Tsukasa blushes when he is with Amane, when he talks about him. Hanako also blushes when he is around Tsukasa. The way Tsukasa touches Hanako, panels where they are almost kissing, Hanako under Tsukasa in a suggestive position while Tsukasa puts his hands on Hanako's lips. The way Hanako looks at Tsukasa, whether when he was pointing at the stars or when he ran to hug Amane.

There is more evidence of romance than of a healthy sibling relationship. The way Tsukasa didn't care about anything other than fulfilling Amane's wishes…

But what about Hanako, what must he have been like with Tsukasa?

The general idea that goes through my head sometimes is that the twins fell in love with each other. For Tsukasa, in a more innocent way, that kind of love that he still doesn't understand and doesn't know how to differentiate from brotherly love, everything for him is just love.

For Hanako…. this is more problematic, Hanako is not innocent, he knows what kind of love he feels for Tsukasa, and maybe because he realizes that it is wrong, forbidden, he just buried this feeling inside his chest. Even though he felt love and desires, he seemed to want to be the "perfect" brother, as we saw in the PP arc.

Most analyzes of JSHK symbolism point to a romantic love between them, and in some cases, unilateral. An innocent twin and a pervert, opposites but with similar desires.

I always wonder why Hanako has such a latent sexual desire, as if he was repressing an old desire, and when Kako revealed this in front of Tsukasa, Hanako blushed intensely!

He literally wanted to die again, so why was he so blushing because of Tsukasa? It doesn't make sense if we don't think about the desires he might feel about Tsukasa, and because it's something shameful and forbidden, he feels bad.

"I want Tsukasa, but he's my brother, we can't! It's wrong…."

He blushed more with Tsukasa than with Nene, even when Nene kissed him on the cheek, the moment he blushed the most with her, it didn't surpass the way he blushed with Tsukasa, even his HANDS were blushed.

Think with me, Hanako wants to stop time to do any kind of perverted things, who could he stop time with so he could do whatever he wanted without anyone knowing?

He already did perverted things with Nene without needing to stop time, he can even try to do perverted things with random people, since no one sees Hanako because he's a ghost

But he couldn't touch these people even if time stopped, because in order for him to touch them the other person must be supernatural, have a sixth sense or a bond with Hanako, as in the case of Nene, Kou.

So WHO was the person he was talking about?

Touching Tsukasa with time stopped… Would it lessen Amane's guilt if Tsukasa didn't know? Hmm…..

He likes to do things in secret because he doesn't like to feel guilty, he does things knowing it's wrong, and that's why he does them in secret.

This would also explain why he was so embarrassed when Tsukasa found out that he wants to do perverted things, it was as if Kako had revealed to Tsukasa that Amane had this type of desire towards him.

A forbidden desire that Amane hides, touching Tsukasa, but he can't, so would he wish time would stop so he could do what he wants, because he believed Tsukasa would never know, would it be the only way to alleviate his desire?

When the secret was revealed, Amane felt the guilt and shame for his desires strongly.

Should I also mention the sexual connotation between eating and being devoured? Hakubo and Sumire? It was explicitly a sexual scene between the two, and well, Hanako will probably have to devour Tsukasa in the same way, so sexual connotations continue here.

So, let's go to the scene of Hanako's intense crying when he sees Tsukasa kissing Nene.

Did he see the two people he is in love with kissing? And him being left out of it?

So, let's conclude, maybe this will all lead to a three-way relationship, if Nene accepts, of course. Hanako seems to be in love with both of them, and with the way things are going, we're going to see more of Amane showing love for Tsukasa.

See his look in these two situations:

It's the same look…. in one panel he tells Nene that he's happy because she was the first girl who said she liked him, in the other panel he's talking about Tsukasa.

Same tender look, same look, SAME LOOK

BUT

It's just ONE of the possibilities, maybe it's just another one of those things that some manga authors put in, you know, to tease and give false clues, maybe it's just "ah, that's just a joke, they're just very close brothers" and nothing happens.

Aidairo created a game in which there were twins in love with the same girl, they also had a suggestive relationship between them, but nothing explicitly romantic was shown between them.

This is what I think will happen in JSHK, there is all this evidence that their relationship is romantic, but in the end it won't be anything canon, just suggestive moments.

I don't think Aidairo will have enough courage to put a romantic relationship between canonical brothers???? I doubt it, I would challenge her if I could, because I definitely don't believe she would put that on! Because it would be very brave of her to do that!!

Neither the romantic relationship between the twins nor the relationship between three. Tsukasa will probably disappear, Nene will stay with Hanako for a while and Amane will disappear too, Nene (if she survives) will be sad for a while and then forget.

It will be?

Everything is still hazy, I'm wandering between the two paths, do they love each other romantically or is it just Aidairo's joke?

I have no idea the answer, because the evidence is getting stronger and harder to ignore….

Anyway, remembering that I don't ship the twins and I'm not saying that this is what will happen, it's just an analysis based on their behavior.

[talk-danmei-to-me]

I see a lot of this conversation has involved the “the writers are predominantly trans/nb” topic, but tbh we don’t actually know what anyone’s gender is here. Anyone can claim to be trans/nb online without it actually being true (and they do? I’ve seen this happen). Just like cishet men can sexualize lesbians, cishet women can sexualize gay men/trans men in harmful ways that is very homophobic or essentially an unofficial self insert.

I dunno… I think there are fundamental differences in the way straight women consume m/m media than straight men consume w/w. Like if we’re talking about bl (or even ao3) it’s mostly reading based so 2d images or words - not actual people. Whereas typically when people talk about straight men and w/w they’re referring to watching full blown porn. Or I guess films like Blue is the Warmest Colour or The Handmaiden were the sex scenes are geared towards the male gaze. (Although thats a massive sweeping generalisation - some men may be drawn to gl for the same reasons women are drawn to bl. But I’ve personally never seen it presented that way)

(Slight side step, but I was talking with my bestie the other day and for the life of me I couldn’t figure out who is the target market for gl?)

Thinking of my own consumption of m/m media (which is actually quite broad. Outside of bl I also watch western dramas, documentaries, I’ve read books that would be classified as ‘gay fiction’ and I wrote my dissertation on the aids epidemic) not once have I ever considered self inserting.

I think for cishet women (why is this starting to feel like a jibe?) bl in particular, because it tends to be written by women ends up having way more relatable characters than ‘straight media’. Like when I say Chu Wanning is me - that’s not because I’m self inserting into the story it’s because he literally does and says things that I have done in my actual real life. Nobody is writing female characters like that.

Tbh if I was taking a shot in the dark regarding problematic creation of content I would say the people that are sexualising characters in a problematic way and being homophobic… are probably homophobic in real life and just creating content within fandom spaces based on what’s popular and to get maximum traction.

There’s nearly 7 million m/m works on ao3 vs nearly 4 million for f/m (I’ve rounded up to the nearest million for ease)

(For f/f it’s basically 1 million… fandom has a misogyny problem for sure.)

Not to be a cynic, but people will for sure write what they think will get the most likes, comments and bookmarks. Which is probably what’s led to an increase in just bad fics.

[queersouthasian]

BLs and the "Queer Lens":

One thing that has been around is the argument about how certain shows like moonlight chicken and eighth sense are created "for" queer people and are much more queer compared to the rest. So, we are just going back to the same debate "are BLs queer?"

Listen, I understand that the origin of BLs were for heterosexual women and they were created by hetero women pretty much as a form of escapism and can be argued that it was fetishization of asian queer men. But here comes the first question, if not for this would we get what we have today? The answer is no. Any form of media does go through some rough time (or "problematic" phase) to finally develop into something the mass would happily consume. The same here too. It took time but eventually we got to see lgbtq themes in these BLs (the written work), queer creators and queer consumers increased. Soon live action BLs started and by 2019 we had quality asian lgbtq media in our hands. I have always said this, BLs have come a long way, it has seen a lot of changes in the content and would too in the future. "But what about the problematic tropes?" Don't they exist everywhere? In fics, in books, in your "so queer" shows, everywhere. Also, perspective is very important. I have seen what some people claim to be problematic are relatable and liked by others. At the end of the day we have the choice to watch what we want. Now "queer lens". I will never understand this. Queer lens is defined as a media which successfully represents and puts forward the different realities of being queer . So again we are coming back to the same question, "if a show is not based on reality, if it doesn't have that queer lens, if it's just queer people existing, does it make the show less queer" I don't think so. I appreciate mature themes in BLs, I appreciate BLs leaning towards realism but that will not brush off the other shows. Doesn't matter if it's reality or fiction, queer people in a show makes it queer. There is nothing called "less queer" or "more queer". Even the queer show catering to the hetero audience is queer . It's just the lgbtq people in there are not concerned about their sexuality or it's not the whole idea of the plot. These are great comfort shows. I am tired of people downplaying them just because they don't have that so called "queer lens". We deserve content where for once we are happy. We deserve content where our intimacy is not a substance of disgust. We deserve casual storytelling. We deserve that.