BL Recs

Japanese. An awkward guy with a stutter becomes obsessed with his new classmate who's beautiful and charismatic. He becomes an errand boy for his friend group. I can't say much more without revealing spoilers, but the love interest is HIGHLY tsundere.

There are, I think, two sequels to this (or just one and I'm confused) but I haven't watched them yet. It's nicely shot and beautifully acted. This is one of the more realistic stories (not cartoony or like something off Wattpad).

The original Japanese version of Cherry Magic: freshly 30-year-old virgin gains the ability to read minds. He ends up learning a coworker he looks up to/envies has a HUGE crush on him. There's also a side couple of his friend who's a writer and a delivery boy. It can be silly but also touching. There is a Thai version as well.

Thai version of Cherry Magic: Same premise, but slightly better? Some things are worse, like they changed some aspects of the side characters that I liked, but they do an even better job of showing the affection between them and also developing the MC and his career (which I'll admit can be boring but it's actually so nice to see him grow as a person).

Japanese. Two reporters who don't really like each other get paired up for assignments at work. Classic enemies to lovers with the enemy stage being very brief. A slightly cheesier type of show (the attempts at sexiness sometimes just come across awkward) but the couple is cute. It's a good, quick watch.

Japanese. MC has terrible luck and realizes that if he stays around this guy that goes to the same college who has really GOOD luck, he doesn't suffer misfortune. He accidentally ends up asking/being asked to date (miscommunication). Silly, anime-style humor (over-the-top, dramatic outbursts) but very fun. The MC is very dramatic and self-pitying while the love interest is, calm, cool, and loving. The MC grows in character throughout the story. Another good, quick watch.

Japanese. ONE OF THE SWEETEST SHOWS EVER. If you want to watch two fools be absolutely besotted, this is the show. It's a pure-hearted high school story. I think I watch this once every other month or so. It' an immediate mood boost and not very long. I wish there was a sequel.

Taiwanese. (This is the one with Aaron Lai, the Hongjoong look-a-like). The MC works in a jewelry crafter's shop and the love interest is his new boss and the shop's new owner. The new owner imposes a new No Relationships Allowed rule for his employees (not even just no dating coworkers, but no dating/marriage/love full-stop). No, he doesn't elaborate. Yes, it's stupid. The plot in Taiwanese dramas is usually VERY stretched in order to make a high-drama story that actually has low stakes. The couple is VERY enemies-to-lovers.

Product placement is villainous in this show. I now actively avoid buying oatmilk because of it. It's almost as bad as Thai dramas and the damn Nivea micellar water.

There are other couples in the show, one straight and one gay, both couples including the MC's coworkers. There's also a cameo from one of the HIStory dramas but I didn't watch that show because everyone said it was fucking sad and I don't like crying. I already went through the trenches of Mulligans and Queer as Folk and the scraps of soap operas in the early 2000's. I did my time with the shitty tragedy porn.

Anyway, this show is both really bad and really good, like most Taiwanese dramas. The acting can be mediocre at times, but the chemistry is great (and that's all that matters to me most days). The main couple also makes a cameo in another show, Plus & Minus, which I'm currently watching. They LOVE cameos. The good parts of the show, I think, make it well worth watching.

Taiwanese. TW: Sexual assault. I'll leave you to decide whether you skip this couple entirely, because their story genuinely sucks ass, but some context may be needed for the other couple's story. That little fucker at the bottom in the very front on the poster? Jail. Jail forever. You might definitely want to at least skip the rest of the episode when he goes to the beach with his brother. I skip every scene with this character in it (except one where he gets his ass kicked, because it's fun). The rest of their story is just exhausting.

The couple I watch and rewatch this for are Li Cheng and Mu Ren. Their story (like most of the HIStory series) isn't completely free of toxicity, but it's okay to turn your brain off a little and enjoy the good parts. A lot of cliches and stereotypes are present, but it's just such a fun show to watch and yell at the TV. I will never stop wondering if the rats who chewed Mu Ren's strategically tattered sweaters get paid more by the hour than me.

Thai. This is one of the most popular Thai series'. It's one of the rarer, more serious kinds but still insanely funny an goofy. People are mixed on the ending (I kind of didn't LOVE it) but the actors' chemistry is crazy.

There's some family feud and the boys on both sides end up kind of making an alliance but keeping the peace by pretending to be on bad terms with each other to please their parents and their friends (there's a good bit of stupid fighting). There's also a baby-size slice of GL. If you like Thai dramas, I recommend it. If the Thai humor isn't your thing, you can skip it because a lot of jokes may not connect.

Japanese. Another cute, short one. One "washed-up" actor and a new, very popular actor get cast in a BL together and end up living together in order to build their characters' chemistry. It's funny and cute. Nothing revolutionary but worth the watch.

Japanese. I actually haven't watched this. I started to but then I realized it was actually gonna be good so I clicked off (I was not emotionally ready; was looking for trash, honestly). It seems to have a similar plot to the previous show: two actors cast in a BL but this time they had been in the same club in university and one of them has an inferiority complex. I think it's also supposed to be funny? But I'm not sure. I'll update after I've watched it.

Japanese. Fluff. The fluffiest, coziest little watch. If you like stories where a kid is the catalyst for a budding relationship, here you go. There's a good bit of cooking (not intense, just casual cooking like making rice balls and curry and hotpot). This show is really about the MC learning to be part of a family and feeling welcome and wanted (don't look at me, I'm not crying). This is one of the few that has a better live-action than manga. Some people find this one boring, but for me, it's dopamine in a few short episodes. Super duper recommend.

Japanese. Hilariously unserious until it's serious. The MC is a yaoi mangaka who bases his value on how popular his manga is, and accordingly is never happy. The love interest is an old classmate who became a member of a pop idol group. The mangaka is very smol, gloomy, and perverted. The idol is very bright, cheerful, and scary. Tremendous character growth in this one. There will be many a shiny man tit in your screen, btw. Great time watching someone really gloomily draw porn, but it's a surprisingly wholesome show.

Japanese. One of my faves! My Love Mix-Up. MC has a crush on his classmate Hashimoto but while borrowing her eraser, notices her crush's name written on it as a love charm. The name belongs to their other classmate, Ida, who picks up the eraser after the MC accidentally drops it. He see his name on the eraser and mistakenly thinks the MC has a crush on him. The MC doesn't want to expose his crush's secret and so he claims it's his eraser, thus starts the shenanigans.

There's a lot of physical comedy, especially on the part of the MC. This show is couple goals AND friendship goals.

Thai. Perhaps my favorite Thai BL? It's a musical, unexpectedly, but good, unexpectedly. I normally scream every time a Thai BL pans over to a guitar sitting in a corner, but if it's Gemini, HE ALONE can pick it up.

The MC is part of a band/music club at his school and the principal is trying to shut them down. The principal's son ends up running for and becoming school president but instead of acting on his mom's behalf, he covertly helps the MC keep his club (because he's a FOOL who's in LOVE). Everyone but the love interest in this show is stupid, but in a fun way (most of the time). It's enemies to lovers (but like, not really/it's one-sided).

A few warnings: if it seems like someone is about to rap, skip ahead. Trust me, it's just not worth the second-hand embarrassment, even if it's meant to be an important moment. You have to suspend your disbelief like you would in most Taiwanese dramas, because  there are so many arbitrary rules in this club and school.

The actors from this show (Gemini and Fourth) are the same ones from the Thai version of My Love Mix-up which, as I expected, is being carried entirely on the backs of their chemistry. There's a lot to laugh at in this show and it's fun to yell at.

Thai. The only not-silly Thai BL I've ever watched. The MC, White, has an identical twin brother named Black who falls into a coma after being attacked. White disguises himself as Black and infiltrates the little gang (like, four guys in a garage) in order to find out what happened. He's just a sweet little baby trying to act tough all of a sudden. Their gang is actually made up of rebels that go against the elite and corrupt in Thailand (it's actually really intense). White meets Sean, a member of the gang, and they butt heads a lot but, you know, shit happens.

This is the only show I've seen of these actors where I don't want to bludgeon Off's character to death (Off is the actor who plays Sean). The show was originally meant to be more lighthearted but they decided to go grittier and nothing is funnier than watching the show, and THEN seeing what it was supposed to be like because what do you mean that scene was meant to be sweet and heartwarming? We're choking people out!

The lead actors have insane chemistry (Have you noticed this is the thing I care the most about?) Also forgot to mention the twins have some psychic link or something where they share each other's pain or whatever. It's used like three times in the show.

Japanese. A middle-aged man kinda sorta going through a mid-life crisis? He's dissatisfied with his life (rather, the social conventions around men his age; he's envious of teenage girls who are just being themselves and enjoying life being social and happy) and his younger subordinate at work encourages him to do less conventional things like going to desert cafes and taking photos of their food and just having fun, all while the subordinate has a thing for him. It's genuinely so fucking sweet. The acting is immaculate despite the low budget (pay no mind to the monitors in the office that are NEVER on). I don't think a bigger budget would improve much, really. It's a good cozy story that's finally not about high schoolers. It's very healing. Also, chemistry? Surprisingly intense.

Korean. This is Chemistry: The Show. I've only watched this once because it was so good it took a year off my life. Enemies to lovers. The MC is a university student who turns in a group project after taking off the names of the students who never showed up to help, including his senior who, accordingly, won't be able to graduate if he doesn't pass this assignment (I think that's the plot?). The senior comes along to harass the MC into putting his name back on the project but the MC is calm, strict, and principled and won't give in. There's a bit of push and pull, some growing feelings, some advances, and devastating eye contact. Great for when you want to feel very alone and unloved c':

I actually put this one of the list just to tell you not to watch it. Don't watch this show. It's terrible. There are funny moments, and a good side couple, but the main couple SUCKS ABSOLUTE ASS. They define toxicity. These are the same actors from Not Me but unlike in that show, Off's character in Theory of Love has me ready to square up every ten seconds. When I think he's learned his lesson, he be on his stupid shit again. DON'T WATCH THIS SHOW UNLESS YOU'RE MORBIDLY CURIOUS. There IS a funny crying in the shower gag they do.

Taiwanese. A little reluctant to add just because the ending gets messy, but I did enjoy the show.

MC is an "ugly" (he's not, he just has fucked hair) guy who wants to work at a company where only attractive people work (this is how it's officially described but I don't remember this coming up in the actual show). He gets hired as a secretary SPECIFICALLY because he's a man and therefore "less sensitive" than the female secretaries that the boss had previously scared (like straight up verbal abuse; there is no HR at the company). He ends up being good at taming the boss who in turn forms an attachment and attraction to him, but the MC has some self-image issues. Whatever. Chemistry = good. That is all.

The ending is weirdly dramatic. I think they just didn't know how to wrap up the show in a meaningful way. It's kind of poorly shot. Like, the camera quality is great, but sometimes you just see where the set ends and the stage lights are hanging i frame. The acting might be okay but the writing is pretty bad so it's hard to tell.

It's fun to watch once you've accepted that there are clearly no employment laws in this world and you can basically do whatever you want to people who work for you. Still fun.